Assassin's Creed is the massive Ubisoft franchise that follows various assassins on missions ranging all over the world and all through the history of humanity. Stealth is a huge aspect of the gameplay, as it often requires you to sneak up on villains and kill them without being seen. The franchise encompasses multiple games, short films, and even mobile gaming devices.
The most recent entries in the series, Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Assassin's Creed Valhalla, are also the largest, as Ubisoft moves towards creating action role-playing games instead of just action-adventure. But with a universe so large there will always be some hits and some misses, so we're taking a look at the deadliest assassins in the franchise's repertoire alongside the lamest.
Updated on November 24th, 2020 by Hodey Johns: With the release of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, players will naturally be curious to learn where protagonist Eivor falls on this list. Additionally, with a total of thirteen main games, ten spin-offs, a major motion picture, and more, it felt necessary to bump the number of deadly and lame assassins to seven apiece.
14 Deadliest: Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad
Forget about the first assassin players get to experience, Altaïr, at your own peril. Or mock him with memes and see what happens. The other characters on this list usually have a list of about one to thirty Templar bodies to their names; Altaïr has thousands.
Outside of his debut game, the games on handheld devices show how much of a struggle it was for him to keep the order of Assassins going. Without him, history would have fully conceded to tyrannical leadership by the thirteenth century.
13 Lamest: Eivor
Unlike Kassandra and Alexios, Eivor can only exist as a singular entity, but neither of the presented gender options fixes Eivor's gross incompetence. By far the slowest assassin to grace the series already, in combat, all it takes is a gust of wind for Eivor to stagger or fall down entirely.
On top of this is the meme-worthy broken logic, in which Eivor creates a bunch of kings that end up, unsurprisingly, driving the Vikings out of England. In the end, the crew finds Eivor is dead, Eivor's enemies very much alive, and you'll likely spend future installments of the series trying to clean up the mess.
12 Deadliest: Shay Patrick Cormac
All fans of the franchise wish that Shay was on the "lamest" list. As a human being, he's among the worst, opposing the violence used against tyrants by the Assassins... by murdering innocent people and destroying everything they stood for.
By killing legendary assassin Adéwalé and dismantling the organization created by Edward Kenway, he effectively nullifies the work of over three other assassins. He's often neglected on lists of powerful assassins because he's a traitor.
11 Lamest: Jacob Frye
To be clear, Jacob is not a bad guy and he's perfectly competent. But without a lot of help, he'd be dead before anyone knew his name. If this were a list of the luckiest assassins, he'd be number one with no contest.
Thankfully, he's got his twin sister Evie to make the plans, watch his back, bail him out of trouble with one of the series' unique bosses, and do the quiet work. As a fighter, Jacob is great, but as an assassin that works in the shadows? He needs a lot of work.
10 Deadliest: Kassandra
As one of the franchise's first playable main female assassins, Kassandra, with the right build, delivers on being incredibly deadly, in addition to being an all-around iconic character. Not only is she a powerful woman and capable assassin, but she can also be a member of the LGBTQ+ community depending on how you play her and which romances you get involved in.
She is known as the Eagle Bearer in the game and was a Spartan mercenary. She stars in the latest installment, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, in which she must battle against the dastardly Cult of Cosmos and prevent them from gaining control over the Greek world.
9 Lamest: Alexios
Alexios is one of your choices as a protagonist in the newest game in the series, Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Unfortunately, Alexios pales in comparison to his female counterpart, and sister in the series. It's not that Alexios is a bad character, regardless of which character you choose the journey and dialogue remain pretty much the same.
But Kassandra is just so much better Alexios can't help but pale in comparison. Even if you play with Alexios, Kassandra makes a better villain. Her character is just so charismatic and bursting with energy and life it makes Alexios feel like he needs to get out of combat and find himself a solid bow to even compete.
8 Deadliest: Evie Frye
Before Kassandra, Evie Frye was one of the only playable women in the Assassin's Creed franchise, although her role is smaller than Kassandra's, who actually became the main character in Odyssey. Evie is a Master Assassin and the twin sister of Jacob Frye. She came from Crawley and was active in her mission during the Victorian era in London.
