Assassin's Creed

From a speedrunning perspective, Assassin's Creed leaves a lot to be desired, with unskippable cutscenes, autosave functionality and only one save slot (on consoles). However, the game is open-world, so route planning can drastically decrease the time and there are a few tricks and manipulations that will speed up a run as well.

Basics

Faster

• Altaïr is at his fastest while sprinting in high profile mode. The drawbacks are that it increases the likelihood he'll alert the guards and you may end up climbing something unintentionally.
• You can also sprint on the horse in the same way (sprint in high profile), with no real drawbacks, as there's no need to hide when your cover's blown in Kingdom.
• The hidden blade is the fastest method for taking out both the main assassination targets and groups of enemies. The possible exception are throwing knives, which in certain cases can be used in lieu of the blade which will save the time it takes to approach the enemy.
• You have limited mobility while in a cut scene, so this time can be used to advantageously place yourself (pickpocket missions) or just move as far in the direction you'll be going after the cut scene as you can.
• Eavesdropping and pickpocket investigations.

Slower

• Climbing is the biggest waste of time, and is one of the few things Altaïr does really slowly. Climbing should be avoided if possible (use a ladder) unless the route makes up for how long it takes.
• Fighting normally, meaning with the sword or short blade or at all. Except for the main assassinations, you don't have to fight anyone for the most part. It's usually faster to just run away and hide (if it's on the way to wherever you're going), or even better, don't blow your cover in the first place.
• Using scholars to get into places should be passed up in favor of just climbing over the guards or using a dead body distraction. Not only do the scholars walk super slowly, but most require you save a citizen before they show up.
• Informer (usually) and interrogation investigations.
• Climbing view points is a part of normal gameplay, as it clears up the map and shows the location of various icons on the map. For a speedrun, you should be familiar with the routes and the city and never waste time synchronizing on a view point.
• Running into Templars throughout the city can seriously slow you down, as they notice you no matter what profile you're in and your alert status immediately gets blown, meaning you'll have to take the time to hide. They will need to be avoided during route planning or killed if it can be done quickly enough and is faster than a route deviation.

Investigations

A certain number of investigations are required before you'll be allowed to carry out your assassination. You need two in memory blocks 2 and 3 and three investigations thereafter. Ideally you'd want to do short investigations from where you enter the city on your way to the assassination bureau to pick up the feather. There are some differences between the console and PC versions of the game, namely the PC version has more and varied informer missions, some of which may be very fast. Pretty much all investigations have a cutscene of dialogue, but informer dialogue can be skipped, which may make it attractive if the mission itself can be completed quickly.

Eavesdropping consists of sitting on a bench and targeting a couple people talking. Once the conversation is over, so is the mission, so it's very quick relative to the other ones which require you to do something after the cutscene. Pickpocket missions require you to simply move over to the target and grab an item without being seen, and as you start with the target right in front of you, these are really quick as well.

Interrogations have you follow the target after the cutscene and melee fight him, after which you get another cutscene where he spills his guts. Most of these can be done right where the guy stands, so you don't actually have to follow him to a secluded spot, but two cutscenes is too much. Lastly there are informer missions, which can entail many different tasks. The cutscene before and after can be skipped, so it really just comes down to how long the task will take. On the console games you either have to collect a bunch of flags or assassinate a couple targets. The flag collecting should probably be avoided, as even with the quickest route it probably takes a minute or so. Some of the assassination ones can be pretty quick (under a minute), especially when there's only two targets and no climbing involved.

Speed tricks

• For cutscenes triggered by running up to someone, you can gain a very small amount of time by jumping toward them before you lose control to start them speaking a little sooner.
• Jumping from the horse will save time, both in ascending the view point outside Masyaf and getting into cities.
• The quickest way to enter a city is to run at the guards on the horse, then jump forward and over them just before the horse hits them. The horse distracts them and if you're not on it when the game checks, then they don't suspect you.

Combat

In certain parts of the game you are required to fight groups of enemies. When an enemy is alerted to you, he draws his sword and stands in a ready stance. From here you can either attack or block, and starting with memory block 3 you can counter. For speed, you'll want to always use the hidden blade, don't lock on and throw enemies to the ground where they can be dispatched. While in a group of enemies, watch for anyone breaking their ready stance, as they can be taken out with the hidden blade without having to be thrown. This looks like the enemy being sick, looking down, lowering his sword, issuing commands or taunting you.

If you can perform two kills in quick succession, you can start a cringing chain reaction. Grab an enemy and throw him, then grab another and throw him in the same direction. Quickly run over and kill both and you should see one of the remaining enemies start cringing. Run to him and use the hidden blade, and that kills is quick enough to the last that another enemy starts cringing, opening themselves up for an attack. You can continue like this in a big chain reaction. The key is to not lock on so you can sprint to the next enemy, and use low profile kills so you can move the camera around while you're stabbing to look for the next guy.

The quickest way to kill anyone or any group is to throw them off a high ledge or cliff, but this won't always be available.

External links

• assassinscreed-maps.com: Comprehensive, interactive maps
• thehiddenblade.com: Forums, videos, information