The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

The Mysterious Death of Marco Barbarigo

The goal of this mission is to steal the Golden Mask from Dante Moro, sneak into Marco's party, sneak onto Marco's guarded ship, poison him, and escape - all without killing anyone other than Marco, and without being seen at all (no yellow bars over the guards). For added challenge, I don't hire anyone, such as courtesans. This video was recorded in one continuous take.

This mission is intended to invoke a mysterious cause of death for Marco. The poison blade doesn't leave any blood stains, so the cause of death is not immediately evident. A thorough inquiry of all of the guards (and courtesans) would not reveal anything, as Ezio was completely unseen (and did not hire).

Here are some important notes:

0:35 I've already assassinated Marco on this playthrough, but I aborted the memory before it ended in order to replay it. When I restart the memory, the game loads it with Ezio's last outfit, which has him wearing the golden mask already.

2:02 There is a group of guards who are scripted to greet Ezio as he approaches ("Buonasera, signore"). You can go around them to meet Teodora at the party, but you won't be able to progress without the greeting. To maintain conceptual "anonymity" from these guards, you can approach the guards from behind so that they don't ever see Ezio, yet they still greet him.

2:52 Wait for the pair of guards to reach the end of their patrol along the sea wall, where they will stop and turn around. You can watch their shadows, as needed, to monitor their movements. Step out of the group you are blended with to trigger the next cutscene.

3:04 Dante storms into the party, demanding that the guards find the one who stole his golden mask. When you return from the cutscene, the camera angle will be reversed. Even though you can't see them, the guards patrolling near the sea wall have turned around and walked away, so you can easily reach the sea wall without detection. Hang over the edge of the wall until Marco is announced; nobody will look for you here.

Since you are on the edge of the memory wall, you will lose a tiny bit of synchronization every few seconds, but your regeneration rate can easily keep up so that you effectively stay at full health.

4:11 After Marco makes his entrance, you will be teleported next to Teodora. Immediately run to the nearby group of civilians to blend in. About half the time, you will be seen (yellow bar). This is due to the random movements of the Seeker at the party, which you can't control.

When you leave a group of people (without running), you will remain blended for a few seconds, even though there may be nobody around you. Fast walk to reach the ladder while blended. This reveals a neat game mechanic. If you are blended when you start going up the ladder, you will remain blended indefinitely while you are on the ladder. You can thus reach the roof without being spotted. I call this the "superblend exploit," which I will detail in my next video/article.

4:55 Standing on the central or starboard sections of the deck will automatically Expose Ezio. Our only option is to wait for Marco to finish his speech, so that he paces to the port side of the deck, where we can poison him. Unfortunately, there is a guard on the port side of the ship who can easily see you if you try to make a traditional approach. We need to distract this guard in order to reach the deck undetected, which takes some preparation...

As Marco gives his speech, climb to the mast top and throw some coins in front of the door to the captain's cabin. Tossing coins to this specific location will cause the port side guard to turn for about 15 seconds. Use this opportunity to make sure that the guard to the left of Marco remains in his original orientation (i.e., make sure he does not see the coins). Once you have confirmed that the coin toss works as intended, don't touch the left stick on your controller so that your aim is preserved.

6:30 Wait for Marco to finish his speech. He'll walk to the port side of the ship. Toss the coins to the same location to distract the port side guard, and then jump directly on deck to land next to Marco. Poison Marco and climb over the rail to escape.

Thanks to stabguy for his contributions to the coin distraction strategy.