The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

When you exit Jerusalem and the list of destinations appear, choose Acre. Once in Acre, go back on your steps and this time go to the Kingdom. Arsuf is then just a few dozens meters away from you, instead of hundreds from Jerusalem.

I actually have an unpublished video on the shortest route from Malik to Arsuf! It's a more thorough treatment of what sync said. Give me a chance to edit and upload it...

Thanks!

As I said, the most important thing is currently finding good routes for all the investigations, as well as my combat and the Robert blitz. I'll start with Tamir, although I suspect I will be done very quickly with that.

I wish you good luck and really hope you will submit the run to Speed Demos Archive. I think the game deserves it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoGViiF36bw

Here's the general route I recommend from the Jerusalem Bureau to Arsuf. It's the only time in the game where you must exit a main city (fast travel back to Masyaf/Abstergo is not an option). So it may not have occurred to everyone that there are other exits from Jerusalem besides the main entrance. One is positioned fairly close to the Bureau. An added benefit is that you don't have to ride through the outskirts of Jerusalem when using a secondary exit.

The "loading" screens are edited out of this video. Of course you will want to install AC on a hard drive (or perhaps a RAM drive?) to minimize load times. I pause at Arsuf's western trailhead only because it's a FAQ that hasn't been properly answered on video. You will want to gallop straight past the view point.

Hey. Nice to hear a speedrun is planned on this game.

>>Since this is timed, there isn't much to do here. I discovered you can use the houris in the very beginning to make Al Mualim fall over.

You can actually get right to Al Mualim by clipping the "cage" around him by climbing there (I think it was by using the "ledge" on the back wall on the right side, Altair passes through the wall... it's a glitch of sort). You can beat him up for the duration of this scene but nothing happens.

As far as messing around goes, this might be the funniest thing to do while waiting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWhQ3qeH4z8

"Skip Assassin trainer", maybe not worth it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgYwS-iJnh8

This was on PS3, and I don't know if the wall clips are possible on the PC version. I hope they are, but there's a chance that a different frame rate or a patch might mess glitches like this up.

>>Arsuf

I never had time to test it, but there's a chance you could be able to skip Arsuf fights using wall clip glitches. You can do wall clips at many places, not just staircases. You only need a smooth surface to jump against in an angle (to build up glitched momentum) that gives way before Altair's jump is over (to release the glitched momentum). There's a noticeable zipping effect when this happens, and Altair gets through any walls in his way while at it (wish I'd made vids of this variation). Another way is to form an acute angle using your horse, then jump through it.

Fed, I'll most likely will submit the run to SDA, so don't you worry about that. I'll most likely need someone who knows the rules so that I won't submit an illegal run.
Stabguy, many thanks for that video! It seems it's possible to get to Arsuf in less than 1:30. I've already installed the game to my HDD, since I play it so much.
AKHeon, wow, I didn't know you still checked the forums. I considered skipping the assassin trainer, but I don't think it's worth it. By the time you clipped through the wall in the video, I'd have already be exiting the ring, which has the added bonus of teleportation. Also, in an SDA thread, you mentioned save-warping by exiting and re-entering the memory. I forgot about that, so thank you for reminding me.
As for Arsuf, that is a good idea! I suppose mountain climbing would work, although there are memory walls preventing Altaïr from moving on sometimes.

So I finished the game. it took me another 2 hours, but that can be like, halved with planning and practice, since I don't know the later parts of the game so well. Shock and awe needs some work, but that's quite alright.
In Masyaf, I discovered that there's a ledge you can throw the guys fighting you off. Also, they're immune to throwing knives. I've to check Stab/Ian's video (I don't remember whose it is) on eliminating a few before starting the fight.

Hey Golden Ratio, just check this link http://speeddemosarchive.com/lang/rules_en.html

I'm happy SDA will (normally) host an AC run, and I wish you again a good luck.

I already read the rules, Fed. Also, you can call me Phi.

What I was wondering about, there are a few audio files when I play that won't play. Is that allowed or will I have to get a new copy?

Also, I was wondering just now if it was possible to skip the conversation with Al-Mualim by exiting and then re-entering the Animus. Probably not, but it's worth a shot.

EDIT: Small update. I practiced the route for Tamir, Garnier and Talal today. For Tamir, it was easy, as expected. I haven't really picked the final route yet. I screwed up on Tamir's assassination and I still have no idea how I'm going to escape from there (suggestions would be welcome).
Garnier was easy as well. f I can get the horse jump over the guard post right, I will have no troubles. The route is very straightforward, almost a straight line from one investigation to the next and a really quick trip to the bureau (I think it's even faster than exiting and re-entering the memory). The assassination itself went well as well (lot of w's in there ), but the escape wasn't good at all, but that was because I made a stupid move. Other than that, trip back to the bureau needs work, because all the guards are on alert.
Talal, meh. I don't know what the hell happened, but after I'd failed the horse jump, anytime I'd come within 30 metres of the city entrance, I'd get exposed. I wasted like 10 minutes trying to fix that. I could've had Talal dead within that timeframe! For the assassination, I've to work on doing that jump from the ladder to the candelabra seen in one of the blitz videos. I attempted it 4 times before I got it. Outside went well, I missed a jump, but I still got Talal on time.

