Races

Florentine Sprint

Location: By the Palazzo Della Signoria in the San Giovanni district in Florence.

Special Conditions: Run through all gates within the allotted time limit.

Advice: Don’t hurry on your first attempt-just aim to complete the course at a steady pace, with the process of learning the route your principle concern. When you reach the penultimate gate (it’s on top of a chimney), just keep moving forward to perform a Leap of Faith to a pile of leaves directly below.

Reward: 100f

San Gimignano Dash

Location: On top of the wall tower in the north of San Gimignano in Tuscany.

Special Conditions: Reach the final gate before the time expires.

Advice: It’s not the route that makes this Race difficult, but the level of precision required to reach the final gate within the tight time limit. The solution is to practice until you refine the path you take-trite, but true. The most important thing to remember is that you do not have seconds to spare for dealing with archers: your only option is to sprint past and lose them. Secondly, aim to keep time spent hanging on ledges to a bare minimum-the optimal route is one where Ezio hits the ground running after the vast majority of jumps. One tip that will definitely shave seconds off your time is to complete a continuous free run sequence on the beams and poles above the path that leads to the last few gates. Stick to the left-hand wall, and you’ll find that it’s faster than running at ground level.

Reward: 1,000f

San Marco Scuttle

Location: Behind Santa Croce in the southeast corner of Florence.

Special Conditions: Run through all gates within the allotted time limit.

Advice: Ignore any guards that give chase, and focus on learning the route on your initial attempts. The most difficult part of the course comes just after gate 12, where there is a jump to a rooftop that is just outside Ezio’s range. The solution is to angle your run to climb the wooden crane, then leap from there. There are a lot of gates to pass through, but you actually have enough time to make a few (small) mistakes.

Reward: 1,500f

Romagna Hustle

Location: Behind a house directly north of Forlì in Romagna.

Special Conditions: Finish the course before the clock reaches zero.

Advice: As ever, ignore guards and archers-even if they attempt to attack Ezio, you’ll soon lose them. There are a few instances here where you can save a lot of time by simply leaping from a rooftop for a necessary return to ground level. Heal while running, and this trick will enable you to cut many seconds from your time. When you leap over the wall on the west side of Forlì, mount the nearby horse to make your way back to the start. Jump off and finish the final two gates on foot.

Reward: 2,500f

Horseplay

Location: Not far from the Fast Travel Station south of Forlì in Romagna.

Special Conditions: You must have completed Romagna Hustle to start the Memory, complete the course within the allotted time limit.

Advice: The trick to negotiating the course quickly is to regulate your pace by releasing the Legs Button whenever you need to move the horse between obstacles or over bridges. Though it’s a trifle callous, there’s also no reason to slow down for pedestrians.

Reward: 2,500f

Venetian Rush

Location: Near the front entrance of the Basilica di San Marco in Venice.

Advice: This is an enjoyable challenge, with a perfectly manageable three minute time allocation. If you don’t complete it the first time, your greater familiarity with the course should make the second run a certainty. There are only a few areas that may be problematic. Firstly, one of your initial gates at street level forces you to briefly cut through the Restricted Area surrounding the palazzo. Don’t worry about this: just spring straight through and ignore the guards. Finally, the latter section of the Race features two instances where you free run over beams above water. Falling here will lose you more time than you can spare, so favor caution over speed for both.

Reward: 3,500f