The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

Assassin's Creed II
Easy Banks / Easy Codex Pages
The best, easiest and most hassle-free way of infiltrating and stealing from banks in AC2.

1. Hire [Thieves / Courtesans] *
2. Tell them to [Wait] a distance away but do not Dismiss them.
3. Smoke Bomb onto the guards at the entrance; Smoke covers a large area and will likely stun them all if you sweet-spot it, which isn't too hard.
4. Move into the building, steal from the chest(s)
5. Lock one of the guards, tell your [Hired Group] to Distract/Lure

*If you do this with Mercs, it's a bit inconsistent, and it also causes more commotion in the area, so I don't like it, but it can be done! Additionally, the guards that are made to guard a Bank will not respond to taking damage from anyone other than Ezio, so they'll oftentimes just stand there and eat axes to the face until they die. It's weird. And slow. Thieves/Courtesans are quicker.

Trying to get guard attention with Courtesans or Mercs only from the outside can sometimes get you Detected despite doing everything right because they can still glimpse you on the way in / out when your foot touches the threshold.

Smoking in + distracting out works every time.