Streaming Personality Spends 37 Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that impose special rules on a playthrough. Yet, while many players have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom using just a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to clear the game with a one branch—meaning, the exact same stick throughout.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the instance he went through the title solely with explosives or the attempt where he tried to defeat the story with zero energy. A one-branch playthrough, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly important when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the whole world. Yet if the stick shatters, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward answer is glitches. The full story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains maximum endurance and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to instruct the software to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

This causes new problems, however. The merged save file has a Link that did not acquired the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable version of the title that refuses to open some locations. As with everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts the game on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game partway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory version of Link is programmed so that he cannot damage any weapons he uses, presumably to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the wear problem, as the Link he transfers across universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a smart trick, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and dedication. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful number of items to boost his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally employs a glitch that enables Link to phase through the world. A few would find these methods grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He further uses a penalty of kinds stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

PointCrow manages to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the battles appear grueling. The YouTube version of his quest spares the viewer endure the entire fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last several hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes Link's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still just a stick. He can't necessarily clone objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, he manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game forces the player to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so technically, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed over a thousand users in his live stream. Rest in peace.