Twitch Star Spends 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that apply special rules on a gameplay session. However, although many players have tried to complete the game using just a stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the individual who endeavored to beat the game with a single stick—specifically, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he went through the title solely with explosives or the attempt where he aimed to beat the game with zero stamina. A one-branch run, however, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when dealing with the most fragile tool in the whole world. But if the stick breaks, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple explanation is glitches. The full story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So the creator does a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the intro and first starting area, and this character gains full stamina and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and halts midway through to tell the game to open an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets confused and generates a new save file that combines the states of the first two files.

This creates fresh issues, though. The fused save file has a protagonist that never acquired the capability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable build of the title that fails to load certain locations. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any weapons he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's also how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the character he pulls across dimensions is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eliminates all potential difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that makes battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a matter of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful supply of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also employs a glitch that allows him to clip through the environment. A few would consider these means grounds to question the validity 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 uses a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll remove a fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles appear grueling. The video version of his journey spares the audience sit through the entire fights, which is a good thing when some of them last multiple long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible branch is still only a piece of wood. He is unable to always clone objects midway the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, he manages to defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the game forces the user to wield the Master Sword as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned more than 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. RIP.