Synchronization

"We found similar reactions among patients who undergo hypnosis to relive traumatic events. They can’t jump directly into the specific memory. They need to be eased in. Even then, there can be problems."

- Lucy Stillman to Desmond Miles, regarding the difficulties of synchronization.

Synchronization was the Animus' visual representation and measurement of how well its user followed the memories of their ancestor. Following the memories as exactly as they had happened could result in full synchronization, and the unlocking of certain repressed memories.

Inversely, a loss of synchronization resulted in the instability of the memory, which would eventually culminate in expulsion from the memory entirely. If such a desynchronization occurred, the simulation would restart from an earlier point.

Maintaining Synchronization
Desmond Miles' very first use of the Animus caused an almost instantaneous loss of synchronization, as his subconscious could not yet handle the stress and trauma of the memory he was attempting to relive. As such, the stability of the ancestor's mental state at the time of the memory heavily affected the reliving of the memory in the Animus.

Since Desmond relived the memories of two of his Assassin ancestors, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and Ezio Auditore da Firenze, his synchronization level was closely tied to how well he followed the Creed. Additionally, falling from heights, being injured in battle, or entering certain areas resulted in a loss of synchronization, indicating that this had not happened to the ancestor at the time.

Being discovered in the process of an assassination would result in an immediate loss of synchronization, as it didn't happen to the ancestor. It's worth noting that when Ezio followed a group of Templar leaders through Venice to their meeting, killing any of them would result in loss of synchronization, even though the death of Rodrigo Borgia would prevent many subsequent ordeals from happening. This is because Ezio did not choose to kill them at that point, having no idea what the Spaniard's role was.

Certain additional memories did not affect synchronization whether or not they were completed. These indicated that the ancestor could have performed these actions, but they were not completely essential to the recreation of the events in the Animus. Such examples included collecting Flags, and opening Treasure chests.

In the Animus 1.28, synchronization lost would recover over time. However, in the Animus 2.0, the synchronization meter was treated as more of an indication of health, with the user needing to use medicine or visit a doctor in order to restore it.

Synchronization meter


Synchronization was visualized by a bar on the top left corner of the HUD, and had a capacity of up to 20 bars for the Animus 1.28, and up to 25 bars for the Animus 2.0.

If synchronization was critically low, the screen would begin to flash blue and red, to warn the user that the current memory was growing unstable. If all synchronization was lost, the meter would disappear; with one more desynchronizing action triggering a complete restart of the memory.

Animus 1.28
For the Abstergo Industries Animus, synchronization was divided into base and additional synchronization. Base synchronization was tied to the main memory, while additional synchronization came from side memories.

For the memories of Altaïr, the base level of synchronization available increased along with his rank in the Assassin Order. Maximum synchronization in the memories of him as a Novice was 4, but increased by 1 at every rank, until finally reaching 13 at the rank of Master Assassin. This could suggest that the synchronization level was tied to the ancestor's skill level or capabilities at the time.

In turn, additional synchronization could be earned through completion of additional memories, such as saving citizens and climbing up to View Points. Completing fifteen of these would trigger the Animus to announce "DNA Synchronization Augmented" on the screen, and increase the synchronization meter by 1. Up to 7 such additional bars could be obtained.

Animus 2.0
Synchronization in Rebecca Crane's Animus was seen as more of a status, and was indicated through percentage, rather than with a meter. Meanwhile, an additional health meter replaced the Animus 1.28's synchronization meter in function.

Synchronization could be increased by completing side memories, recovering objects (such as Codex pages, feathers or statues), and unlocking the Armor of Altaïr.

The health meter, in turn, was increased by equipping armor and deciphering Codex pages. Maximum health could be achieved whilst wearing Altaïr's Armor, or a full Missaglias set, and by having all 30 Codex Pages deciphered.

Unlike in the Animus 1.28, damage did not always completely deplete one bar of the meter. Depending on the power of the attack, or the height of the fall, a bar could only partially disappear, and would be recovered quickly after a few seconds. A completely empty bar, however, needed to be healed, or would recover much more slowly.

100% Synchronization
After her team had traveled to Monteriggioni, Rebecca added an additional feature to the Animus 2.0, allowing Desmond to aim for 100% Memory Synchronization in certain memories.

The most common conditions for 100% were either time-related, weapon-specific, or required him to remain undetected. Failing to complete the optional condition, despite finishing the memory, resulted in a 50% completion message.

Completing any of the first seven main memory sequences at 100% synch would unlock a cheat that could be used when replaying memories.

Additionally, as Desmond increased synchronization with Ezio's memories, he began to unlock a number of repressed memories. These were obtained every 15% increase of synchronization, until the fifth and final memory was unlocked at 75% synchronization.

Achievement
On the Xbox 360 version of Assassin's Creed, the "Absolute Symbiosis" achievement can be unlocked by obtaining all twenty bars of Synchronization.