Streaming Personality Dedicates 37 Straight Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, although numerous gamers have tried to finish the game using only a wooden stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a one stick—meaning, the very same stick throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for such challenge runs, like the instance he played the title using only explosives or the attempt where he aimed to beat the story with no stamina. A single stick run, though, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially important when working with the most fragile tool in the entire world. Yet if the stick breaks, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The full answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So the creator does a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The setup save has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this character acquires maximum endurance and hearts. From here, he starts a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the game to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a third save file that combines the states of the first two files.

This creates fresh problems, however. The merged save file has a Link that never acquired the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an buggy build of the title that refuses to open certain locations. As with everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the wear problem, as the character he transfers between universes is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a clever technique, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is still a weak weapon that makes battles onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a bug that allows him to phase through the environment. A few would find these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He also implements a penalty of kinds stating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll remove a viewer from his live stream, creating an motivation to not overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights look grueling. The YouTube edit of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them take several long hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an incredible twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases the hero's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is still only a piece of wood. He can't always duplicate objects during the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, he manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

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