The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

This little video was literally years in the making. Ian and I recorded 16-bar stunts (where you lose 16 bars of health - the maximum before death) on every target except Tamir. There were two big obstacles: having 16 bars of health to lose this early in the game (Memory Block 2), and designing a stunt on Tamir after he's been aggravated. You see there aren't any suitably high towers in the Souk.

Getting 16 bars of health in Memory Block 2

This article explains how you earn baseline and bonus bars of health. Theoretically you could earn 11 bonus bars on your first playthrough if you're careful not to max out before reaching Jerusalem Middle and then Replay Memory Blocks to pick up the rest. It's never worked like that for me.

Instead, I had to rely on a lucky carry over of bonus bars from one playthrough to the next. It was kind of a fluke. A family member came over on the holidays and wanted to try AC. I already had a complete set of savegames from my fourth playthrough so I started a new game for him. After passing the Animus tutorial, I noticed he had 11 bars of health instead of 4. Jackpot! He got a 7 bar carry over. His savegame became the basis of my fifth playthrough. I just needed to add another 4 bonus bars so I did all Viewpoints and Save Citizens through Memory Block 4.

That's where I am now. 7 bar carry over + 4 bonus bars earned + 5 baseline bars = 16 bars on Tamir. Note that I have to Replay Memory Block 2 from the Animus menu in order to carry my 4 bonus bars from MB4 back to MB2. Every attempt on this stunt begins with the Masun investigations in Masyaf. It takes about 30 minutes to get to the Tamir assassination.

Open Conflict Stunt Assassination

To get Tamir out of the Souk we either need to leave a trail of dead bodies for him to investigate or aggravate him. Then what? Ian and I had been looking for a place in Damascus Poor to immobilize Tamir for a 16-bar stunt turkey shoot. We were close at times but never found a solution.

Last year I asked Aurel for help designing the assassination. He soon found a stunt at the nearest Viewpoint that didn't rely on Tamir being immobilized. It's sometimes possible to stunt assassinate an aggravated target as long as you land behind him. Caim256 pioneered this type of stunt. In recent weeks Aurel refined the stunt (practicing on regular guards) to the one you see here.

The key is to throw Tamir on the mark where you want him and quickly climb the tower. I prefer to aim Altaïr and the camera toward the mark during the sword fight so I can just grab and throw without worrying about aim. Disengage target lock while throwing him. You need to climb quickly as Tamir bounces back to his feet and begins throwing stones.

Tamir always turns toward the tower. It's important to land behind him, with Altaïr and Tamir back to back. Mash very quickly. It's not necessary to aim with . Altaïr will automatically pivot and perform a "taunting penalty" assassination in Open Conflict. Aurel and I both chose to target lock on the way down but I haven't confirmed this is necessary.

It all happens so fast that you don't see the 16 bars disappear from the sync bar. You can tell it's a 16-bar stunt because the sync bar disappears and screen washes with a blood red color, indicating Altaïr has zero health and is on the verge of death.