The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

Sequence 2 memory 4.

A Man They Call the Sage

At the beginning of the memory you catch glimpses of assassins running around. So far I've seen five, which all can be killed in one take. They're everywhere, in the streets, on rooftops, even in haystacks. Some are scripted to appear at certain times, while others are affected by being within a certain area of them. And they disappear at a certain point, so killing them has no effect on the mission.

For the mission itself you protect Torres from assassin attacks. The rooftop archers are the only ones who can do damage to him, so if you take them out fast enough there are no worries about him losing any health.

Early Death

The last part of the mission has you chasing after the Sage. The game developers didn't want you to be able to kill him, and so desynched you if he was killed or incapacitated. However... there is an exception. A ground stomp, which actually seems to start the scene.

The way I did it was plant barrels from the nearby places (one in a restricted area and two in a building) and shot them after the scene to knock him down. It seems the barrels will kill him if he's too close when they blow up. A ground knockout with fists or hidden blades is recorded as an incapacitation in the stats, which is a way of assassinating targets, so I'd count it as an Early Death.

A ground kill with swords desynchs you. Also if you perform an air tackle you have time to perform a ground stomp (not enough time with a regular tackle), so using barrels isn't necessary, although it adds some THB flair. Since it's so easy I expect other people may have discovered this, although I have yet to see anyone else document it. Another thing to note is if he's knocked down and you get near him the scene starts even if he's already gotten back up.