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Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
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By The Book achievement in AC 4

By The Book

Complete 100% of all main mission constraints.

By The Book0
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How to unlock the By The Book achievement

  • destinee ehgcdestinee ehgc
    03 Feb 2014 03 Feb 2014 16 Jul 2019
    If you need precise help on a mission (for me it was the double assassination of Cockram and Burgess) here is a super guide by Morbious17 on xbox360achievements.org. All credit goes to them, I am simply reposting it as I found it useful. The achievement unlocks after the credits if you are doing this on your first run. Obviously this post contains spoilers. Any questions or problems please PM me and I will try to help and amend the post if necessary. Happy assassinating!

    Sequence 2 Memory 1

    Tackle the pickpocket
    When you get close enough, press B to tackle the pickpocket.

    Use smoke bombs to escape combat
    As soon you finish the bar fight and regain control, press Y to use one of your smoke bombs

    Sequence 2 Memory 2

    Hire dancers to distract guards
    As soon as the guards your supposed to follow gets to a restricted zone, there will be two more guards and dancers across from them. Simply hire them and press LB to distract the two guards.

    Stay out of combat
    To the left of the fort’s entrance is a viewpoint on the map. Go to this location to find some crates on the ground and poles and planks sticking out of the wall to grab onto. Follow this path until you make a right turn.

    As soon as you land, there will be a window on the right with two guards inside. When the one moving turns away, jump onto a the nearby plank and climb up. Jump up to grab a ledge, then go all the way to the right past the cannon. You will see three nearby guards on your map. When the left one is making his way back to the cannon, climb up and jump to the left. In the direction you need to go, you will see several guards but only one patrolling.

    Wait until the patrolling guard is heading away from you, then hide next to the crates directly behind the pair of guards. When you get the chance, move up to the next set of crates so that they are between you and the sniper on the roof. When the patrolling guard is heading back, briefly step to the right so that he doesn’t see you, then move back behind the crate. After this, go up to the door and wait until you’re anonymous to be able to go in. After you exit the door, turn right and dive into the water. Then head to the merchant.

    Sequence 2 Memory 3

    Complete Roger’s shooting challenge
    After shooting a few of the targets, the hosts will talk to you. Do NOT press B near the man that says “continue” over his head. Press B near the man that says “challenge” over his head. Before talking to him, manually reload your pistols. After you accept the challenge, position yourself so that you can see all the targets then proceed to fire after the targets become active.

    Pickpocket all Templars
    Simply press and hold B near each of the Templars while they are talking to steal from them.

    Sequence 2 Memory 4

    Use the pistol in combat
    Self-explanatory. Shoot one of the assassins.

    Tackle the sage from the above
    Run after the sage and notice where he climbs up the ladder. Do NOT follow him. Instead run along the street and take the next right. You’ll see dancers on your minimap. Go to them and stand above the stairs. The sage will drop down and run down the stairs. Press B as he passes to tackle him from above.

    Here's a video if you get stuck:
    Thanks to zeno2k for that addition.

    Sequence 2 Memory 5

    Stay out of combat
    I assume this means don’t get into open conflict. Don’t get detected to be safe. From the third guard described below, continue towards the green circle on your minimap. Use eagle vision to locate your target on the stairs. Whistle when he gets close for an assassination then loot the key. Climb up the wall to the left of the stairs when the guard isn’t looking. Assassinate them move from one stalk zone to another until you get to another guard. Assassinate when no one is looking.

    Move in the same direction and you will head behind a building. There are two open doors you can hide in. Assassinate the guard when he walks by. Continue on to see an angled cart. Run up it to the other side of the wall when the sniper isn’t looking. You will see guards in front of you to the slightly to the right. Move left while hugging the wall around until you get to a tree. Climb it then jump over the wall and open the door.

    Kill guards from stalking zones
    From the start, jump over the fence and walk into the vegetation to begin stalking. One guard patrols in a rectangular path while the other is stationary. Sneak up to the edge of the vegetation and assassinate them one at a time. I picked off the stationary first then the patrolling one as soon as he came back around. From here, go straight ahead and to the left. You will see a lone guard. Whistle to lure him over to you for your third stalk zone kill.

