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

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous players have tried to complete the game with just a stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the individual who endeavored to clear the game with a single stick—meaning, the exact same stick throughout.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he went through the title using only bombs or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the game with zero energy. A one-branch run, however, seems impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially important when dealing with the most fragile tool in the whole game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is glitches. The full story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” file where he progresses standardly, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The setup save has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this character gains maximum stamina and health. From this point, he starts a cutscene and halts midway through to tell the software to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a new game file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

That causes fresh problems, though. The merged file has a Link that never acquired the capability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the title that fails to load some locations. As with other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory version of Link is programmed so that he cannot break any tools he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's also how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the character he pulls between universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective item that makes encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's all a matter of grit and perseverance. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful number of items to improve his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a glitch that allows him to phase through the environment. Some would consider these methods reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to get through many of the game's bosses, but the fights appear painful. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the audience endure the entire fights, which is a blessing when a few of them last multiple hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an incredible 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which erases Link's health as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is after all just a piece of wood. He can't necessarily clone objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game forces the user to use the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. RIP.