Streaming Personality Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that impose special restrictions on a gameplay session. However, while numerous gamers have tried to complete the game with only a wooden stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the individual who endeavored to clear the adventure with a one branch—meaning, the exact same one throughout.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the instance he played the game solely with bombs or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with zero energy. A single stick run, though, seems impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is especially relevant when working with the weakest weapon in the entire game. But if the stick breaks, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward answer is glitches. The full answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he advances standardly, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link gains maximum endurance and hearts. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts partway through to instruct the game to open an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and generates a new game file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

That causes new problems, however. The fused save file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses readily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the game that fails to open certain locations. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the software partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue version of Link is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he pulls between universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that renders encounters onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and perseverance. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful supply of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a glitch that allows him to phase through the environment. Some would consider these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He also implements a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The video edit of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them last multiple hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible twenty-three straight. The final villain showdown, which erases the hero's health as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still just a stick. He can't necessarily duplicate objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the software compels the player to use the legendary weapon as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned more than a thousand users in his live stream. Rest in peace.