    Sequence 2 Memory 6

    Kill guards from behind corners
    Go up to the doorway and whistle from the corner. Press X when the guard gets close for your first kill. To the left of your new friend is a wall of cargo. Get to the corner and whistle to attract the nearby guard for your second kill. Get to the corner next to your new friend and whistle to the your third kill.

    Free 23 pirates
    The prisoners are in groups. Kill your way to the first group which is nine pirates. Run up the bowsprit (pole sticking out the front of the ship) and jump to the next group. If you’re on the mast, you can assassinate one or two guards below. Either way kill the enemies then free the next group which is three pirates. Run up the bowsprit and jump to the next ship’s ledge.

    Assassinate the two guards one at a time, then the third nearby guard, and finally another pair before freeing two more pirates. Run up the pulley then jump onto the right side of the mast. Jump to the next one when it lines up. Go down the hatch below for your last group of pirates bringing your total to 23.

    NOTE: I don’t know if they can die before you rescue them or the objective is cancelled upon getting 18, but you won’t have that problem if you rescue them in this order.

    Edit: When you save the 18, it tells you to go kill the captain, but you can go save the other pirates. I believe all the guards will come after you and not kill the pirates as this is a memory mission not random pirate saves.

    Thanks to Onsidic for this information.

    Sequence 3 Memory 1

    Shoot an iguana.
    Self-explanatory. You’re looking for a small lizard. Don’t get too close, they will run away.

    Air assassinate an ocelot.
    Self-explanatory. Ocelots look like small cheetahs. Climb a tree near one and wait for your opportunity. They will run if you get too close.

    Sequence 3 Memory 2

    Disarm and kill guards
    This is a little misleading. You can’t just disarm them then kill them. You have to take their weapon away and kill them with it. To do this, selected unarmed by using the dpad then press B to counter and A to disarm. Now finish them off with that weapon and repeat two more times.

    Shoot the rope to save the pirate
    Self-explanatory. Have your pistol reloaded and equipped them hold LT to aim at the rope and RT to fire when the reticule is red.

    Sequence 3 Memory 3

    Use a swivel to kill sailors
    You need to kill 3 sailors with the swivel gun. To do this you need to initiate a boarding then run over to a swivel gun and use on the sailors before your crew kills too many of them. You may need to initiate boarding on another ship to get your remaining kills.

    Plunder 20 rum
    To know what cargo a ship has before you plunder it, focus on it with your spyglass using RB. Remember, sinking a ship then looting it only earns you half of the cargo it is carrying to try to board it whenever possible.

    Sequence 3 Memory 4

    Plunder a hunter ship
    To get a hunter ship to appear, you need to continue to sink enemy ships until your notoriety is high enough. You’ll know it’s a hunter ship if you spot red sails.

    Plunder 30 sugar
    Same as the rum objective. Use your spyglass and try to board instead of sink.

    Sequence 3 Memory 5

    Stay out of combat
    Do not get detected. You can see enemy ships’ field of vision on the minimap. It is yellow. You can slow down to make sharper turns if you have to. It is a good idea to stay out of range of an enemy ship’s front field of view because you never know when or what direction they’ll turn.

    Sabotage alarm bells
    To do this, run up to an alarm bell and press B. When you dock your ship and have to run to a checkpoint, you’ll find one on the way. Quickly assassinate the guard and disable it before moving on. You’ll find a second while eavesdropping. You can walk up (while holding A to speed up) to the drunk guard, assassinate him, and disable the bell before continuing to eavesdrop.

    Sequence 3 Memory 6

    Use one broadside to sink 2 boats
    I recommend upgrading your broadside and round shot power before attempting this and to do this one first since it’s harder. Fortunately, the ships you have to sink are very weak. The best thing to do is to weaken them with a chain shot or two followed by a swivel shot. Then you have to maneuver so that two weak ship are close to each other before firing a broadside. I didn’t focus the aim and let it stay spread out to sink my two ships.

    Use heavy shot to sink ships
    For this; you need to buy the upgrade first. Make sure to do it before starting the mission since it won’t let you leave the wheel once it starts. All you need to do is sail next to a ship and press RT without aiming. Repeat on one more ship.

