Streaming Personality Dedicates 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: 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 apply unique rules on a gameplay session. However, while many players have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom with only a stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the individual who endeavored to beat the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the very same stick throughout.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the time he played the title using only explosives or the attempt where he tried to beat the game with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, however, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the most fragile tool in the entire world. Yet if the branch breaks, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple explanation is glitches. The full answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So the creator creates a “setup” save where he advances normally, and the actual save, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character acquires maximum stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the software to load an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and creates a new game file that combines the states of the original two.

This causes new issues, however. The merged file has a Link that never acquired the capability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable version of the game that refuses to open some locations. As with everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the software partway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue version of Link is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, presumably to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the character he pulls across dimensions is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eliminates all potential difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective item that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of grit and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful supply of items to improve his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also makes use of a bug that allows him to clip through the world. A few would find these methods reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He also uses a penalty of sorts stating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll remove one fan from his live stream, establishing an motivation to not overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the battles appear painful. The video version of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the entire fights, which is a blessing when a few of them last several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still only a piece of wood. He can't necessarily clone objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, he manages to overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the last strike, so technically, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow banned over 1,000 people in his live stream. Rest in peace.