Twitch Personality Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of novel challenge runs that apply unique rules on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous players have tried to finish the game using just a wooden stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the player who aimed to clear the game with a single stick—meaning, the very same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, like the time he went through the title using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the game with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole durability system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the weakest tool in the entire world. Yet if the stick breaks, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple answer is glitches. The full answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he advances standardly, and the real save, where he's restricted. The setup file has him going through the intro and first starting area, and this character acquires maximum stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and pauses midway through to instruct the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and generates a third game file that combines the states of the original two.

That creates fresh problems, however. The merged save file has a Link that did not acquired the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means depending on an unstable build of the game that fails to load certain locations. Like everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the game midway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the prologue form of Link is programmed so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, presumably to prevent a scenario where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the wear problem, as the Link he transfers across universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of determination and perseverance. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant number of items to boost his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a bug that allows Link to phase through the environment. Some would consider these means reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further implements a penalty of kinds stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove one viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles appear painful. The video version of his journey spares the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take several hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 hours. The Ganondorf battle, which erases Link's health as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is after all only a stick. He is unable to always clone items during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software forces the player to wield the legendary weapon as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow banned more than 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.