    NOTE: You only have eight ships for these.

    Sequence 3 Memory 7

    Stay out of combat
    When you start, you’ll have to scale a large structure. After doing so, you’ll eventually start to see enemies. Assassinating the first one is easy enough. When you come up to the next two, just speed walk up to them while staying out of their sight and assassinate them. You’ll continue on and see three more guards on your minimap. The one closest two you is set up to be assassinated from a tree. After dealing with him and heading towards the checkpoint you’ll see another guard who doesn’t seem to turn around.

    You’ll see yet another lone guard up ahead who can be dispatched easily. You’ll come to a point where there are four guards. Get into the stalk zone and lure/assassinate the first three then walk up to the fourth and finish him off. The next section involves five guards: one sniper, two patrolling, and two stationary. You can deal with the two patrolling by waiting for the one in the back to get near the stalk zone then take out the remaining one. Next, you can speed walk into the nearby stalk zone. Don’t worry about the two guards in front of you noticing you. You’ll make it to the stalk zone before they start a conflict. Sneak past them and continue on to complete the objective.

    Air assassinate Du Casse
    What I did was sneak up the back of the ship, assassinate the lone guard, and climb the mast when no one was looking. Du Casse will walk right under it over and over.

    Sequence 4 Memory 2

    Knock out assassins
    You can’t kill anyone anyways, so this one isn’t too difficult. Doing this object actually makes continuing the main story easier. Stick to knocking them out one by one and whistling from stalk zones if necessary. Knock out the first two assassins then synchronize and dive into the water. Swim along the shore until you see a stalk zone and a lone assassin. Lure/knock out the assassin to complete the objective.

    Loot treasure chests
    Self-explanatory and easy since they show up on your map on the way to the main objective. Be sure to get the fourth chest BEFORE talking to James, because doing so will end the mission. Walk behind the two assassins when the third turns around without getting close to James.

    Sequence 4 Memory 4

    Use sleep darts on guards
    Being spotted doesn’t matter so don’t worry if you get into conflict. Simply shoot guards with the specified number of darts. Freeing assassins will replenish your darts.

    Use berserk darts on guards
    Same as above. Press right on the dpad to switch darts.

    Sequence 5 Memory 1

    Use the mortar to damage the fort
    You must first purchase the mortar upgrade before the mission. To use it, hold LB to aim then RT to fire.

    Use a running assassinate to kill the officer
    To do this you have to hold RT to run at the officer then press X as you get close to him to assassinate him. You could throw a smoke bomb first to make it easier.

    Sequence 5 Memory 2

    Kill gunners
    Gunners are the red icons on your map that have reticules in them. You have to get these kills while tailing the objective. You will see six gunners while tailing. The second or third gunner you see will be far off to the right. You risk getting too far from your target, so I ignored this one. The fourth gunner shoots someone then walks away. After he shoots, he disappears from your minimap but he still counts! You can assassinate him as he’s leaving the red zone. If you don’t want to risk it, there are two more gunners easily accessible before this part of the mission is over.

    Kill guards stunned by smoke bombs
    Make sure you have some smoke bombs before you begin the mission. (or you could run over to the shop at the very beginning of the tailing if you’re quick enough) When you have to fight, there will be exactly five guards and an ally. Using the smoke bomb will keep your ally from killing them, so focus on finishing the guards off.

    Sequence 5 Memory 3

    Use berserk darts on brutes
    Make sure you’re stocked before the mission. Brutes are guards that are bigger than usual. An easy way of spotting them is to look at their melee weapon. Brutes wield large axes. Right after your leap into the cart of hay, there will be a pair of brutes walking your way. Hit them each with a berserk dart and you’re done.

    Use sleep darts on gunners
    Gunners are guards with muskets. You’ll find them in the tall watch towers. As you’re continuing with your main objective.

    Sequence 6 Memory 1

    Loot treasure chests
    Self-explanatory. Just look for them on your minimap. There are six total but you only need three. From the start of the dive, there’s a chest you can’t get to until you lift a hatch on some wreckage. This is part of the mission and doesn’t count for the option objective. There are some more chests in the next section, but they’ll be harder to get so try to get a couple in this first area.

