Streaming Star Dedicates 37 Hours Attempting to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative challenge runs that impose unique rules on a playthrough. Yet, although numerous players have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom using just a stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the player who endeavored to clear the adventure with a one branch—meaning, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, like the instance he played the title using only bombs or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with zero energy. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is especially important when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. But if the stick breaks, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple answer is glitches. The complete story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him going through the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link gains maximum stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the game to open an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets confused and generates a new game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

This creates fresh problems, though. The merged file has a protagonist that did not acquired the ability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but executing it means relying on an buggy version of the game that fails to open some locations. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the software midway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of Link is coded so that he is unable to damage any weapons he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the Link he transfers between universes is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is still a weak weapon that makes encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of grit and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant number of items to improve his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a bug that allows Link to clip through the world. Some would find these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He also implements a penalty of sorts stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban one fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

PointCrow manages to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles appear grueling. The video edit of his quest spares the audience endure the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last multiple long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible twenty-three straight. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is after all only a piece of wood. He can't always clone objects during the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the software compels the player to wield the Master Sword as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow banned more than 1,000 users in his live stream. RIP.