The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

Highlights from Sequence 9 of Assassin's Creed II, set in Dorsoduro during Carnevale. THB regulars may want to skip And They're Off and CTF as these are merely FAQs for beginners who have difficulty completing these missions. There's a "Click here to skip FAQs" button for your convenience.

Nun the Wiser

Five well-placed gun shots are enough to essentially clear the square for Carnevale. The host must be embarrassed to address an audience of four people.

And They're Off

This is one memory where it's advantageous to play from a reload. Fail the mission (either by killing three civilians or letting the timer expire) and it will reload with Ezio facing the right direction and nearly on top of the first gate. You can get a jump on it by Running straight ahead during the memory corridor while the scene is loading. However, Sprinting in the memory corridor only results in Running when you come out until you release and press again. So it's better to just Run in the memory corridor and Sprint as soon as the scene loads. Watch out for Civilians.

At 2:07 it's easier to go straight across the canal and then turn left. You'll lose just a little bit of time as Ezio pulls himself up onto the platform with gate 7. I did it in the opposite order to save that time.

I think the next sequence is where some folks have problems finding gates. Swing around the corner (2:13) and climb the wall behind the treasure chest (2:20). The next gate will be over the peak of the roof to your right.

CTF

The flag is in the same location for all three attempts and the same strategy works every time. Just Sprint straight off the roof toward the flag. The fall will cause damage equal to 75% of your health. You do not have to take medicine between flags. As shown in the video, you can survive the fall even with only one square of health because losing 75% of one square leaves you with a quarter, which regenerates to a full square.

After collecting the flag, turn quickly to the right and climb the ladder by the Courtesans. When you deliver the flag to your home base, turn around and get lined up for the next attempt. Otherwise you'll be facing the wrong direction and will lose time getting turned around again.

Only on the third attempt will your opponent come close to stealing the flag. Perform a clean run and you can beat him to the ladder every time.

Ribbon Round Up

I didn't include this in the video because it's so easy and I couldn't come up with any interesting things to do. If you're having trouble with this memory then you must have forgotten how to Pickpocket. The controls are the same as Fast Walk: hold (with released) and bump into the ladies with ribbons as indicated on your map.

Cheaters Never Prosper

Introducing the triple waterlogged exploit. Ezio can remain outside of the ring by being in the water three times: at the beginning of the memory, after defeating the Brute, and after defeating Dante Moro. Note that standing on a gondola is as good as actually being in the water. Aurel pointed out that Dante is no longer invincible after the third waterlog.

Stealing the Golden Mask

I imagine many of you have never seen what Dante is doing before he begins his walk with the Golden Mask. He's tucked away on a lanai near a canal, dancing with a woman while six other women dance with each other nearby. The seven women become Dante's entourage as soon as Ezio comes close enough to trigger the memory.

Carnevale is a time when Ezio may use a musical instrument as a weapon. Some call it a violin but I prefer the explanation that it's a vielle (a Medieval European instrument). In any event, it's different than the common lutes found throughout the game.

One way to kill Dante is to immediately strike him with any weapon immediately after stealing the Golden Mask. Unfortunately, Pickpocketing or Fast Walking causes Ezio to drop the vielle and he doesn't have time to pick it up and strike. To buy some time, I poisoned Dante before picking up the vielle. You may recognize the KABONG sound effect from the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons where Quick Draw McGraw would go undercover as El Kabong.

Having a Blast

It was hard to come up with an original assassination of Marco Barbarigo as Ian and Aurel had covered that territory very well. However, I was able to set up a short tripwire assassination.

It begins with clearing all guards from the ship and the nearby end of the square. I hung out with some Courtesans and took out the guards two at a time. Note that I never hired the Courtesans. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? No, that's not it. Once you hire Courtesans, they abandon Ezio to actively go distract guards. I needed a stationary blend group near enough to the ship to lure guards off deck with dead bodies. Two guards remained on ship: one on the quarterdeck (assassination not shown) and one on the port side. The other guy on board is the announcer who introduces Marco.

Ian found that only three things cause Marco to flee: a guard detecting Ezio anywhere, a gunshot that doesn't kill Marco, and standing on the center or starboard parts of the deck. I got into position and moved toward the center of the deck.

Once Marco flees, you have about 10 seconds to assassinate him before the mission fails. After that it says "The target has escaped" but that's not entirely accurate. He just runs around the deck. I'm not aware of any other videos that use these 10 seconds to Ezio's advantage. One idea would be to climb a mast, fire a shot, and perform a dynamic stunt assassination.