Streaming Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose special rules on a playthrough. However, while many players have tried to complete the game with just a stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the player who endeavored to clear the game with a one branch—meaning, the exact same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for such challenge runs, such as the time he went through the title using only bombs or the attempt where he aimed to beat the game with zero stamina. A one-branch run, though, sounds impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is particularly relevant when working with the weakest tool in the whole world. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete story, 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 PointCrow does a “preparation” file where he progresses normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The setup file has him going through the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character gains maximum stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to tell the game to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets confused and creates a new save file that combines the conditions of the original two.

This creates new issues, however. The fused save file has a protagonist that never acquired the capability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit addresses easily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy version of the title that fails to open certain locations. Like everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the software partway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue version of the hero is coded so that he cannot damage any tools he uses, likely to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the character he pulls across universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eradicates all potential friction. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and dedication. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant supply of items to improve his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally employs a glitch that enables Link to clip through the world. A few would consider these means reason to question the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He further implements a penalty of sorts stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll ban one viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the battles appear grueling. The YouTube version of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take several long hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain battle, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to always clone objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the software forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow removed more than a thousand users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.