Ercole Massimo - The Da Vinci Disappearance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sviDJdK-KWQ
A Splitting Headache - Pre-assassination
This clip is related to the "Migraine Collection", where Cesare Borgia is killed by a thrown heavy weapon before the developers had intended his scripted death. In the case of Ercole Massimo, the developers had intended for you to fight past a group of Hermeticists in a pit, and then assassinate a cowering Ercole in an uninspiring, scripted kill. That's too boring for The Hidden Blade...
During the fight with the Hermeticists in the pit, Ercole stands above the pit, watching over someone else beating up Leonardo. You can't lock on to Ercole during the fight. If you throw a heavy weapon or use flying knives, the weapons don't do any damage. However, if you wait long enough, Ercole will turn around and look toward the pit. When this happens, he is susceptible to attack by thrown heavy weapon or flying knives.
Start the mission with a heavy weapon in your sheath. Eliminate all but one of the Hermeticists in the pit. Grab the last Hermeticist and drag him around so that he can't hurt you while you wait. Unlock from him so that you can adjust your viewing angle to see Ercole. When he turns around, throw the Hermeticist to the ground and poison him to buy you time. Position yourself for a clear shot, and throw the heavy weapon for an instant kill. When the poison finally kills the last Hermeticist, Ercole is briefly resurrected for a cutscene - still with the heavy weapon in his head.
The cutscene that follows the memory corridor is glitched due to the instant kill. Leonardo gets stuck and cannot follow Ezio into the passage. The floating torch has no trouble, however. The effect is temporary; Leonardo joins Ezio again in the next room.
Poisoning
Ercole is scripted to be impervious to poison. This changes, however, if you use the smoke bomb on him.
Arial Assassinations
The smoke bomb also restores other normal behaviors to Ercole, such as being gentle pushed. This allows you to set him up for jump assassination, stunt assassination, or air assassination. These are just examples. This is a turkey shoot, so you can also kill him any way that you like.
Drowning
You can also gently push Ercole into the water.
Edge Assassination
It's hard to tell from the video, but I dropped into the water right after the assassination. What I find interesting is that the game teleports Ezio back for the cutscene, and you can see water dripping off of Ezio as a result.
Good going on the smoke bomb trick. Otherwise, there isn't much to do...
Ian, you are a genius! 
+ 
=IanXO4.
Congratulations on your first superfast blitz!
thx! i consider this a preassassination - like the one you did on garnier de naplouse. i guess i still havent done a <0.1s blitz like you.
i consider this a preassassination - like the one you did on garnier de naplouse.
Note to everyone else: Ian is referring to an unpublished video by Aurel.
i consider this a preassassination - like the one you did on garnier de naplouse.
I was thinking about that, but I remembered that for your blitz on Cesare you preassassinated him first with the heavy weapon (just like on this target), so now I'm confused. 
Note to everyone else: Ian is referring to an unpublished video by Aurel.
Ah yes. I guess the cat's out of the bag. I preassassinated Garnier from AC1. I didn't make it public because of an exploit I found, but since I haven't been able to make any other good use of the exploit I should make a video soon.
And by the way, if you ever tell Ian something you can expect him to spill the beans eventually (I joke. 
He was probably "reminding" me about it).
good point on cesare... the counterpoint is that it's difficult to call that a preassassination because you are already fighting him (the timer has already started). for ercole, i kill him before the game gives the scripted opportunity to engage with him (the timer has not yet started). but i understand your point.
sry about spilling the beans on garnier. that was so long ago i forgot that it wasnt released. to be honest, i consider this particular exploit to be your finest work ever. i would very much like to see you release it.
It's good to see videos from you again, ian. What's the DVD recorder type you use?
thx joey! i use a panasonic dmr-es15. its actually not holding up so well... rewritable discs dont work anymore. not sure what i'll transition to after it goes dead.
Interesting. I always thought when throwing a heavy weapon without locking on it would just go straight, and would hit the wall below him.
if an enemy is in view, he/she will glow red when you charge up the heavy weapon, indicating that you are targeting him/her - a lot like what happens with flying knives.