Boston Brawler – Sailor

assassins-creed-3

I'm trying to defeat the sailor for the Boston Brawler series of missions and it's straight up impossible. I can't even touch him. You fight on a ship and after disposing of his lackies your are left with him and he is impossible to hit. Every punch he blocks and if I block him, he blocks my counter.

I've seen on the internet the suggestion of using smoke bombs, but I can't. Apparently you can't access your weapons in the fight. I've also seen a suggestion about if you block him near a chair or table he will be damaged, but there is nothing on the ship like that and he won't follow you off the ship!

So what are you actually supposed to do here?!?

Playing on PC, console versions might have been different (I'm assuming the other suggestions work on console).

Best Answer

Personally, I did not find the Sailor as that much of a difficult target. In fact, i would argue that the sailor is the easiest of the bunch. There is a specific method to beating the sailor. I would admit though, that if you do not follow the specific steps it can be near impossible to defeat the sailor.

To defeat the sailor, simply do the following:

When the sailor throws a punch, simply counter the attack FIRST, then in the most fluid and natural manner possible use "Break Defence". If executed properly, the sailor will stumble and take advantage of that moment to spam hits on him, you should be able to finish him off quickly.
When I say "fluid", I mean that when you press the "Counter" button followed by the "Break Defence" button, do so naturally, not too slow, not too fast. Do not rush to execute the combination, yet do not take your own sweet time.
This may take a bit of practice getting used to but within the span of your health, you should be able to try the combination 4-5 times. This is more than sufficient in finishing him off.
It should quickly become clear to you that the "Breaking his defence" part is the trickiest of the steps. However, as long as you keep on trying, and of course, follow my steps, you will get it eventually.

If however, you are more of a visual person, check out the following video. It took the player below a few tries but he eventually got it:

Related Solutions

How to solve the Magic Lantern puzzle in the Boston Underground

I literally just did this!

The clues are in a letter you find, and they are as follows:

UNDER ALL CIRCUMSTANCE-OBEY AND BALANCE THE MORAL LAW
THE GLOBE OVER
BE IT CHRISTIANITY OF THE WEST
BUDDHISM OF THE EAST

The BALANCE is represented by the scales of justice. The globe is the GLOBE, obviously. The cross symbolizes CHRISTIANITY, and the steering wheel is a symbol for BUDDHISM.

Based on the last two lines, Christianity is of the West, so the cross goes on the left. Buddhism is of the East, so the wheel goes to the right.

Then, for the first two lines, the moral law is to be obeyed under all circumstances, so the scales are on the bottom. Furthermore, the moral law must be obeyed all over the globe, so the globe is on top.

Invisible symbols in the Boston Gate Lantern Underground puzzle

I encountered this once on the PS3 version. Rebooting my system solved it for me. I'm not sure how saving on the PC version works--you might want to try leaving the sewers, saving, rebooting, then going back into the sewers to see if that fixes it.