    Avoid being attacked by a shark
    You’ll see a shark attack some guy taking a leisurely underwater dive. After this, they can notice you so you’ll want to avoid them. It has a detection meter like other enemies, but its detection is very quick so stick to wreckage and seaweed whenever it one close.

    Sequence 6 Memory 2

    Rescue survivors
    Survivors are the icons on your map of a person sticking out of water. I went straight to the main objective and was able to find nine before locating it, so this shouldn’t be difficult. The main objective is a large ship docked next to a small island, so stay away if you don’t have your five survivors yet.

    Kill guards stunned by smoke bombs
    Once again, make sure you’re stocked up before the mission. Go up to a group of guards, drop a smoke bomb, and kill away.

    Sequence 6 Memory 3

    Use sleep darts on crocodiles
    As soon as you run along the dock, the camera will focus on your objective. After this, use eagle vision to spot some crocs. There are three in this first area. You don’t have much time since you need to get close to your objective, so just go for the closest crocodile and move on. After you exit the wreckage and land on a tilted tree, you will see two more below you. Shoot them with darts to finish this objective. If you don’t get all three at this point, there are several more in the waters as you tail your objective.

    Skin a crocodile
    This is convenient since you have less to hunt later on for upgrades. The first crocodile you can use a dart on is in front of you as you head to your objective. Press B to skin it after you use a sleep dart.

    Sequence 7 Memory 1

    Kill guards while hanging from a ledge
    Continue with the main objective until you are required to infiltrate the fort. From this point, look left to see a structure for hanging people. Behind it is a tree you can walk along. Do so and jump along until you reach the corner of the fort. You’ll be able to climb up from here. Your first opportunity is a gunner who will most likely yell at you until you pull him off the ledge. Shimmy along the ledge under him and press X to get your first ledge kill. From here, climb up and out onto a nearby pole. Hope to the next one then turn and climb up the wall. Here are your next two kills completing this objective.

    Sabotage the alarm bell
    this is nothing new. From where you finished the above objective, locate the broken part of this tower and look down. You will see a double assassination opportunity. Take it. Looking off to the right from here is the bell, but you might want to take out the nearby gunner first.

    Sequence 7 Memory 2

    Kill 4 guards in one kill streak
    For this, I just lured four guards to me before dropping a smoke bomb and assassinating them all to complete the objective.

    Use blowpip darts on guards
    For this you need to hit ten different guards with darts so be sure you are fully stocked before attempting this.
    NOTE: The mission ends immediately after you pick up the last keg.

    Sequence 7 Memory 3

    Kill guards from stalking zones
    As soon as the mission starts there will be a guard and stalking zone right in front of you. This is your first kill. Continue tailing the targets and they will eventually call two guards to follow them. At this point there are several stalking zones on both sides of the path they walk. You need to run into one and whistle to kill one, then run into another stalk zone and whistle to get the other. If you don’t get it by this point, there are two more guards and another stalk zone on the right as the main targets walk down a path between two cliffs. There are a few more soldiers and stalk zones on the beach as well.

    Air assassinate Chamberlaine
    If you want to be sneaky, you can climb up the back of the ship and assassinate the two stationary guards from the ledge. Then climb up the rear mast and wait for him to walk under you. If not, killing everyone else on board and waiting for him to forget about you works as well.

    Sequence 7 Memory 4

    Use the mortar to sink ships
    I recommend upgrading mortars and mortar storage before attempting this. The good news is most of the ships you encounter are weak. The bad news is they’re fast so you have to anticipate where they’ll be when you aim.

    Use barrels to sink a ship
    Upgrading will help. Make sure you’re stocked then either get a ship to chase you or sail past it and drop some barrels. What I did was drop them near ships then use my swivel cannon to make the barrels explode. This is easier than trying to get the other ships to actually collide with the barrels. NOTE: Make sure you complete these objectives before the ally ship sails directly towards a blockade.

    Sequence 8 Memory 1

    Kill guards
    As soon as you get this objective, there will be guard in front of you. Take him out then run to the nearby stalk zone. A second guard is nearby. As soon as he and your two targets are looking away, run up and assassinate him. Then get into the nearby stalk zone to continue eavesdropping. A third guard is to the right as the two targets walk into the building. Luckily, he’s looking away so assassinate him then continue pursuit. As soon as you enter the building, a fourth guard is on the left. Assassinate him to complete the objective then run across the room and into the stalk zone around the corner to continue the mission.

