The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

[ACII] Flow and Kill | Assassinating Carlo Grimaldi

The goal of this video is to eliminate every guard inside the palazzo while remaining undetected. My playstyle for this mission doesn't focus on completing it as fast as possible. I take out everyone in a different way while prioritising variety, roleplaying, style and the showcase of advanced mechanics and lesser known features.

The video also includes a few seconds of real life footage of Venice which was recorded by myself a few months ago, showcasing "real" history merging with animus sequences.

After Ezio lands on the rooftop I start by taking out the archer furthest away at the opposite end of the palazzo by using two unlocked throwing knives. Instead of relying on the lock on feature which is unavailable at that distance I use the 1st person camera to aim. AC2 doesn't have a cross hair but whatever is in the middle of the screen during the 1st person perspective will get hit. This is a useful trick to prevent auto-detection when using throwing knives and drastically increases the range but requires precise aiming. I move on and kill the next guard by starting a wallrun and immediately cancelling it with an air assassination which is a cool way to quickly expand the range of assassinations (especially useful for archers who have better hearing and detect you more easily). Another option to move faster without making any noise is to use manual jumps. I do this to approach the third archer from behind and eliminate him with a dagger.

After the cutscenes I use a back eject to quickly descend and catch a railing below to perform a low profile ledge assassination. Then I jump down into the courtyard and immediately low profile assassinate the guard who starts investigating the corpse that just dropped to the ground. After eliminating the next guard with a sword I hide behind a pillar and wait for the two patrolling guards to get close enough to a third guard in the left corner. Once they are in reach I stun all of them with a smoke bomb. This allows me to grab someone without being detected so I quickly kill both with a sword, followed by a high profile assassination on the last one. I decide to pickpocket a corpse to steal money that I use as a distraction for the next guard. Looting the body is not necessary but a nice roleplaying moment. The guard is lured behind a corner by coins without knowing that only a few moments ago these coins belonged to his colleague. The distraction effects of throwing money actually have a pretty far reach and are useful to keep in mind for manipulating guard positions. After that I assassinate the last two guards with poison and a high profile assassination after a quick drop from a beam. I like the thought that the guard closest to the Doge who's supposed to protect his life has been poisoned just like the Doge himself, but by a different kind of assassin. It's ironic. The doge only realises too late, maybe he should've listened when he had the chance.

For the assassination of Carlo I chose to showcase a very rare glitch, something that I've only seen in 3 other situations during 750 hours of playtime: triggering a hidden blade combat finisher outside of combat. In this case it seems to be connected to a railing blocking the direct path between Ezio and his target. However, he is still in assassination range so pressing armed hand consistently triggers combat finishers instead of regular assassination animations. Not necessarily useful but still a very stylish trick, probably one of my favourites. To be able to grab Carlo you first need to make sure he's not at full health anymore, a throwing knife tends to work best here.

This assassination occurs when Eivor travels to Vinland, which I've learned is currently Newfoundland and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in Canada. Eivor is posing as a slave and doesn't have the usual arsenal of weapons and armor. The target Gorm Kjotvesson is located at one of three camps where he directs a digging operation. This camp is more heavily guarded than the other two.

The Firebrand assassination begins in The Minster located in the city of Jorvik. How you enter The Minster doesn't really matter. I came in through an opening in the tower but you could also enter through a door on the ground floor. The cutscene doesn't begin until Eivor reaches the room off the second floor catwalk.

This mission has a lot in common with Jubair al Hakim in the original Assassin's Creed. Both are in the process of burning texts, both shove a guy who objects into the fire, and both spread out into the city among a number of "decoy" body doubles. Even the dialogue is similar:

Jubair: These bits of paper are covered in lies. They poison your minds, and so long as they exist, you cannot hope to see the world the way it truly is.
Firebrand: The vellum that burn before you are covered in lies. So long as they exist, you cannot hope to see the world the way it truly is.

I had just started using a predator bow (Petra's Arc) and decided to test its range. To my surprise, it was easily capable of a headshot from the top of the viewpoint on The Minster. The scope was able to identify the target by her real name (decoys say "Firebrand?") and aim with adequate accuracy. No need for that Ability to steer arrows in flight.

