Streaming Star Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted creative challenge runs that impose special rules on a gameplay session. Yet, while many gamers have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom using just a wooden stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to clear the game with a single branch—meaning, the exact same one throughout.

The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the title solely with bombs or the attempt where he tried to defeat the story with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly relevant when working with the weakest tool in the whole world. But if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The full answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the prologue and first tutorial island, and this character acquires full stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts partway through to tell the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and creates a third save file that merges the states of the first two files.

This creates new problems, though. The fused save file has a protagonist that did not obtain the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy version of the game that refuses to load certain areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he uses, likely to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the durability problem, as the Link he transfers between dimensions is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eliminates all potential difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a weak item that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a matter of grit and perseverance. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant supply of items to boost his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally employs a glitch that enables Link to phase through the environment. A few would find these means grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He further uses a penalty of kinds stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights appear painful. The YouTube edit of his journey spares the viewer endure the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them take several long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 straight. The final villain battle, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible branch is still just a stick. He can't necessarily clone objects during the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the game forces the user to wield the Master Sword as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. RIP.