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

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that impose special rules on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous gamers have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom using only a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to beat the game with a one stick—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he went through the title using only explosives or the attempt where he tried to defeat the game with no stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is particularly relevant when working with the weakest weapon in the entire game. But if the stick shatters, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? 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 distinct game sessions that affect one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the prologue and first starting area, and this Link gains maximum stamina and health. From this point, he starts a cutscene and halts partway through to tell the game to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and creates a new save file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

That causes new issues, though. The fused save file has a Link that did not obtain the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses readily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable build of the title that refuses to open certain locations. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then updates the game midway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Challenges

Curiously, the prologue version of the hero is programmed so that he cannot damage any tools he uses, presumably to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the durability issue, as the Link he transfers across dimensions is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eradicates all potential friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a matter of grit and dedication. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant number of items to improve his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a glitch that enables him to clip through the environment. A few would consider these means grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove one viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

PointCrow manages to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles appear painful. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take several long hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes Link's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still only a piece of wood. He can't necessarily duplicate objects during the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the software forces the player to wield the Master Sword as the final strike, so technically, it's not fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned over 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. RIP.