AC4 Black Flag multiplayer strategy #11: Mastering Controls

Welcome to Part 11 of WiNGSPANTT’s Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag multiplayer strategy guide!

One of the most overlooked, simple steps to improving your gameplay is to improve your understanding of the game’s controls. If you can’t get your character to do what you want when you need it most, you’re going to be sitting on the wrong end of a stun animation over and over again.

The game does a fine job of explaining the basic controls, but there are still a lot of nuances you should be aware of that aren’t completely clear.

• If you tap the off-hand button right before using a corner-swinging chase breaker, you’ll vault forward instead of sideways. This is a leftover command from Assassin’s Creed Revelations’ hookblade mechanics. Press the off-hand button after your feet have left the ground but before your hands grab the chase breaker. Use this option to cross huge distances very quickly.
• Remember that you can hold the off-hand button while falling to grab onto a ledge or surface directly in front of you. This is especially useful when trying to gain an advantage in a chase.
• The in-game guide tells you to press the fast walk button “right before” an obstacle to pass over it instead of vaulting. Simply hold fast walk and the high profile trigger to make timing easier.
• With the exception of prompted quick-locking, it’s almost always better to hold the lock-on command and manually aim for your target’s head to guarantee locks in the crowd.
• When approaching a ledge, always remember you have four input options.
  • Hold the high profile trigger to vault off the ledge in any analog direction. Turn on smart jump assistance in Options if you want to be guided to your locked targets.
  • Hold the fast walk button to walk casually off the ledge. Your fall will still count as a high profile action, but this will help you avoid leaps of faith and get your off the roof fast.
  • Hold the off-hand button to slip off the ledge, turn, and hang. This will put your persona in a good position to set up ledge grabs or maintain elevation while killing line of sight.
  • Press forward on your directional controls without any other input to lean over the ledge. Your character’s line of sight will extend downward. If you drop a bomb from this position, it will activate on the ground under you (instead of on the roof near the ledge).
• Many abilities can be thrown or activated at range by holding the ability activation button. Firecrackers, Morph, Wipe, Time Phase, all bombs, and a few other skills can be used in this manner. While holding, finalize the trajectory and release to fire. Keep in mind your character will be placed in a conspicuous aiming stance while readying this type of action.
• Abilities that offer hold-to-activate modes can be easily cancelled with directional input motion or, in some cases, the primary and off-hand buttons. If, for instance, you long-aim Poison Dart at an opponent, you can often get him to charge at you. Cancel and assassinate for an easy kill.
• Hold the off-hand button and high profile toggle at the same time to shoulder-ram the crowd. This is primarily useful for disrupting neutral players. For instance, ruin a perfectly stealthy approach by ramming the 2^nd-place player as he moves in for the kill on a hapless victim.
• If you’re having trouble moving in a steady manner, consider using the camera to control your movement. Hold one direction on your direction input, then pan the camera carefully to influence your character’s trajectory. This is especially useful on PC to override WASD stickiness.
• Technically, you can depress the left analog stick while standing in a blend group to toggle character selection within that group. However, this control scheme is hugely unreliable, so don’t bother trying to master it.
• If activated normally, Decoy and Bodyguard will move wherever they please. But if you lock onto a character before or during their duration, your temporary double will move in that direction.
• Pressing the Assassinate button really, really hard won’t have any gameplay effect on your target, but it’s immensely satisfying nonetheless. Scream “EAT THAT, JERK!” for extra effect.

Looking for more tips? Head back to the main Assassin’s Creed multiplayer strategy guide index.