The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

Collection of Assassin's Creed cheats and shortcuts.

• Most interactive cutscenes limit how far you can walk. Not the one in Memory Block 1 (i.e. when Altaïr first returns to Masyaf). You can get a head start toward Al Mualim by walking up the hill.
• The Templar invasion of Masyaf is basically a fighting tutorial. It continues until you reach the Kingdom gate area. To skip through this part quickly, ignore the Templars and race through Masyaf Village toward the gate.
• Dismounting over a guard post is pretty tricky. You want to run, not gallop at full speed. Use a high camera angle and push the left thumbstick straight up. Dismount just before the horse bumps into the guards.
• Bowling through a guard post works more reliably. Gallop toward two guards, preferable at an angle. Dismount backwards and let the horse wipe out two or three guards. They won't blame Altaïr because he wasn't actually riding the horse at the time of the collision. Run through the gap, being careful not to accidentally mount the horse again.
• Abu'l Nuqoud's bodyguards will quietly leave the stage and never return if Altaïr goes to certain points on the northwest side of the palace. Basically anywhere above the stage and northwest of the center dome will work. After dying and reloading, there's another place on the second floor in the north corner (i.e. right rear when facing stage) that also does the trick. It's easier to stealth assassinate Abu'l when his bodyguards have abandoned him.
• The Prima Guide recommends waiting for Abu'l Nuqoud at the back door to the stage. This doesn't actually work unless you can get his attention somehow. Fighting the bodyguards through the gate is one way.
• When guards are hit with throwing knives in mid air, they fall straight down (in defiance of Newton's first law of motion).
• During the cutscene before pickpocketing, the game tries to keep you outside of a 5 meter radius. However, there are ways to defeat this and get in the huddle with the pickpocket target and his colleague. This video demonstrates the easiest one: hang above the target, lock on, and then drop. Sometimes the ledge is higher so you have to drop and then lock in mid air. Other times you have to jump in from a distance and lock in mid air. It always seems to be possible, though.
• Talal's guard post at the west gate of the Barbican are out of position. You can always walk/run between the guy on the left and the wall.
• High profile assassinate the center guard on a pier and the others may all fall in the water. This works in Acre Harbor and also on the four man post in The Kingdom near flag #4.
• See my Guide to the Robert de Sable blitz. In this video, I do a high profile assassination using a traditional grip on the Xbox 360 controller.
• There's one citizen in Acre's Poor District that can be saved by throwing one guard into the scaffold. The other two die in the collapse.
• After saving a citizen, you can prevent him/her from talking to you by jumping at them and target locking in mid-air. The collision causes them to stop talking. This also works before and after Informer missions. Another way to do it is to hang above them, lock, and then drop.
• When Exposed, a blue memory wall prevents you from entering the Hospitalier Fortress for the assassination of Garnier de Naplouse. His guard post is standing too close to the wall to be effective. Jump through them or high profile assassinate one of them. You'll be able to scoot into the Fortress before the memory wall goes up.
• There are few ways to get into a district before it's open. The one demonstrated in this video is rather ambitious. Unfortunately, you can't do View Points, Save Citizens or Investigations in the closed District. Just flags and Templars.
• The beginning of Memory Block 7 presents another opportunity to walk away from a cutscene.
• On the first fight of MB7, you can assassinate a couple of guards before they draw their swords. The first is an air to assassinate, and the second a low profile assassination as the fight begins.
• See IanXO4's video "Safety and Peace" for more about killing Malik.
• When a group of guards can't reach you and begin throwing stones, eliminate them easily with Throwing Knives. It's no contest.
• Al Mualim is fast on his feet until he takes a swing with his sword. That's an opportunity to get behind him for an easy assassination.