The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKrs0HyY7hg
[Front-paged by stabguy]

What if Majd Addin stopped killing people and just walked away? Well... My latest exploit does just that. I introduce to you Back to the Future exploit!

Setup
After killing Majd Addin go to the main gate of Jerusalem. Get the attention of the guards outside by killing the guards inside. Now the guards outside will try to get to you by climbing the beams. Here's a way to get them to temporarily fight you. Hang on the beam by the gate and when a guard comes he will throw rocks at you. Drop down and for a short while he will attack you before going back to the beams. If you manage to counter an attack you will glitch through the gate! Now fast travel out of there and come back.

Back to the Future Exploit
Upon arriving back in Jerusalem the gate will be open (probably because you are not under city alert). When entering you will be told that leaving the city will reinitialize the memory. Go talk to the bureau leader Malik. You will start the mission again as usual. But what has changed? When you get close you will hear the crowd talking as though the scene had just ended. Then you might hear the first victim talk. When you start the scene Majd will start saying what he last says to the first victim, and a few more things in the scene are out of sync. The scene ends with a long pause and Majd killing the first victim. As a result he falls off the stage and walks away. Because you weren't detected there isn't a distance restriction, but you can't follow him without crossing an invisible line that ends the mission. Now there are a few other ways this could end. If you don't hear the first victim speak before the scene you will hear her during the scene, and afterwards Majd will glitch partway into a wall. You are unable to lock onto him or assassinate with the hidden blade but can hit him with a weapon, which can get his attention but might also move him too far into the wall. Another way this could end is by having the second victim talk before the scene. I found that if you get away from the stage you can make more of the after-scene dialogue happen. The farthest I've gotten in the after-scene dialogue is the second victim talking. Now Majd will take a shortcut out of the place by climbing the building. I decided to end the video with an air to assassinate.

The Exploit Explained
Since you fast traveled after the assassination the area was refreshed. And by coming in through the gate you reinitialized the memory. So you start the assassination again, but the game knows you already did the mission, which results in the after-scene stuff happening before and during the scene. It's like the game thinks you are at two different checkpoints at the same time! For Majd Addin it's a tug of war between the scene and after-scene scripting. So the AI gets confused, and Majd is no longer affected by the scripting after the scene.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-rL2hsGhRM
---promoted to front page by Ian---

So I went back to find more things in King Richard's Citadel just prior to the scene in memory block four. And I'm glad I did, because I found a much easier way to get in there, as well as some interesting discoveries.

Easy Infiltration

This is just my take on the save citizen objective for the first district, I had no real objective or rules for this and it will be a part of a project im doing called Breaking the AI.

Basically I try make the guards kill themselves, or use the environment to my advantage to make it easier. I use tall ladders to get easy hidden blade assassinations from behind.

Some of them im not happy with ( like the bureau, I wanted all 3 to fall in ) but the game autosaves after you kill the last guy.

I also show an alternative way into the city, although im sure most of you know it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4Li1uDpPFg
[From the forums. - stabguy]

This is as close to a ghost run as possible in the mission where you kill the first target Tamir in memory block 2 Damascus.

Setup
Before the assassination mission do the save citizen mission closest to the area. I know this isn't stealthy and seems to violate the ghost run, but it's a side mission, not a part of the actual assassination mission. Besides, it's designed so that you are automatically detected and have to kill the guards. And you have to do this to make the ghost run work. Once you kill the guards (I did on a rooftop to avoid other guards) don't talk to the citizen. Instead gentle push her to the assassination area. When I first originally did this I didn't move her until after, but the second time I failed the mission from being too far away from the target.

Unseen Kill
Start the scene and wait. Notice how the save citizen is standing there waving for me to talk to her. Once the scene ends gentle push her into the path of the target, in this case right by a table with a merchant he stops to talk at. When Tamir is in range assassinate (duh). Notice how a guard standing nearby reacts to the kill. After the memory corridor scene immediately start locking on. The thing is when you perform a kill animation on an enemy you can still lock onto them until their body goes limp. However you have a brief moment between when the body goes limp and a message appears to be anonymous. Since the save citizen is right next to you you lock onto her. When the message appears you can still hear her talking. Now what has changed? Well no guard comes after you. The guard who has reacted to you killing Tamir seems to have forgotten and doesn't even notice the body right away. Another guard comes and notices the body but doesn't come after you. You can leave that area without once having been detected and without killing anyone but the target during the mission.

(Second vid below the fold)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHvrRuha1K8
[Promoted to front page. -stabguy]

Getting inside the merchant king's palace just prior to the cutscene (non-story) is something I have wanted to do in a while. Here's the setup.

Infiltration
You need a vigilante for this. Luckily there's a group of them not far away from the palace. You would first want to kill the guards in between where you want to lead the vigilante. Have a guard fight you to lead the vigilante. This could take a while since most of the time is spent watching the guard struggle with him. But then the guard pushes him away and comes again after you. This is how you lead the vigilante. Make sure the guard doesn't get too far from him or the vigilante gives up and goes back to the others. Lead them to the door of the palace that Abul Nuquod exits out of. You will encounter a group of guards. Kill all but three guards uncluding the one used for the vigilante (this doesn't seem to work if there are more than three guards). Now here's how you get into the palace. If you jump on the platform by the wall of the door the guards will think you are on the other side of the wall and go there. It is a little common in the AC games for guards to think you are somewhere else, especially if it's by a wall. Getting guards to go after you by jumping while crouching is known as the Pathfinding Charm, discovered by IanXO4.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRdq6ioX8NE
This is where the vigilante comes in. You need to be locked onto a guard so that you are in battle mode and can counter kill your way in the palace. Jump only when the guard and vigilante are struggling so you don't have the guard also trying to go in the palace.

