The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

This is a video response to [AC3 Boston Challenge] Couldn't Find A Feather.

Here is my completed "Full Sync" of DAZ's challenge. It's not perfect, but I describe that below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVnpql9iqfM

For some reason, my video editing software took my 16:9 video and imported it as 4:3... I then did all the title editing in 4:3 before I noticed... The video looks dumb in 4:3, so the titles are stretched out (from 4:3 to 16:9). I didn't want to redo them all. Sorry.

Notes:
- First, I did this on a 100% savegame. I say this because maybe guard arrangements change at different times.
- The route is pretty straight forward. Get off the dock, and find the large areas of least resistance.

1 (00:11) - I decided to start on the ship, as an homage to Connor's granddad, Eddie. Also, I turned off the "Always Night Time" hack right before the run started because I wanted to start at night to minimize traffic on the docks. (This has a nice benefit at the end of the video, which I did not take advantage of, but let's not get ahead of ourselves).
(00:15) - I used a poison dart to stealthily take of the soldier further from me.
(00:29) - Once he is dead, and the patrol is near, I use my first recruit to take out the remaining 3 enemies.
2 (01:28) - I slow down here because there is a patrolling group to the right. They need to be walking away from me as I bridge the gap to avoid seeing me.
3 (01:51) - First body drop. For some reason, when I did a "dry run" with a civilian on my shoulder, I could get close enough to the stationary group to call a recruit without dropping the body. I could not accomplish this with a soldier on me, so maybe the detection rules are slightly different. Maybe someone with more patience can get it without a body drop.
(02:04) - Is it mandatory to be in the hay bale, probably not, but I like the views.
(02:55) - I catch the patrolling group before they are knocked off their route with a dead body distraction. I was worried that they would either investigate the hay bale or wander too far for the stationary guards to get involved with my recruit.
4 (04:27) - The guards on roof tops don't detect you unless you are on rooftops, so I wait right underneath him while the group up ahead investigates the hay bale. I follow, and once they round the corner, I bee-line for cover.
5 (06:20) - If you leave cover too early, somehow the (same) patrolling group sees you... eyes in the backs of their heads, I guess.
6 (06:41) - Body drop 2. Fucking orphans. That's why you're not loved. (This one is clearly avoidable). Thought about throwing change before picking the body back up to move all the pedestrians to the corner, but the patrolling guard was out of the way, so I went for it. Also, sometimes, the large patrolling on the main street spawns but doesn't move. Hide behind the house on the left, not the small diagonal cover on the right, to stay hidden until they move. Alternatively, you can wait at #5 one more round until the hay cart follows your route and runs into the spawned but unmoving patrol. This time, it worked out and they were up the street though.
(07:03) Go to the left of this house to avoid two groups of stationary guards on the right. Also, I have never been detected from here until the docks, so just go. Across the streets with no fear.
7 (08:13) Body drop 3. Again, one I was able to get with a civilian with no problem, but with a guard on my shoulder they detect me.
8 (09:10) Wait at this corner to make sure the patrolling group is going the other way.
9 (09:33) Body drop 4. Completely unneeded (I think), but I didn't want to risk it after 2.5-3 hours of failed attempts. Sometimes the patrol goes up the main street, that's your opening. Other times it circles and you have to hide well.
(10:12) For some reason, the game sees this pair of soldiers as two separate groups. Also, unless engaged by a second group of soldiers (like at the very beginning), once the initial group is gone, your assassin flees. If they second group is incapacitated by a smoke bomb, as is the case here, they cannot engage so your assassin is done.
(11:00) Congrats. It is smooth sailing from here. You are done with the hard part. Stay close to the water and you won't be seen.
10 (13:43) Go slow and you can hop these rocks without dropping the body.
11 (14:11) Body drop 5. Clearly unneeded -- if you're fast enough through the rest of the route, which I was. This is the other benefit to starting at night time I mentioned before. The attempt I mention above that my device didn't record though, there were no guards on the mini-map, then they spawned (ie, it became morning so they woke up). Fortunately I was far enough away to drop the body then go to the bushes and call my 6 recruits. So this time I dropped the body to be careful. When I saw that guy wasn't a soldier I went back and picked it up.

Final tally:
0 detections
1 tool
5 body drops
8 Assassin's

1 orphan forced body drop avoidable (#2)
1 body drop with no enemies around avoidable (#5)
1 body drop avoidable if you want to be patient (#4)
The other 2 body drops are avoidable with civilians... so it MIGHT be possible to get 0 detections, 0 body drops with this route if you are patient.