Streaming Star Dedicates 37 Straight Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that apply unique restrictions on a playthrough. However, while numerous gamers have attempted to complete the game using just a stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the game with a single branch—meaning, the very same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he went through the game solely with explosives or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with no stamina. A one-branch run, though, sounds impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is particularly relevant when working with the weakest tool in the whole game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The full story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So the creator creates a “setup” file where he progresses standardly, and the real save, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him going through the prologue and initial starting area, and this Link acquires maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to tell the game to load an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and generates a third game file that merges the states of the original two.

That creates fresh problems, though. The merged file has a protagonist that did not acquired the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but executing it means relying on an unstable version of the title that fails to open some locations. As with everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the game partway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue version of Link is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the character he pulls between universes is the one from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a weak item that renders battles onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally employs a glitch that allows Link to phase through the environment. Some would find these means grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He also 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 Last Showdown

PointCrow manages to defeat many of the game's bosses, but the fights look painful. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when a few of them take multiple long hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible twenty-three straight. The final villain showdown, which erases Link's hearts as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all only a piece of wood. He is unable to always duplicate objects midway the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to use the legendary weapon as the final attack, so technically, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned over 1,000 people in his live stream. RIP.