The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

Excellent idea. Video proof would be the best!

So basically the goal is to deliberately fail every 100% sych requirement?

Yes.

I do that on accident!

Should be easy to figure out... Just need to know how many points each mission is and how many of the "side" missions are actually required (ie, homesteaders that are part of story).

There are 43 story missions. If memory serves me, most are 100 points or so before side objectives. Some are less. But if we assume 43 missions at 100 points each (the extra points here for the lower point ones make up for the other required things) this gives us a rough estimate of 43*100 / 17070 = 25.2%.

Now I'll sit back and see if my back-of-the-envelope calculation is close to what people actually accomplish.

I came across a tough one just now: sequence 7, mission 2. It's the one where you control 3 firing lines to repel the British across the river.
Optional objective: Kill a squad with one firing order, 7 times.

I don't think it's possible to do this any other way. If you order the troops to fire, they will always kill the entire squad in one go, or if they're too far away, they will not hit them at all. Is this correct or did I miss something?

Can anyone come up with a solution for this one?

btw, it's ridiculous that trying to fail the optional objective causes me more trouble than trying to complete it...

I thought of this when I played the mission not too long ago. It seems as though the only way to keep your own men alive is to have them fire, but that by doing so, you're going to kill at least seven enemy firing lines because of the frequency with which they attack and because you need to kill a certain number of them. Can Connor ride across the bridge and engage in open conflict? Maybe you can kill a bunch of dudes that way. I didn't try it and doubt it's possible, but it's a thought.

I don't think that's possible. There's a rectangular blue area on the map; I think you will desynch if you exit that area.

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Edit: I tried it and it's not possible to ride across the bridge, an invisible wall is blocking you. If you try to cross the river you will desynch within a few seconds.

Beat me too it.

The game forces you to stay on your side of the river. In the same memory but earlier, it also forces you to not turn around and attack the entire redcoat army. Both of these restrictions thwarted my ill-fated attempts to get to Pitcairn...

Interestingly, in the dialog before the redcoats arrive at the river, you're told that if any cross the river to engage them in order to protect the men... but if you never fire on them, do they ever cross the river for you to engage them manually? I didn't think so... I'll try tonight.

The redcoats never cross the river. They just stand there firing every now and then.

I tried something and failed, but I wanted to let you know anyway.
I positioned the horse on the bridge in front of the firing squad. You can get on the bridge if you jump over the low wall on the side, but you still cannot leave the blue area. I figured maybe if the patriots fire their muskets, they will shoot Connor off of his horse, so he can walk freely. I thought maybe then I could kill some guys with the gun. Didn't work.

However, I think I have discovered a way for this mission to work. Here's how.
A patriot will always hit it's target. Each patriot squad consists of 10 guys. The redcoat squads consist of 8 guys each. So the only way for the patriot squad to NOT eliminate the redcoat squad with one order, is to have less than 8 guys shooting at it. This means you have to wait for your squad to lose some men. (Note that sometimes they will even receive reinforcements). If they have 7 or less guys, you can order them to shoot. The optional objective is 7 squads eliminated, so you can start the mission by killing 6 squads with one order, without any consequences.

The problem here is that desynchronization happens earlier than the 'patriot meter' runs out, so that's not a good thing to look at. Also, you have to kill 130 redcoats, and I could only make it to around 60 before desynching.

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EDIT: There's another way. If the redcoats are in sight BUT have NOT turned into a big red 'target' marker, and you order to fire, they will sometimes just pick off 3 or 4 of them. But you have to keep an eye on your radar at all time, and be really quick. If 7 squads turn into a 'target' marker, you've failed.

I know I have.

I picked up where I left off a few months ago.
I skipped the S7M2 optional objective. I would be happy to hear it if someone can crack this one.