    Use heavy shot to incapacitate the Man O’ War
    When a mission warns you to upgrade your ship before you begin, you know something like this will pop up. Fortunately, you don’t have to rely solely on the heavy shot. All you have to do is deal the incapacitating blow with heavy shot. Use anything you like until you get close to that point first.

    Sequence 8 Memory 2

    Damage the Royal African Pearl with an upgraded ram
    Make sure you upgrade your ram at least TWICE before the mission then ram into the target ship. The standard ram does not count as an upgrade, but the reinforced ram does.

    supadryz adds: "This is glitched for a lot of people including myself. I think if you upgrade the Ram too far it will not unlock the challenge. Until it's patched no way of unlocking 100%."

    Jobbenar informs me this must have now been patched as he managed to get it with a fully unlocked ram.

    Use the fort’s defenses to sink a ship
    This one is annoying if you DON’T capture the fort before the mission. If you do, either the fort will instantly sink a nearby gunboat or you’ll have to weaken and lure a ship within range of your fort so that it’ll get sunk. NOTE: Do these before boarding the Pearl.

    Sequence 8 Memory 3

    Skin animals
    At the start, follow the main mission’s checkpoints. When you get to the second one, turn right. You should immediately see a jaguar. You could take it head on, or you could run into the nearby stalk zone and whistle because everything in the Assassin’s Creed world wants to know what kind of creature whistles from bushes. Leave this area and go a good distance away and return to see it respawn. Kill and skin it three times. If you don’t want to do this, there’s another Jaguar spawn on the path you follow while chasing someone with two Jaguars. There’s a map next to the Jaguar.

    Air assassinate Vane
    As you run towards Vane, the structure in front of you collapses preventing you from using it. From here, go right and you’ll see rows of pillars. Climb them or a structure near them and make your way around to the side of the large, central structure. Jump onto it and keep climbing up and to the right until you get to the top. Synchronize if you want, then assassinate your target below.

    Sequence 9 Memory 1

    Kill brutes
    It doesn’t matter how you do it as long. Near the first bell is a single brute and two guards. In the very center of the green zone on your map is a second brute. Slightly north of him is a building with a guard on top of it. A third brute will be circling this building on ground level. A fourth brute is in the northwest corner of the green zone.

    Sabotage alarm bells
    Same as the last time you did this. The corner of the area you need to search for your main objective is a bell. If you look at your map and go directly to the east of the first bell, you’ll find a second bell. Objective complete. There’s a third bell in the northeast corner of the green zone if you missed one of the first two.

    Sequence 9 Memory 2

    Double assassinate Cockram and Burgess
    This is easy if you’re quick. There’s a synchronization point near the green zone. Jumping will make you land in a cart of hay. To the right of that hay is a lone guard and a stalk zone behind him. Quickly run up behind him and assassinate him. Then run in the direction he was facing to another stalk zone. Wait until the patrolling guard has his back turned and take him out. Now run in the same direction you were running before and you’ll find the two targets. They’ll be on the other side of a tree barking orders. Next to this tree is a stalk zone. Get there and wait for them to start walking. As soon as they pass the guard facing the other way, speed walk up to them and double assassinate them.

    Free pirates
    For this, you have to free two groups of pirates. There are only two groups, so be careful not to alert gunners or they’ll shoot the pirates. I like to shoot a nearby guard with a berserk dart that way you can run up and kill them without the gunners instantly shooting the pirates. Both groups show up on your map.

    Sequence 10 Memory 1

    Stay out of combat
    We haven’t had one of these in a while. What I did was swim around the front of the ship so the gunner was facing away from me and climb up the shroud. (be careful of the guy on the other mast. You might have to dart him.) After getting the flag, I dove straight into the water holding B until I was close to my ship.

