Twitch Personality Dedicates 37 Hours Attempting 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 arrived, fans would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, while numerous gamers have attempted to complete the game with only a stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the game with a one stick—specifically, the very same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for such challenge runs, like the instance he played the game using only explosives or the attempt where he tried to defeat the story with no energy. A single stick run, though, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is particularly important when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the entire world. Yet if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple answer is exploits. The complete answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So the creator does a “preparation” file where he advances standardly, and the actual save, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him going through the intro and first starting area, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and hearts. From here, he triggers a cinematic and pauses midway through to tell the software to load an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and generates a new game file that combines the states of the original two.

That causes fresh problems, however. The fused file has a Link that never obtain the capability to access shrines. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable build of the game that fails to load certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the software midway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the wear issue, as the Link he transfers across universes is the version from the start of the story. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a question of determination and dedication. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a bug that enables him to clip through the environment. Some would find these methods reason to question the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He further implements a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles look painful. The video edit of his journey spares the viewer endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take several hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing twenty-three straight. The final villain battle, which erases the hero's health as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is after all only a stick. He can't necessarily clone objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the software forces the player to wield the Master Sword as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed more than 1,000 users in his live stream. RIP.