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, after saving him from corrupted Borgia guards.

The apprentices, also referred to as recruits, are Assassins who were formerly citizens 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.

Recruiting
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, if you speak to them they will always join you, if you don't talk to them, they will eventually disappear. After successfully recruiting someone for his cause, Ezio sends them to Niccolò Machiavelli to become an Assassin. You can only recruit twelve apprentices (all of whom can be either male or female), but if one dies, they can always be replaced. You also get your first recruit in sequence 4 memory 5

On the Field
In-game, Ezio is able to have up to six 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 be teleported into the battle by the Animus.

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. Each one of the apprentices also has a different personality. 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/her armor will change and appear to look almost identical to Ezio's Master Assassin outfit, only having very subtle differences such as the cloak where the color is decided by the customized color they wore as "Students". These Master Assassin robes that the apprentices wear cannot be customized however, and always remain as Assassin White.

BAM System
As Ezio recruits and trains more apprentices, he will gain signals, which appear as red bars underneath the Synchronization bar. Up to 3 signals can be earned. The signals represent the amount of times Ezio can use the BAM 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, then another when you have 4 Assassin apprentices. The third and final signal is unlocked once you have 6 Assassin apprentices. 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 BAM until the first one has recharged. BAM 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 battles, either attacking on horseback with their sword or hidden gun, or performing assassinations from horseback.

The apprentices are capable of three attack strategies:
 * The 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.
 * The 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.
 * The Smoke 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.

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. Blue denotes male, red denotes female:
 * 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

Trivia

 * While all apprentices wear default uniforms similar to Ezio's, not all of them are ever exactly the same.
 * The apprentices are equipped with only a single hidden blade, unlike Ezio who is granted two. They do, however, acquire a hidden gun, smoke bombs and various melee weapons as they level up.
 * Though you can only have twelve apprentices at a time, the ability to recruit them is infinite, which means that, even if many of them die in battle, they can always be replaced.
 * Apprentices are able to grab the horse of a dismounted enemy. This prevents its escape, and allows either Ezio or the Assassin himself or herself to ride it.
 * 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.
 * Once an apprentice is promoted to the rank of Assassin, there is a cut scene showing the Assassin performing a Leap of Faith into the Tiber, while Ezio and Niccolò watch, despite the fact that they cannot swim.
 * Assassins can't swim, but when they fall in water they are just gone and not dead, so you could use them again later.
 * 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.
 * It is possible to kill an apprentice by using the Apple of Eden with him/her in the blast range.
 * There is an interesting glitch when both an Assassin and Ezio try to assassinate the same guard simultaneously. You 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.
 * Sometimes when Assassins are called into battle, they will jump out of haystacks, without any explanation of how they got there, or how long they had been waiting inside.
 * The Assassins receive no damage from falling, even from the top of the Castel Sant'Angelo.
 * Assassin Recruits can sometimes be heard saying "Requiescat in pace", among other phrases (depending on their personalities) when a skirmish is won.
 * Also, when a battle is over, a recruit or two 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, depending on their personality.


 * When reaching the rank of Assassino, the recruit will acquire a sword that is identical to the swords used by the Masyaf guards in Assassin's Creed.
 * If you try to follow an Apprentice, they will eventually get to Tiber Island and stop, though taking various confusing turns trying to disappear from the players screen.
 * Unlike Ezio, Assassin apprentices can use their pistol at the same time as a heavy weapon (if equipped).
 * Upon reaching level 10 they recieve a crossbow but will not use it
 * All Assassin recruits have different facial appearances, and will look different from one another in pictures.

Gallery
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