The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

In Sequence 5 Memory "Survival of the Fittest" we meet Malcolm Millner, one of the few outdoor targets in Assassin's Creed: Syndicate. There happens to be many explosive crates in the area so I decided to revisit the Firecracker assassination style, first seen in Assassin's Creed 3.

The setup is not shown. First I eliminated all of the other guards around Millner, mostly by luring them into fights when he wasn't around. Millner will inspect the bodies and briefly look around for assassins, and then return to his patrol route.

Next I gathered 5 cases of explosives that were in the area. You could find many more for a longer chain. This memory begins with a side mission to blow up some cargo on a barge in the Thames. There's a surplus of explosive crates on the barge. I didn't bring any of these to the assassination because the game mechanics are designed to prevent you from jumping or swimming while carrying a crate. You could probably throw them from one boat to the next or seek another exploit.

The key to a successful firecracker chain is the spacing between explosives. Six walking paces is an ideal separation. Be sure to walk out the chain and count no more than six full strides between crates. The final crate was placed under the hanging cargo because Millner pauses there for several seconds.

As you can see, the chain reaction happens pretty much instantaneously in Syndicate. There's no longer the pop-pop-pop animation to sit back and admire. This was my first and only take of this video and I nearly blew it by lighting the fuse too late. Millner started to walk away but was still within lethal range of the final explosion.