Twitch Personality Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose unique restrictions on a playthrough. However, although many gamers have tried to finish the game with only a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a single stick—specifically, the very same stick throughout.

PointCrow is famous for such difficult playthroughs, such as the time he went through the game solely with explosives or the attempt where he tried to beat the game with no energy. A one-branch playthrough, however, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the weakest tool in the whole game. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” file where he advances standardly, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The setup file has him going through the intro and first tutorial island, and this character gains maximum stamina and hearts. From here, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to tell the software to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a new game file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

That creates fresh problems, however. The fused file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the title that refuses to open certain areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of Link is programmed so that he is unable to break any weapons he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the wear issue, as the character he pulls between universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a weak weapon that renders battles onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful number of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also employs a glitch that allows him to clip through the world. A few would find these means reason to discredit the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He also implements a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove one fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles appear grueling. The video version of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible branch is after all just a stick. He can't always clone items midway the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the software forces the player to wield the legendary weapon as the final strike, so technically, it's not completely a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. RIP.