The Evolution of Assassin’s Creed’s Hidden Blades

Assassin's Creed's Hidden Blades are an integral part of the series' iconography and identity, as important as hoods, eagles, and the ever-evolving Assassin Crest. Essentially spring-loaded knives strapped to leather or metal bracers and hidden on the underside of the wearer's forearm, they've been a central feature in almost every game from their reveal in the first CG trailer for 2007's Assassin's Creed to Assassin's Creed Shadows (launching on November 15) - and you can become an expert on how they've changed by reading below, and then discovering them yourself with the Assassin's Creed games included in a Ubisoft+ Classics or Premium subscription.

Assassin's Creed

Possibly inspired by historical accounts of real-life Assassins hiding knives in their sleeves, the Hidden Blade carried by the Levantine Assassin Altaïr required the sacrifice of the left ring finger to properly wield. This amputation was symbolic - a rite of passage signifying the Assassin's devotion to the Brotherhood - and practical, since the extended Hidden Blade was designed to slide between the middle and little fingers of a clenched fist when its wearer pulled a ring on a cord. 

Altaïr's Hidden Blade was useful mainly for stealth kills, for dramatically dispatching targets, and even for pouncing on enemies from high ledges. Attempts to stab with it in combat would be immediately blocked, but daring players could use the blade to counter enemy attacks for an instant kill - with the caveat that it wouldn't block the strike if players mistimed the counter. 

Assassin's Creed II

The Hidden Blade wielded centuries later by Italian Assassin Ezio Auditore da Firenze was a huge technological leap forward. Created using ancient knowledge Altaïr gleaned from an artifact known as the Apple of Eden after the first game, Ezio's blade was activated with a pressure switch instead of a ring and no longer required a missing finger. Of course, that didn't stop a young Leonardo da Vinci from pranking Ezio with a meat cleaver before letting him try it on. 

Ezio wielded the Hidden Blade more creatively than Altaïr, pulling enemies into haystacks and other hiding spots for a quiet kill, lunging up from ledges to stab and drag them down, and more easily air-assassinating them from high places. Ezio was also the first to get two Hidden Blades, which let him stab two enemies at once, and he could wield them effectively in open combat, thanks to secret First Civilization alloys that let the blades block heavy blows without breaking. This was also where Hidden Blades started to become more like wrist-mounted weapons platforms; as Ezio found more pages from Altaïr's Codex, Leonardo was able to add more intricate features, including a Hidden Gun and a poison blade that created distractions by causing targets to flail around in confusion. 

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

Ezio's second adventure built on what his first had accomplished in a variety of fun ways, not least of which was a significant improvement to the Hidden Blade: If you wanted to turn your targets into self-destructing madmen, you could now do so silently and from a distance using a discreet poison-dart launcher. Is that unsporting? Sure. But so is using your dad's connections as Pope to raise an army and sack the town of Monteriggioni, Cesare.

Assassin's Creed Revelations

A signature innovation of the Ottoman Assassins, the Hookblade added a second, curved blade to Ezio's right-hand gauntlet, letting him use the network of ziplines that crisscrossed the roofs of Constantinople (and which could be used to launch high-speed aerial assassinations). The spring-loaded hook also extended Ezio's grasp to let him leap to otherwise unreachable handholds while climbing, execute long-jumps by hooking and swinging from hanging lamps, yank down scaffolds to deter pursuers, or trip people up while Ezio slid past.

The Hookblade added unique moves to combat as well, letting Ezio hook and roll over the backs of enemies to make a quick escape, or use that momentum to hurl them to the ground. And while countering attacks in Revelations would often yield an instant kill, countering with the Hookblade could instead steal whatever cash and items an enemy was carrying, removing the need to loot them after the fight was over.

Assassin's Creed III and Liberation

In some ways, the Hidden Blades used by Connor and Aveline were a return to basics - poison darts were thrown by hand instead of launched, for example, and the Hidden Gun was removed in favor of Obvious Guns like pistols and muskets. They still packed one key feature that set them apart, however: the Pivot Blade, a mechanism that let the blades rotate 90 degrees, giving the wearer handles to wield them more like regular knives. 

This created more ways to strike with the Hidden Blades in combat, and the Colonial Assassins' two-fisted fighting style also let them wield a Hidden Blade as an off-hand weapon. They also had new ways to strike with the Hidden Blade from hiding, and could take down enemies undetected from tall vegetation, or flatten themselves against corners for a quick grab-and-stab when targets walked into range.

Assassin's Creed Unity

The Hidden Blades featured in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Freedom Cry, and Rogue were no-frills models, similar to Ezio's but without the additional gadgets. The next big step in their evolution came with the Phantom Blade used by French Assassin Arno Dorian in Assassin's Creed Unity, which unfolded to become a miniature wrist-mounted crossbow. Rather than bolts, the Phantom Blade would launch the Hidden Blade itself as a projectile. Arno could choose between regular or berserk blades to kill instantly or inflict a violent rage, respectively, and could fire the Phantom Blade in combat to deliver a lethal shot at close range.

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China and India

While Chronicles relegated the Hidden Blades to stealthy takedowns and finishing moves in combat, the first two Assassins in the Chronicles trilogy each brought unique touches to their Hidden Blades: Shao Jun redesigned hers as the Hidden Footblade to deliver lethal face-kicks, while Arbaaz Mir's Trident Blade could split open to become three blades.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate

Not since the days of Ezio were Hidden Blades this extravagant. The armored Assassin Gauntlets worn by English Assassins Jacob and Evie Frye were steampunk marvels born of 19th-century London's Industrial Revolution, came in 12 different designs, and included a poison-dart launcher (which could create noxious clouds if shot into a fire), brass knuckles, and a rope launcher that let the Frye twins climb quickly to rooftops or create ziplines across London's wide avenues. Once again, the actual Hidden Blade was used mainly for stealth kills and assassinations, although it also delivered stunning or finishing blows when fighting with brass knuckles. 