    From this point all you have to do is sail onwards without attacking or hitting other ships. When you stop again, dive into the water and run up on the beach on the far right side into the stalk zone. Run into the next stalk zone when no one is looking. You’ll see two stationary guys blocking your path. Get as close as you can without leaving the stalk zone and whistle. This will bring them both to you. Get back and wait for one or both to turn around then assassinate the closest one. Either whistle or walk up and assassinate the other.

    Going the way they were facing and to the left is another stalk zone, go there. Looking around, you’ll see some more stalk zones. Go to the leftmost one when you get a chance. Stay on the far right side of this zone as two guards will walk through it. When they head towards the direction you came from, run to the next stalk zone and again to the one ahead of this one when you get the chance. Whistle to get the officer to come to you then take him out. Do the same for the brute when he gets close. Loot the chest then go back to the stalk zone. Your ship will arrive so swim out to it. Stealth swim if necessary.

    Sail to the objective and avoid hitting any ships. When you have to stop yet again, jump into the water and swim directly to the first tower. Run into the nearby stalk zone when no one is looking. Whistle to lure guards and maneuver around the bush as necessary. When everyone heads back to their post, pick one off. Repeat until you can safely climb up the ladder. Go up to the top then press left when at the top to shimmy a bit. Climb up and position yourself to double assassinate the guards.

    From the top of this tower, turn around and leap into the trees. Go towards the next tower and you will come to an angled tree leading into a stalk zone. Enter when the five patrolling guards are facing away. From here, maneuver through the stalk zones to the left side of the rock formations. Follow the beach to come to a narrow stalk zone. Wait here until the guard above is going away from you then assassinate him. Now go climb up the tower and assassinate the lone guard.

    Use a rope swing to kill the captain
    The captain will be pacing back and forth. Wait until he is almost in line with the rope then run into the rope to swing. Press X in the air and kill him from above. After the cutscene both objectives will finally be complete.

    UPDATE: As mentioned by ResidentialEvil, there is an occasional glitch on the rope swing objective. While it appears to be a rare issue, sometimes it doesn't register even if you do it correctly. ResidentialEvil persisted and eventually got it to count on the 5th attempt.

    Sequence 10 Memory 2

    Stay out of combat while finding Hornigold
    Hornigold is on a schrooner. I found him via spyglass by navigating straight ahead through some small rocks then around the Devil’s Backbone on the left. Take advantage of speeding around corners of rocks to break line of sight with other ships until you can identify him. After that you don’t have to be stealthy.

    Air assassinate Hornigold
    I’m sensing a pattern. Run straight towards your target, strafing to the right when necessary to avoid guards. When you reach the island he’s on, look left to find climbable ledges. Climb up and head right under the broken bridge. As soon as you get out from under it, look left and climb up. Make sure the patrolling guards are moving away from you. Above you are two more guards to either assassinate or ignore. Where they were, look around for a tree to get to the target’s island. There are plenty of corners and some stalk zones to get your kills if you’re still being stealthy. It’d be best to lure the two closest guards to kill then the patrolling one behind him. From the third guard, climb up the structure and shimmy around the back. Climb up the broken arch and leap onto your prey.

    Sequence 10 Memory 3

    Incapacitate all guardians while unarmed
    Make sure you manually choose to be unarmed. As long as you don’t assassinate them by accident while they’re down, you’ll be fine. You don’t have to be stealthy here. You’ll know you got them all when the green zone vanishes and a new one pops up.

    Incapacitate guardians from stalking zone
    Jumping on them doesn’t count! Knock out via conflict doesn’t count! You have to be in the stalking zone as you’re knocking them out from behind for them to count. Do this five times. Use eagle vision to spot them ahead of time. Whistling will work but only if they are chasing you and lost sight of you. Run up to them, then around a tree, then back into the stalk zone. Now whistle and wait for them to come to you.

    Sequence 11 Memory 1

    Sabotage alarm bells
    You know the drill. The first is directly ahead on the left side of the road. Getting the synchronization point will show you the locations of three more. Stealth isn’t a requirement so go nuts.

    Visit old friends
    If you synchronize this part of the map, you’ll see an Animus fragment. Go to it then look for a skeleton in a cage. Interact with it. When you go through the prison, you’ll notice prisoners on the way to your main objective. Pay attention to gates because you can interact with one of them which will complete this objective. Eagle vision will highlight the people for this objective as well. This is BEFORE you free your ally.

