Twitch Star Dedicates 37 Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that impose special rules on a gameplay session. However, while numerous gamers have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom using just a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the player who endeavored to clear the game with a single branch—meaning, the exact same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the time he went through the game solely with bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the game with no energy. A single stick playthrough, though, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when working with the most fragile weapon in the entire world. But if the branch shatters, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple answer is glitches. The full answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the actual save, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him going through the intro and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains maximum stamina and health. From this point, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to tell the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third game file that merges the states of the first two files.

This creates new issues, however. The fused save file has a protagonist that never acquired the capability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit addresses readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the title that refuses to open some areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He begins the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the game midway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the prologue version of the hero is programmed so that he cannot damage any tools he uses, presumably to prevent a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the character he transfers between universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eliminates all possible friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that renders battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally employs a bug that allows Link to phase through the world. A few would find these methods reason to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll remove one fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

PointCrow manages to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The YouTube edit of his quest spares the viewer endure the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them take several hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf battle, which erases the hero's health as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible branch is after all just a piece of wood. He can't necessarily duplicate objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow manages to defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the player to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so technically, it's not fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer banned more than 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. RIP.