Streaming Star Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative challenge runs that impose unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although numerous gamers have attempted to finish the game using just a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a single branch—meaning, the very same stick throughout.

PointCrow is famous for such challenge runs, such as the time he went through the game using only bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the game with no energy. A one-branch run, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole durability system, which is particularly important when dealing with the most fragile tool in the whole world. Yet if the branch breaks, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple answer is glitches. The full answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he progresses normally, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The setup save has him going through the prologue and first tutorial island, and this character gains maximum stamina and health. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to tell the game to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third game file that merges the conditions of the original two.

That causes fresh problems, however. The fused save file has a protagonist that never acquired the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means relying on an unstable version of the title that refuses to open some areas. As with other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the software midway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue form of Link is programmed so that he cannot damage any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the wear problem, as the character he pulls across dimensions is the one from the start of the game. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is still a weak item that renders encounters tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful supply of consumables to improve his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also employs a bug that enables Link to phase through the environment. Some would consider these methods reason to discredit the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to get through many of the game's main enemies, but the battles look painful. The YouTube version of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them last several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still only a piece of wood. He is unable to always clone objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he does defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

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