Twitch Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while many gamers have attempted to finish the game with only a stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a one branch—meaning, the exact same stick throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for such challenge runs, like the time he went through the title using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to defeat the story with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, however, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly important when dealing with the weakest tool in the whole world. But if the stick shatters, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him going through the intro and first starting area, and this Link gains maximum stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to tell the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third game file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

This creates new problems, though. The fused file has a Link that never obtain the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy build of the game that refuses to load certain areas. As with everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game midway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the character he pulls between universes is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is still a weak weapon that renders battles tedious. But at that stage, it's all a matter of grit and dedication. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful number of items to improve his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally employs a glitch that allows him to clip through the environment. A few would consider these methods reason to question the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He further implements a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove one viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to get through many of the game's bosses, but the fights look painful. The video version of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them take several hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an incredible twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf battle, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible branch is after all just a stick. He can't necessarily duplicate objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the software forces the player to use the legendary weapon as the final attack, so technically, it's not completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned over a thousand users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.