Assassin's Creed 2 - Platform: XBox 360

Auditore Cape:
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Collect 100 feathers in the box in your villa, then talk to your mother
to get the Auditore Cape.


Condottiero War Hammer:
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Collect 50 feathers in the box in your villa to unlock the Condottiero
War Hammer for purchase for 30,600 Florins at the blacksmith's shop at
Villa Monteriggioni.


Finding feathers:
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Feathers are placed along the main quest areas of the game. This is
unlike the flags in the original /Assassin's Creed/, which appeared
seemingly at random throughout the world. Finding hidden feathers is
best done by running across rooftops, since naturally that is where
birds spend the most time losing them. Walk around the rooftops with
Eagle Vision turned on to see feathers in a white glitch type of graphic.

To find the final few feathers, pause the game, and go to the DNA
strand. There is a section at the end of the strand that shows you where
the feathers are located. Then, go to the feather section to find out
what districts the missing feathers are located in.


Giant squid:
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In the assassin's tomb in Santa Maria Delle Visitazione, before the room
where you get one of the seals required for the Armour of Altair, is a
large room filled with water. This room has an obstacle course. Activate
the lever before going through the course, then stand on the edge of the
floor, and look at the water. Remain idle until a large shape swims
across the water. Use the lever again after the timer resets, and stand
at same location. After awhile, a giant tentacle will shoot out of the
water that Ezio dodges at the last second.


Easy kills:
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Once you unlock the smoke bomb, you can use it to kill guards quicker
and easier. Equip the smoke bomb, then throw it. While the soldiers are
coughing, use your hidden blade to quickly and easily kill them.


Using horses:
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The horses in the game can be very useful for things other than
obviously using them for travel. Ride them into a potential fight and
dismount. Lure an enemy to the rear of the horse, and it will kick them,
inflicting a good amount of damage. They also will follow you after you
dismount them until you enter a city, making them easier to relocate.


Quick Kill Guards:
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Submitted by: catloe

Easy really, but if you don't have a guard low enough to counterkill, and don't 
want to spare the time to beat them into a kill combo just wait until they attack 
(this seems to work best with enemies that have slower weapons) and deflect (block) 
it then immediately attack as they recover. Slower enemies like Brutes will be 
vulnerable to a combo kill now (tap attack button when you hit) and easily dispatched.

Also with dual assassin blades, run up a wall without locking on and you can 
drop-assassinate up to two guards at a time easily. You can do this again and again 
potentially but the move is a little glitchy in some places. 

Additionally, with dual assassins' blades, I find that guards are often very vulnerable 
to quick assassinations if you attack quickly, before they pull their weapon and enter 
fighting stance, and when they're moving into position early in the fight. If you move 
in rapidly or drop from a wall and catch them before they can prepare for combat, you 
can kill 2 and then as they fall move in and semi-spam assassinate and often kill all 
4 guards in a group before any of them can do jack. Ditto goes for grabbing enemies 
and throwing them to the ground, then assassinating them. It's not always practical 
in combat, though.