Welcome to the 100% club. Be warned, what is contained within has spoilers. It is a reference guide, so please refer to it only when stuck.
HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE
First off, this is not a walkthrough, so do not expect step by step ‘turn left here, look at giant muffin’-type direction. This is a reference guide. It contains spoilers, so please only refer to it when you are stuck.
Or, you might not mind spoiling things, in which case, feel free to soak yourself in warm bubblebath, put your feet up and read the whole thing as if it were the latest thing Dan Brown farted out his literary bunghole. Your choice.
All missions that have bonus objectives are covered here in detail, which includes main story missions, naval locations, naval missions and privateer missions – the difference between them you will become accustomed to as you play. As for all the other little fiddly bits to get you to 100% synch; there’s a lot to them, but we will take you through these first. These are things you should try to do throughout to save yourself the hassle of getting everything at the end. So let us begin…
SOME ADVICE: BE TIDY!
This is a law that applies to your entire playthrough of the game. When a bunch of new icons appear on the map, get rid of them. Aim to keep clean maps at all times. This will frequently mean stopping the main story while you arse about collecting feathers and trinkets and liberating districts and so on, sometimes for hours at a time. But if you leave all this to the end the boredom will become insurmountable and you most likely won’t finish. Be a bro and clean as you go.
Please note: we have left out sequence one, since everything you need to know is provided you via on-screen prompts. Sequence one is a tutorial, for heaven’s sake, and if you need a guide for that then you’re probably the type of person who draws yourself maps of your home on which you note the various places you keep all your maps. Note also that any sequence parts that have no secondary objectives are not listed here.
KILL MERCENARIES USING FIREARMS (10)
Don’t fight, shoot. Since you only have a finite number of bullets, you’ll need to loot the odd corpse to have enough ammo to do this in one.
DO NOT LET HICKEY OR LEE LOSE MORE THAN HALF THEIR HEALTH
Use Counter-X, followed by X repeated to string combos together and finish the enemy quickly. There is a fair amount of leeway here. It’s easy.
REACH UNDETECTED
Follow the guards around from the left side, then move into the water, up onto dock and over the boxes. Kill the guard in the tower for the key using Haytham’s hidden blade.
EAVESDROP ON MOVING GROUP OF GUARDS
These guards are so dim-witted you could chew their legs off and they wouldn’t notice the big, scary toff tailing them in his celebrity stalker-cloak.
LIMIT DETECTION TIME (00:15)
Stay behind cover, so when your quarries stop to shoot the breeze, you can’t be seen when they turn around. Use corners.
PREVENT SNITCHES FROM CALLING REINFORCEMENTS
The snitch is the guy in the cloak and the funny hat. You know, the guy who doesn’t look like the others. Concentrate on finding and killing him first, before you fight anyone else, that is.
PERFORM SEQUENTIAL COMBO KILLS (3)
This is more luck than judgement. Sometimes you’ll be able to do it, sometimes you’ll be interrupted. If it doesn’t look like you’re going to do it – and there are less than three guards left – reset to checkpoint, otherwise you’ll be doing the whole mission again.
FIND AND KILL THE GENERAL
First rescue the prisoners. Start with the one on the boat. Give the boat a wide berth and swim around its south side. Climb up and take out the guard wandering the deck with a stealth kill, then wait for the second guard to check the prisoners’ bonds, sneak up behind him and finish him easily. For the other two, stay in hiding places, each has one guard patrolling its area, kill each from cover.
The general can be found in the northeast quadrant of the encampment, there is a pile of crates near where he is and a soldier attending to some gallows. Kill the soldier when the general is looking away and use the crates to lean on the corner, whistle the general over and stealth-kill him, this will also be one of your three stealth corner kills.
PERFORM STEALTH ASSASSINATIONS FROM A CORNER SPOT (3)
From the crates, whistle some other guards over. If more than one comes, hide, then whistle again before last one makes it back to his standard position to separate one from the flock. Repeat. Do these objectives first as they are the most dangerous part for complete synch. Freeing the captives is, by comparison, very easy so long as you keep your wits about you and stay in hiding places as you go.
