Fast Travel Network

• The “Gateway” icons between different regions highlight the first Fast Travel positions that you will have at your disposal. To travel from the Frontier to Boston via these Gateways, for example, you would need to open the Boston map via the East Coast map, then select the Frontier icon at the south of the Boston map. If you select the Boston icon on the Frontier map, Connor will instead travel to a position close to the Boston area transition point within the Frontier, necessitating a short walk and another break for loading to complete the journey.

• Some standard Fast Travel icons are unlocked as you progress through the main storyline, or by “unfogging” their location on an area map to reveal them. For example, a Fast Travel icon automatically appears in Connor’s village in the Frontier at the start of Sequence 06. To unlock two Fast Travel positions in Lexington and Concord to the south, however, you must explore the settlements to find them. In Boston and New York, you must explore their respective networks of underground tunnels to open up new Fast Travel opportunities. See the “Underground Tunnels” section for more details.

• Harbormaster icons appear on all maps once you complete Boston’s Most Wanted, the second Memory of Sequence 05. These also function as Fast Travel destinations. From the start of Sequence 06, you can also interact with Harbormasters to begin naval missions.

As far as the in-game chronology is concerned, Fast Travel is effectively instantaneous. Any timers that are active when you begin the journey (such as a clock charting the progress of a Convoy moving from the Homestead to a General Store, or Assassins assigned to missions) will be unaffected by the transition.

The Fast Travel network is one of the most vital systems in Assassin’s Creed III, as it enables you to skip literally hours of time spent in transit between destinations. Though it is occasionally disabled during main story Memories and certain side quests, this should be your primary method of abbreviating journeys between different areas, or even to move from one side of an individual region to another.

To Fast Travel, press / to bring up the main map screen, select your required Fast Travel position on the map (we’ll document these in a moment) with /, then confirm your choice. After a brief loading break, Connor will appear in your chosen destination. If you would like to transfer to a different region – for example, from the Homestead to Boston – use / to zoom out from the area map to the East Coast map, target the new region that you wish to reach with the cursor, then press / to zoom in to that map. You can now select an appropriate Fast Travel icon to make the journey.

There are several different icons that are used in the Fast Travel system:

Fast Travel Icons

Underground Tunnels

Boston and New York both have unique networks of tunnels that you can explore to unlock new Fast Travel positions. At first, each city has a single Fast Travel position marked by the icon. This is also a Tunnel Entrance. By visiting this location and interacting with the highlighted doorway, you can enter these underground mazes to find and unlock new Tunnel Entrances, which then appear and function as Fast Travel destinations. There are ten of these – the initial Tunnel Entrance, then a further nine to unlock – in each city, and opening them can drastically cut the amount of time that you spend travelling.

The process of exploring these underground mazes and conquering their puzzles is covered in the Side Quests chapter.

Once introduced in the A Trip to Boston and Boston’s Most Wanted Memories in Sequence 05, the Notoriety system acts as a powerful deterrent to dissuade players from acts of wanton violence. In effect, it encourages you to approach situations with the subtlety and stealth befitting a member of the Assassin Brotherhood, and to eschew atypical bloodthirsty rampages. While you can still cut a swath through opponents to complete an objective, unless expressly forbidden, the penalties introduced once Connor is Notorious make it harder to travel without further complications or confrontations, and demand payment of a toll (measured in cash and/or simple time and effort) to remove.

There are four levels of Notoriety:

Incognito: Potential hostiles will ignore Connor unless he performs an illegal act, or trespasses in an area deemed off-limits (such as free running over rooftops). Minor infractions at street level (such as colliding with a soldier) will lead to a rebuke. As long as you stand still to accept this scolding, the situation will not escalate into open conflict.

Level 1: Guards will begin to detect Connor whenever he enters their field of vision, as indicated by the yellow Social Status Indicators that appear over their heads, but will not move to investigate him until the meters are completely filled (➡). High Profile actions such as running or climbing will accelerate the detection time.

Level 2: Guards will move to investigate Connor as soon as he enters their field of vision, as indicated by red Social Status Indicators. Once these meters have been filled (➡), they will attack.

Level 3: Guards will practically attack on sight, though you may avoid open conflict if they only catch a fleeting glimpse of the Assassin. In Boston and New York, the powerful and versatile Jäger enemy archetype will join the search for Connor.

Notoriety in Boston and New York is determined by Connor’s recent actions, but may also be adjusted temporarily in accordance with narrative events or special conditions. Entering the Restricted Area that surrounds a Fort, for example, will immediately change Connor’s Notoriety level; leaving the zone will restore his previous status. In most areas of the Frontier, Connor’s Notoriety is fixed at level 1, which makes it necessary to pay patrols a wide berth whenever you encounter them. The Notoriety system is not active in the Homestead region.

In Boston and New York, killing opponents in combat or assassinating targets in front of civilian witnesses increases Connor’s Notoriety by the following steps:

• Connor will move from Incognito to Notoriety level 1 after 5 kills.
• He will move from level 1 to level 2 after an additional 5 kills (10 total).

• A further 10 kills will increase Connor’s Notoriety to the maximum level 3 (20 total kills).

Notoriety can be reduced in the following ways. Note that the first three techniques also reset the active kill count that marks the transition between levels:

• Ripping down Posters lowers Notoriety by one level.

• Bribing Town Criers (£30-50) reduces Notoriety by two levels.

• Entering a Printing Shop to bribe the proprietor will instantly restore Connor to Incognito, but costs £400 to remove maximum Notoriety. Unless such expenditure is of no consequence due to vast wealth, you may prefer to use the first two methods.

• There are also situations where Notoriety is removed automatically. Desynchronization (due to death in combat, for example) resets it to the lowest possible level within the location where you restart. There are also certain Memories and side quests that restore Connor to Incognito on completion, and starting a new Sequence always offers the Assassin a blank slate.

The Notoriety Meter, which appears next to the mini-map, offers a simple indication of Connor’s current combat status: red when opponents are actively seeking to engage him in battle, yellow when he is out of sight but still sought by pursuing aggressors, blue when he is safely concealed in a suitable hiding place, and green when the conflict is over.

Detection Times & Conditions

Though reading and reacting to Social Status Indicators becomes second nature, it’s interesting to look at some of the figures behind the system.

Enemy Detection Range

• Detection time (➡) can take up to 10 seconds with Connor in plain view, while investigation time (➡) can last up to 12 seconds.
• The fill rate of detection and investigation meters is doubled whenever Connor performs High Profile actions, when a guard moves to within 4 meters of him, and in Restricted Areas.
• Moving within 2 meters of a suspicious target will automatically lead to open conflict.
• As an aside, it’s worth noting that attempting to hide in a tree in Boston or New York is clearly not a smart move.
• Any potential opponent within 25 meters of an active battle will automatically join the fray.