    Sequence 11 Memory 3

    Use the rope dart to hang guards
    The game will direct you to where to hang the first guard. If your game is like mine, the guy next to him will just look at where his buddy used to stand. Climb up the tree and hang him too. If not, there are plenty more guards.

    Use the rope dart to pull guards
    Do the same thing as above (Y+down) except on the ground. Since the sleep/berserk darts had to be different guards, I assume these darts might be the same way. You’re welcome to try it on the same guard more than once.

    Sequence 12 Memory 1

    Kill the diplomat from a haystack
    You will have to tail him for a bit. As soon as you see a red zone appear on your map run ahead to it and jump into the haystack. He’ll walk up to it and turn around. Kill him.

    Kill Rogers from a bench
    As soon as this objective pops up, turn left and look for a bench next to the large house under the awning. Sit there and wait for Rogers to walk by. When he does, kill him.

    Sequence 12 Memory 2

    Kill guards by destroying powder barrels
    As soon as this pops up, leave the ship and head towards the green dot. You’ll see several small powder barrels and one large one. What I did was attract attention, throw a smoke bomb, step back, and shoot the barrel. I got five out of eight kills here. With a lot of people now chasing me, I ran around looking for another barrel. I found one near a bell a bit closer to the main objective. I dropped a smoke bomb, backed up, and shot again to complete this objective.

    Use the rope dart to kill Roberts
    What I did was I faced Roberts and held down Y+LS. This choked Roberts to death without having to hang him.

    Sequence 12 Memory 3

    Stay out of combat
    As soon as you get this, head to the left side of the fort and dive into the water. Climb up the dock attached to the fort when the guards aren’t looking. Assassinate the one that heads inside and the one around the corner. Approach the next room to see two guards. Wait for them to part ways and follow the one on the left. Kill him then wait by the corner. Whistle when the other gets close enough and kill him. Head around the room to a window. Jump out and climb along the wall then climb up when you get halfway to the other side. Pull the guard off at the top before climbing up. Go to the right or the left and kill the gunner. Then wait for the patrolling guard to move away from you and hide around a corner waiting for him to return. When that’s done, look down in the center for your target. When he gets close, do an air assassination. This will complete this objective.

    Use guards as a human shield
    Right after you kill the target, you’ll get thrown into another fight. There will be three guards as well. You need to use two of them as human shields. When the Templar pulls out a pistol to aim, go near a guard and press A to use him as a shield. Do this one more time. While you’re waiting for the Templar to pull out the pistol, keep countering the guards without pressing any extra buttons to hurt/kill them.

    Sequence 12 Memory 4

    Free the guardian hostages
    As soon as you get to the red zone, you’ll notice some enemies on your map. Approach them, but don’t let them see you. They’re guarding two prisoners. Use a berserk dart on one of the enemies to get the gunner to stop aiming so you can run in and kill them all or just use your pistol. Continue you and you’ll see another group of guards and two more prisoners. Same drill as before. Yet another group lies ahead. Apply the same tactics to free the last three guardians.
    NOTE: If your ally gets detected, the gunner stops aiming at the guardians.

    Use the Observatory’s defenses to kill guards
    When you get to the room with all the guards, you’ll notice the crevices in the floor flashing. When it does, counter a guard then throw them into it. Do this four times to complete the objective.

    Guide not helping? View 1 more guide for this achievement.

    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    MrDemize16Can we just give this man an award for writing a comprehensive list of every single mission and how to do them.
    Posted by MrDemize16 on 01 Oct 22 at 07:26
    WannagoflexUnlocked after the credits for me. I skipped the credits actually.
    Posted by Wannagoflex on 18 Nov 23 at 10:56
    TheBigBBFor the rope swing, I am a victim of it not counting. Also found out that you can't save your game mid mission during a replay, as I was hoping to cloud save and reload the checkpoint from the cloud if it failed to register. Nope, if it fails you need to redo the whole mission unless you're doing it on your first go. Anyway, the time it didn't work, he was facing left towards me, and "saw" me as I killed him, though this did not fail the out of combat objective. The time it worked he was facing to the right away from me.
    Posted by TheBigBB on 29 Nov 23 at 03:26
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  • RPG LumiRPG Lumi
    Locked 11 Dec 2013 12 Jan 2015
    To get the "By the Book" achievement you must complete 100% synchronization across all Main Story sequences; you do not need to achieve 100% on side missions, collectibles or side activities. This achievement can only be obtained by completing each individual memory in each sequence and their respective optional objectives.