She and her brother were trained by their father, another skilled killer named Ethan Frye. Evie became obsessed with the life of the assassin and she began to do research into the Brotherhood. She was more devoted to the craft than her brother and became all the better of a skilled assassin for it.
7 Lamest: Arno Victor Dorian
Arno is a French-Austrian assassin and also the star of Assassin's Creed Unity. The main issue with Arno's character is that he's entirely forgettable. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone that ranks him in their top ten from the entire franchise as a whole.
He's not necessarily a terrible assassin, but he doesn't have much charisma and he doesn't offer us much in terms of characterization that we hadn't already seen before (and executed better). He was raised in a family of nobles, but his father was murdered at Versailles. After his father's death, Arno is taken in by a member of the Templars, though he is not raised to become one.
6 Deadliest: Edward Kenway
As part of one of the franchise's most popular entries, Black Flag, Edward Kenway was a member of the British Brotherhood. His character was once a pirate who became an assassin and member of the Order.
He is also the father of the antagonist in Assassin's Creed III. Edward is adept at knife-throwing and is known for carrying four pistols with him. He's not someone you would ever want to cross. He is also skilled with a harpoon due to his former life as a pirate and once he learned how to use blowpipes and darts, he truly became a formidable adversary.
5 Lamest: Aguilar de Nerha
This is the only entry into the list that is actually live-action. If you watched the Assassin's Creed movie starring Michael Fassbender then you'll understand why we chose to mark him down as one of the lamest assassins in the game. The film doesn't really spend as much time allowing him to take control of his story the same way the video games do.
Fassbender is merely serviceable in the role, which doesn't help. He doesn't really add a sense of intimidation to the character and there are video game assassins who you know could rip Aguilar to shreds.
4 Deadliest: Bayek of Siwa
Apart from Eivor, Kassandra, and Alexios, Bayek is one of the newest Assassin's Creed protagonists. He leads Origins, the first time Assassin's Creed made a true foray into the role-playing world. His character is motivated by the tragic death of his son.
He is genuinely a good guy, but given his quest for revenge, he is capable of great darkness and is certainly extremely deadly. He'll do whatever it takes to avenge his family while also healing other families during his memorable side quests. Bayek is an Egyptian hero that respects the traditions of the time period and the culture of the people. He is skilled with all manner of weapons.
3 Lamest: Nikolai Orelov
Nikolai is an assassin borne from an odd set of games in the franchise. He is the protagonist from Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia, which was part of a series of games designed as side-scrolling 2.5D entries. He was a Russian Master Assassin.
Nikolai was instructed to assassinate the Tsar of the time and acquire an ancient artifact. However, he fails to retrieve it and causes the massive Tunguska event. The main issue with Nikolai was that he starred in a series of the least memorable games in the franchise. Not many fans were particularly engrossed with Chronicles.
2 Deadliest: Ezio Auditore da Firenze
Ezio is one of the most popular characters in the entire Assassin's Creed franchise so it's no surprise that he takes the top spot as the deadliest assassin. He stars in Assassin's Creed II, Brotherhood, and Revelations in addition to an array of merchandise and even an animated short film.
Ezio's story is wrapped up in the Pazzi conspiracy, during which his family was murdered. His arc follows his journey to track down those who were responsible for murdering his child and leads him to the Templar Order and House of Borgia. In addition to being a fan-favorite, Ezio was remarkably well-liked by game critics too.
1 Lamest: Ratonhnhaké:ton
Ratonhnhaké:ton, also known as Connor Kenway, was a disappointing character in Assassin's Creed III with the personality of a piece of cardboard. His character has interesting origins but unfortunately, his development beyond that is dull and lifeless. His mother was a Native American from the Mohawk tribe and his father was British.
Connor joined the Assassin Order in the 1700s after his village was burnt down. He is capable of using hidden blades and other notable weapons, but beyond that, Connor just doesn't offer anything really new or unique to the franchise. He was a dull retread of better characters we'd already seen before him.