Twitch Personality Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting 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 run out of novel self-imposed challenges that apply unique rules on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous players have tried to complete the game with only a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who endeavored to clear the adventure with a one stick—meaning, the very same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, like the time he played the title using only bombs or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with no stamina. A single stick run, though, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is particularly important when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. Yet if the stick breaks, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is exploits. The full story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” file where he progresses normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him going through the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and hearts. From this point, he starts a cinematic and pauses partway through to tell the software to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and creates a new save file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

This causes new problems, however. The merged save file has a protagonist that did not obtain the ability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but executing it means depending on an unstable build of the game that fails to open certain areas. As with everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the game partway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he uses, likely to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the character he pulls across dimensions is the one from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all potential difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective item that makes battles tedious. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and perseverance. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant number of items to boost his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that enables him to phase through the world. A few would find these methods reason to discredit the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further implements a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove one fan from his live stream, establishing an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the battles look grueling. The YouTube version of his journey doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them last several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is still just a stick. He is unable to necessarily clone objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the final strike, so technically, it's not fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned more than a thousand people in his live stream. RIP.