Twitch Personality Dedicates 37 Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted creative challenge runs that impose special restrictions on a playthrough. However, although numerous players have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom with just a wooden stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the individual who endeavored to clear the adventure with a single branch—meaning, the very same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the game using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with no energy. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the entire world. Yet if the branch breaks, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple answer is glitches. The complete story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he advances standardly, and the real save, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the intro and first starting area, and this Link acquires full stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts partway through to tell the game to open an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and generates a new game file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

That creates fresh issues, however. The fused save file has a protagonist that did not acquired the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means relying on an buggy build of the game that fails to load certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the game midway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he cannot break any tools he uses, likely to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the durability issue, as the Link he pulls across universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not one that eliminates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that makes battles onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful number of items to boost his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also makes use of a glitch that enables him to phase through the environment. A few would find these means grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban one viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

PointCrow manages to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The YouTube version of his quest spares the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them last multiple long hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing 23 straight. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes Link's health as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all just a stick. He can't always duplicate objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, he manages to overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to use the legendary weapon as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer removed more than 1,000 people in his live stream. RIP.