The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

The Butterfly Collector starts off as an inoccent game of finding origami butterflies but soon devolves into an investigation of a child trafficking ring. Kacho is the final target in the story arc. Ordinarily, approaching her triggers a short cutscene followed by another annoying boss battle. This is just a quick video to show how to avoid combat with an easy air assassination.

This target has the authentic Japanese name Chief Cuckoo. He is one of The Kabukimono Chain which is unlocked after Naoe speaks with Shin'nyo. You can dispatch scouts to locate him but I found him on my own. The clues were pretty good.

In order to assassinate Chief Cuckoo with one stroke of the Hidden Blade, you'll need to obtain "Improved Ground Assassinate: Naoe removes 1 additional Health Segments with Ground Assassinations" in Naoe's Assassin Skill Tree (or enable the "Guaranteed Assassination" option under "Difficulty Tuning").

Now the fun part: get in to Katano Oil Trading, assassinate Cuckoo, and escape without engaging any guards. Chief Cuckoo walks in a predictable path, usually with two henchmen right behind him. A well is one of his stops, so let's assassinate him from the hiding spot and drop his corpse down the well.

The Concubine is an assassination contract in Assassin Creed Mirage.

Mysterious Death

Perform an assassination that leaves no trail or suspicion (enemies cannot have detected Basim at any point). For this the blow dart was enhanced with poison. Upon being poisoned the target appears to the guards to have fallen asleep.

Stunt Assassinations

Jump assassinations from the highest point in the area, the dome. For a brief moment you don't get a prompt for assassinations when you hit the ground, so Basim will attack instead. Also done with the help of a sleep dart to incapacitate the target and with a midair knife throw.

Extermination - Hidden Blade Only

My plan was to kill all the guards without any detection, but got lazy and settle for a mostly stealthy extermination. Started with the three guards on the roof. One of them walks around and can be killed next to a hiding spot without alerting the others. The other two are in each others sights and I haven't been able to kill one without the other noticing unless using a lure. I should have waited until the target was looking away to kill the nearby guard leaning on a wall. The rest of the guards aren't grouped up and can be stealthed pretty easily (I was pretty sloppy near the end though). I went for the guards in and around the building instead of the entire restricted area.

Blitz

This assassination is much like the Blitz of Al-Ghul that aurllcooljay and I independently discovered. Again you must lure the target out. There are two places in the shipyard to get a hint on how to do that. Both of them say the same thing: burn his ship. Getting a hint is optional so here I proceed directly to Al-A'eshma's hiding place and climb onto the railing across from his door.

Surprisingly, it's possible to throw a knife at the explosives on the ship from this distance. The key is to enable the "Light Blade" enhancement in Tier Two. Then hold to charge your throw until the knife glows. Finally, aim and release.

Quickly turn around and wait for Al-A'eshma to emerge. Do not press as soon as you see him because this will cause Basim to swing his sword. Instead, wait for the "Assassinate" prompt and do a mini air assassination.

I'm using the word "blitz" here to describe the time between the door opens and the assassination (approximately 630 milliseconds). While the events leading up to this were direct, they were far from what I'd call a speed run.

In this video I kill the target of the main story mission "Den of the Beast" before the game intends you to.

The door I am teleporting through using Assassin's focus is locked during this moment in the mission. For the Blowdart I think it is vital to have the cloud impact uogrsde active in order to do this.

If you kill him during this stage of the mission he will become semi-inactive (as he is near he end of the video), not respond to anything but his detection meter will still be active.

Although this was fun to do, this is sadly once again a main assassination mission where the target is kept in a random small room, allowing for almost zero creativity.

In this video I do a (blitz) ghost run of the "The State Official" contract.

Although it seems quite simple, it is a bit harder than it looks. You have to get the angle of the knife throw just right or one of the surrounding guards will start investigating the body.

In this video I do an Eagle Strike on the target from the "Follow the Fiery Trail" mission.

It took me quite some time to get a successful strike recorded. At first I tried to do the strike without the "throwing knife turn", but while it is possible, it was too much trial and error. I could not get it recorded.

