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

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. However, while many gamers have attempted to finish the game using just a wooden stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the individual who endeavored to clear the game with a single branch—specifically, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, like the instance he went through the title solely with explosives or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with no stamina. A one-branch playthrough, however, seems impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when dealing with the most fragile tool in the entire game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward answer is exploits. The full answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “preparation” save where he advances standardly, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link acquires full stamina and health. From this point, he starts a cinematic and pauses midway through to tell the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and creates a new save file that combines the states of the original two.

This causes fresh problems, however. The merged save file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable version of the game that fails to load certain areas. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the software partway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue version of the hero is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he wields, likely to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the character he transfers across dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eliminates all potential friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that makes battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and perseverance. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful supply of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He also makes use of a bug that enables Link to phase through the world. Some would consider these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He further uses a penalty of sorts stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll ban a fan from his live stream, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

PointCrow manages to get through several of the game's bosses, but the fights appear painful. 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 long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all just a piece of wood. He can't necessarily duplicate objects during the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow manages to overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game compels the player to use the legendary weapon as the final 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 banned more than 1,000 people in his live stream. RIP.