Streaming Star Spends 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that apply special rules on a gameplay session. Yet, while numerous players have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom with just a wooden stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the adventure with a single stick—meaning, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for such challenge runs, such as the instance he went through the title solely with explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with zero energy. A single stick run, though, sounds impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly important when working with the most fragile tool in the entire world. But if the stick breaks, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward answer is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he progresses standardly, and the real file, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the prologue and initial starting area, and this character acquires maximum endurance and hearts. From here, he starts a cinematic and pauses partway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and generates a third save file that merges the states of the first two files.

This causes fresh issues, though. The fused file has a protagonist that did not obtain the capability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy version of the game that refuses to load some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any tools he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's also how the streamer gets around the wear issue, as the character he transfers across dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eradicates all potential friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that renders battles onerous. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and perseverance. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also employs a bug that enables Link to clip through the world. A few would consider these means reason to question the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He also uses a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll ban a fan from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the fights look grueling. The video version of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf battle, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to always duplicate items during the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the game compels the player to use the Master Sword as the final strike, so technically, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow removed over a thousand users in his live stream. Rest in peace.