The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

Here's my first AC:U video (and hopefully the first of many) on the target from sequence 8 memory 2.

The setup and execution of it are pretty obvious but there a a few things I'd like to add:

- I got Rouille at the target spot by having him chase me when in conflict, I didn't include this in the video because it takes a while and it isn't that interesting
- I wore chest armour that increased my health (instead of the more stealthy armour) because he will sometimes try to shoot you while chasing and those can be fatal really quickly.
- When I was being chased by Rouille I did my best to avoid bluecoat soldiers since they will engage Rouille and sometimes for no reason Rouille will then start running around randomly and not coming into conflict with Arno anymore. This can however be fixed by throwing a stun grenade on him.
- I had rouille fall on the little market stand next to the chateau because if he falls directly onto the ground the fall will "kill" him and I can only finish him off with the hidden blade.
- I chose the Bastille as an eagle strike point because it currently is the only place where I can consistently perform this move.
- The eagle strike might not be a 100 percent fluent but this can be attributed to the fact that Arno needs time to grip the ledge and when I tried making the jump and turning the camera at the same time Arno wouldn't grasp the ledge and I would desync.

Hope you guys enjoy the video.

Sequence 3 Memory 2 Confession

Instead of labeling the video with the usual "variety pack", I used a term Youtubers are more familiar with. Here are a variety of ways to creatively take out Sivert the target.

Stunts

First an eagle strike from the highest point I can climb to inside the building. This works a bit differently than eagle strikes in previous games. We don't quite know how to successfully catch ledges in Unity, so I rely on an automatic grasp, which is why Arno appears to dive down after the jump. Another complication to do with this is Arno has a brief moment of getting a grip, during which time he can't air assassinate the target. This is shown in two examples.

So even if manually catching ledges no longer works, eagle strikes are still possible, just not as awesome since you'd only be able to grasp the ledge part way down instead of the usual most of the way down.

Now for a stunt assassination from the highest point you can fall without dying. Trying to find a decent spot to jump from without catching onto or landing on something is difficult. The best that I could do involved bumping into an object on the way down.

Unity brought back a mechanic from AC1: having to kill the target with the hidden blade, even if he's already lying on the ground. Except instead of an automatic kill you have to walk up to the incapacitated target and prone kill him. I take advantage of this by killing him with a phantom blade bolt (which is unlocked later in the game, but you'll have it when replaying the memory) and performing a "grounded stunt".

The only way you should be able to kill an incapacitated target is with the prone kill, but if you shoot him and start an air assassination before he's knocked down, it will carry over to a "grounded air assassination". During the animation the memory scene will start right when you land on him, long before Arno plunges the hidden blade into the target. Another cool thing in the video is the mechanics for blood. Splattering over the altar look very poetic.

Put the controlled descent to good use during assassinations with a new technique I call Eagle Descent. Descend on your enemy in continuous motion like an eagle swooping down in its prey.

Sequence 3 Confession

During this assassination memory you kill a target in a church, Notre Dame to be specific. For this to work you need to lead him outside through the front door. Follow the instructions carefully.

Don't get his attention right away, for two reasons:
1. The guards will tear you to shreds.
2. If the target detects you early on he won'y give chase.

Instead make your way to toward the back where the target is heading, killing guards along the way. If done right you won't have to worry about other enemies while he's chasing after you, which is great also because if the bell is sounded the front door gets closed.

The next part is tricky. When he's led outside the city guards may get in a fight with him. This could lead to him being incapacitated. One unexpected reaction from fighting the city guards is the target could lose his courage and flee, not able to detect you anymore.

If you manage to get him past all that the hard part is past. Lead him to the North side of the building shown in the video.

Eagle Descent

Now comes the fun part. Using controlled descent you can quickly vault and drop down for a stylish kill. It's a little hard to make it go smoothly and fast because there are times when Arno merely performs a simple drop-and-hang, ruining the concept of quickly descending. I also had to perform one or two manual jumps to propel him in the right direction horizontally. But after a short while the desired effect was achieved, with Arno in near constant motion.

Turn targets into one-hit punching bags!
Read this description for the explanations of how each target was set up, as well as why other targets couldn't be killed this way.

Tamir

You can't take his heath down early without getting detected, which makes it impossible to progress.

Garnier

Get into the hospital early through the window.
http://thehiddenblade.com/garnier-easy-way-preassassination
Then take down his health until he's one punch away from death.

Talal

After killing his guards, take out Talal's health with throwing knives.
http://thehiddenblade.com/air-assassinate-same-height
You'll need to have done the Garnier assassination first to have the knives unlocked.
Now one punch is all you need to take him out, but it's easy to miss on the running target.

William

Get into his fortress early.
http://thehiddenblade.com/williams-instant-kills-and-king-richards-death
After punching him nearly to death start the scene. Afterward sneak up on him with a jump. If you get detected, William will get into combat stance and block the punch, which happened a lot until I jumped from the spot in the video.

