Assassin apprentice

"The liberation of Roma has begun. If you choose to flee, do so now, but if you choose to fight, stand with me against the Borgia."

- Ezio Auditore to one of the rescued civilians.



The apprentices, also referred to as recruits, are Assassins who were formerly citizens that were saved by Ezio Auditore from the rough streets of Rome, during the war against the Templars. They have subsequently devoted themselves to learning the ways of the Assassin Order, motivated by their lust for revenge against the Borgia for corrupting the beautiful city of Rome.

Operating out of the Tiber Island headquarters, the apprentices were sent on missions across Europe in order to improve their skills and combat experience beyond their traditional training. However, the apprentices did not always survive these missions. When not on missions assigned by Ezio outside Rome, the apprentices would support the efforts of Ezio and his allies, providing reinforcement during Ezio's own missions.

The apprentice system of the Assassins Guild is a feature first introduced in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.

Recruitment
After destroying a Borgia Tower, symbols will randomly appear on your map where citizens can be recruited. You can choose whether to save them or not, but they will eventually die if you don't. After saving a citizen from the guards, you'll have a choice to either speak to them or leave them. Speaking to them will prompt them join you, otherwise, they will eventually disappear. After successfully recruiting someone for his cause, Ezio sends them to Niccolò Machiavelli to become an Assassin understudy.

You may only recruit twelve apprentices at a time (all of whom can be either male or female), but if one dies, they can always be replaced, as the ability to recruit them is infinite. Recruiting citizens as apprentices begins in Sequence 4, Memory 5.

On the Field
In-game, Ezio is able to have up to six apprentices support him during his missions, and each time they fight, they will gain experience points to rank up. On the field, Ezio signals these Assassins by raising his arm and clenching his fist, indicating that they should strike. This signal, followed by an eagle's screech, is known as a "B.A.M." or a Brotherhood Assistance Maneuver. The apprentices can appear from anywhere, usually from inside hiding spots or over ledges. Particularly when against a mounted enemy, the apprentices can also come in on horseback, and can engage in horse chases. On rare occasions, when there are no hiding spots or buildings to appear from, the apprentices may simply be teleported into the battle.

Missions
During the course of the game, players have the opportunity to send the apprentices to different cities across Europe to complete tasks and assassinations. If they finish the mission, the apprentices earn money for Ezio and experience points; but if they die, they will be lost forever. The chances of the Assassins completing the mission depend on how difficult the mission is, the amount of experience the Assassins already have, and how many Assassins you send. Though sending more Assassins increases the probability of success, each receive less experience, as the total experience gained must be divided equally among all of them. Missions take place in Rome, Florence, Venice, Constantinople, Lisbon, Barcelona, Moscow, Paris, London, Cologne, Vienna and Calicut.

Customization
Players can also customize the apprentices' colors of their robes. Later on, players can use the experience points they've gained to upgrade their apprentices' armor and weapons. Once an apprentice achieves rank ten (Assassino) his or her armor will change, and appear to be almost identical to Ezio's Master Assassin outfit, with only very subtle differences. Only the cape that the apprentices obtain at this rank are automatically given a unique color that corresponds to the dye used before becoming an Assassin (although the colors are not the same as dyes used for Ezio's cape). These robes that the apprentices wear for the final rank cannot be customized, however, and always remain in Assassin White.

B.A.M. System
As Ezio recruits and trains more apprentices, he will gain signals, which appear as red bars underneath the Synchronization bar. Up to three signals can be earned. The signals represent the amount of times Ezio can use the B.A.M. system (Brotherhood Assistance Maneuver) which allows him to call his apprentices to aid him in the field.

The first signal is rewarded once one Assassin apprentice is recruited, with the two succeeding ones rewarded upon gaining four and six apprentices respectively. Once Ezio has used a signal, the signal won't be usable until roughly one minute has passed, and using all three of them will not allow Ezio to use the B.A.M. until the first one has recharged. B.A.M. signals can become unavailable if an insufficient number of apprentices are present in the guild, such as if some have left on missions.

Apprentices can also ride and use horses in battle, either attacking on horseback with their sword or hidden gun, or performing assassinations from horseback.

The apprentices are capable of several attack strategies:
 * Arrow Storm: This move is particularly useful if Ezio is blocked by a group of guards. He signals to the apprentices, and they shoot arrows at the targets and kill any in sight. If there is a large number of apprentices to aid Ezio, all the guards will be killed simultaneously. You must have at least six Assassin apprentices at your disposal to use the arrow storm, as it requires all 3 signals to use. Targeted guards may not always be killed by the Arrow Storm, however, all other nearby guards will be killed.
 * Air Assassination: This move is where the apprentices jump and assassinate the indicated targets. If there are some enemies remaining, the apprentices engage them in combat.
 * Smoke Bomb Assassination: A combination of air assassinating and smoke bombs, the apprentices jump and assassinate as many enemies as possible, then throw smoke bombs, creating a distraction and allowing Ezio to move in and attack as well. They may also run in and throw a smoke bomb first, stunning the guards and assassinating them before they recover, depending on the type and number of guards.
 * Throwing Knife Assassination: The apprentices throw knives at the targeted guard and his group at a safe distance. This strategy helps keep them out of sight or danger unless there are guards on nearby rooftops, or multiple guards nearby.
 * Horse Assassination: The apprentices ride into battle on horseback, either swinging their weapon on horseback, or performing an air assassination from their horse. This strategy is usually performed in the more open districts when there are multiple or mounted guards.

