1) Accessing ChallengesTo access the Challenges list hit Start to bring up the menu, then scroll down to ‘Abstergo Challenges’ and press ‘A’. This will bring up the list of challenges, which are spread across 7 different categories.
It’s important to note that, while this achievement only requires you to complete 35 challenges, the 4 ‘cheats’ achievements will require you to complete 65 challenges – so you’ll basically end up having to do pretty much every challenge anyway!
2) Challenge OverviewProvided below is a list of the challenges and a short collection of tips for each collection:
Lone Wolf ChallengesLone Wolf - Level 1 ChallengesSynchronise five viewpoints
Perform 10 assassinations
Perform 10 air assassinations.
Kill 10 enemies from hiding places.
Complete three Assassin intercepts.
These are all easy and will come naturally as you play the game. New York is home to the most assassin interception missions.Lone Wolf - Level 2 ChallengesClimb for a total of 500 meters.
Perform five double assassinations.
Perform 10 escapes from open conflict via blending or hiding.
Dive into water from a height of 45 meters.
All easy and will come naturally. There are numerous double assassination opportunities, especially in New York. Diving into the water from a height of 45 meters will also happen in the story and escaping and hiding should proof straightforward enough, however there are far less hiding spots than usual. I got a lot of these while exploring north New York, where there were a lot of bushes and hay stacks.
Lone Wolf - Level 3 ChallengesHang five enemies with rope darts.
Have 10 enemies killed by another berserk enemy.
Complete all 12 Assassin Intercepts
You get the rope dart as part of story progression and it’s easy to find isolated guards to hang – I got most of mine in New York while waiting on wires between buildings on for guards to walk past. You can make enemies beserk by using a Dart from your rifle, or throwing a grenade. The Assassin Intercepts will take a while and are all needed for another achievement, See that guide here:Privateer ChallengesPrivateer - Level 1 ChallengesPurchase three boat upgrades.
Sink a ship with the Puckle gun.
Capture three ships.
Plunder six warehouses.
Easy enough. Boat upgrades can be purchased in the Captain’s Cabin or at any Harbour Master. For the second one, you’re best of finding a small gunboat as it’ll only take 7 o 8 puckle gun shots. Capturing 3 ships should happen normally, just remember to Board ships rather than destroy them. The warehouses can be found at the locations whose icons are presented by a warehouse. Each of these locations will have between 1 and 3 warehouse, so this should come naturally.
Privateer - Level 2 ChallengesCapture three forts.
Sink a ship by ramming it.
Unlock five taverns.
Own five different figureheads.
There are 2 level 1 forts and a few level 2 forts, none of whom should prove a challenge once you have upgraded your hull a few times and have mortars. For the second one ram a Gunboat and it should go down first time. To ram some look straight ahead and press LT then A. To unlock taverns walk up to them and press ‘B’ on their door. You’ll be taken inside and will inexplicably get into a fight and have to knock out 3 or 4 guys. Doing so unlocks the tavern. There are dozens throughout the game and you can find a lot in New York. For figureheads you’ll have to buy them via the Morrigan Appearance menu in the Captain’s Cabin or at the harbour Master. Some of the naval Campaign missions also reward figureheads.Privateer - Level 3 ChallengesDefeat three men-o'-war.
Plunder three warehouses without triggering an alarm bell.
Complete two legendary battles.
Sail a total distance of 120 nautical miles.
You’ll be taking on Man O’ Wars in sequence 5 and 6 of the story and will get those done through natural story progression. For the plundering the warehouse without trigger alarms, focus on using beserk to get he guards to kill each other and clear our spaces, then sleep darts to incapacitate someone you need to run by. The legendary battles in the North West and South East of the North Atlantic are the easiest, however you should still have a fully upgraded ship before doing them. The 120 nautical miles will come naturally. You can see progress towards this by pressing start, selecting ‘database’ then selecting ‘statistics’.Scout ChallengesScout - Level 1 ChallengesCollect 10 Animus fragments.
Collect a Templar map.
Collect a piece of the Viking armour.
All incredibly easy. Templar maps are presented by a map icon while Viking Armour is represented by a broken sword icon. You’ll get these in no time.Scout - Level 2 ChallengesCollect 50 Animus fragments.
Collect all Templar maps.
Collect all pieces of the Viking armour.
Visit 15 different locations.
Should all come naturally as you clean out each area. Collecting the Templar maps is also required for another achievement, the guide for which is here:
Scout - Level 3 ChallengesCollect all 200 Animus fragments.
Synchronise all viewpoints.
Find all cave paintings.
This will take a long time, but as long as you sync the viewpoints on it’s location they will always be shown on the map. You then just have to go to the area indicated and press B or hit Eagle Vision etc. It’s worth noting that 30 of the Animus fragments are not found at ‘locations’ and instead are out on the open sea, trapped in ice bergs or perched on random debris. Capturing the fort of that ‘zone’ will make them appear on the map.Trapper ChallengesTrapper - Level 1 ChallengesSkin five animals.
