Brute

CG art of Brute guard. Note the heavy weapon, which can be taken if countered while empty-handed.

Brutes are enemies featured in Assassin's Creed II. They are essentially human tanks, wearing heavy, durable armor and carrying large, heavy weapons, and also moving very slowly due to the weight of their equipment. They are the strongest guards in terms of combat difficulty in the game, but can easily be avoided. They will return in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood with a reworked appearance.

Combat

Brutes are tricky enemies to defeat due to the nature of their attacks, though they can still be dispatched with some tactics and skills.

• Normal attacks:
  • Brute normal attacks can be blocked with any weapon but can't be countered with a short blade or sheath-able weapon. They can however, be countered (lethally) with another heavy weapon such as those the Brutes themselves carry, a long weapon (carried by Seekers), or by the Hidden Blade(s), although the successful timing window for the latter is rather short (a fraction of a second).
  • Disarm: Brutes can also be countered with Fists, which will disarm the Brute and follow up by a lethal attack on the unarmed Brute. The timing for the disarm is short, although apparently slightly longer than for the Hidden Blade's(s') counter.
  • Hidden Blade(s) counter: Special care should be taken when trying to counter the Brutes' with the Hidden Blade(s) due to its very short timing window for successful counter kills. Failed counter will be penalized severely, as Brute attacks deal great amounts of damage. Should the Brute perform a combo, you may lose a significant chunk of your health bar.
  • A less risky but more time consuming tactic is to dodge the Brute's attacks and follow up with a combo of your own. Performed correctly, the combo may end with an execution. The maximum number of hits in a Brute combo is three.
    
• Special attacks:
  • Smash: The Brute takes a strong downward swing with his weapon, knocking Ezio on his back and doing about as much damage as a normal attack. A Brute is about to perform a smash attack if he raises his weapon high above his head. A Smash special attack takes less time for a Brute to prepare (approx. one second) than a Knock Weapon Away special attack.
  • Knock Weapon Away: This special attack is not named 'Disarm' because it is not the same as Ezio's disarm ability,( i.e. the Brute does not take Ezio's weapon and uses it for himself). Instead, the Brute takes a hard right-to-left swing with his weapon, breaking Ezio's guard for a second. If Ezio was using a short blade, sheath-able weapon or picked up weapon, this attack knocks it out of his hand. The attack does no damage, but as mentioned, breaks Ezio's guard for a second, opening him to attacks from other foes in the fight. A Brute is about to perform a Knock Weapon Away special attack if he holds his weapon out behind him. A Knock Weapon Away special attack takes a Brute longer to prepare than a Smash attack, which means a larger window of time to attack him than for a Smash special attack. Note that after Ezio's weapon has been knocked away by Brute, the first sheath-able weapon Ezio picks up will become his primary weapon.
  • Neither of the Brutes' special attacks can be blocked or countered. It is suggested that you either attack the Brute before he actually executes the attack, dodge and fire back with an attack of your own, or simply walk out of range of the attack (since the Brute, after beginning to charge a special attack, cannot move again until after performing it) and, again, attack back.
    
• Attacking: The best times to attack a Brute are after disarming him, while he is preparing for a special attack, or after dodging any of the Brute's attack.
  
• Other methods: If you are in a hurry, smoke bombs can be used to prevent Brutes from attacking you, and, if necessary, you can kill them while their guard is down.
• If necessary you may use the pistol attachment on your hidden blade to quickly dispatch them.

Weaponry

Name	Damage	Speed	Deflect
Bastard Sword	3	4	3
Bearded Axe	4	3	4
Labrys	5	3	3

From left to right: Labrys, Bearded Axe, Bastard Sword

.

Intelligence, Agility, and Methods of Escape

Brutes are not highly intelligent and can be escaped once you've gotten out of sight by blending or hiding. They are also not agile or quick in any sense of the words, and cannot free-run or climb (at least not without potential glitches, and even then only for a second or less), so taking to the roofs is an easy method of escape.

Ranking and Morale

Some Brutes seem to have a black or brown finish/trim on their armor plating. These Brutes are more resistant to Ezio's attacks and have a higher morale than the others. Brutes, like some other guards, have a very high morale. In fact, the Brutes have the highest morale of any guard in Assassin's Creed II. This means that, unlike their allies, they will almost never run away, unless you disarm them when they are alone. When you kill brutes most other guards (mostly the lower ranks) will flee.

Special Brutes

• One of Ezio's assassination targets, Dante Moro, carries what may be a Bearded Axe with an enlarged head, and fights like a Brute, only with far more health and immunity from being disarmed.

• One of Ezio's allies, Bartolomeo, carries what appears to be a Bastard Sword, (although the design and coloring of the handle appears different from those carried by Brute guards) which he calls "Bianca" and prizes, and behaves like a Brute in combat, only with far more health.

• Mario Auditore carries a Bearded Axe and fights like a Brute.
• Francesco Salviati carried an Axe with him in his villa during Ezio's attack and fights like a Brute.

• The Mercenaries also fight like a Brute and carry similar weapons to Brutes.

• The Templar Spy from Assassin's Creed II: Discovery uses the model of a brute.