Known In-game Apprentices
The following is an alphabetical list of known names of apprentices that appear in the game, which are randomly generated for each citizen Ezio saves.


 * Alighiero Abate
 * Annetta Abete
 * Allesandro Albarella
 * Bettina Aliotti
 * Annetta Barbieri
 * Laura Boccanera
 * Gabriele Buonavieri
 * Carlotta Caci
 * Bianca Carsidoni
 * Ciro Cavallari
 * Cristiano Corsellini
 * Desideria Donati
 * Enrico Emilione
 * Ermanno Erba
 * Ercole Esposito
 * Fedele Fabiani
 * Filippo Foglia
 * Augusto Fornari
 * Fabiola Fornari
 * Giacomo Gadda
 * Ghita Gargani
 * Giordano Gaspari
 * Giovanni Guglielmi
 * Lorenzo La Falce
 * Luciana Lanese
 * Luca Lombardi
 * Lamberto Luni
 * Rocco Martucci
 * Candida Masini
 * Giovanni Migliore
 * Marco Melozzi
 * Nino Nastagio
 * Nando Nicodemi
 * Nestore Nucci
 * Orfeo Occhionero
 * Ottavio Oliveri
 * Ortensia Orlandi
 * Panfio Petaccia
 * Primo Penna
 * Piero Piacentini
 * Paolo Profeta
 * Bastiano Pulci
 * Raffaele Raniere
 * Mino Ricoveri
 * Rinaldo Rocca
 * Severino Sabelli
 * Salvatore Salucci
 * Emiliana Santi
 * Saverio Selerno
 * Beatrice Simoni
 * Paolo Simoni
 * Adele Sozzi
 * Stefano Spallone
 * Severino Stornello
 * Tullio Tagliapietra
 * Guido Tuccerini
 * Ugo Ubaldi
 * Ulrico Ursini
 * Valeria Viozzi
 * Vittorio Vitelli
 * Zaccaria Zaccagno
 * Zeno Zaccardi
 * Zita Zanovelli

Development

 * Gabriel Graziani, the Community Developer for Brotherhood, had once stated that there will be a special cutscene when an Assassin dies. Although there is no such cut scene, Ezio may approach and close the eyes of the fallen Assassin, honoring them.
 * It was stated by developers that the player could pick a single Assassin recruit to be a "right-hand Assassin." However, this action is not present in any form in the game.
 * In-game, the recruits attack alone or in pairs, but in the Rome demo, they come in groups of five.

Guild Management

 * Each apprentice's appearance is randomized. However, their gender is dependent on the location of the map from which they are recruited.
 * When managing Assassins for an Assassination contract, even when the odds of success are 100%, sometimes the mission can still be failed, although you will not lose the Assassin(s) used for that contract.
 * When viewing the apprentice menu, if any are currently performing a contract mission, they may appear pale, blonde (for females), and have incorrect eye color.
 * Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy includes several contract missions that correspond to the missions you are able to send apprentices on, detailing their experiences while they are away.

Equipment

 * The apprentices are equipped with only a single hidden blade, and are never given dual blades even upon reaching the highest rank.
 * Even though it is not on their Equipment screen, the Recruits have Throwing Knives.
 * At Rank 5, the Recruit will gain the Hidden Gun, however, it is much weaker than Ezio's, taking 3 to 4 shots to kill a guard.
 * At Rank 8, the Recruit will gain Smoke Bombs.
 * When reaching the rank of Assassino, the recruit will acquire a sword that is identical to the swords used by the Masyaf guards and Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad in Assassin's Creed.
 * Upon reaching Assassino rank, they receive a crossbow, but will not use it. The only time it is implied that they use the crossbow is during an Arrow Storm; however even low-ranking recruits can still be used for the attack, even if they weren't carrying a crossbow to begin with.
 * The ammunition used in an Arrow Storm are actually regular arrows fired from long bows, and not crossbow bolts.

Combat

 * While the Arrow Storm is meant to kill all guards within sight, at times there will be one that might survive the attack, particularly if they are targeted by Ezio.
 * Unlike Ezio, Assassin apprentices can use their pistol at the same time as a heavy weapon (if equipped).
 * Apprentices are able to grab the horse of a dismounted enemy. This prevents the horse's escape, and allows either Ezio or the Assassin themselves to ride it.
 * It is possible to kill an apprentice by using the Apple of Eden with him/her in the blast range.
 * There is a glitch that occurs when both an Assassin and Ezio try to assassinate the same target simultaneously. They will both appear to leap on him in high profile, but Ezio will then promptly teleport onto the next closest guard, killing him as well.

Behavior

 * Once an apprentice is promoted to the rank of Assassino, there is a cutscene showing the Assassin performing a Leap of Faith into the Tiber, despite the fact that they cannot swim.
 * Apprentices receive no damage from falling, even from the top of the Castel Sant'Angelo. Also, if a guard pushes an apprentice into water (particularly from tall buildings and the walls of the Castel), they won't die, but simply return to the Tiber Island hideout.
 * Apprentices can sometimes be heard saying "Requiescat in pace," among other such phrases when a skirmish is won.
 * Alternatively, they may walk up to Ezio and do a bow or gesture and say "I wont forget what you did for me" or "It is an honor to fight alongside you," among other things.
 * Occasionally, after a battle is won, recruits will kneel and stay kneeling until Ezio leaves the area.
 * If you try to follow an apprentice, they will eventually get to Tiber Island and stop; though taking various confusing turns along the way, in an attempt to disappear from the player's screen.
 * When on a horse, they will never dismount it so you can mount it.

Gallery
Los aprendices