The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

Ezio's exploits in the San Marco district, Sequence 8.

Get in the huddle

During the Birds of a Feather memory, the Templars pause three times to talk. It's possible to insert Ezio into each cutscene. Your aim and timing both need to be precise in order to jump into the group. Ezio's horizontal momentum abruptly ends when the cutscene begins, causing him to fall straight down (usually outside of the huddle). You want to time it so he hits the ground just as the cutscene begins. Any earlier and he is detected. Hat tip to our own Vanitas (LadiciusFMU on YouTube) for discovering this.

An easier way to get in the huddle is to hire a group of Courtesans and simply stand on your mark. This enables precise placement and eliminates the timing requirement, all while avoiding detection by the Templars. The third conversation takes place in a circle around the exact center point of the Rialto Bridge. I set myself up a little to the northeast in order to stand at Rodrigo's left shoulder. Ezio can only turn in place during the cutscenes.

Penetrate the Palazzo

Here are all four known ways (to date) to enter the Palazzo Ducale without Leonardo's Flying Machine.

First up is aurllcooljay's superjump. It works from practically any lamppost along the west or south wall of the palazzo. The first step is to place an ally such as a thief on the covered walkway opposite a lamp. Here I use Antonio himself. Use the button to tell him to wait there. Climb the lamppost and turn toward your ally. You may need to target lock him if there are guards nearby. Press + to initiate a flying tackle. Quickly hold again to catch the side of the palazzo.

This next method was originally documented by Thmoore18 and brought to The Hidden Blade by oOo_MuZZa_oOo. Start out in low profile and walk up onto the knob on the rail next to the canal. Now hold and aim for the column. This step is tricky and may take a few tries. You'll know it's working when Ezio pulls himself up. Then hold + to climb up to the balcony.

The hardest part about airwalking nowadays is avoiding all references to the patch of December 10, 2009. To uninstall the patch on Xbox, go to System Settings > Memory > Hard Drive > (Y) Device Options > Clear Cache. On PS3 I understand that the steps are Game > Game Data, find the update file and delete it. The next problem is that any savegame that has been saved since the patch will refuse to load. For most players this means starting a new game. I was able to load up an old savegame from November 2009 to make this video.

The back kick off the dome onto the wrought-iron fence is harder than it looks. Two times I've been lucky and hit it on my first try upon reaching the roof. It usually takes more like 40 tries. See the video by MrUnleadeDiesiel for a more typical result. Start your wall run between the two windows but closer to the one on your left. Square up your view and aim your back kick at about 6:30. I've never been able to make it work with an unaimed kick. Ezio can't walk on top of the fence. He can only jump into the palazzo.

When Antonio is unable to follow Ezio, the pathfinding AI will eventually give up and teleport him to a closer seed point. It won't do this while you're looking at Antonio, so turn your back and give him some privacy. Watch the Mini-Map to see the exact moment of the teleport.

Unpowered flight

Ezio can fly for nearly a minute without fires. The main trick is to turn left and get out over the Grand Canal. Pull back on the left thumbstick and the glider will repeatedly pull up and stall. I tried releasing the thumbstick after each stall but didn't find any combination that worked better than simply holding it back.

Stunt assassination

I pre-assassinated all the guards inside the palazzo (not shown) so that Carlo would stand still at the bottom of the staircase - a sitting duck for a stunt assassination.