Twitch Star Dedicates 37 Straight Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that apply unique restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, while many gamers have attempted to finish the game using only a stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the adventure with a one stick—specifically, the very same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the title solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to defeat the story with zero stamina. A one-branch run, however, sounds impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when dealing with the most fragile tool in the whole game. Yet if the stick breaks, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple answer is exploits. The full answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” save where he advances standardly, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him going through the intro and initial starting area, and this Link gains full stamina and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and creates a new save file that combines the states of the first two files.

That causes fresh issues, however. The merged save file has a protagonist that never acquired the ability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy version of the game that fails to load certain locations. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the software partway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory form of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to break any tools he wields, likely to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the character he pulls between universes is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eliminates all possible friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of grit and dedication. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant number of consumables to boost his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also makes use of a bug that enables Link to clip through the environment. A few would find these means grounds to discredit the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He further implements a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll ban a fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to get through many of the game's bosses, but the battles look painful. The YouTube version of his quest spares the viewer sit through the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take several long hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes Link's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible branch is after all only a piece of wood. He can't necessarily duplicate objects midway the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the game forces the user to use the Master Sword as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed more than a thousand users in his live stream. Rest in peace.