    If you would like a detailed written guide on the optional objectives and how to obtain them, Morbious17 has added a great solution on the 360 achievement list. Incidentally, destinee ehgc has posted Morbious' guide as a solution below mine (or above depending on votes).
    OR
    If you prefer visual aids to assist with achievements I have included videos further down the solution.
    EDIT 01/11/2014: Solution was reported and the videos that were previously in this solution removed and replaced with a link to IGN's videos for Assassins Creed Black Flag.

    How to View your Progress/Replay past Memories
    You can view your synchronization percentage at any time by pressing the Menu button (button with three horizontal lines) on your controller and selecting "Progress Tracker". The 13 white/gray vertical lines on the left represent each of the 13 main sequences from 1 to 13 (Epilogue). Above these it will show your current percentage completion across all main sequences. Highlighting each of the vertical lines will give you an overall synchronization percentage for its respective sequence. By pressing A on any of the sequences, you will be presented with the list of memories within each.

    To replay a memory, scroll up or down using the left stick until you see the memory in that particular sequence you wish to replay and press A.

    Each memory will state the current synchronization percentage achieved and lists the optional objectives (if any) to be completed. Please note that not all memories have optional objectives. Completed objectives are yellow with the bullet coloured in, whereas objectives still to be completed are white.

    You need to complete the memory from start to finish to register any optional objectives you have unlocked. Do not abort the memory after completion of optional objectives because it will not save your progress and you will have to do them again.

    Additional Information
    - Thanks to Jodmeister for giving some very useful info. regarding objectives which require you to "Stay out of combat";

    "You can assassinate from cover and not lose the 'no combat' objective. Also the berserk darts are your friend for the no combat constraints as you can kill and distract at distance from concealment."

    It's important to note that the Blowpipe, along with Beserk and Sleep darts, are not available until Sequence 4, Memory 4. For the staying out of combat objectives before this, I would advise you to take your time to see the routes where guards go and to gauge where you can either get past or assassinate them from cover.

    - Thanks to PackageDonkey who has also provided some useful information regarding the 'No Combat' objectives;

    "To add, I (Edward) was spotted in a no combat sequence, booked out of the area before any actual combat and still got the no combat objective."

    This is when the radial minimap turns yellow; they have spotted you however you are still in a 'No Combat' scenario. As long as it does not turn red and ring the alert sound you can still earn the objective.

    - You do not need to complete both optional objectives at the same time to gain 100% on each memory. You can complete one optional objective and then replay to focus on the other. Thanks to RSDAY for confirming this.

    Videos
    Due to the reporting of the solution there is now a link to where these videos can be located which I hope will assist with this achievement. All these videos have been posted on Youtube by IGN; I take no credit whatsoever.

    Thanks for taking the time to look through my solution; I hope you found it useful. Incidentally if there is any additional information you think will be helpful to include please feel free to leave a comment and I will credit you for your input.

    ~Lumi

    ~Videos (Click below)
    IGN Assassins Creed: Black Flag Video List
    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    GHOST INS1DEPlayed the Royal African Pearl mission December 2016 and couldn't get the ram objective during my first play. Upgraded my ram to the 'Reinforced Ram' and it worked when I replayed the mission again - I did have to ram the ship twice for it to register. Hope that helps anyone reading and about to tackle this...
    Posted by GHOST INS1DE on 18 Dec 16 at 05:02
    JackBlaiseAchievement not unlocking for me despite being at 100%...did anyone find any fix?
    Posted by JackBlaise on 18 Nov 19 at 21:23
    wyxnirI see that this problem with the African Pearl is been going on for a while, i could get the ram objective after defeating all the legendary ships and getting that ram attack which makes you faster for a short time, i did that and it works, i don't know for you guys, but here is something you can try
    Posted by wyxnir on 26 Jul 22 at 14:17
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