Twitch Star Spends 37 Hours Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: 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 novel self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. However, although many gamers have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom with just a wooden stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the adventure with a single branch—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for such challenge runs, such as the time he played the game solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to defeat the story with zero energy. A one-branch playthrough, though, sounds impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when dealing with the weakest weapon in the entire world. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The full story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” file where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him completing the prologue and first starting area, and this character acquires maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to tell the software to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and generates a new save file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

That creates fresh problems, though. The fused save file has a protagonist that did not obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy version of the game that refuses to open certain areas. Like everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the software partway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue version of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the durability problem, as the character he transfers across universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a weak item that renders encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's all a question of grit and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant number of consumables to improve his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also employs a glitch that enables him to phase through the world. Some would consider these means grounds to discredit the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further implements a penalty of sorts stating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll remove one viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to not overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer manages to get through many of the game's main enemies, but the battles look grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest spares the audience endure the whole fights, which is a blessing when a few of them take multiple long hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing twenty-three straight. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all just a stick. He is unable to always clone items midway the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game forces the player to wield the Master Sword as the final attack, so technically, it's not completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed over 1,000 users in his live stream. Rest in peace.