Twitch Star Spends 37 Straight Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. However, while numerous gamers have tried to finish the game with only a stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the exact same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he went through the game solely with bombs or the attempt where he aimed to beat the game with no energy. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the entire world. But if the stick shatters, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” save where he advances normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him going through the prologue and initial starting area, and this character gains maximum endurance and health. From this point, he starts a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the software to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and generates a new save file that combines the states of the first two files.

That creates new issues, though. The fused save file has a Link that never acquired the ability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch addresses readily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable build of the title that fails to load certain areas. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the game partway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the wear issue, as the character he transfers between universes is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a weak item that renders battles tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant number of items to improve his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally employs a glitch that allows Link to phase through the environment. A few would consider these means reason 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 entertain his audience. He also implements a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

PointCrow manages to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The YouTube version of his quest spares the viewer endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them last several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible 23 straight. The final villain battle, which erases Link's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still just a stick. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items during the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the player to use the Master Sword as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow banned over a thousand people in his live stream. RIP.