Twitch Star Dedicates 37 Straight Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply special rules on a playthrough. Yet, although many gamers have attempted to complete the game with just a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a single stick—specifically, the exact same one throughout.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the time he went through the game using only bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the game with no energy. A single stick playthrough, though, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire durability system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the weakest weapon in the whole world. But if the branch shatters, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he advances standardly, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the prologue and initial starting area, and this character acquires full endurance and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and pauses midway through to instruct the software to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a third game file that merges the states of the first two files.

That creates fresh issues, however. The fused save file has a protagonist that never obtain the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes easily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable version of the game that refuses to load certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue version of the hero is programmed so that he cannot damage any weapons he wields, presumably to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability issue, as the character he pulls across universes is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eradicates all potential friction. The branch is still a weak item that makes encounters tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and dedication. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful number of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a bug that enables Link to clip through the world. Some would find these methods reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban a fan from his live stream, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The YouTube version of his quest spares the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take multiple hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an incredible 23 hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible branch is still just a stick. He can't necessarily clone objects midway the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, he manages to defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the player to wield the Master Sword as the last attack, so technically, it's not fully a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.