The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

http://youtu.be/XdOajd9NCio
[Front-paged. Second video moved below the fold. -stabguy]

Preassassination:
It is possible to get inside Garnier de Naplouse's hospital before you can assassinate him using an exploit. You can get in the broken window by superjumping there (a long range jump). To do this you need a character to air assassinate. So lead a guard to a certain spot and kill him without doing any kill animations. He will still be alive for a short time on the ground, and you can kill him with your hidden blade only. During this time he can be reanimated. To do this find a structure to air assassinate him from. Stand on the other side of the structure, lock on and attempt to assassinate him.

You will bump into the floor of the structure which will cause the air assassinate to fail, but the guard will stand up again and start to walk. He will be unresponsive and won't be affected by gravity which will cause him to airwalk in a straight line. Use this as a way to get in the hospital by trying to get a guard to airwalk to the broken window. I'm not sure if anyone else has found out this exploit (I haven't seen it on youtube so I'm assuming no one has). Once inside the hospital you will find Garnier and two other guards standing by the door. If you kill them they will stay dead for the scene and even afterward. With Garnier already dead there's no way to assassinate him without restarting.

A Splitting Headache - Pre-assassination
This clip is related to the "Migraine Collection", where Cesare Borgia is killed by a thrown heavy weapon before the developers had intended his scripted death. In the case of Ercole Massimo, the developers had intended for you to fight past a group of Hermeticists in a pit, and then assassinate a cowering Ercole in an uninspiring, scripted kill. That's too boring for The Hidden Blade...

http://youtu.be/u3jNiXLHPOw
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For my first video on the Bonfire of Vanities I improved the blitz on Port Authority mission. Basically I avoid going in the water and instead use a smoke bomb for stealth. This saves some time. As for whether the blitz is anonymous, well, I am detected while performing the air assassination, so I'm not really sure.

Frequently asked question about finding Shrunken Heads for the Exotica Shop Quest. This video shows three different ways to approach the treasure chest on the cliff overlooking the Tiber River. Like most things in AC games, there's more than one way to skin a cat.

Of course, it also shows where to find the other Shrunken Head in The Sixth Day Lair of Romulus. For the first part of that Lair, see this video.

This is a two part article for a playstyle in multiplayer. Part 1 has a video where I show how me getting Naked Focus bonuses, but I want to go in depth on the video as a lot of planning and thought isnt shown in the video. The game mode is Wanted.

I know its a huge read, if you arent in the mood maybe skip down to the specific parts of the video as they explain the same hints used in the following article.

It's the first of the month again. Time to shine the spotlight on another outstanding member of The Hidden Blade. For July we interviewed Calvar The Blade who has steadily become a fixture on the forums over the past six months. Here's what he had to say:

Tell me about the first time you played AC.

I was at a friends house and he booted up AC1, which had just come out. Everyone else got really bored during the intro but I was really interested, and then I saw Altair's failure in Solomon's Temple and his apparent execution. I was hooked. I borrowed the game, and played through most of it. Then I got tired of doing investigations and gave it back. A few years later Assassin's Creed 2 came out, and from all the previews and E3 footage I was thinking that this could be the game that made AC (which I had really liked except for the repetition) my favorite series. I was right. I've played AC2 for more than 160 hours and done 3 full playthroughs.

What do you like most about the games?

The thing I like most about the games is the way the cities are so huge and beautiful, how you can go anywhere in them, and also the story. I love reading about all the time periods and locations Assassin's and Templars have fought on Project Legacy, and I love playing some of those periods and places even more. The ending of each AC game has never failed to make me go: OMG this makes no sense and is awesome!

What is your favorite style of assassination?

My favorite style of assassination is killing no-one but my target, and slipping away as unnoticed as is possible.

Frequently asked question about getting to that raised area in southern Antico for flag #62. This video shows three different ways to cross the broken bridge. Try to guess what Method 1 is.

http://youtu.be/5XbKkrQqsxw
[Front paged - stabguy]

Carnefice is the first main target of the game in sequence 2 memory 2. I was hoping to get some more creative assassinations of him but these will have to do.

Poetic Justice: During the mission I noticed the character sweeping on the executioner's stage (he's there only during daytime sequences), so I thought to myself what if I... I also added to the challenge by remaining unseen until the kill animation. Getting the broom to the roof of the building is a little tricky as it relies on luck, so you might have to try more than once to get it up there. I hope this is a good example of poetic justice because you're using the same broom that was used to clean the executioner's bloodied stage to spill the executioner's blood. I also like the in-your-face kill and how it turned out. And I'm not just talking about the kill animation.

Delaying the Memory Corridor Scene: This can be considered a preassassination. Carnefice isn't marked as a target until you reach a checkpoint. I use ranged attacks to kill some guards and lure Carnefice to me while standing a safe distance away from the checkpoint. When I kill Carnefice it results in a non story assassination. However when I activate the checkpoint after that the memory corridor scene starts and I complete the mission.

There is No Cliff: For this assassination I also delay in activating the checkpoint. I lead Carnefice to a nearby cliff and escape his detection. Then I activate the checkpoint. Since he didn't detect me after the checkpoint I can go far away from him without having to worry about failing the mission. I guessed that the cliff was harder to model in the game and would disappear at some distance. This was the first time I tried this and it all worked out well except for when the game froze for a second. Also notice that at ninety meters he starts falling (indicated by an arrow pointing down).

Here is something I did in order to help for a speedrun of the game. It appears that the knives are the fastest method, but a hidden gun shot is faster than 2 knives, so use 14 knives + 1 hidden gun shot is the fastest. I don't use the crossbow (too low damage) or knives AFTER something else because it takes some time to put a weapon back in the belt.

http://youtu.be/UEm6y0Poi8w
[Belatedly front-paged by stabguy]

The mission Between a Rock and a Hard Place is a story mission in sequence 3 memory 2. In it you destroy a Borgia tower and renovate the mercenaries headquarters. It starts out with a Borgia captain running away to the tower. You have to kill him before he reaches it or you fail the mission. All in all this mission seems better designed than some of the main assassinations. Here are some creative assassinations.

Longshot: I try to kill the target from as far away as possible with the hidden gun (the game doesn't track how far away he is from you so I put a map marker on him). Usually the mission desynchronizes at fifty meters, but sometimes it can go one or two more meters without desynchronizing. In the video he is exactly fifty meters away when I shoot, then fifty two meters right afterward.

Dynamic Stunt: I run ahead and wait at the edge of a cliff for the target. When he passes by I jump off and assassinate him. I'm careful to stay within forty nine meters so that the mission doesn't fail.

Mini Air Assassination Stunt: Very similar to the dynamic stunt. I wait on the top of the corner railing for the target (sorry that a tree blocks view of Ezio). I jump to the platform of a lift and perform a mini air assassination when the target is in range.

Tripwire: Since the target takes a predictable path there are many opportunities to get him with manually aiming the hidden gun in his path. I choose to get him at the very end of his path, at the entrance of the tower.