Twitch Personality Spends 37 Hours Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that apply unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, although numerous players have tried to finish the game using just a wooden stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the player who endeavored to clear the adventure with a single branch—meaning, the very same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the instance he went through the game solely with bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the game with zero energy. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the most fragile tool in the entire game. But if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward answer is glitches. The full story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” file where he advances normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The setup file has him going through the intro and initial starting area, and this character acquires full endurance and hearts. From here, he triggers a cinematic and pauses midway through to tell the software to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and generates a new game file that merges the states of the first two files.

This causes fresh problems, however. The merged file has a protagonist that did not obtain the capability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes readily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy version of the title that fails to open some locations. As with other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the game partway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the user gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the Link he pulls across dimensions is the one from the start of the game. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that makes battles onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of determination and dedication. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant number of consumables to improve his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a bug that enables Link to phase through the environment. Some would consider these methods grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He also uses a safeguard of sorts stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove one fan from his live stream, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

The streamer manages to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest spares the audience endure the entire fights, which is a blessing when some of them last multiple long hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to always duplicate items midway the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the software forces the player to use the legendary weapon as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow removed more than a thousand people in his Twitch chat. RIP.