Twitch Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose unique rules on a gameplay session. However, while numerous gamers have attempted to finish the game with just a wooden stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a single stick—meaning, the exact same one throughout.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, like the time he played the game solely with bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with no stamina. A single stick run, however, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly relevant when working with the most fragile tool in the whole world. But if the stick shatters, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The full answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” file where he progresses standardly, and the real file, where he's restricted. The setup save has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character gains maximum endurance and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to tell the software to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and generates a new game file that merges the states of the original two.

That creates new problems, however. The fused save file has a protagonist that never acquired the capability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable build of the game that fails to load certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, likely to avoid a situation where the player gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the durability issue, as the character he transfers across dimensions is the version from the start of the story. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all potential difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's all 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 strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally employs a bug that enables Link to clip through the environment. Some would consider these methods grounds to question the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further uses a penalty of kinds stating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll remove one fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when a few of them take multiple hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases Link's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is after all only a piece of wood. He can't always duplicate objects during the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, he manages to overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the game forces the player to wield the legendary weapon as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

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