Four hours for the whole game?! I think you have to include the durations of cutscenes and loading screens. AC1 doesn't have an in-game timer.

In general, I suspect getting in the huddle is more trouble than it's worth. The setup time can easily outweigh the benefit of a faster pickpocket. For a speed run I would suggest sprinting toward the investigation while mashing . If you happen trigger the cutscene while crossing the invisible perimeter, you're in the huddle.

There are only 3 guards so shock and awe is overkill. Three grab-throw-assassinates is just as good. Behind the market stand is a gorge. Try running to the edge and grab-throwing them over the cliff. I can't recall if this works.

Everyone is. In the case of Damascus I would recommend a dead body distraction rather than remounting the horse only to dismount immediately. For Acre and Jerusalem, practice the reverse dismount where the horse bowls over some guards. That's more reliable than dismounting over their heads. For Memory Block 4 and later you can just enter the city Exposed. By the time you run across town to the first investigation, you'll either be Anonymous already or Unseen, in which case you can jump on a bench or haystack.

I believe it's possible to reach Acre and even Jerusalem anonymously and without pre-assassinating Templars. For a speed run, Gallop is king. Just go for it and avoid guard posts that will cut down your horse.

You know how in The Kingdom you can go from Unseen to Anonymous without Hiding by simply getting far away from your pursuers? The same thing is possible in the cities. There's a Garnier assassination video where Altaïr never hides. He just free-runs the roof tops from the Hospitalier to the Bureau and becomes Anonymous just in time. I will try to find the video (it's not on THB). Not hiding saves several seconds.

What I recommend for all escapes is this.
Plan A: Free-run and/or Sprint toward the Bureau. Prefer routes that avoid guards/archers. Hope to become Anonymous without Hiding.
Plan B: Hide in a Roof Garden near the Bureau. Now you don't have to worry about the City Alert because the Bureau is right there. You just saved some time by Sprinting home during a City Alert.

Try Aurel's Exposed blitz (i.e. climb the fountain and go left).

You can always drop and Catch Ledge near the bottom.

No, it's a trap!!! The northern pickpocket is the hardest one in the game. Do the 2 target Informer blitz as shown in Case of the Missing Scholars.

If I understand correctly your question : the game has to be an original one. You can't modify anything, because that means you may actually cheat.

Well, you could use the escape from my Stylish Assassination. It starts by climbing the wall behind Tamir's initial (blitz) location and ends in a haystack on the way back to the Bureau. I still think you should Sprint back to the Bureau while Exposed and hide somewhere in that vicinity.

Here's the Garnier escape with no Hiding:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfsGK0TVwXw

That jump is too hard to hit for a speed run. The one in Eleven Man Blitz is more robust and only about half a second slower.

You read that right. Remember that AC2 was much longer and that was ran in 4.5 hours, so I think 4 hours is a reasonable estimate.

Yeah, I figured as much. I'm also learning the fastest way to pickpocket, just before they start to look around, which is as fast as getting in the huddle. I also sprint everywhere and mash regardlessly of the investigation.

Or I could throw them into a market stand.

It's much faster to use the horse. I've already tried. Also, this is a speedrun and a horse-jump entry is very much possible. I just need more practice.
Also, hiding takes time.

I know. That's what I meant when I said it's unavoidable that Altaïr gets exposed.

The exact distance is 50 metres. You know this because I sent you a PM on the subject. I don't think I have the video lying around anymore, though.

Exactly what I was thinking!

Yeah, I checked the fastest assassinations menu for all targets and plan on using that one.

Good thinking.

It doesn't take 42 seconds.

If I were to use that haystack, it's much faster to climb up the scaffolding, like I do in my Alternative Escape Route of the stage. It also roughly demonstrates the route I'm planning to take from the bureau to the assassination site.

It's just aiming the stick right. Besides, it a segmented run, so if it really is as hard as your say it is, I can make that the beginning of a segment.

Thanks for the feedback, it's appreciated.
However, I feel the need to express that I'm not merely playing through the game quickly. My aim is to get the run submitted at SDA and for it to remain there. That means it has to be world class. Arsuf has to be completed without losing a single bar of health (I'll probably have an entire segment just for Arsuf ). The assassinations have to be nearly as fast as the world record blitzes. The investigations have to be quick as can be. The trip from Al Mualim's desk to the Kingdom has to be flawless every time. That is the standard I'm aiming for. So, yes, I will dismount over the guard posts if it saves me as much as 2 seconds (saves 18 seconds in the final run). Hiding might take 5 seconds. Say I do that 10 times. 50 seconds. If I'd do all that, the run would be 1 minute and 8 seconds longer than it needs to be, and 1 minute is all it takes for the run to be obsoleted.
The only way this run should be able to be obsoleted would be if Aurel went rampant and found some glitch that let's you teleport all over the place, start the assassinations without doing any investigations or something else that makes huge skips possible.

