Streaming Star Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, while many gamers have attempted to finish the game with just a wooden stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the game with a one branch—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the instance he played the title solely with explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with no stamina. A one-branch run, however, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is especially important when working with the most fragile tool in the whole world. Yet if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple answer is exploits. The full answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” save where he advances standardly, and the actual save, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him completing the intro and first tutorial island, and this Link gains maximum stamina and hearts. From here, he starts a cinematic and halts partway through to instruct the game to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and generates a new save file that combines the states of the original two.

This creates new issues, however. The merged file has a protagonist that did not obtain the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable build of the title that fails to load certain areas. As with other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the game midway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he cannot damage any weapons he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's also how the streamer gets around the wear issue, as the Link he transfers across dimensions is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eradicates all potential difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that renders encounters onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and perseverance. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant supply of items to boost his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a bug that allows Link to clip through the world. A few would consider these methods reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He further implements a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll ban a viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The video version of his journey spares the audience endure the entire fights, which is a blessing when a few of them last multiple long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing 23 hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is still only a stick. He can't always clone items during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game forces the player to wield the legendary weapon as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer removed more than a thousand people in his live stream. RIP.