How do you find your target without running?

[KatieLynne]

Ok, so I am very new to this, just started playing multiplayer today. I seem to have a real hard time getting to my target alive or in time. It seems I always get the targets that are on the opposite side of the map, and I don't know the map layouts, so I routinely end up losing my targets.

I read that running isn't a good thing to do, but if I don't, I usually end up losing my target. If I do run toward my target, I get assassinated on the way and can never outrun my pursuer (I hate sprint already). I find it rather frustrating that I can't seem to do anything.

Any tips? I'm used to games like Halo where your targets are closer and easier to see.

[StarScream391]

Step one: Run to your target ASAP (Use the roof if possible, and watch out for possible threats like a persona jogging)
Step two: Find your target (Use line of sight)
Step three: Kill your target
Step four: Blend with the crowd
Step five:Stun your pursuer (Best with smokebomb or charge)
Repeat.
Somebody here should explain what line of sight is as I am to lazy to explain it right now.

[nightpriestess]

Originally posted by KatieLynne:
Ok, so I am very new to this, just started playing multiplayer today. I seem to have a real hard time getting to my target alive or in time. It seems I always get the targets that are on the opposite side of the map, and I don't know the map layouts, so I routinely end up losing my targets.

I read that running isn't a good thing to do, but if I don't, I usually end up losing my target. If I do run toward my target, I get assassinated on the way and can never outrun my pursuer (I hate sprint already). I find it rather frustrating that I can't seem to do anything.

Any tips? I'm used to games like Halo where your targets are closer and easier to see.

All I can say is keep playing and learn the maps. Also, check out a few gameplay videos (many available in the gameplay video thread stickied), learn to hear the whispers too. That'll definitely tell you if your pursuer is nearby, running isn't bad if your out of site from your target too.

[StarScream391]

Also watch this tutorial from one of "the best" players in the game.
Assassinate and Wanted Tutorial?
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Alliance Tutorial (Dirty Way)
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Wanted Tutorial I think
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Manhunt Tutorial I think
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Anyway I have tried to help you the best I can, if your still having trouble then good luck.

[KatieLynne]

Thanks. I'll try some of these and see how it goes. http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[purrkinator]

I use this general rule.

No pursuers - run to your target until the compass is just under half full and then walk. Usually, you'll enter Line of Sight (LOS) when you compasss is a little over half full. This is conservative. Better to be safe and not give yourself away.

1 Pursuer - see above. Listening for the whispers of course. Most of the time you'll have about 2 seconds from when you first hear the whispers to when your pursuer enters your LOS. Use this moment to find a blend group. Spin your camera around to find them and stun them. Use whatever method works best - smokebomb is good for beginners. You'll begin to tell humans from NPCs fairly easily. Resume hunt.

2 pursuers - Either move in a blend group slowly heading towards your opponent or hang out until you can stun 1 of your puursuers and then resume your hunt.

3 pursuers - Find a defensible area (each map has a few) and wait. With three pursuers odds are high your target is on their way to you as their target is likely one of the people hunting you. This becomes a game of patience, situational awareness and ability management. But there is nothing like getting a lure, two stuns and then a hidden kill.

And be prepared to die. A lot. Remember - it doesn't afect your score at all so try what works for you and have fun.

[Ritzy-Cat]

I'll tell you what I do to get to the target.

If I have no pursuers, I run right after them. If you know the maps enough, one thing I check to do before I go in is see if the target is stationary or moving. You can do this by looking on the compass. If they are stationary, they're most likely in a blend group. So if you can remember the areas of the blend group around that area, it'll help you find your target. Also, do not run. Stop running before they are in your line of sight. Tapping the run button when in sight for just enough time (not even a second) will sacrifice you 100 points from Incognito to Silent. It's simply not worth it. Make sure you check if your target is stationary/moving before your compass becomes a full circle. Now. If I have no pursuers, I can afford to wait to see if any of them are going to move. Or, I can use firecrackers/templar vision (but i never use TV lol) to see who they are. If you are going to use Templar Vision, use it around a wall or something where they can't see you. A target has only a few logical and/or common reasons to be in a blend group.

1. They are stealthy players and are waiting for target to stop by
2. They have a few pursuers and want to stun/evade them
3. -something i forgot

Check your target's pursuers. If they have 2 (including you and one other), they are most likely there for reason 2, but can also be there for reason 1. Depending on the amount of pursuers they have, is how you should plan your attack. It's something a lot of people under look when deciding how to kill them. First off, do not offensive smoke bomb them. On roofy maps (Alhambra, Pienza,) I forbid it. Unless you are in like a tunnel or something (like in Pienza's tunnel under the one building with a large square hole in the middle i dont know what it is lol) then you can do that, to get yourself a focus. But with 2-3 pursuers, and you attempt to poison it is a bit risky because some people have a thing to sabotage your poisons by running straight into other pursuers.

