The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

(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.

The goal in this video is to complete the mission with 100% Synch (without be detected) and to increase the difficult, without kill anyone except the main targets.
The GPS and the new Eagle Sense help alot to study the guard's routes and avoid them.

Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P722Aa4FqP0

--- promoted to front page by Ian ---

A chance to kill the target in The Thesbian Part 1. In this memory you tail the target until she disappears at the end.

A Splitting Headache

Enjoy

The first one is for the show off trophy, basically I have to jump at an angle so I dont do a leap of faith, and then parachute onto the zipline.

A ghost run is pretty much impossible with fists due to both captains being so close together, so I decided to go back to Mysterious Death. I used the poison bomb and smoke bomb to lure them to one spot and take them both out at the same time.

I will try not to flood this board in one day with videos but im only at my parents for a few days so this is the best time for me to record videos with sound.