The Lincolnscire story arc ends with the assassination of Bishop Herefrith. The bishop is hiding in a chapel inside the fort at Anecastre. The three doors to the chapel are barred from the inside. That leaves three other ways for Eivor to enter the chapel: break a second story stained glass window on either side of the near end (look for exterior ladders to wooden platforms), or take the secret underground tunnel from the outbuilding past the far end. I chose the secret entrance to demonstrate how to find it and also because it puts Eivor closer to the target.

Most prime targets in AC games are on high alert and take one of three actions if you're exposed: fight, flee, or cower. Bishop Herefrith does none of the above. He just goes about his business. The ten guards inside the chapel with him are in informed mode and ready to fight.

I waited until the bishop steps on the "dark square" (chess analogy) beneath the candelabra and then dropped it on him. You still have to confirm the kill by holding for a second. After the cutscene there's no need for an escape. All the guards are gone and the assault on Anecastre is complete.

The Lunden story arc ends with a boss fight against The Compass. This is designed to be combat rather than an assassination. Since I already assassinated The Arrow and The Leech with explosions I decided to use fire on their boss as well.

You have three choices on how to approach The Compass. I choose to take the flank with Erke. He leads Eivor on a good route around the left of the forces. You can jump from log to log and stay dry but the archers will shoot at you about halfway there. I dive into the water and sneak up on the two archers nearest The Compass. After dispatching them I fire a crossbow at the target. It breaks down after the third shot and does a disappointing amount of damage.

Now I swim underwater far enough away that The Compass loses track of Eivor. When he's not looking I climb to a high point on a nearby boat. The Compass wanders between three sets of explosive barrels (one set is hidden behind a wall that collapses when shot with an arrow). Shoot whichever barrels are nearest to him and set The Compass on fire. A barrage of arrows both accelerates his demise and prevents him from throwing a counterattack at Eivor.

The escape demonstrates the dry route back to shore. Now that the archers have ceased fire there's no reason to swim.

You will find The Leech roaming the ground floor of the two story basilica in northeast Lunden. For a good stealth assassination enter through the open window on the second story and make your way over the study at the east end. Wait until The Leech arrives and hit her with an air assassination.

If at any time The Leech becomes spooked she will flee out the south door to the center of the courtyard. In doing so she passes a natural arrangement of four oil jars. With two more oil jars and a little imagination this becomes a perfect opportunity for a firecracker assassination.

The game mechanics make it difficult to move more than one oil jar a great distance. Whenever you place an oil jar and then move out of its sightline, that oil jar will disappear and respawn at its original location. Successfully moving two or more oil jars involves shuttling them 50 feet at a time and never around a blind corner. It usually isn't worth the effort.

PREPARATION

There are two preliminary steps not shown in the video. First, pre-assassinate all the guards in the courtyard being careful not to aggravate The Leech. Be particularly careful with the guard standing at the door of the basilica (the one through which The Leech flees). If she sees a dead body lying there it may spook her. So either whistle him away from the door or assassinate him while she's not looking and quickly move the body away.

Second, go find another oil jar and bring it to the courtyard. I grabbed the one right in the middle of the Temple of Mithras which is just south of the courtyard. The oil jar is on the ground below an archer on a high platform. You'll have to kill a guard or two in order to carry it out.

The Arrow is perhaps the easiest assassination target in the entire Assassin's Creed series. The Firing The Arrow memory begins with Eivor onstage and standing directly behind the target. All one needs to do is take three steps forward and stab him in the back. Furthermore, Eivor can do practically anything without raising suspicion among the target, the other archers gathered onstage, or onlookers. In other words, it's a perfect opportunity for a creative assassination!

I suggest climbing the large arch behind the stage. From the top you may air assassinate The Arrow. It's pretty cool but I wanted to try something other than an air assassination for a change.