AVOID FIRING LINE DAMAGE
This is tough. Just make sure you are ready for it. Stop fighting when it looks like they are lining up and be around plenty of guys so that mashing A will get you covered.
LIMIT HEALTH LOSS – 50%
Simply keep up with the on-screen prompts. They always start with B, so be ready to tap it at the first prompt, swiftly followed by the second button in the sequence. This is fairly easy. After disposing of three wolves, run after the woman, ignoring any other wolves that try to attack. If you keep running, they won’t be able to catch up with you before you catch up to her. When the bar fight breaks out later on, use Counter-X (B, then X) exclusively and you’ll find 100% synch here a pretty easy ask…
USE BREAKABLE OBJECTS DURING A FIGHT (2)
It’s pretty much impossible to win this fight without breaking stuff.
DO NOT KILL ANY GUARDS
Run directly north as soon as the mission starts and jump into the back of the cart. Just remember throughout this mission that this objective does not dictate that you cannot knock guards out, only that you don’t kill them. Keep an empty hand and take guards down silently as and when you need to.
SABOTAGE CANNONS (2)
Jump out of the cart once it comes to a stop and into some low bushes where you can’t be seen. Head south and keep pace with your eavesdrop targets. Do this first before tackling the cannons. You’ll need to move between one piece of cover and the next with very little caution and a great amount of speed, but where you end up will be very close to the first cannon. Wait until the guards aren’t looking. There are two of them, one above and one below. The one above is the one you really have to watch for.
When he’s not looking, disable it, then move onto the next. The second cannon is tricky, so take your time and use the bushes and hay bales to mask your approach. There is a line of cover leading to one from the other starting with the bush you found yourself in after eavesdropping. Second cannon done, you should have a fairly clear way back for the map.
KILL MILITIA WITHOUT TRIGGERING OPEN CONFLICT (2)
The key here is to take them all down stealthily. This is a lot harder than it may at first appear. On the northeast side of the restricted area there is a set of hay bales. Make a wide path around the area’s right side so as not to be spotted, hide in these bales and silently take out the guard next to them. Just in front and to the left of this haystack is another one. Jump into it and wait. There is a guard doing a circuit of the camp. When close, Get him!
DESTROY POWDER CARTS
Just follow Braddock’s horse exactly and as you pass each of the three powder carts, mash the hell out of Y. It usually takes a few presses for Haytham to aim and fire. Killing Braddock afterwards is too simple to even warrant a description here.
FIND ALL THE CHILDREN WITHOUT MAKING A MISTAKE
The key here is to find all of the clues highlighted by the magnifying glass. Using Eagle
Vision, these are fairly easy to find. One note of caution, though: all the clues form kind of a long line throughout the forest. After finding the first child, pick up all the other clues before evicting the others from their location or you may lose track of where the rest of the clues are. Don’t worry, the children’s location markers aren’t going anywhere once revealed.
FIND ALL THE CHILDREN WITHIN THE GIVEN TIME
Run all the way and you should have no problem completing this within the time limit. Mohawk friend won’t follow you. Once you get to the cliffs, you can touch what you like.
DO NOT TOUCH THE GROUND OR WATER
Like it says. The key here is to ensure you take the right-hand route when you get to the river. It splits off, and if you go left it’s mission failure because your Mohawk friend won’t follow you. Once you get to the cliffs, yuo can touch what you like.
COLLECT THREE FEATHERS
After getting to the eagle’s nest, pick up the two feathers closest to your starting position. Forget any others marked on the map, though; at this point you will not be able to reach them. Next, climb to the viewpoint closest to your current position. A long climb later, synchronising this viewpoint will reveal the location of the final feather.
COMBINE BAIT AND SNARE TO CATCH AN ANIMAL
This is a lot easier than it sounds once you get over the fiddly assignation of bait and snare to your D-pad select menu. Just put down a snare and put some bait on it, then leave it. Half the animals in the forest will go after it and it’s just a case of which one gets there first. Be sure to make a note of which animal it is so you don’t kill the same one for the next side- challenge, which is.
