Improvised weapon

In Assassin's Creed II and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, besides the purchasable "regular" weapons and the two-handed weapons such as spears and halberds, Ezio Auditore can also use improvised weapons. These weapons include:

Assassin's Creed II

• Brooms
• Hoes
• Rakes
• Fishing poles
• Pitchforks
• Violins (the stringed instruments that are used by certain Minstrels, only available during Carnevale)
• The parts of a broken spear (upper part acts like a sword, lower part like a mace)
• Invisible sword (uses the unarmed slot, swings like a sword when attacking, and allows only instant kills and counters)

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

• Rakes
• Brooms
• Mallets
• Shovels
• Pickaxes
• Pitchforks
• Fishing Poles
• Butcher Knives

The above can be picked up like one-handed weapons after they are dropped by civilians or guards. Civilians will drop what they're carrying once Ezio gently pushes or runs into them, when a fight starts, or if you throw money near them. The "weapons" are then discarded once a fight is finished, or once Ezio enters a Free Running sequence (note that when you instant kill a civilian carrying such an improper weapon it will disappear, at least most of the time, instant kills are assassinations, bullets, crossbow bolts etc.)

These "weapons" act mainly as hammers or maces, using the same animations and sound effects. They cannot be kept, and their attacks are sometimes nonsensical. For example, Ezio can slice an enemy's throat with a broom after a grab, exactly the way he does with a sword, and the butcher knife uses the sounds and animations of a warhammer (despite the fact that the blade never even touches the enemy).

To use the invisible sword glitch, simply use a spear counter on a two-handed guard, and try punching, you will notice that Ezio does the sword animation when swinging or blocking.

Achievements

In Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, the "Spring Cleaning" achievement/trophy can be earned by killing a guard with a broom.

Icon	Name	How to obtain	Points	Trophy
	Spring Cleaning	Kill a guard with a broom.	10	Bronze

Videos

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Invisible sword gameplay	Broom gameplay

Trivia

• Some improper weapons CAN be kept with a glitch, but will be lost when going to another city or randomly during excessive combat. To do this, you must have an empty sword sheath, which can be achieved by letting a brute smash your sword or mace away. Afterwards, simply pick up one of the improper weapons, and you may be able to keep them. ( this goes for Assasins Creed II, for Brotherhood look in the above section)
  • An alternate way to empty your sword sheath is to go to the Monteriggioni Training Ring and practice "Picking Up Weapons." Ezio's sword will immediately drop out of his scabbard automatically.
• Guards can also use these improvised weapons, as long as you disarm them and there is no other weapon available. They will pick up any improper weapon except the invisible sword (as this is merely a glitch). It's easier to make guards use them during DNA Sequence 1, as guards do not yet have weapons.
• When you rescue Bartolomeo d'Alviano in the Assassin's Creed II memory "Caged Fighter", he uses a broom to fight until he picks up a proper weapon from a fallen guard.
• The violin sounds like a sword, but acts like a mace.