Twitch Star Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that apply special rules on a gameplay session. However, although many players have attempted to finish the game using just a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a single branch—meaning, the exact same stick throughout.

PointCrow is famous for such difficult playthroughs, like the instance he played the game solely with bombs or the effort where he aimed to defeat the game with zero energy. A one-branch playthrough, however, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is especially important when dealing with the weakest tool in the entire game. But if the branch breaks, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The complete answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “preparation” file where he progresses normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains full endurance and health. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third save file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

That causes fresh issues, however. The merged file has a Link that never acquired the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable version of the game that fails to open some areas. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the game midway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the prologue form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he wields, presumably to avoid a situation where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the durability issue, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the version from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The branch is still a weak weapon that renders battles onerous. But at that stage, it's all a matter of determination and perseverance. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant supply of items to boost his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that enables him to phase through the environment. A few would find these methods grounds to discredit the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He further uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The YouTube version of his quest spares the viewer sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them take several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes Link's hearts as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is still just a piece of wood. He can't necessarily clone items midway the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow banned over 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.