We Demand a Parlay Early Deaths

Sequence 7 memory 1. Woodes Rogers shows up to make a deal with the pirates. Many of the later targets are present, giving opportunities for Early Deaths. At the very beginning you can race ahead of the tailing targets to reach four prestaged characters. Normally they are immune to any types of attacks you throw at them, but two of them, Burgess and Cockram, can be killed with the ax special attack. The axes can be obtained from two brutes who conveniently spawn nearby (technically you can use one ax twice). I also tried blowing up a barrel, but that doesn't do anything to them.

After the tailing is over the targets go inside the fortress and disappear until the next scene.

Boarding "The Benjamin"

Sequence 10 memory 2. In the memory Murder and Mayhem first you locate "The Benjamin", but instead of boarding it you're supposed to try to sink it, which results in Benjamin Hornigold escaping on an island, which results in his assassination.

Here's how to board. After locating the ship restart from the last checkpoint. If you don't you won't be able to release the wheel, even if you're not in combat. When coming from the loading screen quickly tap the slow down button to make the ship come to a complete stop and if you hold the button down fast enough you'll release the wheel. While swimming for the ship you can avoid it's gunfire by going into stealth swim and resurfacing right after the gunshot and go back to stealth swim again.

Just in time for Halloween, Ubisoft today announced that a life-sized wearable Phantom Blade is available now for about $60. The Phantom Blade is a replica of the one worn by Arno in Assassin's Creed Unity. It has a functional hidden blade, retractable crossbow, and soft firing dart. In other words, you'll be putting your eye out in no time at all.

If you buy a Phantom Blade it includes a code to download the French Cavalry Pistol in Unity. The video above shows the Phantom Blade in action.

Early Death
When you first start chasing after Charles Vane he appears at a view point. The mission is scripted to make him escape before reaching him, however they overlooked the fact that you still have a throwing knife available. by climbing to the spot shown in the video you can knife him without activating the next checkpoint. Killing him has no effect on the mission, and you continue as usual.

Early Death 2.0
During part when Charles shoots from a log you can also knife him, causing him to disappear (counts as a kill in stats) and activating the next checkpoint.

Use of Poison
Normally you can't use poison with the blowpipe gone during the mission and no ammo. However after crafting a dart you can counter tool with it.

Blitz
Another time the throwing knife comes in handy. To avoid his gunshot run behind a ruined wall and proceed to a part of the building you can climb up to (ironically located by a scaffold the target collapses to prevent you from getting up there). When you get in range knife him.

Mister Walpole, I presume?

During this memory you are introduced to the main Templars, as well as obtaining a pistol and hidden blades. Time for some exploits.

First off you can remove Edward from the scene with Woodes Rogers and Julien du Casse by being in a climbing position. There is a tree that leads to a railing. Walk up it and wiggle as close as you can off the edge. In the rare event you get close enough you can grasp on to it. Then very carefully move along it until you get the scene to start. There's something else you need to know. If you are in a climbing position where your hands are close together it won't remove you from the scene. You don't see it in the video, but I actually move back to the right when the scene is starting. What follows is an introduction to an invisible Edward and a floating pistol.

Early Deaths

Not bad you can kill the main Templars in the same memory of their acquaintance. The opportunity is right after Woodes, Julien, and you are sworn into the Templar order. By tapping the assassinate button in high profile during the end of the scene you get Woodes and Julien in a double assassination (in low profile you just get Woodes). The strange thing is for Edward the killing animation gets cancelled, giving the illusion they just die suddenly, although dying people don't generally just throw themselves onto a table/the ground. When the time comes for one of them to speak no dialogue is audible for the rest of the conversation. The kill/kiils also cause a glitch with the following scene not starting, preventing you form progressing any further in the game.

You can also get Torres this way by moving the left analog stick to the upper left while tapping the assassinate button on high profile. As for the last guy, El Tiburon, he's either out of reach or invincible to assassinations.

Hey everyone, as you may know I wanted to share some highlights from my past runs (of Assassin's Creed series of course). So here they are! I hope you will enjoy the video. I'm also playing live on Twitch, check out my channel!

Here are two blitzes I performed on Majd, as part of grinding segments for my Assassin's Creed 1 speedrun.

The first one is an anonymous blitz in 5.4 seconds. It utilizes a trick that I recently discovered, but that I haven't figured out yet. For some reason, if you don't move too much and jump correctly after the cutscene ends, you can get through the guard post surrounding the platform anonymously. I currently have done about 50-ish attempts for the Majd Assassination segment with this setup, and it's happened twice. The second time is the one you can see in the video.
It might be a bit faster to climb up on the platform directly rather than running around like I did, but I don't think Altaïr would stay anonymous then.

The second one is an exposed blitz in 3.6 seconds. It utilizes the same setup as the anonymous blitz, which is to position yourself slightly to the left of the center of the platform as shown in the video, and then using gentle push () to get room before jumping through the guard post. This case was particularly lucky because Altaïr hit a civilian with his right foot, which triggered Majd jumping from the platform a bit earlier.