HUNT MORE THAN ONE TYPE OF ANIMAL (3)
Find two others, but to do this you’re better taking to the trees and waiting for them to happen by, allowing you to pick up…
AIR ASSASSINATE ANIMALS (2)
After snaring your first with bait, take to the trees and air assassinate two different others. There are so many animals wandering about here that you won’t have to wait in the trees very long.
AVOID MID-AIR COLLISIONS
Waaaay easier said than done. Simple case of try and try again, though if you hit two things or more, you fail, so simply return to the last checkpoint each time this happens. And if you manage this in less than 23 attempts, congratulations! You are better than us.
LIMIT HEALTH LOSS TO 50%
Easy peasy. Prioritise counters over combos. Hit Counter-X when anyone attacks, even if you’re in the middle of thwacking ten bails out of somebody else. Done.
ESCAPE WITHIN THE TIME GIVEN
Easy peasy. Just run north as fast as you can. When you get to the river, dive in and secrete yourself between a ship and the dock.
DO NOT RAISE YOUR NOTORIETY TO LEVEL 3
Head directly to the marker. When you reach the street running crossways in front of you. And with too many guards to not be seen, climb onto the roof and jump down into the moving cart with the hay bail in the back as it passes. This will get you past most of them. Jump out when it’s quiet and climb onto the roof of the only building between you and your target objective. Jump into the hay bail from it and wait for your companion to go around.
DO NOT TOUCH THE WATER WHILE RESCUING TERRY
It’s a weird one this, and the solution isn’t obvious. Mainly because it’s so bloody stupid. Follow the flow of logs and rocks to jump along down the stream. It’s pretty obvious which route to follow. Eventually you will get to a high, ramping log with four branches sticking out that you’ll jump between.
The funny thing is, if you simply follow the main log and jump off the end the way the river is flowing, you will auto-fail this criteria because, it says, you have touched the water. If, on the other hand, you jump left off the end of the fourth branch, it will say you didn’t touch the water, even though you clearly just dived straight into it. Videogames, eh? What you gonna do?
DON’T TAKE ANY DAMAGE
Follow the on-screen instructions and stay as far away from the rocks as you possibly can. Remember: you don’t have to physically hit the rocks you can see to take damage. If you’re even close to them, the ship’s keel will take damage from the rocks you can’t see under the water. Go to half sail when the crosswinds come, and to play it safe stay at half sail from there on in. When the wind has calmed, follow the vessel in front carefully through the rocks. this first objective is fulfilled. This is because during the second phase, you won’t be able to sink the big English frigate with anything other than plenty of cannon.
USE SWIVEL GUNS TO DESTROY SHIPS (2)
For the first phase of this battle, use ONLY your swivel gun until this first objective is fulfilled. This is because during the second phase, you won’t be able to sink the big English frigate with anything other than plenty of cannon.
SUCCESSFULLY BRACE WHEN ATTACKED (3)
During the second phase of the attack against the English frigate, follow it about without shooting it for a while, holding down X whenever you see its line of sight turn red. When this criteria is fulfilled, blow her out of the water.
STAY BELOW NOTORIETY LEVEL 2
First off, ditch the weapons and go barehanded. That way when you fight the first set of English Redcoats, you won’t actually kill them. This will keep your notoriety lower. Probably. It seemed to.
LIMIT FIREARM USE (4)
Don’t fire a gun. It really is that simple. But you’ll need to fire one at least three times to ignite the powder kegs for…
USE POWDER KEGS TO DESTROY SMUGGLED CARGO
This is harder than it first appears, but since by the time you get to this point you will already have achieved your low notoriety criteria, there’s nothing to stop you running around and killing all the guards to save yourself hassle down the line. Do that now. Then pick up a keg and place it next to one of the cargo crates. When you shoot it there will be no guards to hear and come running so you can take your time.
Warning: Whenever you blow up a crate, by any means, an automatic checkpoint takes place. This means that if you blow up a crate with a grenade instead (standing next to it and pressing B) you will have to start the entire mission again from the beginning, since returning to checkpoint will only return you to the point after you’ve already made the mistake.
