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

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of novel challenge runs that impose special rules on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous players have attempted to finish the game using only a wooden stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to beat the game with a one branch—meaning, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the title using only explosives or the attempt where he aimed to beat the game with zero energy. A one-branch playthrough, however, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is especially relevant when working with the weakest tool in the whole game. But if the branch breaks, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” file where he advances standardly, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The setup save has him going through the prologue 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 branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a new save file that combines the states of the first two files.

This creates new issues, though. The merged file has a protagonist that never acquired the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy version of the game that refuses to open certain locations. As with other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory version of the hero is programmed so that he cannot damage any weapons he uses, presumably to prevent a scenario where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the Link he transfers between universes is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eliminates all potential friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak item that renders battles onerous. But at that stage, 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 boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He also makes use of a bug that allows Link to clip through the environment. A few would consider these methods reason to question the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He also uses a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll remove one fan from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The video version of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them take multiple hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to always clone items during the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, he manages to overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the software forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last strike, so technically, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow banned over a thousand users in his Twitch chat. RIP.