How To Beat A Brute (Also Workes For The Seeker)
well ive been wandering for a week or so how to defeat a brute, and i thought that i should help everyone else who need Help, anyway if ur like me and an intermediate player or begginer the best way to defeat a brute is disarming him, it might not sound easy, u might take 2-3 hits before u get it but it works then u hit the brute once with his own wepon and his dead, now if ur pro, (which im not) then ull have to do that or counter attack the brute and counter attacking a brute is the hardest thing in the game. if ur scared about going and fighting a brute do what i did before i want and owned in Venice, i want to my villa and spoke to the trainer then i went architypes, then brutes and i practiced on him, ( when training u cant die so dont be afraid!)
Hope this helped alot! and this also works for the Seeker 
I think this is pretty obvious and not extremely insightful or helpful. Sorry. I just counter with the hidden blades or spear.
"When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite."- Winston Churchhill
"Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you
I agree Jboy, the easiest way is to fight him unarmed. Yes, you may get hit to start but once you get your counter timing down, it's by far the easiest (and imo) the most fun to bring them down. Thanks for sharing that for those that may be struggling with it.
I love it once you get there weapons. Your counters are always successful and they have a huge window for them unlike the hidden blade.
Well even if you didn't find this insightful, hopefully you'll find my new way of killing them without disarming and with only fists somewhat awesome.
The way it works is like this, I talk constantly about the best way to beat brutes is by using their lack of speed and brains against them. When a Brute begins their attack, or just moves in general, quickstep to the side to get out of the way. Because their reaction time is much less than that of a captain or agile, they are left wide open for a punch or two before they revert back to their auto block. Repeat this process about 10 times and the Brute will eventually get knocked out. I haven't been able to combo or chokeslam one yet, but I plan to try sometime in the future now that I've started Eagle's Bruise.
So why is this helpful? Remember the fight you're not supposed to fight at the beginning of the game following the Auditore Hanging? Well, if you want to win that fight, you have to know how to kill a Brute with next to nothing. Granted it takes a LOT of perseverance and patience, but you'll eventually triumph. It took me a good 20-30 minutes because there's a respawn of guards (but not brutes, and seekers and agiles don't exist yet). It eventually passes, however, and then you can take out whatever guards are left.
So this basically answers two problems, how to beat a brute with your bare hands, and how to win the Impossible Fight. I did it, you can do it to 
There, ^ that is a well written post, worthy of me spending a couple seconds reading. Proper grammar, periods between every sentence, capitalizing what need's to be capitalizing, and telling us something we already don't know. Remember this, JboyDiaz, and we shall make a good poster out of you yet. Unless you already left due to my harsh criticism. In which case you are lost, and I am (not that) sorry.
Anyway, have you utilized the fact that grabbing and throwing does double the damage of a fist punch? (Not just throwing into breakable objects, but into walls and such)
And in what point in the game can you purchase the Cestus, and have you already done it? Was your "repeat the process 10 times" estimation with the cestus or without?
"When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite."- Winston Churchhill
"Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you
Upon further review these are the stats for Brutes when it comes to fist fighting:
Brutes can usually take 25-30 punches (about 5-6 punches per health square) before getting KO'd while armed.
When unarmed, Brutes can usually take 15-20 punches (about 3-4 punches per health square) before getting KO'd.
A brute's punch will do about 1 1/2 blocks (1/2 being the portion that can regenerate) of damage to Ezio
Brutes will always block your punches WHILE ARMED unless you use the strategy I posted previously
When unarmed, Brutes have a much less likely chance of blocking your punch, and can be easily KO'd with little trouble at all.
Brutes will always block your grab regardless of what you do UNLESS their health is at 2-3 blocks or less, in which case all the rules of a regular grab on a regular guard apply (grabs do not do 2x the damage of fists like in AC1).
Sand always affects Brutes, but a blinded brute cannot be auto-killed unless their health has been reduced to 2-3 blocks or less.
And yes, Brutes can in fact be chokeslammed, have their neck broken, have their arm broken to sweep, 2x knee to face, curb stomped, and be right-hand-of-god punched when their health is 2-3 blocks or less 
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In response to sb's questions:
The cestus is available from the Blacksmith upon entering Flori in MB6. It can be purchased anywhere onward.
I did not use the cestus to gather this information. This was all tested during the Auditore Execution fight in MB1. However, with the cestus equipped, brutes remian generally unaffected (for the most part) Against captains, seekers, agiles, archers, and regulars the damage of a right hand punch is 3x that of the left hand.
Thanks for the compliments, sb.
right-hand-of-god?
"When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite."- Winston Churchhill
"Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you
I've dubbed one of Ezio's auto kill/combo kill finishes "The Right-Hand-of-God"
Basically what it is is Ezio punches the target in the gut and then brings them to his knees. He then raises his right fist high in the air and throws a violent punch that hits the target square in the face, knocking them clean out.
I like the one where he punches them in the throat, and they just stand their, clutching their throat, wheezing, and then sag down.
"When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite."- Winston Churchhill
"Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you
Yes, that's called the cuff, but it's only available in MB1, in addition to the Triple gut then Uppercut combo. The only fighting mechanic from MB1 that's available throughout the game is the 2x Knee to Face. I would have loved to see the others throughout the game because seeing just those six after a while gets quite repetitive.
