This guide will explain how to fight like an Assassin from Assassin’s Creed in depth. This guide includes sword fighting techniques, how to properly wield a hidden blade, stealth tips, and parkour tips. The mod that contains the hidden blades is ToT (Tools of the Trade). This guide is also extremely long and feels more like an essay so, buckle in buckaroos. This guide is also so long and detailed that it may as well be Altair’s codex at this point lmao. Do note that the guide tries to stick to the games but, BaS is an entirely different game in every way meaning that there will be alternate or even flat out different uses or styles of weaponry, parkour, and stealth however, some of what is mentioned that strays from the games are loosely inspired from stuff in the game. The guides main purpose is utility while trying to be as close to the assassins in game as possible with some deviation for added flare.
Sword fighting like an Assassin
Assassins typically wield only one sword with an example of exception being that one blonde pirate dude in the Caribbean; a good choice is typically a medium length one hand sword as it provides versatility and precision, being precisely what an Assassin would need. The older Assassin’s Creed games typically see an Assassin fight more conservatively, countering and then attacking to take out an enemy with quick precision; it will take a lot of practice to memorized enemy patterns but, once you have mastered enemy patterns and where to successfully parry their attack, the next step is to properly counterattack with such speed and precision that your enemy simply cannot make a move. In BaS, piercing an enemy will one shot them; slashing an enemy like an Assassin would simply not work for the speed and precision required unless you are able to properly slash the neck of your foe, which I doubt most can perform with a 99% precision without going pro due to this games partially weird physics. Practice countering and then piercing your enemy with your short sword until full mastery; you will notice that it is much easier to fight with a short sword due to its aforementioned versatility and precision compared to items such as the rapier or long sword. Once these skills have been mastered, you will notice how much enemies aren’t much of a threat with exception being larger groups of enemies; in this scenario, one must not panic as enemies typically only attack one at a time. Look for the foe who attacks first and simply take them out then, rinse and repeat until there is a group or bodies instead of foes.
Proper usage of hidden blade
For a start, the hidden blade is supposed to be wielded on the left hand, and that is if we assume you are right handed of course. The weapon may also be used as a secondary weapon too however, when on the left hand, it is harder to wield in combat then on the right hand; the hidden blade is still extremely good in combat as a secondary though, as it can be used to pierce a stunned enemy in the neck or face if they have armor on. Before one tries to master the hidden blade in combat though, you must master the use of its intended purpose, to assassinate. A proper assassination must contain stealth of course so, one must take down their enemy with stealth; approach your foe from behind and grab their mouth with your right hand, then plunge the hidden blade into your foes head/neck twice for a proper kill or, plunge your hidden blade into their back 3-5 times, another alternative is to stab your foes leg, then as they fall, commence option 1 but, only plunge the hidden blade once and you’ll have a proper assassination with more flare too. When assassinations have been mastered, you shall learn how to chain assassinate, and it will only work if there are two enemies but, it is still powerful; start by approaching two enemies from behind, kick one onto the floor and grab the other, then commence assassination on the one you have grabbed, then move over to the one you kicked, they should be trying to get up, then grab them and assassinate them; you have now committed a chain assassination. Once you have mastered stealth take downs with your hidden blade, we can finally move on to using it in actual combat. In combat, you shall have your sword in right hand and use your hidden blade as a secondary weapon, only to be used for things such as support or piercing spots that you cannot reach with your sword in the moment, and examples would include: stunning an enemy and quickly piercing their neck with the hidden blade, disarming your enemy by stabbing their hand/arm with it, and deflecting attacks in a situation of dire straits where you cannot draw your sword in time.
The previous paragraph was for the standard hidden blade, and the Pirate Blade, and these ones are for the Hidden Dagger, Hookblade, and Phantom Blade. We shall start with the Hidden Dagger for now as it is super similar to the hidden blade but, with a new feature that is easy to master. For starters, the Hidden Dagger as the name suggests, has a Hidden Dagger however, this doesn’t mean it doesn’t function like the original hidden blade too; it simply has a mode that allows the user to swap the blade between the functionality of a dagger or a standard hidden blade. The Hidden Dagger offers new ways to use the hidden blade in combat if one were to swap it to dagger mode, and the hidden dagger can now be used as a somewhat primary weapon if one wanted to due to its easier combat function however, it would be recommended to instead dual wield it with a short sword or, if you want to be like Connor from AC3, then wield it with a tomahawk. Not much must be said about the Hidden Dagger however, I shall mention all that needs to be known. Due to the blade acting like a dagger, one can use it for parrying and then use their primary weapon to finish the job. Another use includes grabbing a foes arm or weapon with your right hand, and then stabbing their arm with the hidden dagger to disarm them or, stab their head/neck due to the more easy nature of the Hidden Dagger.
