There are plenty of difficult targets within the Assassin's Creed franchise. Where would the fun be if every battle was simple to win? However, some are so difficult that they have the player screaming and rage-quitting after their fifth time attempting the hit. Sometimes players even go out of their way to try and avoid some battles entirely.
In the end, finally managing to off one of the harder targets is an amazing feeling, especially when it takes five thousand tries to do it. They are always incredibly memorable targets, to the point that sometimes they make the thought of restarting terrifying.
10 Jubair Al-Hakim's (Assassin's Creed) Body Doubles Make Him An Annoying Target
As far as annoying, complicated, and painful battles go, Jubair Al-Hakim from the original Assassin's Creed takes the cake. Alright, maybe he himself is not actually all that hard to kill. The thing is that he has a number of body doubles to throw Altair off of his tracks while he himself is also hunting the Assassin.
It's a shame that there aren't more sneaky people trying to kill sneaky people within the more modern games of the franchise, but at least this guy will be there in the hearts of fans everywhere. Or maybe one of his body doubles. Who knows.
9 Rodrigo Borgia (Assassin's Creed II) Is A Cheap Final Battle In An Otherwise Great Game
Maybe more annoying than anything, Pope Rodrigo Borgia was an intensely ridiculous final fight for the second installment of the series. After everything that happens throughout the game, how often he gets into Ezio's way and everything else about him, all that the player wants to do is punch the guy in the face and be done with it.
Which is a good thing, considering the whole fight with him has to be done bare fisted anyway. At least it's a cathartic fight in that way.
8 Cesare Borgia (Brotherhood) Being A Damage Sponge Feels Out Of Place In A Stealth Game
This son of a Pope was so obnoxious throughout the entirety of Brotherhood that by the time it finally came to murder him, it was viciously satisfying. He made the player hate him alongside of Ezio for absolutely everything he'd done: Starting wars, killing those closest to him, and all around being a complete madman.
Cesare Borgia was not an easy fight at all, he hurt and hurt a lot. He required a lot of hits and after such a stealth-heavy game as Brotherhood, it was kind of a difficult transition for some players.
7 Haytham Kenway (Assassin's Creed III) Requires Too Much Parrying & Has Too Much Dialogue
When Connor finally gets to face his father, he is up for a unique fight full of emotional pain for both him and the player. Instead of directly attacking, the game sets up the entire thing to require a lot of parrying. With each one, more dialogue happens between the two until eventually Connor wins out.
Just the fact that it is such a strange battle needing so much parrying instead of any stealth or direct hits puts Kenway well into annoyingly difficult territory.
6 El Impoluto (Black Flag) Is Such A Bad Boss Fight That Players Tried To Sequence Break The Game To Avoid It
El Impoluto was such a difficult target in Black Flag that players were initially jumping ship to go kill her entire crew before the battle could be triggered. Ubisoft was not having any of that, and eventually released a patch to prevent that from happening.
It really goes to say something that so many fans were so desperate to avoid a particular battle that the developers had to go back in and force them to actually go through with it. Really, this battle is so horrifying that some players refuse to replay the game just because of it.
5 Francois Thomas Germain (Unity) Requires Top-Notch Stealth Skills
Francois Thomas Germain was the final boss of Unity and he definitely made sure everyone was well aware of this fact. The Templars even considered him to be too much, so if that reason wasn't enough to be concerned about him as a target, then maybe the fact this half-crazed capitalist was the cause for a splintered faction is.
He forces the majority of his fight to be spent hiding, demanding a massive level of skill from the player in their stealth maneuvers. In the end, it was both a horrifyingly difficult and yet satisfying final battle.
4 Jack The Ripper (Syndicate) Lives Up To His Name As One Of History's Most Notorious Killers
Jack the Ripper's story is a terrifying one even outside of the Assassin's Creed franchise. So the fact that he showed up in a DLC for Syndicate as a target was horrifying in and of itself. He fit so seamlessly within the universe, that it almost felt like his character was made for it.
He was initially an Assassin who had gone rogue, which was a pretty clever twist from the developers. He had nearly exposed the Assassins through his horrifying actions, which was definitely not okay. So of course the player had to go and take care of it in an impossibly difficult fight that was not one anyone really wants to do again.
3 Lucius Septimus (Origins) Can Only Be Toppled By Players Who Have Absolutely Mastered The Game's Fight Mechanics
The Jackal Lucius Septimus needed tracked down for the entirety of Assassin's Creed Origins and he made sure to put up a good fight when the player finally manages to get to kill him. He is absurdly powerful, which is really a good thing considered. It would have been disappointing if after thirty or so hours of hyping him up, the result was a simple battle.
He definitely cannot be stealthily attacked, so any build that relies heavily on it is going to be sorely disappointed. He's fast and hits like a ton of bricks, so hopefully some serious fighting skills have been honed.
2 The Erymanthian Boar (Odyssey) Was A Sidequest Kill That Kept A Lot Of Players From 100% Completion
This obnoxious boar was the epitome of insanity. It had a powerful rush attack, was impossible to sneak up on, and would periodically summon more boars to fight with it. The whole point of running into it was to prove the player's worth to Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt to get an awesome special arrow, and maybe flirt with the pretty quest giver.
It was such a pain though that many fans dropped the side quest entirely and came back late in the game, if they came back at all. At least literally none of the other beast quests were nearly as difficult.
1 Balor (Valhalla) Is The Assassin's Creed Franchise's Hardest Boss So Far
Balor is an optional fight in Valhalla, and if the player has built themselves up to focus on ranged attacks, they should probably consider just avoiding him all together. As the hardest boss in the series to date, he is an exceptionally difficult fight.
He has two major long-range attacks. One is very fast, but at least it is linear. The other one is a full fire storm which takes up a good chunk of the area. Honestly, unless there's a massive need to collect all the achievements and such, he's better left alone.