Streaming Personality Dedicates 37 Hours Attempting to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. However, while many players have tried to complete the game using only a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he went through the title using only explosives or the effort where he tried to beat the story with no energy. A single stick playthrough, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole durability system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the weakest weapon in the entire game. But if the stick breaks, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward answer is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator creates a “setup” save where he progresses normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him going through the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link acquires maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and pauses midway through to instruct the game to open an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and creates a third game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

This causes new problems, though. The fused save file has a protagonist that did not acquired the ability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy version of the game that refuses to load certain areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then patches the software midway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he is unable to damage any weapons he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the durability problem, as the character he transfers between universes is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is still a ineffective item that renders battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a question of grit and perseverance. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful supply of consumables to boost his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also makes use of a glitch that allows Link to phase through the world. Some would find these means reason to question the validity 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 uses a penalty of kinds stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban one fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

The streamer manages to get through many of the game's bosses, but the battles appear painful. The video version of his journey doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when a few of them last multiple long hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still just a piece of wood. He can't necessarily duplicate objects midway the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the software compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the last attack, so technically, it's not quite completely a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer removed over a thousand users in his live stream. RIP.