Sneaking up | Crafting AC: Syndicate Guide

During majority of the missions you will be operating on a restricted territory. Being detected there will force you to fight and sometimes will cause desynchronization. Very often you can avoid fighting by moving quietly and stealth killing or bypassing the enemies.

A sneaking assassin doesn't impress anyone in the crowd.

In order to activate sneaking, you must press the proper button. Your character will crouch and put his hood on. From now your steps will be more silent than regularly and it will be harder for enemies to notice you. You will be also informed by the bar in the lower right corner about the noise - this bar can be also used as a radar that helps in avoiding enemies.

The altitude advantage allows you to perform a better reconnaissance.

Sneaking up is done for certain reason, usually to reach a specific place or character. During most missions you operate outside, so you should move through the roofs and ledges. Usually, the majority of enemies can be found on the ground or in buildings, so using the altitude advantage can be the simplest solution. It will also give you more options when detected and will allow you to escape more quickly.

Moving between obstacles is an important aspect of stealth. When behind any chest or at the corner of a building, Jacob or Evie can automatically "stick" to an obstacle (as on the screen). When you stick to an obstacle, you cannot be detected, unless the enemy saw you earlier or from a different side. You can hide behind an obstacle even very closely to enemy - until you make some noise, you remain hidden. Use the fact that the characters automatically stick to the covers to fluently move between various spots. It's especially important when moving inside buildings.

A suspicious enemy will usually check if you're behind the cover, giving you an opportunity to eliminate him.

Remaining hidden allows you to perform a silent assassination. If the target haven't seen you, simply sneak up on him from behind and then kill him. If there are no other enemies nearby, you will not be detected. However, if someone sees as you kill another opponent (even when hidden), he will immediately raise the alarm.

Performing the silent assassinations is possible from above (aerial assassination - from a building or when hanging on the line), from hideouts, after sneaking up on the enemy from behind, from below (for example, when hanging on a ledge you can throw the enemy down) or from behind the cover. The last one is possible when you are being hidden and you lure the enemy to you (for example, with a whistle). When he will walk close, perform the regular attack, and your assassin will perform a silent assassination, also automatically taking the body behind the cover.

Hiding in a pile of leaves and waiting for the target to get close is one of the easiest ways to perform an assassination.

Stealth approach gives you many advantages, the most important one is the ability to immediately eliminate opponents (no matter their level) and avoid combat. Remember that even if the enemy will see you (yellow bar above his head), you will still have a while to hide or eliminate him (if you run fast enough and attack him).

Important: When developing the character you can buy an ability that increases the effectiveness of stealth. Evie has also a special ability that makes her almost invisible.

Hideouts

Enemies are checking the hideouts on the territory on which you were recently seen.

The hideouts allow you to perform silent assassinations, hide bodies inside or wait for the right time to reveal yourself. While in the hideout, you remain undetected. However, if you have triggered an alarm earlier, the enemy that is looking for you can check the hideout, thus forcing you to get out of it. The same will happen when you will jump into a haystack on enemy sight when escaping from him. Remember, you are safe only if no one has seen you. Hideouts are also a great place to wait until the alarm ends.

Killing and stunning

Two enemies standing next to each other can be eliminated both at once.

Enemies can be eliminated in two ways. First one, used much more often (among other reasons, because it is easier to perform), is assassination. Killing the enemy is fast, you must simply get close enough and the assassination will become possible (jumping from a roof, from a line, from behind the cover etc). You can also kill two enemies at once if they are close enough to each other.

In order to stun the enemy, sneak up on him.

Another way to eliminate the opponent is stunning him. This way is useful when the game forces you to leave the target alive (for example as part of the side objective). Stunning is harder to perform, because you must sneak up on the enemy and hold the proper button. It also takes slightly more time than an assassination, creating greater risk of being detected. The advantage is that the enemy is alive. This is useful, for example during the "Conquest Activities" - you can stun the target, kill other opponents, then move the body to the marked carriage. Remember that you can stun only one enemy at once, this option is also unavailable from air - you can't do anything about that, the only way to stun the enemy is to sneak up on him from behind.