The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

A blitz assassination of Maxwell Roth in 0.6 seconds.

The key observation is that Jacob remains in the same position before and after the pre-assassination cutscene ("Burn, burn, burn!"). Ordinarily this position is wherever he kills the last of the four decoys. However, if the waitress poisons the fourth decoy then it allows Jacob to take an advantageous position.

This had the makings of a superfast blitz: Just stand onstage right behind where Roth spawns and mash , right? Well, Ubisoft must have been watching The Hidden Blade. They're on to our ways. If you stand anywhere onstage then the game teleports you, stage left.

I found another good position on top of the rear backdrop. From here you can do a double air assassination, shoot your pistol, throw knives or voltaic bombs. As a bonus, Jacob appears in the cutscene. Immediately after the cutscene the game resets your viewing angle to level. It takes nearly 3 seconds for Roth to spawn. I used this time to adjust my view downward and aim at his spawn location. His two bodyguards spawn first and are a little bit closer to the backdrop. It's easy for them to draw your aim away from the target.