Exploring the Palace
After you get in stay close to the wall to avoid the memory starting. Take the path shown in the video. Notice how the rooftop archers are all gone. Now for Abul Nuquod. Unfortunately you can't get to him without the memory starting. In fact he and his bodyguards don't even appear until the memory starts. So just drop by and say hello to them before starting the scene. So infiltrating the palace doesn't have much use besides saying it's possible.

I've gotten out of the palace by dropping from the roof, gone a far distance away, and come back. From the front door I can see the bodyguards are no longer on the balcony, and possibly also Abul Nuquod, but with no way to get inside it's unclear what has changed.

When EzioAltair17 joined The Hidden Blade last year, I must admit that I was skeptical whether it would work out. Few people know that he briefly closed his account, proclaiming "This site isn't for me." Fortunately he changed his mind and quickly synchronized with our community. In just six months he has become one of our most prolific members. Look at how many interesting topics he has created, always in the appropriate forum. Now he has become the youngest member to be featured in our monthly interview:

Tell me about the first time you played AC.

Well my friend mentioned ACII at lunch once. I stopped listening when he said it was a history game. Then on my birthday I was taken to GameStop to pick out some games. I saw ACII and thought I would try it out. The funny thing was I bought it a day before the release of Brotherhood. It took me a while to beat ACII because at the time I was going through things at home, which affected my grades and ended in me being grounded...ALOT. Anyway, I LOVED THE GAME. I'd talk about it all day at school. The friend who told me about the game soon got annoyed. Then about a month later I bought AC1. I didn't like as much as I liked ACII but it did make me like the AC franchise more, seeing how much improvement they had done. Then in mid-2011 I played ACB. The gameplay was great. The story was the sucky part.

What do you like most about the games?

The thing I like most.... Is "everything" an acceptable answer LOL. But if I had to choose, the plot. I've always been interested in secret societies.

What AC accomplishment are you most proud of?

Pretty small but whatever: Coming in first place in multiplayer, twice. LMAO

What is your favorite quote from the games?

"Hey wassa-matta-you, Altaïr?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFHli77es2Y
[Front-paged. stabguy]

Like the title says, the early death of Jubair right before you are supposed to kill him.

Infiltrating the Madrasah Al-Kallasah
This is easy if you know how to do it. Have some guards chase you onto the roof. Then drop down to the door on the south side of the building. Engage in combat with the guards there. After a little while the guards on the roof will come down to the ground from inside the building. Since this is the only time in the game that the door is closed the guards' ai thinks they can go through. They will attack you through the door, which gives an opportunity to glitch inside by counter attacking. You need to be in combat with the guards outside since you can't lock onto the guards inside. Countering can be a little tricky because you might not be able to see the guards attack until it's too late.

Jubair's Early Death
Once you get inside you will find Jubair and the other scholars in the northwest corner of the building. They pretty much stay in the spot where they are (even grabbing and throwing won't move them). At the front of them are Jubair and the scholar he talks with during the scene. Now for pre-killing Jubair and/or the scholars. I've tried different killing combinations, each with their own results. First I killed everyone except the scholar Jubair talks with. Now for the scene... Levitating books?! Even the scholar I didn't kill doesn't appear for the scene, and the scene itself somehow won't end (when I had first originally done this I killed everyone and the scene ends as normal). Now I'll try killing just Jubair. You can identify him from the other scholars by the pouch he wears. Here's the problem with killing just him: You are exposed by the scholars, and the scene cannot start until you become anonymous. So glitch back outside the building the same way you came in. Lock onto one of the scholars so you are in combat and counter attack a guard who is outside. Then get far enough away that you escape the scholars and become anonymous (I had tried using a hiding spot but couldn't get out of it). Now for the scene... Wait, why is the scholar dead instead of Jubair?! When the scene ends you fail the mission as though the target had escaped. Now this is weird, the blade's low profile kill animation on the scholar is the same as on a target. Also one time I killed just the scholar and he still appeared in the scene as well as Jubair, but I failed the mission right after the scene ended. It's as though he is a copy of Jubair, and killing one of them affects the other. That's a very interesting thing in the game that can only be answered by Ubisoft.

Instant Kill
I wanted to try an automatic kill on Jubair like what I did with Garnier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiaiQfUGZPc
However I couldn't reanimate him because he can't be moved from the place he is. So I theorized it could be possible just by taking down his health with fists, since being knocked out isn't quite the same as being dead. Well it worked, but in a way that I didn't expect to happen. After I climbed up to start the scene and the dialogue appeared, "ancestor's memory synchronized recording..." Altair teleported to ground assassinate Jubair, causing the memory corridor scene to start. This is probably the only time in an AC game that a memory corridor scene has started before it should. It seems the game recognizes Jubair as a target when the scene starts. Afterwards the scene is cancelled. The invisible barriers are still there that prevent you from leaving, so I glitch my way through one of them by grasping a ledge. You aren't under city alert as you normally would, but can still complete the memory.