Tunnel

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"We recently began traveling through the tunnels to avoid the guards, but many of the entrances in the city are broken. By using them, we can get to our destination rapidly, without encountering resistance."

―Niccolò Machiavelli to Ezio Auditore regarding the tunnels, 1500.

Ezio and Machiavelli entering a tunnel

Tunnels were a means of fast travel for the Assassins in Rome, Constantinople, Boston, and New York City, and served as a way to arrive at destinations rapidly, while avoiding guards.

Roman tunnels

A tunnel entrance in Rome

The Italian Assassin Giovanni Auditore da Firenze discovered the tunnels in Rome, though his son Ezio was first introduced to them by Niccolò Machiavelli in 1500.

There were a total of nineteen tunnel entrances throughout Rome, but only one tunnel entrance was available initially, leaving the other eighteen to be renovated by paying a sum of florins to an architect. The three tunnels that were located outside of the Rosa in Fiore, the Caserma di Alviano, and the La Volpe Addormentata were automatically renovated once the respective building fronting it was; making them the only ones that were required to be restored.

Each district could be accessed via the tunnel network, with the exception of the Vaticano District. Every standard entrance to the tunnels looked alike and their gates were engraved with the letters SPQR, an acronym for "Senatus Populusque Romanus" that referred to the Roman Republic. The Roman tunnels were located as follows:

Centro District

• Tiber Island Hideout
• Piazza del Popolo
• Mausoleum of Augustus
• Pantheon
• Capitoline Hill
• Rosa in Fiore
• Tevere Port

Campagna District

• Barracks
• Northern Campagna
• Southern Campagna
• Castra Praetoria
• Baths of Diocletian
• Viminal Hill

Antico District

• Colosseum
• Porta Nomentana
• Lateran Palace
• Baths of Caracalla
• Thieves Guild
• Roman Forum

Constantinople tunnel locations

A tunnel entrance in Constantinople

In Constantinople, all tunnel entrances had been renovated by the Ottoman Assassins, allowing Ezio to freely travel between them. They were composed as such:

• Fatih Camii
• Arcadius
• Galata
• Hideout
• Galata Mosque
• Bayezid Camii
• Gul Camii
• Arsenal
• Hagia Sophia
• Hippodrome

Colonial America

Connor entering the Masonic tunnels

The tunnels in America were used by the Freemasons. After Ratonhnhaké:ton was framed for instigating the Boston Massacre in 1770, the politician Samuel Adams met him, told him of Boston's tunnel network, and they used it to avoid attention when travelling to a printer's shop. Over the course of his life, Ratonhnhaké:ton gradually explored the entire underground system as well as its complement network beneath New York City. To uncover new entrances, he used lanterns to light his path, employed his skills in freerunning and lockpicking, as well as utilized magic lanterns that he came across at some of the Freemasons' exits. In 1781, after his Assassin apprentices and the Marquis de Lafayette had cleared the sealed entrances for him, he emerged from the tunnels in a well in New York's militarized district to infiltrate Fort George.

Boston

South District

• Beacon Hill
• Boston Gate
• East Fields
• South Commons

Central District

• Crown Coffee House
• Fort Hill
• Green Dragon Tavern
• King's Chapel

North District

• North Port
• Old North Church

New York

West District

• Bowling Green
• City Hall
• Downtown Center (Fort George)
• North Dutch Church
• Old Dutch Church
• Smith and Company Brewery
• South Market

East District

• St. Paul's Chapel
• Trinity Church

North District

• East Countryside
• Presbyterian Church
• West Countryside

Trivia

• In Brotherhood, if Ezio made use of the tunnels, there was a brief cutscene of him opening the latch on the gate and entering, though it did not show him traveling through the tunnels themselves. In Revelations, the cutscene was omitted, with the screen fading to black whenever the tunnels were accessed. In Assassin's Creed III, tunnels became explorable for the first time.
• Tunnel entrances glowed white when seen with Eagle Vision.
• In Revelations, the Galata District tunnels connected with the other districts, even though there was a large body of water between them.
• In Assassin's Creed III, after completing the main storyline, it was possible to fast travel to the well in the military district and enter the underground. Once inside however, Connor would appear without a lantern, the passage to the tunnel network created during "Lee's Last Stand" memory was blocked once more, and he couldn't exit the tunnels via the nearby ladder. The only way to exit the tunnels was to fast travel to another entrance within the network, and leave from there.
• Haytham Kenway was also able to explore the tunnel network in Boston when he arrived in the colonies.

Gallery

Concept art of the underground tunnels in Boston

Concept art of the underground tunnels in New York

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Revelations
• Assassin's Creed III
• Assassin's Creed: Nexus VR