Twitch Personality Dedicates 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous players have tried to complete the game using just a stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the individual who endeavored to clear the game with a single stick—meaning, the very same one throughout.

The streamer is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, like the instance he played the game solely with explosives or the attempt where he tried to defeat the story with no energy. A one-branch run, however, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is particularly important when dealing with the weakest weapon in the entire game. But if the stick shatters, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” save where he advances standardly, and the real save, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link gains full endurance and health. From this point, he starts a cinematic and pauses midway through to tell the software to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and creates a third game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That creates new issues, however. The fused file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an unstable version of the title that refuses to load certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He starts the game on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the software midway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory version of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the wear issue, as the character he transfers across universes is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eradicates all potential difficulty. The branch is still a ineffective weapon that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of grit and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant supply of items to boost his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also makes use of a glitch that enables Link to clip through the environment. Some would consider these means grounds to question the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He also implements a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban a fan from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

PointCrow manages to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the battles appear painful. The video edit of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them last several long hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible 23 hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes Link's hearts as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible branch is after all only a piece of wood. He can't always clone objects during the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he does defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the software compels the player to wield the legendary weapon as the final strike, so technically, it's not quite completely a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

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