Twitch Personality Spends 37 Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that impose special rules on a gameplay session. However, although many players have attempted to finish the game with just a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the exact same one throughout.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the instance he went through the title using only bombs or the effort where he aimed to defeat the story with zero stamina. A single stick run, though, sounds 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 working with the weakest tool in the entire world. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The complete story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So the creator does a “preparation” save where he advances standardly, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The setup save has him going through the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this character gains full endurance and hearts. From here, he starts a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and generates a third save file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

That creates fresh issues, however. The merged save file has a Link that did not obtain the ability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy version of the title that refuses to open some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the game partway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any tools he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the character he transfers across universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever technique, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak item that makes battles tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of determination and perseverance. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful number 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 reason to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He also uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, establishing an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer succeeds to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The video edit of his quest spares the audience sit through the entire fights, which is a blessing when some of them take multiple long hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing twenty-three hours. The final villain showdown, which erases the hero's health as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible stick is still only a piece of wood. He can't necessarily clone objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, he manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the user to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned more than a thousand users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.