Streaming Personality Spends 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. However, although many players have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with only a stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a single branch—meaning, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he went through the title using only explosives or the effort where he tried to defeat the game with no stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when dealing with the most fragile tool in the entire world. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The full answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate 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 normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup file has him going through the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this character acquires maximum stamina and health. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to instruct the game to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third game file that merges the states of the first two files.

This causes new problems, however. The merged save file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the game that refuses to open certain areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the software partway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any tools he wields, likely to avoid a situation where the player gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the Link he pulls between universes is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a smart technique, but not one that eradicates all potential difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that renders battles onerous. But at that stage, it's all a matter of determination and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful number of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a bug that allows him to clip through the world. A few would consider these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He also implements a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer succeeds to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles look painful. The video edit of his journey spares the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them last several long hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an incredible 23 hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to always clone objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the final strike, so technically, it's not fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned over a thousand users in his live stream. RIP.