Streaming Star Spends 37 Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that apply special rules on a gameplay session. However, while many players have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom with only a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who endeavored to beat the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the game solely with bombs or the effort where he aimed to defeat the story with zero energy. A one-branch run, though, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when working with the weakest tool in the whole world. But if the stick breaks, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple explanation is exploits. The full story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he progresses normally, and the real file, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him going through the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link acquires full stamina and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and pauses partway through to tell the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and generates a new save file that combines the states of the original two.

That creates fresh problems, however. The merged file has a Link that never acquired the ability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means depending on an buggy version of the title that fails to load certain locations. Like everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot break any tools he uses, presumably to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear issue, as the character he transfers across dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eliminates all potential friction. The stick is still a weak weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of grit and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful number of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also employs a glitch that allows Link to clip through the world. Some would find these methods reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll ban one viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to get through several of the game's bosses, but the fights appear grueling. The YouTube edit of his journey doesn't make the viewer sit through the entire fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last several long hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an incredible 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is after all just a stick. He can't necessarily duplicate items midway the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the player to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so technically, it's not completely a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer banned more than 1,000 people in his live stream. RIP.