So then I turned to the "throwing knife turn". This is possible using the Air Strike skill from the skills tree.

Hope you enjoy the video.

The assassination mission Gilded Butterflies takes place at The Bazaar.

Early Infiltration

The room where the assassination takes place is normally not accessible before the mission, but here is how you can access it. From the place shown in the video at 0:35, Basim can throw a knife to unbar one of the doors. I found it easier to use eagle vision and aim right above the red glow. Note: If you have already started the mission you won't be able to do this because weapons are not allowed in The Bazaar at that time. The room is empty except for one guard.

Early Death

Ning doesn't appear until after the auction scene. Problem is she is immune to damage. Once you have obtained the brooch needed for the mission the game spawns all the guards in the room and Ning in her target form.

Now here is what happens if you kill her at this point: The game recognizes you have eliminated the target, but the memory corridor scene won't play (and her two bodyguards cannot engage you in combat; their detection arrows go back down). So we'll talk to the guard at the door to progress the story, and the memory corridor now starts.

Blooper

Normally you lose the opportunity for a unique kill if Ning gets spooked, but if you scare her before the last checkpoint you can still perform the cinematic death. The scene starts with glitched camera angles.

The first step is to "lure Al-Ghul out". There are two methods suggested by the game (and no others known at this time):

1. Rally the workers
2. Use the merchant

Rallying the workers is the easier and faster option. I chose it in order to keep this video short. If you're up for a challenge, try using the merchant instead. He can be found at the east gate.

There are many ways to infiltrate the Caravanserai. Climbing the leaning palm tree on the south side is an interesting but seldom seen approach. I use the secret underwater entrance because it's close to the worker we need to rally. Pre-assassinate the three guards in this area in order to clear a path to Al-Ghul later.

Talk to the worker and he'll send you to meet with the handler. Three are marked on your map but it's always the westernmost guy you want. Crossing the courtyard undetected can be challenging. Blend with groups of 3 or more until detection meters go away. The next steps are self-explanatory: talk to the handler, don't pay him, pickpocket him, and return across the courtyard to the first worker.

When you start talking to the worker again, you don't have to stand there and listen. Instead, run toward the balcony and take the lift on the right side. There may be a guard on the roof so be prepared assassinate him. Drop down onto the balcony and go backstage to meet Al-Ghul.

Al-Ghul spawns just to the right of the backstage door. Hit immediately for the early/blitz assassination. aurllcooljay and I independently discovered that Basim can assassinate Al-Ghul as soon as he spawns. See Aurel's video here

One thing I noticed is that Al-Ghul's spawning will be postponed as long as your camera (i.e. right stick ) is facing east. My guess is the game designers expected you to be in the courtyard and didn't want you to miss Al-Ghul's entrance onto the balcony. For this blitz assassination it means that you should set yourself up to be face to face with Al-Ghul when he spawns. As such you will be Exposed, but not for long. For a stealth-blitz assassination I found a workaround. Position Basim with his back against the door and look east toward the courtyard. Wait a few moments and observe that Al-Ghul has not spawned. Now look at the floor! Al-Ghul will immediately spawn with his back toward you for the easy stealth assassination.

This is the first story assassination in Assassins Creed Mirage.

Infiltration

There are at least a few ways to get inside the area. One of them is a climbing section on the target's side of the place, giving you easy access to where Al-Ghul is waiting behind a locked door. Through the door screen you can target him with knives but are unable to cause any damage. Being in open conflict can cause the target to engage you in combat, but even that is a fruitless attempt to interact with him before the actual assassination.

Earliest Possible Assassination

I loaded a manual save at a part where Basim is almost at a checkpoint allowing you start the assassination (you are unable to save inside a restricted area, so did that outside). Pre assassinated some guards in the area top make things easier. I just need to talk to an NPC to lure out the target. After a short while Al-Ghul teleports through the door, giving you plenty of time to lie in wait for an instant kill. Ubisoft didn't anticipate players to do this, like an assassin actually would. One interesting thing to note is that sometimes the memory corridor doesn't load right away like normal.