Also, there are some weird ones in the missions after that. You might think they're easy but for some reason the game doesn't understand them. I'm talking about:
- S7M4 (Killing Pitcairn)
The objective where you can't kill 4 or more soldiers is somewhat hard to fail, because the game doesn't record all kills into the objective. I killed nearly all of the soldiers and yet the game said I had only killed 3.
- S8M1
When eavesdropping, the optional objective is to do it while sitting or standing still. I did anything BUT stand still, and yet the box ticked off.

I have finished my run.
My result was 4495/17070, which is 26,33 %
Here are some screenshots, along with my comments.

^^^ As you can see, 26% and 4495/17070. The 2nd one also shows S12-M2 completed. I took these screenshots when Connor is outside the inn (near Monmouth) where he will kill Charles Lee.

^^^ The first of three optional objectives that I didn't fail:
S7-M2: Lexington and Concord -- Kill groups of Regulars with a single order - 7/7
This added 25 to the total synchronization.

^^^ S8-M3: Public Execution -- Washington's bodyguards must survive
This added 20 to the total synchronization.
Hickey always got killed by other guards. He killed one of Washington's bodyguards and then targeted 3 or 4 other guards who came in as reinforcements. Then he would always lose that fight.
I do think it's possible to fail this one, because I believe in my very first attempt at this mission (normal playthrough), Hickey would target both bodyguards first and kill them, while I was too late to stop him.

^^^ S10-M3: Battle of Monmouth -- Neutralize platoons with a single cannonball - 8/8
This added 25 to the total synchronization.
It's possible to waste two cannonballs on 1 platoon, by aiming to their side and taking out 3 or 4. However, musket kills performed by patriots would sometimes count as well. The in-game counter would sometimes rise when I saw (half a) squad fall down while I was still aiming the cannon.

These three add a total of 70 to the total synchronization, which means there is 125 left for side missions.

^^^ Joining the Boston Brawlers, which was completed during the prison mission, where you had to take down a couple of guys barehanded.

^^^ Liberating Boston Central, completed automatically during S6-M3: The Angry Chef.

^^^ Fast Travel locations: 48 % of Boston North, 24 % of Boston Central, 28% of New York West.
This seems like a lot to me, I'm not sure when these were all unlocked...

^^^ Homestead missions: The first one, Training Begins is completed after S5-M4 River Rescue. The second one is River Rescue and is also completed automatically.

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So that's it. Until anyone tries to break this, I will bear the title 'Worst Assassin's Creed 3 player in the world'.

Ahaha, congratulations!

Well, that's somewhat lower than I expected you could get

Wow. So you are suggesting that the minimum would be (4495 - 25 [S7M2] - 20 [S8M3] - 25 [S10M3])/17070 = 4425/17070 = 25.9%.

I was pretty close up above ... the remaining 125 points you outlined beautifully ... I wonder if there's a way to not trigger the brawlers club, etc.

I honestly thought the FUNCTIONAL limit would be about 33% due to some of the super easy restrictions ... but I guess you proved that you can fail if you really put your mind to it.

Wouldn't it be interesting if every restriction was failable in AC4?

In my opinion, optional objectives should be really hard. Inexperienced players should have no chance at all to complete an optional objective at their first try. They can only be completed if you try really hard and put time and effort into it. There's an easy road, and there's a much longer and harder optional road.

Totally agree.

Seriously doubt it will happen, at least for the first few missions.

Sequence 1 memory 1 - perform an air assassination, and they give you 2 PERFECT opportunities for it. Stuff like that.

In some ways, it's important to introduce a system in an easily achievable way. AC1 shows you how to make your first kill in a way that wouldn't be challenging to anyone who already knew how. But relatively soon, you've got to accept that you've established the system and not worry as much about making the player feel like they're doing perfect.

Yoshi's island is a great example: the first level is a fun playground, the next is a serious level where you have to be pretty good, and from then on it escalates until the end of the first world, then after that, everything is devious.

Tried it and yes, it's possible. You have to be lucky, I guess. If Hickey runs towards the bodyguards, kills one and then targets the reinforcement guards, you should try again from the last checkpoint, until he kills both bodyguards.