Collect florins while you can

[PZ]

SPOILERS



When you start the game, you are incognito, which means that the guards will not notice your presence, nor react to your activities.  Consequently, you can pick the pockets of people to your heart's content and not get into trouble (I managed to collect approximately 20K before I entered the villa).  The first time you become notorious is when that rascal Umberto Alberti executes your father and brothers. (You get even with him.)

The advantage of collecting lots of florins ahead of time is the ability to purchase renovations to your villa.  The higher the renovations, the more you collect in revenue, which allows you to purchase even more.

[fragger]

 :-X Thanks for that tip, PZ, even though I've still got to wait for over a month before I can use it...

I wanna play... I wanna play... I WANNA PLAY!!!

[Art Blade]

cool tip, PZ, and just like fragger, I want to play that game. "bad."  ;D

[PZ]

Thanks guys - I really can't wait until you all get the game so you can post your adventures.  I'm now merrily playing yet another play through the main missions (just assassinated that worthless bum Francesco de Pazzi) - due to my service to Florence, Lorenzo de Medici gave me a Medici cape, which allows me to be incognito while in that town (and Tuscany) so I can again pick pockets without attracting the attention of the law.  I've not played any game this much since FC2.  :-X

[Art Blade]

Now that I'm through, I can relate. Thanks to that tip of yours, I started off rather wealthy (say, 9.5k pickpocketed and another 10k worth of treasures found) and I only bought armour before I entered the villa. Better don't do that, get as many florines as you can, best if you can start off with like 20-25k, invest it into the villa once you get there, and get the repay every 20 minutes, which would be like 10k. The more money you start with, the faster it returns with interest  :) I concentrated on investing into the villa, and I got rich so quickly, I never needed to steal again, and could afford any upgrade as soon as they were available.

[PZ]

My pleasure - the tricks you can use near the beginning the game (sequence 1 beginning to end) are endless.  I just started another play through this morning, and am using the "counter" moves to beat up everyone I encounter in sequence 1.  All the guys who chase me get beat up, and I steal thousands of florins from the citizens, laughing all the time (their reactions are hilarious sometimes).

I also purchased a treasure map for the first time, but am not actively seeking out the treasures.  As I approach one (evidenced by the icon on the mini map) I stop by to pick it up, supplementing my "income".

It is amazing how quickly your income increases if you spend every florin possible on the villa renovations.  :-X

[Art Blade]

Indeed - I had already learned by your and spaceboy's posts that the villa generates money, so I figured it'd be wise to start with a lot of money. The next playthrough I'd definitely collect like 25k or more and save that for the villa. Once you do the small and medium investments, the villa will produce enough to cover for the big investigations (if I remember correctly, the 3rd grade for the bank was 12k florines). After that, you'll have more problems to return to your villa than spending your coins (the treasure chest with your income lasts 4x20 minutes before it is full, after that, you won't get any more money if you don't empty that chest) :)

Like you, I finished my playthrough with 850+k florines (I once missed to emtpy the chest)

[PZ]

These days, if I have more than 100k florins, I don't even worry about returning to the villa to collect them.  I have never reached the point where I have run out of money when reaching that level.  ;)

[Art Blade]

I didn't want my sister to have like 14k cash to her disposal only because I didn't empty the chest  ;D

[spaceboy]

I didn't want my sister to have like 14k cash to her disposal only because I didn't empty the chest  ;D

geez Art, the poor girl lost her father and two brothers, her mother is despondent.  Her only surviving sibling is running around in danger all day, she's left to keep the books straight (and probably Uncle Mario's hands out of the till and off of her as well)  She's got a creepy architect that stands there in her office all day even after all construction at the villa is complete.  Let the girl have a few florins to dye her clothes or maybe pick up a weapon to defend herself.  :)

[Art Blade]

She's only there because she doesn't have the means to run away. Might as well keep my books  ;D

[spaceboy]

doesn't have the means!!, are you kidding me?  Have you looked at your sister?  Any bloke in town would be mad not to take her away from all this senseless violence.  She's got the means allright, she just may not know how to use it yet  ;)

[Art Blade]

Any bloke in town would be mad not to see the increasing number of notches carved into stone all the way up to the door, 1,111 notches for 1,111 kills by the time I had killed the pope...  ;D

[spaceboy]

ah, I see how it is, you want to keep your sister under your thumb.  nice, Ezio, real nice   ;D

[Art Blade]

Hehe :) Remember at the beginning of the game, how you beat a guy to pulp for cheating on your sister? That was before you knew you were an assassin...  ;)

[PZ]

lol, good read guys  :-X

I still make it a habit to pick-pocket people and hang around until they start swinging at me - then it's time to beat them to pulp  ;)

[Art Blade]

 :) When I wear one of those capes that give you anonymity, I also pickpocket large groups of people, if necessary even a couple of times despite of them not having any change in their pockets any more, just to provoke an argument. Then I like to taunt the poor ba$t@rd before he gets it, and when he blindly runs at me, I practice the counter-attack move which most of the times works like a charm and quite to the dismay of the other townsfolk. But if some of the courtesans are around, they always comment favourably like "ooh, so strong... how can you not like him" or "poor ba$t@rd had it coming" and if thieves or thugs are around, they also comment in favour like "yeah, show him" or "a true master"  ;D

[PZ]

I visited Leonardo this morning and he set up 3 dummies for me to practice assassination skills while he modified my blade to deliver poison.  However, I started pick-pocketing the towns people and collected a large number of florins before I returned to his shop.

I suspect that there might be more times that you will retain anonymity to allow you to do what you want.

