Streaming Personality Spends 37 Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of creative challenge runs that impose unique restrictions on a gameplay session. However, although many players have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom with just a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to beat the game with a one branch—meaning, the exact same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the time he played the game using only bombs or the effort where he tried to defeat the story with no energy. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to wield 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. Yet if the stick breaks, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple answer is glitches. The full story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak the game's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the intro and first starting area, and this character gains full endurance and health. From this point, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to instruct the game to open an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets confused and generates a new game file that merges the states of the first two files.

That causes new problems, however. The fused file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes readily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the game that fails to load certain locations. As with everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He begins the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the software midway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer gets around the durability problem, as the Link he pulls across dimensions is the one from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is still a weak item that makes battles tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of determination and perseverance. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant supply of items to boost his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that enables him to clip through the environment. Some would find these methods reason to question the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further implements a safeguard of sorts stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll ban one fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The video version of his journey doesn't make the viewer sit through the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take multiple hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is still just a stick. He can't always clone objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the user to use the Master Sword as the last strike, so technically, it's not fully a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer removed more than 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. RIP.