Streaming Star Spends 37 Straight Attempting to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that impose special rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although many players have attempted to finish the game with only a wooden stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to clear the game with a one branch—meaning, the very same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the time he played the game solely with explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with zero stamina. A single stick run, however, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the weakest tool in the whole game. But if the stick breaks, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The full answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the actual save, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him going through the prologue and initial starting area, and this Link gains full endurance and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and generates a third game file that merges the states of the original two.

That causes new issues, however. The merged file has a Link that did not acquired the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable build of the title that fails to open some locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins the game on its early version 1.0, and then updates the game partway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he uses, likely to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the character he pulls between universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective item that renders encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's all a matter of grit and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful supply of consumables to improve his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a glitch that allows him to clip through the environment. Some would find these means grounds to discredit the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll ban one viewer from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat several of the game's bosses, but the fights appear painful. The YouTube edit of his quest spares the viewer endure the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them last multiple hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an incredible twenty-three hours. The final villain showdown, which erases the hero's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is after all just a stick. He can't always duplicate objects during the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he manages to overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the final attack, so technically, it's not completely a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow removed more than 1,000 users in his live stream. Rest in peace.