Note: LOS (Line Of Sight) means from a person's perspective, they can see another person. When your compass glows, you are in their line of sight, and vice versa. But suppose you are standing behind a wall. You can "see" your target but your compass isn't glowing. You are not technically within line of sight. You can 'see' them but they can't see you. understand what I mean?

Now, how to enter line of sight stealthily.

First, if you can, find out where your target is, or at least what blend group they're in. Now look around you and see if there is a moving blend group nearby, going generally in their direction. If so, take that group and see if you can come by. If you are not sure WHICH one of them it is in the blend group, just find a spot to hide and wait. or, you can use an ability like Firecrackers or templar vision. But I'm not assuming you have too much to use since you've only played for a little while!

Tip - Do Not Walk Straight Into Where Your Target Is. CPUs generally do not walk straight. After a while of playing, you can differentiate player walking from cpu walking. This is why you should utilize moving blend groups. Walking straight into them will get a fist to your face.

If you target is NOT in a blend group, they are likely to be moving to their target, they are running away from a pursuer, or walking aimlessly. Some people utilize a technique called roofing. This is where they take advantage of roofs to score lots of points on attacking from roofs.

Alright. Hopefully that explains what to do if you have NO pursuers.

If you have One pursuer, approach with caution. My technique is to get my pursuers dealt with then go for my target. But, usually I take a blend group near the high-traffic areas of the map. Chances are, the pursuer of my pursuer of my pursuer is my target. If you stick in the high-traffic areas of the map, (which is a place where a lot of people seem to go) it only takes a few people to be in the high-traffic area to lure the players who are not exclusively stealthy out. So, I assess the situation. My pursuer, the Knight has arrived, and I can tell from the whispers I hear in the background. I am already blended, so now I just need to find them. I see them come around a wall behind me, and I can tell from their funny walking style. They did not take a blend group. Now, they are within distance of me to quickly turn around, use mute, and then stun them. I've dealt with my pursuer. Luckily, I see the Smuggler coming by, chasing after the location of the knight. she quickly kicks them to the head. I take a nearby stationary blend group. My compass is beginning to come closer. Now I have no pursuers. I can assume that the target of my target is the Smuggler. so I simply wait until she comes close enough. The Dama Rossa, my target appears around the edge and just at enough time I turn around and stab her. I've dealt with my One-pursuer situation. Hope you liked the story ^^

If you have Two pursuers, stay put. Find a blend group or somewhere to hide (haystack, bench) and wait for the pursuers to come by. Two things can happen. Both pursuers can come at about the same time, or one will come quicker then the other. In the first situation, the best thing to do is to stealthily get out of there. Now, do not kill your target if your pursuers are close. If I see my target and I hear whispers, I hesitate to kill. The 2-4 seconds it takes to put a dagger in my target's throat is 2-4 seconds more time my pursuer has time to get one in mine. Once you are away, keep trying to get one pursuer to you but not the other. If you can get a good enough distance, usually, the pursuers of your pursuer will deal with one of them, so you can deal with the other. Now, The Pariah and the Prowler are on the roof next to me. I'm sitting down here on a bench. The Pariah slowly maneuvers done, but the Prowler stays put on the roof. Both have no idea where I am right now. The pariah sits down on a nearby bench, but the Prowler stays on the roof still. There is a chase breaker right behind me. I quickly dash out there. The prowler hops to the next roof hoping to intercept me. The Pariah however, got off his bench and begins to run towards the roof to climb back up.. The Courtesan jumps from the roof and kills him! Now, just the Prowler is who I have to deal with. I quickly find a new area to blend. However, he has locked onto me already. I move away from the roofs and into a safer area where he cannot get me from the roof. He realizes that and then comes down. He slowly maneuvers towards me. I manage to catch him in my smoke bomb and stun him. I've effectively dealt with two pursuers. All of these happenings have brought my target near me, who was the pursuer of the Courtesan who had killed the Pariah. My target, the Barber had started a chase with the Courtesan. She comes near me, and then follows the Barber, who I step out of my blend group to kill.

