Liberation Missions, more rightly called Assassin Recruitment, are automatically unlocked in Sequence 06 when the player assists Stephane Chapheau. From that point on the player can complete liberation missions in each district of a city to gain an assassin recruit and the unique Assassin Abilities they possess and use the Assassin Guild to gain money and level up recruits.
Like Assassin Signal's from the previous games, when your recruits are not on a mission the player can use their abilities by selecting it from the Assassin Recruit menu (hold L2/LB) and then tap L2/LB to use that ability and consume a certain number of "tokens".
General Tips:
- Use the Liberations Missions filter on the map to show the district lines and view any uncovered missions
- If the player fails a mission, run off screen far enough from the event start and then return
- Once the player has completed any SINGLE mission, the recruit will appear on the map and is available for conversation. In general, there are two conversations with each recruit before completing the final liberation missions. If the player wants to know more about their recruits, make sure to check on them once in a while before completing all missions in the zone.
| South Boston | |
|---|---|
| Defeat Escorts | The player must defeat four escorts to free two conscripts. The best tactic is to run in and get a double assassinate before finishing off the final two escorts. The mission is failed if both conscripts are defeated. |
| Kill Conscription Agents | The player must defeat a conscription agent on horseback as he chases after a civilian. As you approach the area, use the tool to call your horse and then rush and spur your horse to stay in range. Once in range, use Square/X to assassinate the enemy from horseback. |
| Martial Law | Approach your contact in the south section of the district for a cutscene. When you have control, sneak around the north side of the restricted area to a hay cart and assassinate the guard next to it. You can then use the crowd and stalking area to approach the man addressing everyone and use the marksman skill by targeting him and hitting L2/LB. |
| North Boston | |
| Protect Merchant | The player must defeat the men harassing the merchants around town without letting the Grenadier escape. The best strategy for this is to target the man in charge, at the front and center of the group, and rush in for a high profile assassination. Once defeated, the player can decide whether to fight or flee the remaining mercenaries. |
| Free Captives | Similar to the missions where Haythem had to free the captives, the player must defeat the enemies guarding the captives to free them. |
| Gangs of Boston | Talk to your contact at the tavern and then approach the restricted area to the north. Equip and trigger the Bodyguard ability and calmly walk to the Templar leader and assassinate them. |
| North New York | |
| Beat Up Merchant | The player must defeat the two marked merchants to enable the starving children to steal some food. |
| Defend Farmer | The player must stay within the blue circle while defeating incoming redcoats to protect the farmer. Stick close to the farmer and make sure to distract any enemies that approach him. If the farmer dies, the player will fail the mission and have to leave and return. |
| Prevent Evictions | The player must choose to defeat or pay off the bailiff that has come to evict the citizens. If the player chooses to defeat them, make sure to loot the corpses for some money and high value items, but if the player chooses to pay them off, they can follow the bailiff until he separates from the guards and take him down to retrieve the money and items. |
| Hoarding Provisions | Find your contact in the northwest section of New York and then approach the restricted zone from then east. Use the nearby stalking zone to hide and activate the lure ability to draw the sentries away for easy access to the Templar leader. |
| West New York | |
| Burn Infected Blankets | There are two different types of encounters for this mission; the first will require the player to defeat a small group of Templars and the other will either be unattended or have a civilian guarding it. Either way, clear the path and then burn the blankets by hitting O/B. |
| Put Down Rabid Dogs | The player must kill rabid dogs that bark constantly at the player. |
| Carry Sick Civilians | The player must pick up and carry the civilians to a nearby clinic. This is best done when you are Incognito, to avoid conflict. |
| Protect the Clinic | Approach the contact near the clinic and prepare for an attack. Use the Ambush ability, as well as powder keys, to protect the clinic from waves of redcoats from the north, east, and west. |
| East New York | |
| Beat up the Officer | The player must defeat three escorts to automatically subdue the Officer. |
| Prevent an Execution | The player must rush in and defeat the redcoats before they shoot the citizens. Use Smoke Bombs or recruits to complete this quickly. |
| Plant False Documents | The player must plant documents on a snitch by "pickpocketing" them. Note that you can get a full pickpocket off by running in and holding the button to end the event before you are discovered. |
Assassin Abilities
| Assassinate | |
|---|---|
| District | Boston Central (Story Memory) |
| Recruit | Stephane Chapeau |
| Tokens Used | 1 |
| Assassinate will call a recruit to kill any targeted individual and engage in conflict with any other enemies that appear due to open conflict. | |
| Riot | |
| District | Boston Central (Story Memory) |
| Recruit | Stephane Chapeau |
| Tokens Used | 1 |
| Riot is mostly used for diversion by creating an angry mob from the surrounding citizens and occupying the attention of nearby guards. | |
| Marksman | |
| District | Boston South |
| Recruit | Clipper Wilkinson |
| Tokens Used | All |
| Marksman is by far the best ability available in AC III. When used on a target, all available assassins will fire into the field and kill up to 5 targets. If this causes open conflict, they will then engage in battle. | |
| Bodyguard | |
| District | Boston North |
| Recruit | Duncan Little |
| Tokens Used | All |
| Lure | |
| District | New York North |
| Recruit | Deborah "Dobby" Carter |
| Tokens Used | 1 |
| Lure is another diversion tactic used by having a recruit pickpocket an opponent and then flee from the scene, luring all guards in the vicinity into a chase and letting you walk by freely. | |
| Ambush | |
| District | New York North |
| Recruit | Jamie Colley |
| Tokens Used | 1 |
| Ambush works similar to Trip Mines, except that a recruit will run in and assassinate the opponent when they enter the abilities effect area. Although not overly useful as an offensive ability, they are great for defense or diversion. | |
| Covert Escort | |
| District | New York East |
| Recruit | Jacob Zenger |
| Tokens Used | 2 |
| Covert Escort is a great skill that allows Connor to acts as a hostage while being escorted by recruits dressed as redcoats. This is great for getting past sentries and avoiding detection, but the effect is broken upon combat. | |
Assassin Guild
Each recruit the player obtains through liberation missions can take part in the Assassin Guild missions to level up, as well as granting a monetary and item rewards. Access the menu by holding L2/LB and pressing Square/X to access the Assassin Guild map. There are a total of 14 colonies that recruits can be sent to on missions, each with its own difficulty and missions.
