Streaming Star Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch
One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that apply special rules on a gameplay session. However, while numerous players have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom using only a wooden stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the game with a one branch—meaning, the very same one from start to finish.
The streamer is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, like the time he played the game using only bombs or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the game with no stamina. A one-branch run, though, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly relevant when working with the weakest tool in the whole game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.
The Method Behind the Madness
How did he do it? The straightforward answer is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him going through the intro and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains full endurance and hearts. From here, he starts a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the game to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third save file that combines the states of the original two.
This creates fresh problems, however. The merged file has a protagonist that did not acquired the ability to access shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the game that fails to load certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the game partway through to ensure it begins working properly.
Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles
Curiously, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he uses, presumably to avoid a situation where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear issue, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the version from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eradicates all potential friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak item that makes battles onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that enables Link to phase through the environment. A few would consider these means reason to discredit the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further implements a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove a viewer from his live stream, establishing an incentive to not overly rely on them.
Major Battles and the Last Showdown
PointCrow succeeds to get through several of the game's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The video edit of his quest spares the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them last several hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The Ganondorf battle, which erases the hero's health as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is still just a stick. He can't always duplicate items midway the battle.
So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last 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 banned more than a thousand people in his Twitch chat. RIP.