Fighting with the towns people is a great way to practice your counter moves.  Notice that there are several outcomes as far as the animation of the guy going down.

[Art Blade]

My recent visit to Spain included (as always) visiting churches and cathedrals. They have quite a lot of them, and bigger cities usually have bigger churches and cathedrals and those are usually quite pompous inside (marble, gold, loads of decorations, paintings and whatnot). However, when I walked around inside I couldn't help but thinking of the Assassin's Creed games and how I'd like to climb around there  ;D So I decided to go on a new (only 2nd) playthrough. The first thing I remembered for that purpose was this topic, and now I'll walk around and beat the living crap out of my fellow citizens and perform the "thieving magpie" act as often as possible  ;D

[PZ]

Have fun in Italy, Art - I watched a history channel program about Italy in which there were many buildings that were reminiscent of 15th century Italy (well, they were 15th century buildings after all).  I too went into AC2 not too long ago just for that reason.

[Art Blade]

Thanks, PZ :)

Well, rennaisance was also very present in Spain, especially seen in buildings (palaces, cathedrals). If you like, check this wiki article about Granada's cathedral (its history is as old as the USA, counting from the year of its discovery in 1492) so you literally "get the picture"  ;) Makes one want to climb that structure, doesn't it  ;D I chose to use the Spanish wiki entry because it shows more pictures than the English version. Here an excerpt of the English version:

Unlike most cathedrals in Spain, construction of this cathedral had to await the acquisition of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada from its Muslim rulers in 1492; while its very early plans had Gothic designs, such as are evident in the Royal Chapel of Granada by Enrique Egas, the construction of the church in the main occurred at a time when Renaissance  designs were supplanting the Gothic regnant in Spanish architecture of prior centuries. Foundations for the church were laid by the architect Egas starting from 1518 to 1523 atop the site of the city's main mosque; by 1529, Egas was replaced by Diego de Siloé who labored for nearly four decades on the structure from ground to cornice, planning the triforium  and five naves instead of the usual three. Most unusually, he created a circular capilla mayor rather than a semicircular apse, perhaps inspired by Italian ideas for circular 'perfect buildings' (eg in Alberti's works). Within its structure the cathedral combines other orders of architecture. It took 181 years for the cathedral to be built.

Regarding AC2, I've just moved to the villa and haven't met with the architect yet. But your tip to collect florins while one can helped me accumulate the nice amount of 24,500+ florins so far. Looking forward to spending that dough anytime soon now on the village's restauration ;D

[Art Blade]

An additional tip for AC2 (based on what we found out previously)

PZ gave us this extremely useful tip here, basically to make use of the lack of notoriety when you are new to the game. Like that, you should spend some time stealing money from everybody you see, and go looking for victims. Also if you buy a map for those treasures may help you find those that are guarded. Guards basically don't do you any harm but a few bruises. Easy to cope with. If you beat people to pulp, search their bodies: They may have medicine. Save your money (75 florins per medicine bottle) and use medicine so you can get refills from looting people.

So when you are finished stealing and treasure-hunting, you should have around 25,000+ florins. Let me rephrase that: Don't stop until you've got at least 25k cash. I'll explain in a moment. Accumulating all this easy money doesn't take too much time compared to what you are going to spend playing later on ;)

When you get to the villa and do your inevitable missions (you'll have to buy a dagger and some boots, around like 4 or 5 thousand florins) and missions such as training ground etc, focus on exploring Monteriggioni/Villa once you've got a little spare time. Use your eagle vision to find those 8 little statues that belong onto those podiums behind the villa. They are scattered across the village and next to the villa as well. They are tiny and easily missed, so really use your eagle vision. Collect them and place them on the podiums. For each pair you place on a podium you'll get 2,000 florins extra. Having collected them rises the value of the city which will increase your income.

Now when you meet the architect for the first time make sure you spend your first 21k stolen previously on RENOVATIONS (those marked with only one diamond). There are 3x3,000 and 3x4,000 = 21,000 florins worth of renovations. Completing those will rise the value an extra 10k, which will result in 3,100 florins every 20 minutes from now on. The statues will give you another 8,000 florins you can spend on shops (those with three diamonds). Make sure not to level them up right away, just OPEN all shops (turn only one of those three diamonds red) which will rise the city value another 5,000 florins, hence 3,100+500=3,600 florins every 20 minutes plus 10% of whatever you spent on levelling the shops..

Like that you'll be rich in no time and can spend your money on things as soon as they become available ;)

I'm enjoying my 2nd playthrough  :) :-X

[PZ]

Good tips, Art!  I've not collected the small statues, but will do so on a future play through - when the new game comes out this fall  ;D

Nice read about the cathedrals, by the way  :-X

[Art Blade]

Haha, you got me (again) while I was editing  ;D Thanks for your comments :)

I had to edit the sum from 21k to 25k because of the dagger and boots you've got to buy before you can invest money in rennovations.

[Art Blade]

Oh dear, had to edit that post again because "renovations" is the subject of both shops and things like a well. Those items have either three diamonds or one diamond symbols to their names, shops that can be levelled up are those with three diamonds. You need to open them by turning one of those diamonds red (=level 1). "True" renovations are those items with only one diamond (like, turn a hole in the ground blocked with wooden planks into a nice well).

***

PZ mentioned that he'd used the opportunity of disabled notoriety while Leonardo was busy. I did the same just now, instead of practicing new assassination techniques I ran around the city and stole money and provoked all sorts of fights, which is a lot of fun  ;D And it just so happened that I discovered different moves I hadn't seen before (more details in the top 10 killing moves topic).