When selecting a colony and missions, there are four things the player should be aware of:
- Assistance: The bonus applied to the base Success Rate of each missions based on the number of adjacent colonies conquered.
- Time: The ACTIVE game time required to complete the mission.
- Difficulty: A general estimation, in stars, of the difficulty of each mission.
- Rewards: The rewards received, if victorious.
After choosing a colony and missions the player will be asked to assign a recruit to take part, with up to three being able to take part per mission. Upon assigning a recruit the success rate will be displayed with the probability of the missions success. The lower the success rate, the more likely the recruit(s) will fail and be injured, resulting in the recruit being unavailable for a while. In order to improve the success rate, the player can assign multiple recruits.
The success rate for each contract is based on its individual difficulty:
| Difficulty | Success Rate |
|---|---|
| * | 75% |
| ** | 25% |
| *** | 0% |
The success rate is then affected by two factors: the level of the recruit assigned to the contract and any Assistance bonuses.
| Assassin Level Bonus | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Level | Bonus | Level | Bonus |
| 0 | +2% | 6 | +30% |
| 1 | +5% | 7 | +35% |
| 2 | +10% | 8 | +40% |
| 3 | +15% | 9 | +45% |
| 4 | +20% | 10 | +50% |
| 5 | +25% | 11 | +55% |
| Assistance Bonus | |||
| Difficulty | Bonus | ||
| * | +10% | ||
| ** | +15% | ||
| *** | +25% | ||
Whenever the player conquers a colony by completing the initial six contracts, they will receive an Assistance bonus to all contracts in neighboring colonies. By using this system the player can conquer difficult colonies much easier.
| Colony | Difficulty | Adjacent Colonies |
|---|---|---|
| Quebec | * | New Hampshire + Massachusetts |
| New Hampshire | * | Quebec + Massachusetts |
| Massachusetts | *** | New Hampshire + Quebec + Rhode Island |
| Rhode Island | * | Connecticut + Massachusetts |
| Connecticut | ** | Rhode Island + New York |
| New York | *** | Connecticut + Pennsylvania |
| Pennsylvania | *** | Maryland + New York + New Jersey + Delaware |
| New Jersey | ** | New York + Delaware + Pennsylvania |
| Delaware | ** | New Jersey + Pennsylvania + Maryland |
| Maryland | ** | Virginia + Pennsylvania + Delaware |
| Virginia | *** | Maryland + North Carolina |
| North Carolina | ** | South Carolina + Virginia |
| South Carolina | * | North Carolina + Georgia |
| Georgia | * | South Carolina |
Recruits can be leveled up to 11 through the Assassin Guild missions or by calling them into the field with tokens. If the player calls the recruit into the field they will gain about 10XP a kill or ability use, while each assassin contract gives the recruit about 40-60XP depending on the contract and time taken.
While both of these methods are viable for leveling up, which one the player prefers to use will depend on play style. If the player wishes to call recruits into battle, the best place to do this would be inside an enemy occupied fort with large groups of enemies (leaving and re-entering without liberating the fort to respawn the enemies). If the player rarely uses their recruits, it makes much more sense to use the guild to level them up.
As the player levels up their recruits they will gain new fighting capabilities used when summoned.
| Level | Rank | XP | Moves Learned |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Private | 100 | Combo Kill, Air Assassination, Weapon Swipe |
| 2 | Corporal | 200 | Double Assassination, Backstab, Duckfoot Pistol |
| 3 | Sergeant | 300 | Ground Kill, Improved Assassination, Counter Disarm |
| 4 | Officer Cadet | 400 | Human Shield, Improved Combo Kill, Loot |
| 5 | Lieutenant | 500 | Improved Pistol, Counter Throw, New Melee Weapon |
| 6 | Captain | 600 | Special Counter, Resist Combo Kill |
| 7 | Major | 700 | Improved Assassination, Counter Kill |
| 8 | Colonel | 800 | Double Barrel Pistol |
| 9 | General | 900 | Improved Combo Kill, Resist Combo |
| 10 | Field Marshal | 1,000 | Parry Reversal, Smoke Bomb |
| 11 | Assassin | 1,100 | New Weapon, Signature Move |