Anyway, you mentioned the grabs in another topic, my guess is that Ubi believed the grabs were too powerful and toned them down to the level of punches. And it makes sense. In real life, getting jacked in the jaw is going to do a lot more damage and hurt a lot more than somewhat stumbling into a wall (even if you were weakly thrown).
But here's the thing: Grabs aren't entirely for throwing anymore. Now that they've added punches, knees, and headbutts, your clinches and grabs can do more damage than they would have in AC1. So don't immediately throw your target away, red. Mix it up with some punches and knees.
Then, if you're really feeling creative, do what I do when I've got one regular and one brute/seeker. Grab the regular and hold him between you and the other guard. Let the other guard kill him, then when he retracts his weapon, strike! It's a great way to finish off an enemy as well as get in a quick punch or two before dealing with the last enemy.
Brutes can usually take 25-30 punches (about 5-6 punches per health square) before getting KO'd while armed.When unarmed, Brutes can usually take 15-20 punches (about 3-4 punches per health square) before getting KO'd.
There is also the damage dealt while disarming to consider. A successful disarm deals roughly 1/6th of a Brute's full hit points' worth of damage. This is usually represented in the Brute losing an entire block of health at a time.
The easy no-weapon strategy against Brutes is to disarm them, drop the weapon, then counter when they try to punch you (which they will do almost immediately upon being disarmed). A single counter takes them out. I'm sure you're already planning to use this strategy extensively in Eagle's Bruise. I certainly would. 
Yes, that's called the cuff, but it's only available in MB1, in addition to the Triple gut then Uppercut combo. The only fighting mechanic from MB1 that's available throughout the game is the 2x Knee to Face.
The 'Triple gut then Uppercut combo' is the standard unarmed counter-kill (when both Ezio and the opponent are unarmed). It works throughout the entire game.
As best I can tell, all of the other unarmed moves are also available throughout the entire game as long as the conditions are right.
Fly Like an Eagle wrote:
Brutes can usually take 25-30 punches (about 5-6 punches per health square) before getting KO'd while armed.When unarmed, Brutes can usually take 15-20 punches (about 3-4 punches per health square) before getting KO'd.
There is also the damage dealt while disarming to consider. A successful disarm deals roughly 1/6th of a Brute's full hit points' worth of damage. This is usually represented in the Brute losing an entire block of health at a time.
The easy no-weapon strategy against Brutes is to disarm them, drop the weapon, then counter when they try to punch you (which they will do almost immediately upon being disarmed). A single counter takes them out. I'm sure you're already planning to use this strategy extensively in Eagle's Bruise. I certainly would.
Fly Like an Eagle wrote:
Yes, that's called the cuff, but it's only available in MB1, in addition to the Triple gut then Uppercut combo. The only fighting mechanic from MB1 that's available throughout the game is the 2x Knee to Face.The 'Triple gut then Uppercut combo' is the standard unarmed counter-kill (when both Ezio and the opponent are unarmed). It works throughout the entire game.
As best I can tell, all of the other unarmed moves are also available throughout the entire game as long as the conditions are right.
I'm an idiot. Truly, I am an idiot. I'm currently starting MB8 and I haven't even thought of that once. Oh my god, Asaic, I'm so stupid. Thank you for reminding me.
However, doing this makes an already lacking in great challenge playthrough even less lacking. And I originally posted the paragraph in my first post as a reference to how to beat the Auditore Execution battle, which requires taking out two brutes unarmed and without the ability to disarm them.
Asaic I'm seriously not kidding though, I feel like the biggest idiot in the world. If blonde moments do exist, I certainly just had one (sort of).
Uh, FLAE, two things:
Everything that I did during MS1 I was able to do again. I just recently did it in the "boxing ring" where you are trying to win the golden mask.
Also, I thought you weren't using disarms? If you are, you know that you get a one-hit-kill with any weapon, including fists, if you drop the disarmed one quickly enough?
"When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite."- Winston Churchhill
"Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you
Nah, it's not that bad. I didn't expect a weaponless playthrough of AC2 to be very difficult in the first place. The unarmed combat is much more advanced than the first game and thus doesn't pose nearly as much of a challenge in AC2. Especially when you know the tricks of the trade.
To make things even easier, the unarmed finishing moves can also be exploited a bit, since there are two main situations in which they can be used without needing to (fully) reduce the target's health first:
- After throwing an enemy to the ground, if you get behind him and perform an unarmed attack as he's getting up, Ezio does a finisher and kills the opponent, regardless of how much health they have. Many enemies can be thrown even at full health if you catch them off-guard (during the animations of 'swung and missed', staggering or panicking). The best way to do this is to get close and strafe around behind them when they attack and grab them from behind. This won't work on certain enemy types in certain situations, but it works often enough to make it useful.
- After disarming an opponent, if you're quick enough you can drop the weapon and attack while they're still in the staggering animation, resulting in an unarmed finishing move. You have to be quick and their health has to be low enough that a counter attack with a medium or small weapon would kill them.
Using the unarmed finishing moves in any other situation isn't especially helpful to a weaponless playthrough, but it is definitely more interesting than a standard punch. 