Blindfolded Zelda Tears of the Kingdom speedrunner who beat the game in under 3 hours has a rare gift that helps him memorize video games, but there’s written instructions if you don’t

A legendary Zelda super-fan has beat Tears of the Kingdom, while blindfolded, in about as long as it took me to leave the Great Sky Islands with both eyeballs in play. 

Eric, otherwise known by his creator handle PointCrow, posted the frankly awe-inspiring video on YouTube. Over its two hours and 15-minute long runtime, the intrepid TOTK genius expertly makes his way through Hyrule, defeats the Demon Dragon on his very first try, and rescues the princess in near record time for blindfolded speedruns; the current record sits at one hour and 49 minutes, according to Speedrun.com. 

Just to show his work, Eric also posted a step-by-step guide on Twitter for us to follow along.

Eric is no stranger to wacky Zelda challenges, having completed a “run only run” of Breath of the Wild some four years ago and myriad others since, but it just might be his most impressive yet. But how did he even do it? As explained in the video, Eric was able to memorize a pathway through the game thanks to a rare neurological condition. 

“My brain’s kind of built a little bit weird,” Eric jokes, detailing how synesthesia alters his sensory experiences. “Synesthesia is where your neurological pathways and your sensory pathways are kind of overlapped with other ones.” Eric has two forms of this condition: color-graphene synesthesia, where letters and numbers are perceived as being connected to certain colors, and spatial synesthesia. 

With space and movement tied to an altered perception of numbers, letters, and colors, this generates a memorable sensation that Eric can work from while blindfolded. “The route is a feeling,” he explains. “So I’ll be like, ‘ok I need to run up to this wall and then go three-X to go all the way up, shield bash, two-x, shield bash.’ And the only reason I know that is because it gives me a certain feeling, like a splash of color in my mind of how it works.” He goes on to demonstrate how, after climbing a wall, he will perform a shield bash almost as a way to complete the next step in his mind as he remembers the pattern.

If you’re a little confused, don’t worry. Eric knows how hard it is to explain his thinking to others – “like trying to explain to someone with aphantasia [a condition in which people are unable to form mental images of unseen objects] that you can actually picture an apple in your mind,” he says in comparison. It’s just as well that his handy written notes are available to peruse instead, if you like your chances at beating Eric’s time. 

Here’s everything we know about The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, the next game in Nintendo’s beloved franchise that will finally put the Princess in a leading role