Fist

In the Assassin's Creed series, fists are the weakest form of fighting available to the player. Guards will not intervene with a fistfight, unless the player is attacking a guard. However, if the player draws a weapon they will attack.

Assassin's Creed
Altaïr's fists are also the only weapon he can use to interrogate a target without killing or causing them to run, even though the target is always assassinated once Altaïr has his information. When attempting to pickpocket a thug for throwing knives, if he notices Altaïr stealing from him, he may start a fist fight. You can choose to punch back, or you can draw one of your swords and he will immediately flee. The latter will attract the attention of nearby guards if you don't put it away immediately. As weak as fists are, they are your only weapon available as a novice. You shouldn't get used to them, as you are only a novice for one mission. At any time, you may use fists to knock out or incapacitate guards.

Assassin's Creed II
In Assassin's Creed II, the main character Ezio is more skilled in a fistfight. He can perform combos, as well as being able to counter other fist fighters. He may also Disarm those with weapons and use them against opponents, if he has learned the Disarm skill. The special attack while unarmed is to lean down and sweep some sand into the opponent's eyes, opening the weaker enemies to an instant kill. Similarly, if your opponent has sufficiently low health, it is possible to perform an instant kill if you can get behind them.

&nbsp Fists also become a more viable weapon when the Metal Cestus, a hard steel hand-guard that strengthens the attack of the fists, becomes available for purchase from Blacksmiths.

You can earn yourself the achievement/trophy, Messer Sandman, which is worth 10G or a Bronze trophy, by using the sand throwing move on 4 guards at once.

Players should be aware that picking up a body will cause the game to switch automatically back to Ezio's fists. Also, while carrying a body, guards will automatically attack you on sight regardless of Notoriety. Also, if you successfully disarm a guard and keep using his weapon after you kill him, the icon at the bottom left hand of the screen will be the fist icon.

Despite seemingly lethal actions, (like snapping or stomping on a hostile enemy's neck) the person will appear to be in a subdued state and will not be listed as a kill, enabling Ezio to "kill" civilians. However, during assassinations, these lethal actions do count as a kill to the assassination target. In addition, picking up someone in a subdued state and dropping them at least one story will stop their writhing around and they will be no different than a corpse. However, you will still not be penalised for doing it to a civilian.

Stats
Without the Metal Cestus upgrade, Ezio's fists have 1 damage, 5 speed, and 1 counter. The Metal Cestus boosts the damage stat to 3.