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

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted creative challenge runs that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although numerous gamers have attempted to complete the game with just a wooden stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the game with a single branch—meaning, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for such challenge runs, like the time he went through the title solely with bombs or the attempt where he aimed to beat the story with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is particularly relevant when working with the weakest tool in the entire game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” save where he advances standardly, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains maximum endurance and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and pauses partway through to tell the game to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and generates a new game file that combines the states of the first two files.

That creates new issues, though. The merged file has a protagonist that did not acquired the ability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the game that refuses to load certain areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, likely to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the durability problem, as the Link he pulls across dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective item that renders encounters tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant number of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a glitch that allows Link to clip through the world. Some would consider these methods grounds to question the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He further uses a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban a fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer manages to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The video edit of his journey spares the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them last several long hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases Link's health as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is after all just a stick. He can't always clone objects midway the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, he does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the software compels the player to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

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