LIMIT TIME SPENT IN OPEN CONFLICT (15 SECONDS)
This is easier than it seems since the seconds reset when you return to a checkpoint. Just make your fights quick and you’ll be fine.
LIMIT CHAPHEAU’S HEALTH LOSS TO 50%
He’s a hard man to hurt. You’d basically have to just stand there and watch to see him lose more than 50% of his health. Again this one is not the problem.
PERFORM FIVE LOW-PROFILE ASSASSINATIONS
This is the problem. A low-profile assassination means attacking stealthily. You will have to do this to open up each battle you come across and that means learning the route Chapheau will take so you can pre-empt his battles. This will take several tries whichever way you cut it.
DUMP CRATES OF TEA IN THE WATER (10)
This part is the easiest. There are ten crates on the deck on which you start. Bung them overboard straight away and you’ll have done so before the fight even starts.
THROW REDCOATS IN THE WATER (3)
This is a pain in the arse. What this criteria is really saying is ‘throw three Redcoats overboard in precisely the way we want you to’. Luckily, we spent a good hour finding out what that way. Stand on the gangplanks during a fight and once the enemy is swarming round you, press B to block, then press B again as your follow-up. Connor will grab them, and throw them, and the reason you’re on the gangplank is that it is here they are most likely to end up in the water.
PERFORM MUSKET AIR ASSASSINATIONS (1)
You can do this any time, but it’s best to get this out of the way near the start. On each ship there is a stack of crates. Grab a dropped enemy musket and climb one. When an enemy is near enough, hit X. Try to climb anything higher and Connor will drop the musket, so no getting any grand ideas here.
REACH JOHNSON UNDETECTED
Run immediately right, staying atop the cliff you are on. Do not make a beeline for your target, as this will get you spotted before you even get halfway close. When you get to the edges of the memory, there is a hay bale to jump down onto on your left. Do so. Then, work your way round to the right. Do not be tempted to use your rope darts. They will get you spotted. And don’t be thinking you can get around this with arrows either. The enemies here take two hits each, so you’ll be detected.
The only way to do this is to look out for a large cut into the cliff on your right before you reach the first guard. Climb it. At the top of the cliff, stop at the lip and ledge kill the first guard, then make your way to the next and kick him off the cliff. After mounting the trunk and jumping through the trees to cross the next gorge, make your way from one set of bushes to the next until the cut-scene triggers.
LIMIT NATIVE AMERICAN CASUALTIES (1)
To do this, you have to approach the roof of the house in a certain way. Rather than jump off the edge of the bluff and make your way across the ground to the ladder on the side of the house, jump for the tree branch and use the trees to stepping stone your way to the house roof, thereby saving you valuable seconds.
The very millisecond you get there, air assassinate Johnson and you should also then have stopped any Native Americans being shot. One or two seconds too late, however, and you will fail.
PERFORM A SWAN DIVE TO ESCAPE
Run back to the cliffs and keep running along the edge to the left. Eventually you will come to a log sticking out over the natural bay below. Jump from it. Done.
DO NOT TRIGGER OPEN CONFLICT
Click LB to get Revere’s directions. When Redcoats appear as red dots on the map, simply stop your horse and wait for them to pass at a distance before proceeding. There is no time limit here, so take all the time you like.
REACH PRESCOTT’S LOCATION WITHIN THE GIVEN TIME (2:00)
We did this with almost a minute to spare on our first attempt. You have bags of time. The only potential problem is being shot down from your horse by your pursuers. To avoid this, leave the main road as quickly as possible and work your way through the trees on your immediate right. If you get this right, you will whizz through them while your pursuers become kind of stuck.
RESCUE CIVILIAN HOSTAGES (1)
This involves a brief detour from your three-minute run to your objective. To do this comfortably, ride your horse for the first part of the run and use running kills on the five guards who are attacking the civilian.
KILL GROUPS OF REGULARSWITH A SINGLE ORDER
This is all but impossible to fail. Run back and forth along the line giving firing orders as you go. It will unlock for certain. In fact, we’d be intrigued by anyone who could finish his mission without doing it. We reckon there’s no way.
CROSS CHARLESTOWN WITHOUT TAKING DAMAGE
As you pass through get onto the left-side rooftops and run along their exact spine. The right side roofs will damage you about half the time.
