Twitch Personality Spends 37 Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that apply unique restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, while numerous gamers have attempted to complete the game with just a stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a one stick—meaning, the very same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, such as the time he went through the game using only explosives or the effort where he tried to defeat the story with zero energy. A one-branch run, though, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the weakest tool in the whole game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So the creator creates a “setup” save where he progresses standardly, and the real file, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this character acquires maximum stamina and hearts. From here, he starts a cinematic and halts midway through to instruct the game to open an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and creates a new game file that merges the states of the original two.

This creates new issues, however. The merged file has a Link that did not acquired the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses readily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy version of the game that refuses to load some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the software midway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Challenges

Curiously, the prologue version of Link is coded so that he cannot break any tools he uses, presumably to avoid a situation where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the wear problem, as the Link he transfers between dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eliminates all possible friction. The branch is still a weak item that renders encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of determination and dedication. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant number of items to improve his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a glitch that enables him to phase through the world. A few would consider these means grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll remove a fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to get through many of the game's bosses, but the fights appear painful. The YouTube version of his journey spares the audience sit through the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them take several hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The final villain battle, which erases the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is after all only a piece of wood. He can't necessarily clone objects during the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the user to use the legendary weapon as the last attack, so technically, it's not fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer removed more than a thousand users in his Twitch chat. RIP.