Streaming Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that impose special restrictions on a gameplay session. However, although numerous players have attempted to complete the game using only a stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, like the instance he played the game solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the story with no energy. A one-branch playthrough, though, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is particularly relevant when working with the weakest weapon in the whole game. Yet if the branch breaks, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple answer is exploits. The full answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” save where he progresses standardly, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this Link acquires full endurance and health. From here, he starts a cutscene and halts midway through to tell the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and creates a new game file that merges the conditions of the original two.

This creates fresh issues, however. The fused save file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means depending on an unstable build of the game that refuses to open certain areas. Like everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He begins the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the game midway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the prologue form of the hero is coded so that he cannot break any tools he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the durability issue, as the Link he transfers across universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a clever trick, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak weapon that renders battles tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a question of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful supply of items to boost his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also makes use of a bug that enables him to clip through the environment. A few would find these means reason to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also implements a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban one viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to not overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to get through many of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the viewer endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them last multiple long hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible 23 hours. The final villain battle, which depletes the hero's health as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is after all just a stick. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items midway the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software forces the user to use the Master Sword as the last strike, so technically, it's not quite completely a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned more than 1,000 users in his live stream. RIP.