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

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. However, although many gamers have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom with just a stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, like the instance he played the game using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to defeat the game with zero stamina. A one-branch run, though, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is especially important when working with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. But if the stick shatters, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is glitches. The full answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him going through the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains full endurance and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and creates a third save file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

This causes new problems, though. The fused save file has a Link that never acquired the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch addresses easily, but executing it means depending on an buggy version of the game that fails to open certain areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory form of Link is programmed so that he is unable to damage any tools he uses, likely to avoid a situation where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the wear issue, as the character he transfers across universes is the one from the start of the game. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is still a weak item that renders battles onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of grit and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant supply of items to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally employs a glitch that enables Link to phase through the world. Some would consider these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He also uses a penalty of kinds stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll remove one fan from his live stream, establishing an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The YouTube version of his quest spares the viewer endure the entire fights, which is a good thing when a few of them take several hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes Link's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still just a stick. He can't always duplicate objects during the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he does overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to use the Master Sword as the last strike, so technically, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer banned over a thousand users in his live stream. RIP.