I also should mention that I'm a strong believer in that everyone can get good at anything. It just takes practice. I intend to become good at that tricky jump, the road to the kingdom, crowd navigation while sprinting, combat, all of it. I've got a lot of experience playing this game and I suspect it'll take less time to attain this standard than anyone else but you and Ian (there are some people at THB that I think will take the same amount of time).

Also, Fed, it's an original copy. It's just that some sound files won't play. Would the admins at SDA be more likely to consider my run invalid?

AKHeon, I checked Arsuf, but I'm rubbish at finding good spots, so I haven't been able to skip anything. It's possible to mountain climb on Xbox, that much I know, so any mountain climbing on PS3 ought to work on Xbox as well.
Also, Stab, I tried the acute angle glitch to get to the closed road to Arsuf, but couldn't get it to work.

If the muted sounds aren't very important, and if the game is an original one, then I believe it's ok. But you should ask Flip (the contacts are somewhere on the site).

Alright, thank you for your help, Fed.

Now, last night I did some running with the planned route. After 1 hour and 7 minutes, I was back in the Animus after Tamir had fallen. I screwed up on entering the city and there were some hiccups here and there (I accidentally knocked the people on a bench I was going to sit on over), but it went alright for a preliminary run. I think it's possible to complete this part of the game in less than 1 hour and 5 minutes.
Not much to say for Tamir's assassination, only that the world record is definitely very breakable.
For Tamir, it's very much possible to escape without hiding. Didn't take any effort at all.
Today I also ran for around 1 hour 20 minutes. Altaïr was talking to Al-Mualim after the first target of memory block 3 (William) had fallen. I screwed up a lot on that mission. Garnier and Talal went alright, though I screwed up on entering the city on both occassions, which cost me a few minutes. After Garnier's death, I accidentally entered a roof garden. Oops. For Talal, I also got discovered after I'd done the beat-up mission. I'm wondering whether it'd be quicker to just plan an escape route so I don't have to bother with blend. Talal's assassination went well, the escape was alright. Needs a little more route planning for the actual assassination.
Now, William. >.< Everything went wrong. Investigating alone took me like 20 minutes because I went the wrong way. The first two investigations went well and were over quickly, but I don't have a route to the third planned, so that went wrong big time. I also forgot to exit and re-enter the memory in order to get to the bureau quickly.
Then for the assassination, I screwed up on the route, taking a long way around. Then I messed up walking over the beams for the superfast blitz and then I screwed up the alternative (exposed) blitz as well. Then I got exposed during the trip back to the bureau like five times, which took me five minutes to fix. >.<

So, yeah, routes on William to and from the assassination site, as well as a route from the second pickpocket to the last investigation (which is also a pickpocket). A robust route to and from the assassination site of Talal is also needed.

Small edit: Here are my planned routes for memory block 2. Pink is the investigation route, blue is the route to the assassination site and green is the escape route. For the other memory blocks I'll have to get maps of the full cities, not just one district.
http://i41.tinypic.com/kuaz9.png

The in-game timer in AC2 doesn't count cutscenes and loading screens. If you add up the actual running time of Fed's videos it comes to 6:47:45, or 1:05:29 of cutscenes (please double check my math, Fed). I suspect that the long cutscenes of AC1 add up to about 1:30. So 4 hours of gameplay could easily become 5:30 on your stopwatch.

As I recall, it's not a collapsible structure. My second playthrough of AC1 was hidden blade only (this was before I started making videos). This Save Citizen had me scratching my head for a while before I remembered grab-throw-assassinate.

I think you need to re-examine your expectations. Perfection is not a realistic standard for 4 hours of gameplay. Take a look at the flag videos that Ian and I did for AC1. All of them have at least two errors and they're only 10 minutes long. Fed believes in "taking high percentage shots". Whenever one of us would point out a faster way of doing something he'd usually say, "I knew about that method but chose a reliable alternative that was nearly as fast." He's speaking from experience with speed runs. When you aim for perfection you soon become frustrated and give up.

My run of AC2 was actually 5:42:16 according to the in-game timer, and the total length of videos is 6:47:07 (including StatID, menus, loadings, outside of animus, etc).
In fact, the in-game timer does count cutscenes, but doesn't count time spent outside the animus (also for the Acre part).

Finally, if you consider a cutscene = a moment where you can't control the character (regardless inside or outside of the animus), there are ~3.0 hours of cutscenes in all videos.

Don't hesitate to ask if you need some more info.

I suppose that's reasonable. You're probably right, as always. We'll just see how quick it'll go.

As I recall, it's not a collapsible structure. My second playthrough of AC1 was hidden blade only (this was before I started making videos). This Save Citizen had me scratching my head for a while before I remembered grab-throw-assassinate.