Twitch Star Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, while numerous gamers have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom using only a stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the player who endeavored to beat the adventure with a one branch—meaning, the exact same stick throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the time he went through the title solely with explosives or the attempt where he aimed to beat the game with no stamina. A one-branch run, however, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is especially relevant when dealing with the weakest tool in the whole world. Yet if the stick breaks, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple answer is exploits. The complete story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the intro and first tutorial island, and this Link gains full stamina and health. From here, he starts a cutscene and halts partway through to tell the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a third save file that combines the conditions of the original two.

This causes new issues, though. The fused save file has a Link 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 relying on an buggy build of the title that fails to load certain areas. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game midway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to break any tools he uses, presumably to prevent a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the durability problem, as the character he pulls between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a clever technique, but not one that eliminates all possible difficulty. The branch is still a weak weapon that makes encounters tedious. But at that point, it's all a matter of grit and dedication. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant number of consumables to boost his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a bug that enables him to clip through the environment. Some would consider these means grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He further implements a penalty of sorts stating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll remove a viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

The streamer manages to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles appear grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest spares the viewer endure the entire fights, which is a blessing when some of them last multiple long hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an incredible twenty-three straight. The final villain battle, which erases Link's health as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is after all only a stick. He can't necessarily duplicate objects midway the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game compels the user to use the Master Sword as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer removed more than 1,000 people in his live stream. Rest in peace.