Streaming Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One 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 impose special rules on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous players have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom using just a wooden stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a single stick—meaning, the very same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, like the time he played the title using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with no stamina. A one-branch run, however, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole durability system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the weakest weapon in the entire game. Yet if the branch breaks, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is exploits. The complete answer, 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 “preparation” save where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The setup file has him going through the prologue and first starting area, and this Link gains maximum endurance and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and pauses partway through to tell the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a new save file that combines the states of the original two.

This causes fresh problems, however. The merged save file has a Link that never acquired the capability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an unstable build of the game that fails to load certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he uses, likely to avoid a situation where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the durability problem, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eliminates all possible difficulty. The branch is still a weak item that makes encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of grit and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally employs a glitch that allows him to phase through the world. A few would consider these methods grounds to question the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He also uses a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll ban a viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The YouTube edit of his journey spares the viewer sit through the entire fights, which is a good thing when some of them last multiple long hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible 23 hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is after all only a stick. He is unable to always duplicate objects midway the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, he manages to overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game compels 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 removed over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.