The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

This is just my take on the save citizen objective for the first district, I had no real objective or rules for this and it will be a part of a project im doing called Breaking the AI.

Basically I try make the guards kill themselves, or use the environment to my advantage to make it easier. I use tall ladders to get easy hidden blade assassinations from behind.

Some of them im not happy with ( like the bureau, I wanted all 3 to fall in ) but the game autosaves after you kill the last guy.

I also show an alternative way into the city, although im sure most of you know it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHvrRuha1K8
[Promoted to front page. -stabguy]

Getting inside the merchant king's palace just prior to the cutscene (non-story) is something I have wanted to do in a while. Here's the setup.

Infiltration
You need a vigilante for this. Luckily there's a group of them not far away from the palace. You would first want to kill the guards in between where you want to lead the vigilante. Have a guard fight you to lead the vigilante. This could take a while since most of the time is spent watching the guard struggle with him. But then the guard pushes him away and comes again after you. This is how you lead the vigilante. Make sure the guard doesn't get too far from him or the vigilante gives up and goes back to the others. Lead them to the door of the palace that Abul Nuquod exits out of. You will encounter a group of guards. Kill all but three guards uncluding the one used for the vigilante (this doesn't seem to work if there are more than three guards). Now here's how you get into the palace. If you jump on the platform by the wall of the door the guards will think you are on the other side of the wall and go there. It is a little common in the AC games for guards to think you are somewhere else, especially if it's by a wall. Getting guards to go after you by jumping while crouching is known as the Pathfinding Charm, discovered by IanXO4.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRdq6ioX8NE
This is where the vigilante comes in. You need to be locked onto a guard so that you are in battle mode and can counter kill your way in the palace. Jump only when the guard and vigilante are struggling so you don't have the guard also trying to go in the palace.

Exploring the Palace
After you get in stay close to the wall to avoid the memory starting. Take the path shown in the video. Notice how the rooftop archers are all gone. Now for Abul Nuquod. Unfortunately you can't get to him without the memory starting. In fact he and his bodyguards don't even appear until the memory starts. So just drop by and say hello to them before starting the scene. So infiltrating the palace doesn't have much use besides saying it's possible.

I've gotten out of the palace by dropping from the roof, gone a far distance away, and come back. From the front door I can see the bodyguards are no longer on the balcony, and possibly also Abul Nuquod, but with no way to get inside it's unclear what has changed.

Play along with the video below the map to quickly collect all 34 Saracen flags in Damascus, Middle District.

The video starts at the Informer near the south city gate. Here is an abbreviated table of contents in case you are looking for a specific flag or Templar:

Flags 1-5, 0:15
Flags 6-10, 1:30
Flags 11-15, 2:55
Flag 16, 6:45
Flags 17-21, 7:30
Flags 22-23, 7:00
Flags 24-28, 5:30
Flags 29-31, 4:05
Flags 32-34, 4:50

Templar 1, 0:55
Templar 2, 3:05
Templar 3, 7:50

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFHli77es2Y
[Front-paged. stabguy]

Like the title says, the early death of Jubair right before you are supposed to kill him.

Infiltrating the Madrasah Al-Kallasah
This is easy if you know how to do it. Have some guards chase you onto the roof. Then drop down to the door on the south side of the building. Engage in combat with the guards there. After a little while the guards on the roof will come down to the ground from inside the building. Since this is the only time in the game that the door is closed the guards' ai thinks they can go through. They will attack you through the door, which gives an opportunity to glitch inside by counter attacking. You need to be in combat with the guards outside since you can't lock onto the guards inside. Countering can be a little tricky because you might not be able to see the guards attack until it's too late.

Jubair's Early Death
Once you get inside you will find Jubair and the other scholars in the northwest corner of the building. They pretty much stay in the spot where they are (even grabbing and throwing won't move them). At the front of them are Jubair and the scholar he talks with during the scene. Now for pre-killing Jubair and/or the scholars. I've tried different killing combinations, each with their own results. First I killed everyone except the scholar Jubair talks with. Now for the scene... Levitating books?! Even the scholar I didn't kill doesn't appear for the scene, and the scene itself somehow won't end (when I had first originally done this I killed everyone and the scene ends as normal). Now I'll try killing just Jubair. You can identify him from the other scholars by the pouch he wears. Here's the problem with killing just him: You are exposed by the scholars, and the scene cannot start until you become anonymous. So glitch back outside the building the same way you came in. Lock onto one of the scholars so you are in combat and counter attack a guard who is outside. Then get far enough away that you escape the scholars and become anonymous (I had tried using a hiding spot but couldn't get out of it). Now for the scene... Wait, why is the scholar dead instead of Jubair?! When the scene ends you fail the mission as though the target had escaped. Now this is weird, the blade's low profile kill animation on the scholar is the same as on a target. Also one time I killed just the scholar and he still appeared in the scene as well as Jubair, but I failed the mission right after the scene ended. It's as though he is a copy of Jubair, and killing one of them affects the other. That's a very interesting thing in the game that can only be answered by Ubisoft.

Instant Kill
I wanted to try an automatic kill on Jubair like what I did with Garnier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiaiQfUGZPc
However I couldn't reanimate him because he can't be moved from the place he is. So I theorized it could be possible just by taking down his health with fists, since being knocked out isn't quite the same as being dead. Well it worked, but in a way that I didn't expect to happen. After I climbed up to start the scene and the dialogue appeared, "ancestor's memory synchronized recording..." Altair teleported to ground assassinate Jubair, causing the memory corridor scene to start. This is probably the only time in an AC game that a memory corridor scene has started before it should. It seems the game recognizes Jubair as a target when the scene starts. Afterwards the scene is cancelled. The invisible barriers are still there that prevent you from leaving, so I glitch my way through one of them by grasping a ledge. You aren't under city alert as you normally would, but can still complete the memory.