Twitch Star Spends 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose special restrictions on a playthrough. However, while numerous gamers have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom using just a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a single stick—meaning, the exact same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, like the instance he went through the game using only bombs or the effort where he tried to defeat the game with no energy. A one-branch playthrough, however, sounds impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when working with the weakest weapon in the entire world. But if the branch breaks, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple answer is exploits. The complete story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he advances standardly, and the real file, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him completing the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains full stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts partway through to instruct the software to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and generates a third save file that combines the states of the first two files.

That causes new problems, however. The fused save file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy version of the title that fails to load certain areas. Like everything else, he has a clever solution 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 working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue version of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he uses, likely to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear issue, as the character he pulls between universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is still a weak weapon that makes encounters tedious. But at that point, it's all a matter of determination and dedication. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful supply of items to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a bug that enables Link to phase through the environment. Some would find these means 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 engage his audience. He further uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, establishing an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

PointCrow manages to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights look painful. The video version of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them last multiple hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible twenty-three hours. The final villain battle, which erases the hero's health as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is still just a stick. He is unable to always clone objects during the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the software compels the user to use the Master Sword as the final attack, so technically, it's not fully a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed more than 1,000 people in his live stream. Rest in peace.