If you have three pursuers, forget you have a target. You want to simply get rid of them all. Find a safe blend group with a good view of any possible way someone could enter. This requires you to learn the maps. But, don't select a blend group with an open area. Now. when you have this many, pursuers commonly don't come at you at the same time. But, sometimes 2 will come or 1, rarely all 3. If there is two pursuers and you can see them, see how far they are away. Normally, a good player will not dash at you if you throw a smoke bomb to stun one. If you know who both of them are, stun one and then try to get the other. You only usually have this many pursuers if you are in 1st or 2nd place or something. So, if you are in the lead it is good to switch to a defensive profile set containing abilities like Smoke Bomb, Mute, Charge. But since you have played for one day, I wouldn't assume for you to have these yet! In this situation, you have to deal with each pursuer 1 on 1. Sometimes that is impossible because someone will run after you while you stun another. Sometimes it is best to hide in a blend group and don't stun anyone, and hope you get enough lures.

Hope I helped!

[BigBalledEagle]

One thing that makes a huge difference in my opinion is the direction from which you approach your target. If you try to flank your target from behind, chances are very low that you will catch up to them without being spotted by your target. Try to predict where your target is intending to go and meet him there. If your target changes his course, don't get frustrated and decide to follow behind him; try again to cut him off. This way, you will get kills more easily and will get stunned less often.

[Eldest219]

Originally posted by BigBalledEagle:
One thing that makes a huge difference in my opinion is the direction from which you approach your target. If you try to flank your target from behind, chances are very low that you will catch up to them without being spotted by your target. Try to predict where your target is intending to go and meet him there. If your target changes his course, don't get frustrated and decide to follow behind him; try again to cut him off. This way, you will get kills more easily and will get stunned less often.

Heh, I'm going to miss that in AC:R.

[BigBalledEagle]

Originally posted by Eldest219:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by BigBalledEagle:
One thing that makes a huge difference in my opinion is the direction from which you approach your target. If you try to flank your target from behind, chances are very low that you will catch up to them without being spotted by your target. Try to predict where your target is intending to go and meet him there. If your target changes his course, don't get frustrated and decide to follow behind him; try again to cut him off. This way, you will get kills more easily and will get stunned less often.

Heh, I'm going to miss that in AC:R. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Yeah, this method will be pretty useless in Revelations. I predict that, as a result, Disguise will see even broader use.

[persiateddy95]

You kill them with your awesome.

[najzere]

1, 2, 4, none... however many pursuers you have, it's best to run to your target every time. I would follow the advice in this thread to start with, as it's good for new players to play a little conservatively until they pick up on the nuances. But eventually (if you're good), you'll be running everywhere, maximizing your points per minute. Personally I would stay off the roofs unless your target's up there, but I don't use Wall Runner, so who knows.

[Smavey]

Pretty much always run if you have no pursuers on you (the red dots in the upper left corner).

The biggest tip I can give you is something I had no idea until well after I reached level 50: Whispers.

Turn the "music" up to 10. when your pursuers are close there are literally whispers and ominous sounds that happen that are blatant but somehow I never noticed them!

Take advantage of this! Now you know someone is close to kill you so you can be on your defensive and use a smoke bomb or something

[PlasticAssasin8]

Watch plenty of videos, get killed plenty of times and you'll get there.

One thing to remember though.
Even if there is no red dot doesn't mean someone isn't tracking you down. The red dot means that you are the primary target on their radar. They can use the outer ring to find you anyway.

Check out the whispers, you wont look back.

[WyndsofWar]

Honestly, there's no real "right way" to find your targets. You just have to do what works best for you. I used to travel in moving blend groups exclusively, but found myself in you exact same position. As I came up against stiffer competition, I found myself losing more and more contracts. So I started expanding my scope of gameplay, and have incorporated many different styles of play.

First and most important, learn your maps. Get comfortable with them and know all the routes. There's no real way to learn this other than just playing matches and you'll eventually figure out all the paths, shortcuts, chase breakers, roof ledges, etc.

Once you have a good grasp on the maps, you'll find yourself taking routes that will cut off your targets path, as opposed to ending up behind them. The last place you want to be when close to your target is behind them. You will stand out like a sore thumb and suffer what most people suffer when their target is close and in line of sight ahead of them: tunnel vision. You stop paying attention to your surroundings and make for easy prey. Couldn't tell ya how many times I've scored saviour bonuses taking advantage of people closing in for a kill. But I'm not perfect, and have had it happen to me, with my pursuers dead ahead of me and I completely miss their approach thanks to tunnel vision.

You ask what's the best way to get to your target. My opinion, run like a bat outta hell when u have 1 or no pursuers. When your radar fills about halfway, stop and walk. Use corners and walls to your advantage so that your target doesn't see your approach. As much as this game emphasizes stealth, it also urges you to find and eliminate your targets quickly if you want high scores. You have to alternate speed and subtlety to be successful.

