Streaming Personality Spends 37 Hours Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: 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 arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of novel challenge runs that impose unique rules on a playthrough. However, while numerous gamers have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with only a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a one stick—specifically, the very same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for such challenge runs, such as the instance he went through the game using only explosives or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with no stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when working with the weakest weapon in the entire game. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” save where he progresses standardly, and the real save, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him completing the intro and first tutorial island, and this character acquires maximum endurance and health. From this point, he starts a cinematic and halts partway through to instruct the game to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third save file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

That causes new issues, however. The fused file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to access shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes readily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable version of the title that fails to load certain areas. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He begins the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory form of Link is programmed so that he is unable to damage any tools he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the character he transfers between universes is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a clever technique, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is still a ineffective item that renders encounters tedious. 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 boost his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a glitch that allows him to clip through the environment. Some would consider these methods grounds to discredit the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He also implements a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll ban one fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

The streamer succeeds to get through several of the game's bosses, but the fights appear grueling. The video version of his quest spares the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take multiple hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases the hero's health as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all only a piece of wood. He can't always clone objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the software compels the player to use the legendary weapon as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned more than 1,000 users in his live stream. RIP.