Streaming Star Spends 37 Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that impose unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, while numerous gamers have tried to finish the game using just a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who endeavored to clear the adventure with a single stick—specifically, the exact same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the instance he played the title using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is particularly important when working with the most fragile tool in the entire game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is exploits. The complete story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” save where he progresses normally, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The setup save has him completing the intro and first tutorial island, and this Link gains full stamina and health. From this point, he starts a cinematic and pauses midway through to tell the game to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and creates a third game file that merges the states of the first two files.

This creates new issues, however. The fused save file has a protagonist that never acquired the ability to access shrines. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch addresses readily, but executing it means relying on an buggy build of the game that refuses to open certain areas. As with everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the software partway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he cannot break any tools he uses, likely to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the durability problem, as the Link he pulls between universes is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eliminates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a weak weapon that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful supply of consumables to improve his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also employs a bug that enables him to clip through the environment. Some would consider these means grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to get through several of the game's main enemies, but the battles look grueling. The video version of his journey spares the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take several long hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing twenty-three hours. The final villain battle, which erases the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is still only a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items midway the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game compels the player to use the legendary weapon as the final attack, so technically, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed more than 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.