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

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although many gamers have tried to complete the game using just a stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a single branch—meaning, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, like the instance he played the title solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the game with zero energy. A one-branch playthrough, however, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is particularly important when working with the weakest 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 explanation is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” save where he progresses standardly, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The setup save has him completing the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this character acquires full stamina and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to instruct the game to load an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets confused and generates a third save file that combines the states of the original two.

That causes fresh issues, however. The merged save file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy build of the game that fails to load some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game midway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of Link is programmed so that he cannot damage any weapons he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the character he transfers between dimensions is the one from the start of the story. It's a clever technique, but not one that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective item that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful supply of items to improve his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a bug that allows him to clip through the environment. Some would find these means grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll ban a viewer from his live stream, establishing an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights appear grueling. The YouTube version of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take several long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing twenty-three hours. The final villain battle, which depletes Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is still only a stick. He can't necessarily duplicate items midway the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the software compels the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer removed over a thousand users in his live stream. RIP.