Twitch Personality Spends 37 Straight Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose special rules on a gameplay session. However, while numerous players have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom using just a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the game with a one branch—meaning, the exact same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the title using only bombs or the effort where he aimed to defeat the game with no stamina. A single stick run, however, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when working with the most fragile tool in the whole game. But if the stick breaks, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this Link acquires maximum stamina and health. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and halts partway through to instruct the game to open an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets confused and creates a new game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

This causes fresh issues, though. The fused save file has a Link that never acquired the capability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit fixes easily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable build of the title that refuses to load some locations. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue version of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to break any tools he uses, likely to avoid a situation where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is still a ineffective weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of grit and dedication. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful number of items to boost his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a bug that allows him to phase through the environment. Some would consider these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further implements a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove one fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to get through several of the game's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The YouTube edit of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the entire fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last multiple long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain battle, which depletes Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is after all just a stick. He can't necessarily duplicate items during the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the software compels the player to use the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed over 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.