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

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although many gamers have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom using only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who endeavored to beat the game with a one branch—meaning, the exact same one throughout.

The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, like the time he played the game using only bombs or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the story with zero energy. A one-branch run, however, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the entire world. But if the stick breaks, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward answer is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the real file, where he's restricted. The setup save has him going through the prologue and first starting area, and this character acquires maximum stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and pauses partway through to tell the software to open an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a third game file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

This creates fresh problems, however. The merged save file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to access shrines. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch addresses readily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable build of the title that fails to load certain areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the software midway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue version of Link is programmed so that he cannot damage any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a situation where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear issue, as the Link 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 possible difficulty. The branch is still a ineffective item that renders battles tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of grit and perseverance. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful supply of items to improve his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a glitch that enables him to clip through the world. A few would consider these means reason to question the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat several of the game's bosses, but the fights look painful. The video version of his journey doesn't make the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take several long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's health as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is still only a piece of wood. He can't always duplicate objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, he does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to use the Master Sword as the last strike, so technically, it's not completely a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer banned over 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. RIP.