The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

Assassin's Creed Syndicate Stealth Kills
Sequence 1 Memory 1 - A Spanner in the Works
No Upgrades
Character: Jacob Frye

During this intro section of the game, Jacob only has Throwing Knives, no guns, and no Smoke Bombs.

I didn't do the remainder of this mission in Stealth Reaper style because I've already done it in Non-Lethal/Target Only style, and because Benchy is a YouTuber who has already done it with Stealth Kills. He hadn't done this intro section of the mission though, which is why I decided to pick it up and cross it off the list.

Link to Benchy's "A Spanner in the Works" Stealth Kill run, beginning just after this section:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN7bU1IzpQU

Some Upgrades are mandatory or Syndicate will not let you progress. I don't understand why they did this, as Unity allows a player to beat the game without upgrading any Weapons, Armor or Skills.

In Syndicate's case, Jacob is forced to get 4 Upgrades at a certain point in the early-game.

For these four I got Loot Takedown, Chest Lockpicking, More Rare Crafting Materials, and Increase Combo Reset time.

The reason I got these is that I would be looting people anyway, and this saves viewers' time, I will not be opening any Chests, so the two associated skills won't be used, and the Combo System isn't useful unless you get other skills later.

The alternatives were more Health, more Combat Damage, X-Ray Eagle Vision, and Double Assassinate. I certainly didn't want to get any of those! They would affect my run much more than the ones I got.

I'm still not pleased that Syndicate forces you into certain upgrades, but I adapted to that requirement as best I could. Luckily, it doesn't seem that it forces the player into any other Upgrades after that Skilling Tutorial.