Soldier

Guards are the common opponents of an assassin throughout the Assassin's Creed series.

Assassin's Creed

"Hashshashin!"

―Guard in Damascus

During the course of Assassin's Creed, there are two types of guards: Soldiers and Archers. The archers are mostly the same, but there are two ranks of soldiers. The elite soldiers wear helmets (and mails for crusaders) and are harder to defeat than regular soldiers. They also speak German or French for crusaders (no matter the Order) and Arabic for saracens, whereas regular guards speak English (with British and Arabian accents respectively).

Assassin's Creed II

"Assassino!"

―Guard in Venice

In Assassin's Creed II, there are five types of enemy guards:

Regular Guards

Those are the "standard" type of guard which can be found almost everywhere on the ground. However, they use a large variety of swords and maces. Those regular troops are divided into three ranks themselves: Militia, Elite and Leaders.

• Thugs are people hired by Vieri de' Pazzi to beat up Ezio. While not officially or technically guards, they function in a remarkably similar matter. They will attack Ezio even if he is Incognito, and fight only with fists. After assassinating Ubeto Alberti, they can no longer be found in game, except for the Courier mission Casanova.

File:Militia.jpg

• Militia is the weakest rank. They wear no armor, and can be easily killed (with one counter-kill). They are also the most easily frightened during combat as after battles, they may retreat.

File:Elite.jpg

• Elite guards are stronger, they wear a moderate amount of armor and need three counter-kills to be defeated. Also, Elites are more courageous than Militias.

File:Leader.jpg

• Leaders are the best fighters and most tenacious of all the regular soldiers. They wear slightly more armor that their Elite counterpart. The Leaders will last slightly longer that Elites during Ezio's counter-attacks. They also hardly give up their weapons, making them hard to disarm than the others.

The Regular Guards are not especially agile, but can climb up to the rooftops in order to follow Ezio (while not as fast as him). Also, they can recognize Ezio sitting on a bench, but they can be assassinated before they recognize him and spread word of his presence.

File:Giartnewenemies 2.jpg

From left to right: The Agile, the Archer, the Brute, the Militia, and the Seeker.

Seekers

The Seekers, also called "Paranoid" are one of the new special guard types. They are constantly looking in hiding spots (such as the haystacks) and check them (although Ezio can counter-kill the seeker if that happens). They are armed with long spears or halberds, giving them an increased reach in combat. Seekers, like most of the other guards, wear armor. The armor they wear is slightly more than a Leader-ranked Standard, but less than a Brute.

Agiles

One of the new guard archetypes is the Agile, which, as the name suggests, is a very fast, light-armored enemy. They even run faster than Ezio and also have the Free Run ability leading to chase sequences. They wield short weapons such as daggers and other short blades.

Brutes

The Brutes are heavily armored and equipped (two-handed weapons such as heavy swords and axes). Their armor cover almost every part of their bodies, making them tough to bring down, but also make them cumbersome and slow. They are not very intelligent, and won't be able to tell Ezio from anyone else in a crowd. When deflecting a short weapon, they will not take damage (while all other guards do), but can still be damaged with a short weapon. A good way to make short work of them is to disarm them and counterattack, because they are very easy to disarm. Brutes have two types of attack, one quick, and one that begins with a wind-up. The later attack cannot be countered, and must be dodged, while the former can be countered. You have to kill a Brute and take their weapon to counter the wind-up attacks of another Brute.

Archers

The Archers are guards that patrol and defend the rooftops. They are armed with bows and swords (sometimes maces instead of swords), and warn Ezio on sight to leave the place, no matter the notoriety. Approaching them will force them to draw their weapon out and commence a fight. Archers are seemingly just Militia-ranked Standards with the capability of attacking at a distance, thanks to their trusty longbows. While Florentine and Tuscan Archers can be killed with a single Throwing Knife, archers in the other cities and regions (such as Venice and Romagna) will need two Throwing Knives to be taken down. Since they are almost always on the rooftops on buildings, Archers are fairly easy to dispatch in melee combat as they have the same skill as a Militia-ranked standard, making them easy to kill. Another good way to dispatch them is to simply throw them off the roof, which will instantly kill the Archer if they fall more than two stories or if they land in water.