REMAIN UNDETECTED WHILE ON SHIPS
Welcome to hell. This is easily the most frustrating, unfair part of any game ever made, so take a deep breath. The best advice we can give you is this: there is no checkpoint between the two ships, meaning you have to do them in one. Start with the right- hand ship and climb up near its bow (front end) in the side facing you. Wait for the first officer to take up a position where you can ledge-kill him and do so. You WILL be spotted, but not fully.
To get back to normal status, drop off immediately after the kill by pressing B and swim around the side of the ship, close as you can to it, until the grey triangles of the two alerted guards disappear. Next, climb up the opposite side of the ship and pull the second officer into the water. There should then remain three sets of two guards. Do not attempt to kill any of these. Because double assassination is contextual, it only works about half the time and whether it does or doesn’t is beyond your control.
Best tactic here is to, from the side you killed the last grenadier, shimmy along until you’re parallel to the powder kegs, make a dash for them, hit B to ignite them, then dive straight back off the boat the way you came, swimming close into it to protect your spotted status, since two of the guards most likely will have half-spotted you. This takes crackajack timing, so expect to fail a few times. This is why you are doing this boat first.
The second boat is easier, but far from a walkover. Again, contextual controls will conspire against you to have Connor climbing the rigging when you want him to board deck, jumping onto boxes and being spotted when you want him to stand on a corner and so on. Being careful won’t help, since the contextual AI will decide what it thinks you want to do, not what you necessarily want to do. Start with the single guard with his back to the bow.
Wait until nobody is looking and ledge kill him, then shimmy right around the side of the deck and ledge kill the other standard guard. Do not kill the grenadier here, you’ll need to air assassinate him.
Keep moving around the side of the boat the same way and with careful timing, board at the bow when the guard there has his back to you, then stand on the corner of those crates so you cannot be seen. When he comes round, corner kill him quietly.
Nearly there, only two guards left and the grenadier. For the last two guards, wait until the grenadier isn’t looking and climb high into the rigging from the bow. Staying high, make your way to the stern and find a crossbeam low enough to air assassinate the two remaining guards. Wait until the grenadier is not looking and do this now, then quickly jump off the boat and work your way back around to the stern. Then…
AIR ASSASSINATE A GRENADIER
Climb the rigging again exactly as before when he isn’t looking. Take up a position on the lowest crossbeam and bang, done. Light up the boat and you’re done. Time for a phew! And champagne truffles. You deserve it.
CROSS THE BATTLEFIELD WITHOUT TAKING DAMAGE
Easy when you know how; arse-kicking when you don’t. The key is to move between each piece of cover at exactly the right moment. Move to the first piece then keep an eye on the main Redcoat ranks. Whenever they all seem to fire at once, that is the time to move to the next piece of cover. Once through, follow the path and ignore the Redcoats who attack you along the way. Climb up the cliff on your right just before you reach the outer memory edge.
LIMIT REGULAR KILLS (4)
Pretty easy so long as you follow the path described below. Note: regulars are standard soldiers only. Kill as many grenadiers and officers as you like. Smiley face.
AIR ASSASSINATE PITCAIRN WITHOUT BEING DETECTED
From the top of the cliff sticking to the bushes, work your way around behind the encampment. There are bushes all the way, so just be sure and carefully time your movements between each. Eventually you will come to a fallen trunk leading to a treetop, which then leads to a branch overlooking Pitcairn. Jump onto the flagpole. No one can see you so feel free to take your time here. Air assassinate Pitcairn and you’re done. Bravo.
PERFORM AS SUCCESSFUL STATIC EAVESDROP
Just as you arrive at the place the counterfeiter stops for his first conversation, there is a stair-ladder right in front of you. Climb it, then climb onto the barrels at the top, jump onto the first tree branch and then straight on to the second. You can listen safely from there.
