Twitch Personality Dedicates 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of creative challenge runs that impose special restrictions on a playthrough. However, although many gamers have attempted to finish the game with just a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to beat the game with a one branch—specifically, the exact same one throughout.

The streamer is famous for such challenge runs, such as the time he played the title solely with bombs or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the most fragile tool in the entire world. But if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple answer is glitches. The complete answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” save where he advances normally, and the actual save, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the prologue and initial starting area, and this Link gains maximum endurance and health. From this point, he starts a cinematic and halts partway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and creates a new game file that combines the states of the first two files.

This creates fresh issues, though. The fused save file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy version of the game that fails to open certain areas. Like other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of Link is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he uses, presumably to prevent a scenario where the user gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he transfers between dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eliminates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective item that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a question of grit and dedication. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful number of items to improve his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also employs a glitch that enables Link to clip through the world. Some would consider these methods grounds 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 further uses a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban a fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer manages to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights look grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the audience endure the whole fights, which is a good thing when some of them last multiple hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes the hero's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to always duplicate objects during the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow manages to defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the game forces the user to wield the Master Sword as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned more than 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.