The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

Airwalk to air assassinate is made possible by the throwing knife glitch (it has been patched, so you would have to delete the update to still use it). Basically start airwalking and when an enemy is in range (locking on isn't required) switch to your hidden blade(s) using the weapon wheel and mash the attack button to air assassinate when getting out of the weapon wheel.

This is demonstrated on some targets. First the Pazzi conspirators, excluding Stephano da Bagnone who was a challenge to air assassinate since he walked under a building roof throughout his entire travel route.

Bernardo Baroncelli is simple enough. Airwalk from a nearby roof into his path.

The setup for Francesco Salviati is about the same as for the stunt IanXO4 did a while back.
http://thehiddenblade.com/francesco-salviati-assassination-variety-pack

For Antonio Maffei I use the airwalk glitch as a shortcut reaching the tower the target's on. At the start of the mission climb up the nearby tower and airwalk in the direction of the target. Now this causes an inconsistency in the game because the mercenary tells Ezio that Antonio Maffei is on the city's tallest structure, and yet the tower you airwalk from is a little higher. The actual assassination doesn't end in an air assassination because you get seen before reaching the target, causing him to jump to the railing where he can't be assassinated while in a crouching position.

Francesco de' Pazzi is used as an example of air tackling since he can't be air assassinated. And speaking of which I had some stuff recorded I put in this video since that was the only way it would see the light of day. I had investigated a possible Early Death on Francesco right before the assassination, but it failed.

Blitz assassination of Uberto Alberti in 28.87 seconds [*].

Opening cutscene

Ezio is visible twice during the cutscene where Lorenzo walks with Uberto, once at the very beginning (not shown) and later over Lorenzo's shoulder as they enter the Santa Croce. Both times you may pivot Ezio with . If you release the controls Ezio automatically turns to face the square. It's amusing that you can control Ezio from such a great distance from the camera.

Blitz

This blitz reminds me of Talal - a 30 second free run full of technical challenges.

0:28 - 0:31: I experimented with several ways to cross the first gap and measured this one to be the fastest. There's one moment where Ezio struggles back to his feet on top of the chimney. This animation can be avoided by decreasing the distance of the jump (move to your left on the L-shaped structure before jumping). I found this to be no faster and error prone but your mileage may vary.

0:34: Release to step off the last rafter. Otherwise Ezio will jump all the way across to the next gable and again struggle back to his feet. It's slightly faster to put two feet on the flat part of the roof.

0:50 - 0:52: Both of these steps down are with released.

0:53: Release here. Otherwise Ezio will roll forward and be out of position for the jump assassination.

0:54: Aim for Uberto and force a jump by tapping . Ideally Ezio will land next to Uberto. Too far away and he must walk to his target (running is disabled).

[*] Blitz was from a reload so the time is measured from the first frame of Ezio's movement to the first frame of the assassination cutscene. Time excludes adjusting the camera angle at the beginning.

http://youtu.be/Y7vjrF5adLM
[Front paged - stabguy]

A small variety pack for the Doomsday mission in sequence 13 Florence.

Blitzes
A way to save some time in assassinating is to activate the scene while jumping off the roof. This will have you start the mission from the ground (there is an awning that you will most likely land on instead of hitting the ground. If you hold the left analog stick up you will roll off the awning and onto the ground). There are two different ways I pull off a blitz:
1. I simply run to the target and assassinate. There is a group of guards you run into before reaching the target. I jump past them to avoid running into them. I've tried using smoke bombs to remain anonymous during this, but that has proven too difficult.
2. I throw manually aimed throwing knives. When I jump off the roof to activate the scene I face where the target appears. Unfortunately there are guards in the way which prevents me from killing him superfast. I also get detected for this blitz.

Springloaded Assassination
Air assassinate the target from so high up the animation is fast. Start off by clearing the rooftops of enemies. Then wait for the target to move forward towards the crowd, about the time when he says, "You will sanctify your bodies and spirits." Lock onto him and climb to the roof. The highest you can get him with an air assassination is when running up the cross, you can't get him while hanging from the cross.

Eagle Strike
The highest you can get the target where he walks is from the top of the cross of the building. Wait until he walks to the entrance of the nearby building to jump and grasp the awning right above the entrance. I previously locked onto the target in the hopes that it might make the air assassination faster, but it didn't really help.

Throwing Knives from the Cross
Snipe the target from as high and far away as possible. After locking onto him climb to the side of the cross (you are unable to throw knives from the very top). The farthest you can get him from is right before he enters the nearby building. From this far away you have a great chance of missing, so you will have to rely on some luck.

http://youtu.be/_spopjdW4KY
[Front-paged. stabguy]

Sunday Stroll Stunt: This stunt is done from a viewpoint, nearly high enough that the fall kills Ezio. Start off by poisoning a character to make the target flee (apologies that I poisoned a civilian, just trying to save time ). When the target flees you want to stay within forty meters to avoid desynchronization. You need to quickly climb up to the spot on the viewpoint before the target passes by that area. As you can see there are two different outcomes. One is a side step kill animation. The other is a stationary kill animation. One more thing to note is since Ezio is down to no health squares when he hits the ground there is a short slow motion effect.

Tripwire: Basically the same as the Sunday Stroll Stunt except the target is killed with a manually aimed hidden gun. I kill a group of guards to avoid open conflict.

Long Shot: What I like about this one is it gives me a reason to use the sprint board. Get to the area where the archer is patrolling on the platform overlooking the bonfire. Kill him and use his dead body to make the target flee, lock on and aim the hidden gun. The mission fails when you are 40-60 meters from the target. I don't know why that is, but I think it might be affected by how fast you and/or the target is moving. I get fifty five meters when I choose to shoot. I might have been able to get a little more, but the mission would usually fail and I didn't want to take any chances.