Streaming Personality Spends 37 Hours Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose unique restrictions on a playthrough. However, while many gamers have attempted to complete the game using only a stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a one branch—specifically, the very same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, like the instance he went through the title using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the game with no energy. A single stick run, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is particularly important when working with the weakest tool in the whole game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” save where he progresses standardly, and the actual save, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the intro and first starting area, and this character acquires maximum stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts partway through to instruct the game to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third save file that merges the conditions of the original two.

That causes new problems, though. The merged save file has a Link that never acquired the capability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit fixes readily, but executing it means relying on an buggy build of the title that fails to load certain areas. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot break any tools he uses, presumably to prevent a scenario where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the character he transfers between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a clever trick, but not one that eliminates all potential friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's all a matter of grit and dedication. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant number of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a glitch that allows Link to phase through the environment. Some would find these methods reason to question the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further uses a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban a fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

PointCrow manages to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights look grueling. The video version of his journey spares the audience sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when a few of them take several hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an incredible 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's health as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible branch is after all only a stick. He is unable to always duplicate items midway the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the game compels the user to wield the legendary weapon as the final strike, so technically, it's not completely a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned over 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. RIP.