Streaming Star Dedicates 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. However, although numerous gamers have attempted to complete the game with only a wooden stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the individual who endeavored to beat the game with a one branch—specifically, the exact same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the game using only explosives or the effort where he tried to beat the story with zero energy. A one-branch run, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire durability system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the weakest weapon in the entire game. But if the branch shatters, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward answer is exploits. The full story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” save where he advances standardly, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the prologue and first starting area, and this character acquires maximum endurance and health. From this point, he starts a cinematic and pauses partway through to instruct the game to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and generates a new game file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

That creates new problems, however. The merged file has a Link that did not obtain the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy build of the title that refuses to load some areas. As with everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the software partway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue form of Link is programmed so that he cannot damage any weapons he uses, likely to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the character he pulls across dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever technique, but not one that eliminates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that renders battles onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of grit and dedication. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful number of consumables to boost his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a bug that allows him to phase through the environment. Some would find these means grounds to discredit the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He further implements a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll ban a viewer from his live stream, creating an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer succeeds to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles appear grueling. The YouTube edit of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the whole fights, which is a good thing when some of them last multiple long hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible twenty-three hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is after all just a piece of wood. He can't necessarily clone objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow banned more than 1,000 users in his live stream. RIP.