Streaming Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that impose special rules on a gameplay session. However, while many gamers have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom using only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who endeavored to beat the adventure with a one branch—meaning, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, like the time he went through the game solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to defeat the story with zero stamina. A one-branch run, however, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is especially relevant when working with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward answer is exploits. The full answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” save where he advances standardly, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the prologue and initial starting area, and this Link gains maximum endurance and hearts. From here, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to instruct the game to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That causes new issues, however. The merged file has a protagonist that did not obtain the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy build of the title that refuses to load some locations. Like other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the software partway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory version of Link is programmed so that he is unable to break any tools he wields, presumably to avoid a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the Link he pulls across universes is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a smart trick, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that makes battles tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful number of consumables to improve his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also makes use of a bug that enables him to clip through the environment. Some would find these methods reason to question the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He also uses a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove a viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

The streamer succeeds to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The video edit of his journey spares the audience endure the whole fights, which is a good thing when some of them take several hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing twenty-three straight. The final villain battle, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is after all only a stick. He is unable to necessarily clone items during the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the software compels the player to use the Master Sword as the final attack, so technically, it's not fully a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow banned more than a thousand users in his live stream. Rest in peace.