Twitch Star Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted creative challenge runs that impose unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, although numerous gamers have attempted to finish the game using just a stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the player who endeavored to clear the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the time he played the game solely with explosives or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the story with zero stamina. A one-branch run, though, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when working with the most fragile tool in the entire game. Yet if the stick breaks, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The full story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” file where he progresses normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the intro and initial starting area, and this Link gains full stamina and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to tell the software to open an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and creates a new save file that combines the conditions of the original two.

This causes fresh issues, however. The fused save file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable build of the game that refuses to open some locations. Like everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game partway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue version of Link is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the character he transfers between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eliminates all potential friction. The stick is still a weak weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of determination and perseverance. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful number 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 world. A few would find these means grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He further uses a penalty of sorts stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

PointCrow manages to get through many of the game's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The YouTube version of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take several hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The Ganondorf battle, which erases the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to always duplicate objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software forces the player to wield the legendary weapon as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned more than 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.