Assassin's Creed: Dealing with Templars

By far, the most difficult enemies you will regularly encounter while playing Assassin's Creed are the Templars. There are 60 of them spread through out the game -- about ten in each of the major cities (Acre, Damascus and Jerusalem) and another thirty or so in the Kingdom area. They are easily identified by their white robes with a red cross on their chest and silly-looking, canister-shaped helmets.

These guys are tough. By comparison, I can drop any guard in the game with a single thrown knife, yet these guys will still come running at you after sinking four knives into their chests. There are really only two ways to deal with these guys:

• Stealth -- Fortunately for you, if you can catch a Templar unaware, you can slip your hidden dagger into his back and be done with him. Templars always are found with a chest* behind them, which can sometimes make a stealth approach difficult, but not impossible.
  
  If the Templar has his back to a wall, you can often hang from the wall, equip your hidden blade and then select the "Assassiate" option by hitting the X button. It's one of the coolest kills in the game.
  
  I've also found that if the Templar is looking straight ahead with his back to a corner, that I can sneak up on him by hugging a wall to either side of him without him noticing. Once you are behind him, show him the purpose of your blade.
  
  
• Brute Force -- When stealth fails (or isn't possible) you are going to have to fight these guys. The fights are ugly. You can't combo-kill them, they break through your defense posture, and they throw you around like a rag doll at every opportunity. My best approach to taking these guys down in this situation is:
  
  
• Only slash once with your sword and immediately block. (Combo kills fail, because the Templar will almost always counter your second strike.)
  
• Try to get a counter in using RT or RT+X
  
• Jump away using RT+A
  
• Do your best to grab him after his first hit and throw him to the ground! If you can get him to fall, then run to him and stab like a madman.
  
Hitting him when he's down is the only way I've been able to consistently kill these guys in a fight. But getting the grab is risky and difficult. Try it enough times, though, and you'll eventually get him -- and without getting killed if your sync bar is reasonably well developed.

One bonus to dropping a Templar is that your sync bar will immediately refill, which can be a welcome event if you encounter a Templar accidentally while fighting off (or running from) a group of guards.

Another benefit is that the Templar is permanently retired from the game and you are one step closer to getting the Personal Vendetta achievement.

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* The chest is the game's recognition of the Templar's creation of modern banking. They were the first to allow you to deposit money or gold in one place and withdraw it from another after presenting a draft or check. The system was initially put in place as a way of protecting pilgrims during the Crusades. Highwaymen would have nothing to steal if travellers deposited funds with the Templars before beginning their pilgrimage.