Combat Miscellany

In this final combat-focused section, we offer a selection of useful tips and suggestions that will help you make the most of Connor’s abilities, and adjust the difficulty of the combat system to suit your personal needs.

• If you are finding combat too challenging in later Sequences, you can summon available recruits with the Call Backup ability every time you face formidable enemies. If you would prefer to deal with opponents on your own, the Special Counter move is your salvation. Ensure that Connor is not equipped with a weapon in the Heavy or Blunt categories (that is, an axe or a club – these disable the technique), and select the bow (with a full stock of arrows) as your active Tool. After pressing / to counter an opponent’s attack, you can then press / to kill them instantly – irrespective of their innate resistances or strength ( 01). Though this doesn’t work with the occasional special opponents who have onscreen life bars, it’s devastating against all standard enemy archetypes. Special Counters only function if you have ammunition for the selected ranged weapon or gadget, but this is rarely a problem: in addition to the bow, the pistol, Rope Darts, Poison Darts and Trip Mines can also be used to complete this finishing move, which should give you plenty of opportunities to win a difficult battle. You can replenish your depleted stock of consumables by looting dead bodies at the end of a confrontation.

• If you simply need a technique to defeat the more challenging Grenadiers and Jägers, but do not want to constantly rely on Special Counters or Assassin recruits, we strongly recommend that you experiment with the Rope Dart. Though it takes a little practice to master the timing and targeting, pressing / will cause Connor to pull any opponent to the ground ( 02), enabling you to perform a finishing move or attend to other threats before they clamber to their feet.

• By contrast, if you find that the use of Special Counters and Assassin recruits makes combat a little too easy, we suggest self-imposed limitations to heighten the challenge. A fair task for experienced Assassin’s Creed players would be to fight with the Hidden Blade as your only weapon, eschewing all Special Counters and using ranged weapons only when a mission requires you to do so.

• For true experts, an unarmed, fists-only approach is even more exacting and, having mastered the combat system over months of play, is our favored style. If you decide that Connor is only allowed to use weapons stolen from enemies, all battles become far more technically demanding.

• The very largest battles can feature several opponents forming a firing line and devastating the Life Bar with a single volley. This is probably the most dangerous attack you will face in any combat scenario, especially as it is easy to miss the warning notifications until the last second. If avoiding firing lines is not your forte, this can be a real problem. Whenever Connor faces more than eight opponents at once, you will find that there are two distinct enemy fronts ( 03): the inner ring, with opponents actively engaged in the battle, and the outer ring, where opponents are primarily (but not entirely) passive: having numerous enemies in the outer ring increases the likelihood that firing lines will form. Killing assailants in the inner ring of a battle will cause others situated in the outer ring to
• move forward to join the fray, reducing the probability of a firing line (or, at very least, the number of potential guns). The best way to negate potential firing lines, then, is to start a Kill Streak and focus exclusively on weeding out weaker enemies who are vulnerable to such attacks: primarily Soldiers and Scouts, but also Officers if they are within range. Ignore Grenadiers and, if present, Jägers: just foil their attacks and temporarily stun them with a Counter Disarm, then move back to your main targets. You should also notice that automatic “double kills” are far more common when you are facing a large enemy force. Do your utmost to take these opportunities as they arise by pressing / whenever you see the icon above the heads of two enemies simultaneously.

• When attempting to use the human shield move, one problem that some people will encounter with firing lines is a tendency to press / too early or rapidly as gunmen move into position. This can lead to an inadvertent Weapon Swipe or, worse, two instances that knock a prospective human shield to the ground. If you can stay composed, try to hazard a glance to the contextual button display on the right-hand side of the screen as you approach your intended target. In the brief window when the human shield move is possible, a notification will appear in this position. To reach slightly more distant targets, ensure that you hold in their direction. This ingredient is easy to forget, but it improves the success rate considerably.

• Don’t neglect the potential assistance offered by groups of Vigilantes (represented by the icon) if you notice them nearby in Boston or New York. Sprinting to their position can make battles much easier, as they will reach out to restrain hostiles that move within range. This can allow easy one-hit kills, prevents opponents from properly surrounding Connor if he operates close to the ruck, and provides a wall of bodies to defend against firing lines. As an aside, it’s worth mentioning that groups of civilians that can be encouraged to start riots with / are also remarkably bold, refusing to move while their less hardy peers flee for cover. Though they do not seek to interfere with guards, they can serve a similar strategic purpose.