Streaming Personality Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that apply special rules on a gameplay session. However, although many gamers have tried to finish the game using just a stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the individual who endeavored to clear the adventure with a one stick—meaning, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the instance he went through the title using only explosives or the attempt where he aimed to beat the story with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, however, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire durability system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. Yet if the branch breaks, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple answer is exploits. The full answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak the game's save file system to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's restricted. The setup save has him going through the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link acquires maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to tell the software to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and generates a new save file that combines the conditions of the original two.

This creates new problems, however. The fused file has a protagonist that did not obtain the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but executing it means depending on an buggy version of the game that refuses to load some areas. As with everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the software midway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he uses, presumably to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how the streamer gets around the durability issue, as the character he transfers across universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not one that eliminates all potential difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of grit and dedication. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant number of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also employs a bug that allows him to clip through the world. Some would consider these means reason to discredit the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll remove one viewer from his live stream, establishing an motivation to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

The streamer manages to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights look grueling. The YouTube version of his journey doesn't make the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them last several hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing 23 hours. The final villain battle, which depletes the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all just a stick. He is unable to necessarily clone items during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed more than 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. RIP.