PERFORM AS SUCCESSFUL MOBILE EAVESDROP
This is much, much harder than the last one. From where the eavesdrop starts, carefully climb the boxes on the right of the alley. From there keep pace with them, ensuring you don’t get ahead of them. If you do, you will be spotted. When you come to the crossroads, they will go under a wooden bridge. Drop down to the street at this point and move from corner to corner from there on. If you cock it up, restart immediately as the checkpoints are very unforgiving and you don’t want to have to do the whole thing again.
DO NOT TACKLE OR SHOVE ANYONE
If you follow Hickey’s route, this is impossible. Pedestrians love throwing themselves in your path. However, there is a way to cheat. Hickey will dive left into an alley, then turn right. Follow him left, but instead of going right, run straight on and take the next right. As you come out of that alley, you should intercept him. Wham B to bring him down. Easy, huh?
REACH HICKEY WITHIN GIVEN TIME (2:00)
Once you’ve used the key to get out of the hole, follow the guard who has his back to you. He is particularly dimwitted, even by ACIII standards, so he most likely won’t hear you so long as you don’t run. Once the countdown starts, RUN up the right-hand set of stairs and then straight up the next set. At the top of this second set is an empty cell.
Dive straight into it and hug the corner of the door. If timed right, you should have attracted the attention of one, but not both guards on that floor. Silently take him out when he pokes his head into the cell. There should be one more guard on this floor. Wait until he’s walking across the central catwalk and make a break for Hickey’s cell.
LIMIT PRISON GUARD DEATHS (1)
If done exactly as above, this will unlock automatically.
KILL ENEMY MILITIA (2)
Seems hard at first, until you realise all you really need do is run and hold X at the same time, putting two in your way on your way to catching Hickey.
WASHINGTON’S BODYGUARDS MUST SURVIVE
This is a matter of luck, since the time it takes Hickey to kill one seems to vary. If this parameter comes up red, hit restart fast and do not go on to kill Hickey as it will checkpoint you the very millisecond you’re on him.
CATCH THE CART DRIVER WITHIN THE GIVEN TIME (0:30)
Impossible to fail unless both your eyes drop out and you run around in circles.
DO NOT HIDE IN THE HAY CARTWHILE FOLLOWING THE CONVOY
To the left of the highlighted position is a stack of rocks. Run up them. At the end a tree route begins. Follow it, finishing in the hay bail behind the single guard.
KILL CAMP GUARDS WITHOUT BEING DETECTED (3)
You will spawn at this checkpoint, oddly, in the back of the hay cart you studiously spent all your time not getting into. One guard will immediately come round to its left. Nab him, then follow the conversation, ducking into the log hut on your left. Wait until the talkers pass, then silently kill the guy crouched behind the woodpile just in front of its door, then dive into the bushes on your left.
Go from bush to bush and you will eventually come up behind the final guy crouching by the campfire. There are a few ways to do this, but this is the least risky.
STEAL THE MERCENARY UNIFORM WITHOUT BEING DETECTED
There’s a big red herring in this one. A hay bale by your target. It looks at first like the best way to do this is to hide in the bale and whistle him over. Don’t. Instead you’ll notice he walks back and forth between two points, and at the point in the dark corner, there are civilians standing about against the wall. Blend with them, then when he’s near, silently kill him with the hidden blade. So long as there was no patrol marching past, all will be well.
LIMIT HAYTHAM’S DAMAGE (50%)
Simple enough. Fight hard and fast. Use Counter-A on the big guys and Counter-X on the cannon fodder. Try to string combo kills together, too. There are a lot of them so speed is the key here.
DO NOT TAKE ANY FIRE DAMAGE
Easy enough. Just follow the path carefully. Amazingly, there is no time limit here, so pick your path with care and caution and you should do this first time. If you touch the flames, just checkpoint yourself and try again.
LIMIT ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE (20%)
If you’ve been doing the naval and privateer side missions up to this point, you know the drill. Avoid the rocks. About two thirds of the way through the chase, the winds and geography will conspire to make the rocks difficult to miss. Come to full stop until the winds die down, but not too long or the schooner will get beyond 500 yards distant, which will fail the next objective. By this point you should have done all the naval missions and upgraded your ship so it has an iron hull. If you have, forget all that. You can crash into practically anything you like.