Kill a Canadian Lynx with the hidden blade.
Harpoon a sea animal.
Pet five dogs.
You can pet the same dog 5 times, so just find one in New York and do that. Skinning 5 animals is easy. You can find Canadian Lynx’s in the North Atlantic at Grand-Entree, Le Chameau, Nerepis. Approaching them will trigger a QTE. The first button is always B, then second will either be X, Y or A.Trapper - Level 2 ChallengesSkin fifteen animals.
Harpoon and kill five sea animals.
Craft five hero upgrades.
All straight forward. For the harpoon I would go the North Atlantic and harpoon one of each of: Killer Whale, Humped-back Whale, Narwhal, White Whale and Great White Shark. You must upgrade your harpoon boat though and you’ll volume of harpoons, otherwise you might run out, especially against the Narwhal. To craft hero upgrades press Start, select ‘Crafting’ and then choose the ones that you want. Each one requires certain animal pelts. If you’re missing any and don’t want to hunt you can buy the ingredients from the general stores (represented by icons displaying a hammer and tongs on world maps).Trapper - Level 3 ChallengesKill a Black Wolf.
Craft all 28 hero upgrades.
Harpoon and kill each type of sea animal.
Skin each type of animal.
If you followed my advice for the Trapper Level 2 challenges, then you’ll have already kill each type of sea animal and know how to craft hero upgrades. To kill a black wolf go to Or-du-Nord, this is the only place they spawn. Like regular wolves, they trigger a QTE event when approached. The other animals you need to skin are: Arctic Fox, Arctic Hare, Arctic Wolf, Beaver, Black Bear, Deer, Canadian Lynx and Eastern Elk.Warrior ChallengesWarrior - Level 1 ChallengesKill three enemies with a grenade.
Achieve a three enemy kill streak.
Kill five stalkers.
Kill five enemies with headshots.
Kill five enemies affected by a smoke bomb within 10 seconds.
All should come naturally except the last one. For that I recommend going to Fort Baie Rouge (the northen most one in North Atlantic) once it has been captured. At the back of the fort you’ll find 7 guards standing around a flag pole. Take at least 3 bombs with you and walk into the middle of them. Throw one smoke bomb, kill 2 guards, throw another smoke bomb and kill 2 more guards. Throw a third smoke bomb and kill at last one more guard. The constant bombing will stop guards coming out of the ‘disorientated’ animation before you have a chance to kill them.Warrior - Level 2 ChallengesKill eight enemies with grenades.
Achieve a five enemy kill streak.
Use every type of weapon to kill enemies.
Kill 30 enemies with headshots.
All should come fine except perhaps the last one. It’s worth noting that, despite how loud it is, kills with the pistol while in a bush, do not alert guards to your presence. So go to a settlement or outpost, then hide in a bush and start to head shot guards.
Warrior - Level 3 ChallengesAchieve a seven enemy kill streak.
Disarm and kill three agile enemies with their own weapons.
For the first one I recommend doing this while boarding a ship, as many enemies are clustered together and with their back to you oftentimes while they fight your crew. Triggering a mass of smoke bombs before starting your kill streak will also help. For the last one, it’s best to use the ‘Stalkers’ that surprise attack you. When they have the red exclamation mark above their head, hit B to counter, then A to disarm them. You’ll now take possession of their knife. Press X to kill them.Financier ChallengesFinancier- Level 1 ChallengesPickpocket 200L.
Loot 10 bodies.
Possess 5,000L.
Renovate a building.
Very easy. To pickpocket just go to New York, stand near someone and hold B. To loot bodies, stand over a dead body and hold B. There are tonnes of buildings to renovate and you need to do that for an achievement.
Financier- Level 2 ChallengesFree a trade route in the Naval Campaign.
Complete all trading missions in the Naval campaign.
Renovate five buildings.
Spend 70,000L.
All will come in the natural course of play if you are working on other achievements.Financier- Level 3 ChallengesRenovate all 39 buildings.
Possess 150,000L.
Unlock all 33 destinations in the Naval Campaign.
The first 2 will come long just fine as you work on everything else. You’ll likely be done with the game before the Naval Campaign finishesPerformance ChallengesLevel 1 - Achieve 25% total synchronisation.
Level 2 - Achieve 50% total synchronisation.
Level 3 - Achieve 100% total synchronisation.
Levels 1 and 2 will come naturally as you do everything else. You may find that level 3 isn’t necessary. I was at 97% total synchronisation when I completed all achievements.SummarySo, 35 of those should come along easily enough for this achievement, plus there are some tips to help you get up to 65 for some of the other achievements.