Listen to the whispers. Once you've heard them enough, you begin to realize what they are telling you. Quiet whispers mean your pursuer is in the vicinity, but not neccessarily in you line of sight. Slightly louder indicates your pursuer is in line of sight, but some distance away. Loud whispers are basically yelling at you to look around and find the persona who looks out of place/ walking alone/ wobbly-walking because they are panning their camera. That's when you drop your defensive ability and introduce them to your fist.

2 pursuers makes it a lil trickier. I tend to take a more round about route to get to my target to try and corral my pursuers behind me and get my target in front of me. This once again boils down to your knowledge of the map. Remember, 2 stuns are as good as an incognito kill, and if one of your pursuers is impatient, they initiate a chase which just begs for a smoke stun and an additional escape bonus.

3 pursuers, well, forget about your target unless they are close. Get your butt into a blend group (preferably one with 2 of your look-alikes) and wait for your would-be killers. As mentioned in prior posts, chances are extremely high that your target is chasing one of your pursuers. Wait them out, get a couple stuns (my preferred defensive abilities are LL snoke bomb and RR mute) and watch as your target hurries in to try and get a grounded bonus. Jokes on him as you casually walk out of your blend group, stab him/her in the brains (sorry, always play as the Dama Rossa who likes to stick her needles in peoples heads) and walk away smiling as you just earned yourself a couple stuns and a hidden/incog/saviour kill. Nice 1050 points for playing it cool.

What it all truly boils down to is experience. As any seasoned player on these forums will tell you, experience trumps all. Once you've seen and done it all, you'll be able to recognize situations and adapt your strategy appropriately. My main advice: don't get discouraged. Its very easy to get frustrated. Just stick with it and you will have success, I guarantee it. I had the same problems as you did, and now I'm consistenlty posting scores between 6000 - 9000 in ranked wanted. And if you're more of a visual learner, scroll up in the forums and click the multiplayer video thread. I learned from some of the best in Rainie, Loomer979, Crumplecorn, Shenmue, Malex McBlat and all the rest. Pick and choose some or even all of their gameplay methods and practice them, and you will see results.

Hope this helped, and good hunting!

[Stowdace]

Don't know if this has been said already so pardon with me.

A trick I use is sometimes when players run into a static group to blend they don't move while the NPCs do. I use that to identify them if not playing Manhunt where Templar Vision is great to have, when used in a spot where you yourself can't be seen so not to alert your target.

[KatieLynne]

Thanks. I've tried everything I've read here, and some do work better than others. I appreciate all of the input and help.

I played with a friend the other day, and he has been playing since shortly after the game came out, but he was unaware of the whispers. I had to help him out a little and explain. I never would have known that's what they were for if no one here had told me.

[Highwayman48]

Originally posted by KatieLynne:
Ok, so I am very new to this, just started playing multiplayer today. I seem to have a real hard time getting to my target alive or in time. It seems I always get the targets that are on the opposite side of the map, and I don't know the map layouts, so I routinely end up losing my targets.

I read that running isn't a good thing to do, but if I don't, I usually end up losing my target. If I do run toward my target, I get assassinated on the way and can never outrun my pursuer (I hate sprint already). I find it rather frustrating that I can't seem to do anything.

Any tips? I'm used to games like Halo where your targets are closer and easier to see. Run at your target until they can see you (or you can see them), which is indicated by the color of that blue bar at the bottem of the screen. When dark blue they/you can't be seen when light blue you're visible. This is when you should be stealthy. Just blend, and/or act normally. Normal is defined as how the other people act around you. Also you could play the gametype where there's an offensive team and a defensive team. Hope I helped.

[GrimMerros]

Patience. That sums up the game and how to play it I feel. Just be patient. The others here have given great advice but my bit is just lay in wait and slowly make your way to your target while being observant.

[BeckWrecks]

Originally posted by KatieLynne:
Ok, so I am very new to this, just started playing multiplayer today. I seem to have a real hard time getting to my target alive or in time. It seems I always get the targets that are on the opposite side of the map, and I don't know the map layouts, so I routinely end up losing my targets.

I read that running isn't a good thing to do, but if I don't, I usually end up losing my target. If I do run toward my target, I get assassinated on the way and can never outrun my pursuer (I hate sprint already). I find it rather frustrating that I can't seem to do anything.

Any tips? I'm used to games like Halo where your targets are closer and easier to see.

If your really having a hard time with the maps layout, just get a few friends together for a private session and just go around exploring the map and looking around. You could also experiment with abilities like firecrackers to see how far you need to throw them to successfully blind them and such. But yeah, Katie- if your on the XB you could add me and I could show you the tricks and best locations for each map and mode! http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif