Animus Virtual Training Program
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The Animus Virtual Training Program was a simulation feature made by the Assassin Rebecca Crane in 2012 for the Animus 2.01. It served as a series of tutorial missions for Desmond Miles in order to improve his skills in open combat, freerunning, and assassinations. The simulation surroundings resembled the Memory Corridor's background, and Desmond's digital avatar always took the form of his Italian Assassin ancestor Ezio Auditore as he began each challenge.[1]
Despite Rebecca telling Desmond that she would add new challenges as he completed old ones, she never managed to upload any throughout his entire time using the Animus. This is presumably due to a lack of time and resources, coupled with the extenuating circumstances of their Assassin cell fighting the Templars, since Desmond would fall into coma[1] that lasted from 10 October[2] until 30 October,[3] awakening just in time to know his team was in a rush to open the Grand Temple, before ultimately sacrificing himself inside it on 12 December to prevent the Second Disaster.[4]
The programming was so advanced for its time that nearly a century later in 2096,[5] the Assassin Junko Maeda[6] spoke highly of it and said it was an inspiration for her own digital fight simulations called Domains.[7]
Missions
Free Run
These missions required the use of free-running skills to navigate obstacles and reach a goal.
Stealth Assassination
These missions required the elimination of targets without detection.
Locate
These missions required the collection of flags situated throughout the stage.
| Mission | Gold Medal |
Silver Medal |
Bronze Medal |
| Flag Hunt | 1.30 Minutes | 2.00 Minutes | 3.30 Minutes |
| Flag Hunt 2 | 1.30 Minutes | 2.00 Minutes | 3.30 Minutes |
| Flag Hunt 3 | 1.30 Minutes | 2.00 Minutes | 3.30 Minutes |
Combat
These missions involved either surviving waves of enemies or creating long execution streaks.
Trivia
- Completing all the training challenges with a bronze medal or higher would unlock the Raiden Skin for Ezio. This could refer to the fact that Raiden was mostly trained in VR missions, as stated in Metal Gear Solid 2.
- Only in the Animus Virtual Training Program could the Poison Blade and Throwing knives be seen.
- Within the training missions, Ezio was not affected by armor or weapon customizations, and was always wearing the default Assassin White robes, with a set of the Seusenhofer armor; although he was affected by outfit customizations. He would always be equipped with the Common Sword, dagger, double Hidden Blades, the standard Codex additions to the Hidden Blade, and the crossbow.
- Enemies' weapons could be stolen to increase weapon statistics. However, agile guards carried only the default dagger, possibly for balance reasons.
- A glitch could occur when countering with maces that launched Ezio out of the arena, into the surrounding area, where Ezio could free run until the end of the map was reached. Seemingly random anomalies could be seen here, such as floating stairs or a single pillar.
- Earning 3 gold medals rewarded the "Perfectionist" achievement, which also unlocked 20 Uplay units.
- In trailers of Brotherhood, it was shown that the game previously contained a VR mission based around pursuit, as Ezio was seen running in a crowd of civilians, chasing after his golden target while using Eagle Vision. It was not explained why this was removed from the game.
- The challenges allowed one to compete online, via leaderboards.
- In the Combat category, different types of enemies were added at different waves or streak counts:
- Flawless Challenges
- 0-3, Basic Guards
- 3-13, Agile Guards
- 30-54, Seekers/Elite Guards
- 54-84, Brutes
- 84+, Papal Guards
- Killstreak Challenges
- 0-5, Basic Guards
- 5-8, Agile Guards
- 8-12, Seekers
- 12-15, Elite Guards
- 15-18, Brutes
- 18+, Papal Guards
Gallery
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Ezio assassinating a guard in the VR Training course
-
Ezio going through a VR Training mission
Appearances
- Assassin's Creed II: Discovery (first appearance)
- Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (first identified as "Animus Virtual Training Program")
- Animus Hub (mentioned in Database entry only)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Modern day
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Initiates – The Desmond Files: "Return to the Animus"
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Initiates – The Desmond Files: "Awakening"
- ↑ Assassin's Creed III – Modern day
- ↑ Animus Hub – Database: Encrypted Blog Post
- ↑ Animus Hub – Database: The Animus Project
- ↑ Animus Hub – Database: Animus 2.0