Assassin's Creed Syndicate also showcased a truly modern variation on the Hidden Blade, although it was only seen during the ending: the Shock Blade, an electrified, dual-pronged weapon wielded by present-day Assassin/historian/curmudgeon Shaun Hastings in his only on-screen assassination.

Assassin's Creed Origins

Bayek's adventure in Ancient Egypt was the origin of many of the franchise's hallmarks, Hidden Blade included, and so the elaborate weapon reverted to its most basic form. In fact, Bayek's blade was purportedly the same one used by the proto-Assassin Darius to kill King Xerxes I of Persia - the first recorded Hidden Blade assassination. Featuring the familiar forward-sliding mechanism and a broader blade than later models, this Hidden Blade also severed Bayek's ring finger during a partially botched assassination, establishing a tradition that would be carried down through the centuries by the Hidden Ones and Assassins who followed.

This Hidden Blade was used for stealth attacks and assassinations only, and wouldn't necessarily deliver a guaranteed kill. Instead, it dealt a set amount of damage, which players could boost by upgrading the Hidden Blade (which also changed its appearance). To save players from the awkwardness of ineffectual stabbings, they could see a preview of how much damage an attack would do when Bayek got close to an unsuspecting enemy, letting them decide whether to risk a takedown or just sneak past.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

The Greek adventurer known as either Kassandra or Alexios didn't use Hidden Blades, instead relying on the broken Spear of Leonidas for stealth takedowns and as an off-hand weapon in combat. However, the Legacy of the First Blade story expansion showed the first recorded use of a Hidden Blade (as mentioned above), and partnered Kassandra or Alexios with Darius himself. Darius' Hidden Blade was mostly identical to Bayek's initial model, but with the blade mechanism mounted on top of his forearm, instead of underneath (possibly to avoid exactly what happened to Bayek).

Watch Dogs: Legion

Darcy Clarkson, a near-future Assassin who returns to London from Templar exile to rescue her brother, could join DedSec as a DLC character - and once she acquired her full Assassin garb from a secret tomb beneath Buckingham Palace, she could wield twin Hidden Blades as well. While adhering to the classic blade-and-bracer design, these could be toggled on or off to add lethality to takedowns and fights, and were accompanied by (but not attached to) the Hidden Gun - here an AR-cloaked pistol that fired bullets and berserk darts.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla

Like Darius, Eivor wore their bejeweled Hidden Blade on the outside of their forearm, but for a different reason: As a bold Viking warrior, Eivor saw no need to hide a weapon, especially not such an ornate one. (Seeing Basim and Hytham's missing fingers was also a factor.) This not-so-Hidden Blade could be wielded in battle to deliver a charged attack if Eivor's left hand was empty, or a quick stab after executing a counter roll (once the right skills had been unlocked).

Like Bayek's weapon, Eivor's Hidden Blade didn't always deliver instant kills, although players could boost its damage through Eivor's skill tree - and if they unlocked the Advanced Assassination skill, even high-level enemies could be brought down quickly with a quick timing-based minigame.

Assassin's Creed Mirage

The return-to-roots philosophy of Assassin's Creed Mirage also applied to the Hidden Blade Basim wore in Baghdad, which was once again a dedicated tool for assassinations, once again required the sacrifice of a finger - and once again was able to deliver swift death to all but the most powerful enemies. Basim could also use it with his Assassin Focus, an ability that let him seemingly slow time and rapidly move between up to five targets, instantly dispatching each one in turn.

Assassin's Creed Nexus VR

Assassin's Creed's Meta Quest-exclusive adventure let players embody three different protagonists, and turned a long-held fan fantasy into (virtual) reality by letting players feel the snap of the Hidden Blades themselves. Kassandra (previously only seen with a Hidden Blade in the Assassin's Creed Crossover Stories content for Assassin's Creed Valhalla) wielded one for the first time as a playable character, while Ezio and Connor both used two. 

By holding a trigger and flicking their wrists, players could deploy the Hidden Blades and lash out freely at unsuspecting enemies, leap blade-first at targets from rooftops, or use them in combat to parry attacks or deliver critical hits and killing blows with a well-timed lunge.

Assassin's Creed Shadows

The Hidden Blade wielded by Japanese Assassin Naoe marks the return of the Pivot Blade previously glimpsed in Assassin's Creed III. Sporting an elaborate dragon motif and a blade that can rotate 90 degrees and be gripped as a dagger, it can deliver instant kills in interesting new ways, including aerial assassinations while swinging from a grappling hook, or using the chain-and-sickle kusarigama to pull Naoe blade-first toward an opponent. Stay tuned to learn more about Naoe's Hidden Blade, and the tools and fighting styles available to her and Yasuke, later this year.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is available for preorder now and launches on November 15 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Amazon Luna, Macs with Apple Silicon via the Mac App Store, and PC via the Ubisoft Store and Epic Games Store. The game will also arrive on iPad at a later date. Players who purchase the Gold Edition, Ultimate Edition, Collector Edition, or have a Ubisoft+ Premium subscription can play the game three days early on November 12. Additionally, all other Assassin's Creed games listed above, including their DLC, are included with a Ubisoft+ Premium subscription, and (with the exception of the first Assassin's Creed and Assassin's Creed Mirage) are included without DLC with a Ubisoft+ Classics subscription.