Short blade

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A short blade used by Altaïr

Short blades were short bladed weapons that traded power and reach for a faster swing rate.

History

12th century

Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad's short blade was returned to him after he had reached the third rank in the Assassin Order, following his demotion. Like the sword, his skill with the short blade increased as he progressed higher through the Order's ranks.

The first short blade he obtained had a wooden handle, though he received an all metal variation at a later rank. In both instances, he carried the short blade in a sheath strapped across his back, with the handle facing down.

In battle, Altaïr wielded a short blade with an icepick grip, and often used it in conjunction with throwing knives.

Renaissance

In a similar fashion to Altaïr, Ezio Auditore da Firenze was equipped with both a medium weapon and a short blade, though they were sheathed together at his side. He could purchase various types of short blades from blacksmiths, each with unique speed, damage and deflection properties.

In battle, he would wield the short blade much as Altaïr did, utilizing the same icepick grip, though he did not learn to use it alongside throwing knives until he became a Master Assassin.

Several of his allies, such as thieves and courtesans, also used short blades in battle. Certain guards and assassination targets, such as agiles and Rodrigo Borgia, made use of short blades as well. However, none of these held their weapons in an icepick grip.

Combat

Ezio dual-wielding the short blade and a throwing knife

Short blades strike more quickly than medium weapons, which made them ideal for dispatching large numbers of low-ranked enemies. However, as an enemy's rank increases, the short blade's effectiveness diminished, due to the higher quality armor they wore.

For Altaïr, the special, close-ranged attack of most short blades could only be performed from behind – slitting an enemy's throat, or stabbing them in the shoulder or back – which would always result in an instant kill.

When used with the short blade, Altaïr could throw a single throwing knife mid-combat. Similarly, Ezio could dual-wield the short blade with throwing knives, and could throw multiple throwing knives at once.

Statistics

15th century Italian city-states

Name	Damage	Speed	Deflect	Cost
Dagger	1	1	2	500ƒ
Knife	1	2	3	1,300ƒ
Stiletto	2	4	1	2,200ƒ
Channeled Cinquedea	3	3	4	4,100ƒ
Sultan's Knife	3	5	3	4,300ƒ
Butcher Knife	4	3	5	6,400ƒ
Notched Cinquedea	5	5	4	9,500ƒ

15th to 16th century Rome

Name	Damage	Speed	Deflect	Cost
Stiletto	1	1	2	300ƒ
Knife	1	2	3	700ƒ
Bone Dagger of Romulus	2	4	4	1,900ƒ
Dagger	2	4	1	6,250ƒ
Butcher Knife	3	5	3	5,000ƒ
Notched Cinquedea	4	4	2	8,600ƒ
Maria's Dagger	5	3	4	Completion of the Roman Courtesan challenges.
Dagger of Brutus	5	5	5	Retrieval of Romulus' treasure.
Channeled Cinquedea	5	2	4	N/A

16th century Constantinople

Name	Damage	Speed	Deflect	Cost
Kurdish Jambiya	1	2	2	345
Standard Stiletto	1	3	2	805
Macedonian Dagger	2	2	2	518
Arabian Dagger	2	4	1	1,848
Butcher Knife	3	5	3	5,750
Bayezid's Knife	5	3	4	13,248
Afghani Khyber Blade*	4	4	2	11,040
Romani Stiletto	4	3	4	Completion of the Constantinople Romani challenges
Mehmet's Dagger	5	5	5	Completion of The Trickster, Part 1.

*Only available in Derinkuyu.

18th century British Colonial America

Name	Damage	Speed	Combo	Cost
Assassin Tomahawk	3	3	3	N/A
Stone Tomahawk	1	2	5	N/A
Iron Tomahawk	2	3	3	£2,475
Stone Dagger	1	3	5	£450
Iron Dagger	3	4	4	£2,450
Dirk	2	5	3	£3,750
War Tomahawk	5	5	3	Crafted item
"Broken Sword" Knife	5	5	4	Crafted item

18th century French Colonial America

Name	Damage	Speed	Combo kill	Chain-kill	Cost	Persona
Sugarcane Machete	1	3	4	2	N/A	Assassin, Slave
Ceremonial Blade	3	3	4	3	N/A	Assassin
Hatchet	3	3	4	3	8,190 écu	Assassin, Slave
Chimbuya Axe	2	3	3	3	8,430 écu	Assassin, Slave
Obsidian Axe	5	2	4	2	16,310 écu	Assassin
Hook Axe	4	5	4	4	24,900 écu	Assassin, Slave
Kuba	3	5	3	4	25,000 écu	Assassin, Slave

Trivia

• In Assassin's Creed, Altaïr was the only person to use a short blade, other than Malik Al-Sayf and his brother Kadar, until Malik lost his arm.
• In Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, once all throwing knives had been used up, Ezio would throw sand to momentarily blind and incapacitate his target.
• In the blacksmith shops in Brotherhood, the Notched Cinquedea had the store image of the Channeled Cinquedea, and vice versa.
• Unlike in Assassin's Creed II, in Brotherhood, the Channeled Cinquedea was a weapon that could not be purchased, and was only available through disarming guards that wielded it.
• Only very few individuals held the short blade with an icepick grip. These included Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, Tamir, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, Francesco de' Pazzi, Bernardo Baroncelli, Claudia Auditore da Firenze, and Kanen'tó:kon.
• An unusable Notched Cinquedea could be seen stuck in the table in Ezio's room at the Villa Auditore in Monteriggioni.