The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

I was deeply disappointed with Battle of Florï and had great hopes for Sequence 13: Bonfire of the Vanities. Needless to say, it exceeded my expectations greatly. The quantity of assassination missions was great and it gave me a feeling of returning to AC1. While the ending seemed a little lacking for some, I thought it showed how much Ezio had matured in character from the events that had aspired 22 years prior. Here's basically a breakdown of each assassination, what I did, and my opinions on it. Feel free to share yours.

Still Life: This was the assassination where we needed to take down a "beguiled artist" who went around collecting paintings and works of knowledge and then set them ablaze (similar to what Jubair hoped to accomplish in Damascus in AC1). What makes this assassination difficult is that guards are facing almost every possible direction and you are within a restricted area. What I did to counteract this is head left of the courtyard towards the entrance, then after double air-to-assassinating the archers, performed a springboard leap to the platform adjacent to the city wall, and then jumped down behind the guards on the steps. These guards do not turn around, so I wasn't exposed. After blending quickly I picked out the artist and moved closer to him through the crowd, all while keeping in mind where the seekers were so that I wouldn't become exposed. Once he drew close, I broke from the crowd and assassinated him easily. As long as you take your time with this mission, it really isn't all that difficult.

Climbing the Ranks: This assassination called for the killing of the captain of the guard. Much like Tamir in AC1, he set up an ambush and tried to pick us off with arrows from below. Rather than try to fight on the ground, I noticed that almost all of the archers are facing opposite of Ezio, and that if I were to climb the wall in front of me, they wouldn't be able to hit me and I could reach the captain easily. Luckily for me, there was an easily accessible structure to climb that protected me from the arrows, and I climbed up quickly, ran after the captain (who proceeded to flee in the opposite direction) and assassinated him on the spot. Don't be intimidated by the number of arrows flying everywhere, just be quick in your movements and you can take him out with little to no damage at all.

Upward Mobility: In this assassination, we needed to chase down a nobleman and assassinate him before he informed Savonarola of our presence. It's a pretty straightforward cat and mouse assassination, except for that fact that he is significantly slower than most fleeing targets such as Francesco de' Pazzi, making him easy to catch. As to if he follows a set route, I do not know (probably best answered by Ian, Stab, or Asaic). Nothing too tricky about this assassination, just tail him and eventually you will get in range.

Last Rites: This time we need to climb a guarded Duomo without being seen and assassinate an entranced priest on the spire. This shouldn't be anything new to you as most of us have probably already climbed it at least twice, the only issue is avoiding the guards on the lower part of the Duomo and the spire where the priest is. There are two different ways to approach this assassination. One is to climb up the side of the Duomo with two construction colums adjacent to each other, and the other is to climb up the side with only one, which is directly in front of the priest. If you choose the side with two, you will have to deal with two guards on the spire and you will have to dispose of them anonymously. Or you can do what I did, and take the route that leads you directly in front of the priest. Simply wait for the guard to leave the priest's side, and initiate a high-profile ledge-to-assassinate to take him out. The guards will disappear after the assassination, and to quickly get down just jump off the Duomo and kill yourself. You will respawn in the street. If you haven't collected any feathers yet I suggest you get the one at the very top of the spire now to save you the headache of climbing the Duomo again later.

Port Authority: Probably the most difficult assassination of the bunch, this one requires you to board a heavily guarded ship and assassinate a merchant that's in basically a corner protected by two brutes, all while remaining anonymous. The best way to approach this one is to utilize Ian's blitz strategy that I'm sure most of you are aware of. Simply dive into the water from the rood you're standing on, swim over the gap in the railing on the boat, climb the hull, board the boat and run diagonally to the stairs, lock on, and air-assassinate the merchant. If done correctly, you will remain unexposed and kill the target in under 20 seconds from mission start. If you have trouble with the archer on the docks, simply swim underwater while rounding the corner of the dock to give you more time hidden from the archer.

Surgical Strike: This assassination calls for the killing of a doctor who is protected on almost all sides, and you must once again remain anonymous. He is barely underneath a roof that is protected by guards, a seeker patrols his blind spot from the back, and a troupe of four guards is positioned in front of him to shield him from any attackers. Even when attacking from the farthest possible edge of the crowd in front of him, you will be pushed back by the guard shield and become exposed. So how do we go about taking him out? You begin the mission at the gate to the plaza where the doctor is speaking. Run left and get up on the rooftops, taking out whatever guards you need to. Then jump onto the building that the doctor is speaking under. It should look like this:

Ezio=X
Target=0
[=Side of building
_=Front of building

X[___________
O
Inch along the wooden section on the wall in between the roof and the columns. Do not worry about being seen, as the overhang shields you from archers, the seeker cannot see you because he is behind the doctor, and the guards in front of the doctor can't see you because you are behind them. The only person that can see you is the doctor himself, and he can only see you when you are directly over him. Even if he can see you, he won't expose you, and when you are over him, you can simply drop down and assassinate him directly, remaining anonymous the entire time.

Hitting the Hay: Now we need to assassinate a farmer with some sort of a fetish for hay. He'll walk around aimlessly inspecting his hay, and we must kill him without alerting his henchmen, two or three guards and a seeker. He'll be inspecting the hay bales around so we need to look out. The best way to do this in my opinion is to perform a leap of faith from the roof into the nearest hay bale and pull-in-assassinate the guard standing right next to it. Then wait for the farmer and his passe to walk down the path west of you. When you see him on the path, jump out of the hay bale and run towards the fence adjacent to the path. Jump on the fence, lock, and air-assassinate the farmer for the kill.

Arch Nemesis: This assassination requires us to kill a condottiero that is holding a roadblock over the Ponte Vecchio. He is on a balcony with one or two guards and has archers littered everywhere. Luckily, this assassination does not require us to remain anonymous. The best way to do this is to approach the bridge from the southwest and climb along the outside. There is a stretch of roof along the side of the bridge that is shielded from the view of guards and leads straight to the balcony. The condottiero actually walks past at one point leaving him wide open for an easy assassination. Simply wait for him to get to the point where he is facing opposite of you on the balcony, then run along the strip of roof and quickly air-assassinate him.

Doomsday: This is a very easy assassination similar to that of the doctors. The only differences here are that security us much less tense and the crowd is bigger, which allows us to draw close and then leap out and assassinate him. There is no one in front to block your attempt, and a very small amount of guards on the ground to expose you during the mission, making for a simple blend-then-assassinate.

That's basically everything I did, what did you all do? And what did you all think of the assassinations and Bonfire of the Vanities as a whole?