Streaming Personality Dedicates 37 Straight Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that impose unique rules on a playthrough. However, although numerous players have tried to complete the game with just a wooden stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to clear the game with a one branch—meaning, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the instance he went through the title using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to defeat the story with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when dealing with the weakest weapon in the whole game. Yet if the stick breaks, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple answer is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” save where he progresses normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the intro and first tutorial island, and this character acquires maximum endurance and health. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to tell the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third save file that merges the states of the first two files.

This creates fresh issues, though. The fused save file has a Link that never acquired the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an buggy version of the title that fails to open some locations. As with everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the game midway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue form of the hero is coded so that he cannot break any tools he uses, presumably to prevent a situation where the user gets stuck at the start 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 start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all potential friction. The stick is still a weak weapon that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful number of items to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally employs a glitch that enables Link to phase through the environment. Some would find these methods reason to discredit the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further implements a safeguard of sorts stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of the game's bosses, but the fights look painful. The video version of his quest doesn't make the viewer endure the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take multiple long hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain battle, which depletes the hero's health as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still just a stick. He is unable to always clone objects midway the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game compels the user to use the Master Sword as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed over 1,000 people in his live stream. Rest in peace.