STAY WITHIN DISTANCE OF THE SCHOONER (500)
Just keep her at full sail for as much of the time as possible. But don’t worry too unduly. There is room for a few mistakes here, so just make sure and avoid the rocks.
ACHIEVE A MINIMUM 3 KILLS STREAK
Once boarded, run to her bow and run-kill the officer there, then return to roughly midships. There are enough guys there to put a three streak together. Stay there until you have then move onto the last officer(s).
USE GUARDS AS HUMAN SHIELDS (2)
Easy, this one. Don’t worry about getting too stuck into the fight. Haytham can take care of himself and there is no criteria for his health. Wait until the firing line lights up amber and hit A to grab one of the soldiers. This will work on any of them, but do not attack the firing line itself (the three soldiers at the back by the wall) as this will fail the mission. Do this twice, then finish off the rest.
TACKLE TARGET FROM ABOVE
Tough as nails, impossible even, until you know how. Run after him and immediately to your right is a building with a winch route to the roof – one of those fast rope things. Once on the roof, make your way across the rooftops in his direction. Now, you may, if you’re very lucky, reach the street in time to jump on him from on high, but it’s unlikely thanks to the brilliant (read: shamefully bad here) contextual running insisting every third step that you want to climb the chimneys.
Really, this first set of roofs is to avoid the street patrols you would otherwise have picked up on your tail. When you reach the ropeway across the street, jump down and continue your pursuit at street level. You should be level or overtaking him by now. In the final alley, run up the left hand stairs and when he is highlighted, hammer B. Remember, it’s B, not X. Since if you kill him you fail the mission, hit X and nothing will happen at all, and you’ll go “Oh,” and then throw some kind of tantrum.
DO NOT TOUCH THE GROUND
Stay on your horse the whole time. This is much, much easier if you have a full complement of musket rounds. Remember, every soldier along your path must be killed. Miss one and it’s back to the start.
STOP PATRIOT MESSENGERS WITHIN THE TIME LIMIT (3:00)
At a gallup, spurring your horse occasionally, with musket rounds in your pocket, you should do this with time to spare. Just gallop hard and accurately, and follow close the trail. It’s really dark here. We found this easier by temporarily turning up the brightness.
STOP THE KANIE’KEHA: KA WITH NON-LETHAL METHODS
This is all about the order in which you do them, and the method used. Empty-handed, you need to do running attacks on all of them, so hold down run and X the whole time. You need to work through them in an ‘S’ shape. Start with the guy far right. Taking him down will cause his companion to sprint up the hill.
Follow him and take him down next, then the guy in the same row on the left. Next, take out the one in front of him (top left) then the next one along and finally climb the small cliff for the last. If no time has been wasted, success is now yours. If you were delayed at all for any reason, it’s likely you will have failed.
NEUTRALISE PLATOONS WITH A SINGLE CANNONBALL (8)
Dead easy. Just aim for the centres of each cluster of men eight times.
KILL TWO PLATOONS WITH A SINGLE CANNONBALL
The target reticle on the ground doesn’t get smaller when aiming further away. Essentially, then, the explosions are bigger the greater the range. To take out two for the price of one, aim for multiple platoons just as they appear over the crest of the hill.
PREVENT PATRIOT EXECUTIONS (3)
As you run back to Washington’s army, there are two of these happening on your left and one on your right. Use running takedowns to take out just one guard from each of the firing lines. This will be enough to break them up. Do not stop to fight them. Run onto the next instead and keep an eye out on your right for the third one, as this one is easy to miss.
DESTROY SHIPS USING ONLY ONE BROADSIDE (3)
Do this early on when there are still a lot of small boats around. Use standard shot and aim into the pack, being careful to time it so you don’t send your precious ammo into a big wave. We did this first try, so it can’t be all that hard, right? Hmm. Maybe.
DESTROY FRIGATES BY FIRING ON THEIR POWDER STORES
If you’ve done all the privateer missions, which you should have by now, then you know the score. Use standard shot and graze, don’t broadside, until the weak points open up.
COUNTER KILL FIVE ENEMIES
Couldn’t be easier. There is a near infinite supply of guards on deck and no time limit. Just Counter-X everyone you come across.