The Hookblade is where the creative freedom simply explodes. For starters, one must wield the Hookblade on the right hand, and it must be dual wielded with the hidden blade on your left hand; it offers many advantages in parkour, stealth, and combat as it is extremely versatile and a jack of all trades however, unlike the famous quote: “A jack of all trades is a master in none.”, the Hookblade is extremely powerful in all fields it covers and is truly a master of all however, we shall save the parkour tips for the parkour section. The Hookblade has many uses in combat with the best examples including, hooking a foes head to hold them down for assassination with hidden blade, hooking an enemies leg and tripping them, pulling an enemies shield down, and if you’re good enough with your Hookblade, you can use it to hook the handle of your foes weapon. Due to the Hookblades nature, it can easily be used in combat as your primary weapon as opposed to your sword, and would be recommended to do so too. The Hookblade offers more options for Assassinations that are more fun and even have much more utility in certain scenarios with some examples being: pulling an enemy off a ledge, hooking an enemy and throwing them to the floor for assassination, tripping an enemy and assassinating them, and pulling an foes head back from behind to better assassinate them if you were to be using the Hidden Dagger.
The Phantom Blade is simply a hidden blade with a crossbow on it and offers ranged versatility. The Phantom Blade is extremely hard to master but, I will try to make it as easy as possible. One must imagine their left hand pointing forward in a straight fist, then imagine it as if the top of your fist was pointed north, turn that fist deep northwest and you should have your proper Phantom Blade posture. It would be far too hard to describe how to properly hit your target as the Phantom Blade is extremely picky when it comes to hitting targets but, you should have a much easier time with the advice provided. The Phantom Blade also contains a regular hidden blade which will not need much explanation. The Phantom Blade has 3 bolts it has at disposal, regular bolts which simply pierce your enemy, stinging bolts which make enemies attack each other, and sleep bolts which simply make your enemies take a short nap. The first bolt is not going to be useful unless you have to take out an enemy from afar which, is going to be extremely hard to do; it would be more advised to use the sleep bolts as they can make a chain assassination more stealthy by knocking out an enemy hence, removing detection from the chain assassination entirely. The stinging bolts though, are by far the most useful as they can create distractions in entire rooms or clear rooms of enemies to aid in your journey and it would be much recommended to use the stinging bolts however, if you want the true assassin approach which the point of the guide is, then use the sleeping bolts.
Dual hidden blades are only for those who have mastered the single use of each blade with partial exception of Hookblade due to its natural dual wield purpose. When dual wielding the hidden blades, one must not forget the teachings and what he has learned; always treat your left hand dual blade as a secondary weapon but, with the addition of the 2nd hidden blade on the right hand, one now has to master it on the right hand too which is far easier in concept than the left but, you will somehow find it to be of less utility on the right hand. The dual hidden blades are to be used in desperation, such as losing your weapon mid combat or simply just deciding not to bring a weapon; the preferred use it is to use your right hand as a stun weapon and the left as the finishing weapon. If an enemy has leather armor, then one can stun them and repeatedly stab their enemy using both hidden blades for haste. One may also use it for quicker assassinations by plunging both blades into the enemies head for an instant kill without extra steps. There simply isn’t much to say about the dual hidden blades as they are only an extension of what has was before and aforementioned.
Stealth Tips
Stealth in AC and BaS are far different as AC is designed around stealth while BaS has a slightly broken stealth system. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t do proper or amazing stealth in BaS just because it takes more effort. NPCs will react to objects thrown or noises and approach them such as: throwing a cup, clanging your hidden blades, or throwing a weapon in a radius of an enemy. If you have to assassinate an enemy that’s close to another one, assassinate your target quickly, and place their body on the ground quietly instead of dropping it but, do it with haste. You can walk and run around a certain radius of an enemy and they will only notice you when you approach too closely so, running up to an enemy and grabbing their mouth to assassinate them is a feasible strategy, and especially so when you must assassinate with speed.
Parkour Tips
Parkour in BaS isn’t as easy as it is in AC due to how things are gripped in BaS which results in much slower climbing. However, this can be amended by throwing yourself up a wall which results in almost similar times to AC if you’re quick enough; it does take some practice though. The general recommendation is to practice gripping and throwing yourself to other surfaces, but if you have a Hookblade, parkour becomes much easier as you can use it to easily hook yourself onto climbable surfaces without having to grip, drastically reducing parkour time, and another use being you can throw yourself up with it too. In AC, assassins often throw themselves backwards off a wall and then grip onto a ledge; this practice is extremely hard or maybe even impossible due to the physics of the game as I have tried multiple times and failed however, I have done it with a Hookblade and succeeded although, it was only in slow motion due to its complex nature. Another tip for parkour is to always use the high ground such as in the library with the high points with wooden platforms. Parkour in BaS is simply lackluster as there just isn’t much to do however, you can at least eject off of walls onto other walls.
That is all, this guide is intended for those who are new to ToT and want to be like an assassin, pyschopaths, those incompetent in their own weaponry, and those who just want to learn a possible new use for their assassin techniques.