HOT FOOT

There's a classic prank among baseball players called the hot foot which involves placing a flame near the victim's foot. We can do something like that in Valhalla. First we need to find one of those flaming oil jars. They aren't very common in Lunden and most are located in heavily guarded areas. The one I grab in the video has the virtues of being unguarded and easily accessible via a road running west from the stage. There may be closer oil jars - I don't know.

Carry the oil jar back to the stage and place it at The Arrow's feet. You can put it right in front of him. He won't care. Eivor is golden. I prefer to put it directly behind The Arrow so that the blast will blow him off the stage.

The Grantebridge story arc climaxes with an actual prime assassination target named Wigmund (no first name).
This guide will show a way to stealth assassinate him without help from Soma and her crew.

APPROACH

The memory An Island of Eels begins at a camp that looks like a clan standing ankle deep in a swamp. Soma tells Eivor, "At the first sign of trouble, my crew will jump in." but then Soma herself is the only one to join Eivor on the mission. Need help busting down a door? Soma will help! Her crew will just be hanging around in the swamp. (I've read that if you stealth assassinate Wigmund and then are detected by his guards, Eivor will blow her horn to summon the rest of the crew. This has never happened to me so I cannot confirm.)

Since Soma will be joining Eivor, I let her ride in the bitch seat of my horse. No sense making her walk all the way to the Ely Monastery. It's just a short ride to the southeast. Wigmund will be on the ground floor of the north tower. That's the tall, round tower which will be on your left as you approach the monastery.

It's fairly easy to infiltrate the Distrust Zone. As long as you don't ride your horse through the front gate you should be fine. I climb the wall to the left of the front gate and then move along that wall left toward the north tower. There's one guard that I assassinate just to clear an escape path for later.

Commentary Variant: https://youtu.be/6jbK8XQXYSo

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Side Memories | Assassinations
Full Synchronization, No Detection, No Commentary
Easy (Easiest?) Methods

0:00 Two's Company
2:29 Tactical Correction
3:28 ...And Three's A Crowd
4:41 Serf's Turf
5:55 The Three Amici
8:11 Red Letter Day
9:04 The Merchant of Rome
9:57 Bearers of Bad News
11:16 Cardinal Sin
12:39 Turning The Tables
14:50 Graduation
17:03 Brutes and Brutality

I love this game a whole lot and I felt like revisiting it while making a complete joke out of its Side Assassinations. In reality, the Full Syncs for these are super easy if you know how items work.

Brotherhood making Smoke Bombs throwable is what causes Full Sync No Detect to be possible on all of these. Without this mechanic, the player would have to choose between either Full Sync or No Detects in certain situations, it wouldn't be possible to clear both conditions at once in every mission. Throwable Smoke means the player can put a disable/stun on certain enemies but still kill them with a specific weapon (usually the Hidden Blade) and not be in breach of the Full Sync constraint. Very useful.

The Contract "Turning The Tables" has the Full Sync Constraint: "Kill 1 Brute, 1 Seeker, 1 Papal Guard with their own weapon." What it actually means though, is kill one of each with their own weapon type. This is what allows No Detects Full Sync here. The player can stun both, remove one, pick up the fallen's weapon, and use it on the one still coughing. Conditions ticked!

Normally the only way you are supposed to get civilians as ship lieutenants is when you complete a quest for an NPC and when you are done talking to him/her there is a chance you will get a dialogue option to ask said NPC to join your crew. The civilian may or may not accept your offer. But Ubisoft overlooked one thing: If you knock out characters from random quests you'll have the option to recruit the manual way (haven't tried this with story based characters). I've looked up "recruiting civilians" online and couldn't find any reference to this, so I'm assuming it isn't intentional.

So what is the purpose of recruiting civilians? Most of them have common perks, so it's just if you're tired of using the usual soldiers and mercenaries and rather would have unique looking allies.

In the first example I come across a civilian from whom I can start a quest. Both her and another civilian in the area are quest generated and are available for recruitment. Because I don't have the option to knockout, I just deplete nearly all their health and finish them off with a non lethal Sparta Kick (make sure they aren't taking poison/fire damage during this or they can still die).