REACH THE SIGNAL TOWER WITHIN THE GIVEN TIME (3:00)
Not too hard, but getting there undetected in that time? Well…
REMAIN UNDETECTED ON THE WAY TO THE SIGNAL FIRE
There are no doubt many ways, but this was ours. Up the grey/ blue shed next to the well where you pull the first guy in. Up the ladder and onto the roof. Run hell for leather, mounting the pyramid-shaped brick stack and jumping across to the opposite building. Stay on the right side of the next roof so the chap on the left does not spot you.
If you’ve done this right, there will be a guard in front of you. Approach the outhouse/mini-shed on the roof next to him and whistle from the corner. Take him out silently, then sprint, hell for leather towards the tower. Before you get there, you will see another guard. You’ll have to kill this guy. Either ledge kill him, or just wait until his back is turned, sneak up behind him and gut him.
Below you now is a haystack. Swan dive into it. Use whistle to get the attention of the one or two single guards walking the area, then make a break for it up the tower. If someone begins to see you, shimmy around it out of sight. Once you are above a certain height they can no longer see you, so motor. This will take a few tries as it takes a fair degree of luck.
LIMIT HEALTH LOSS (50%)
If you weren’t detected, you won’t have lost any health now, will you? Winky face.
LIMIT REGULAR KILLS
MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A POISON DART BEFORE YOU START THIS MISSION.
You can’t punch them out. In typical ACIII fashion, it makes up its own rules as it goes along. Also, you are forced to kill 13 regulars before the mission really gets started, so in essence, your maximum number of kills is two.
You can avoid the first restricted area by running around it, then swimming to the ferry. Climb the ferry by the rope at its front and make your way around the bow to the first eavesdrop point. That done, keep shimmying around the same way and take out the first guard with a ledge kill. You have to, or he will see you as you continue. Climb up onto the ledge and stand next to the window for the second eavesdrop. Done. With one to spare.
KILL THE HMS JERSEY’S CAPTAIN
This is why you need the poison dart. This is practically impossible without one. With one? Oh-so- easy. After the eavesdrop, climb the cabin roof right in front of you and dart him as he’s leaving. DO NOT JUMP INTO THE WATER YET. This will checkpoint the end of the mission and chances are he will still be in the process of dying. Go back the way you came and dangle off the side where you can’t be seen. As soon as he’s dead, jump into the water.
ESCAPE THE HMS JERSEY WITHOUT ENTERING INTO OPEN CONFLICT
If you do exactly as described above, this will unlock too.
STAY WITHIN RANGE OF LEE (50)
Do all of the following. Fast. There is no way to even get off the pier if you approach this conventionally. Not without losing Lee or shoving into people. The cheaty technique is to jump with A through the middle of each bunch of soldiers. This makes you immune for a second or so, so that they can’t stop you. It takes a bit of practice and you still won’t manage it every time, but it is the only way we found of getting to the end of the pier, not shoving anyone, and still being within 50 yards of Lee.
DON’T SHOVE ANYONE DURING THE CHASE
This includes guards. Luckily, jumping through them doesn’t seem to count as a shove, even when you hit them. Like we said, a bit cheaty.
DO NOT TAKE ANY FIRE DAMAGE
Once in the burning ship, head up the right-hand wall, as high as you can climb, then jump backwards. You should make it onto another ledge. Turn right and dive across the gap, then wait while the partition collapses and then jump through. Finish the chase with Lee.
We cannot begin to tell you just how hard it is doing all of this in one try. It took us 50-plus attempts and hopefully, we will be able to save you half of those, but do not underestimate this, it is extremely hard, not least of all because the unpredictable AI provides a different arrangement of pedestrians and soldiers to navigate around every single time. Good luck.
That’s not all there is. Check out NowGamer’s guides to Assassin’s Creed 3’s feathers, almanac, inventions and trinkets locations and naval battles.
Deus Ex: The Fall Walkthrough
Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation Review
9 Ways Evernote Can Help Develop Your Creativity
Ghost Recon, or Fighting Terror With Terror
How to Build a Strong Collection of Cards in Hearthstone