Assassin's Creed: Unity - how to open blue Nomad chests
Assassin's Creed: Unity requires players to use the companion app if they want to open the blue Nomad chests.
Assassin's Creed: Unity - how to open blue Nomad chests
The blue Nomad chests scattered around Revolutionary Paris are a temptation and a frustration to players after some extra treasure - or just to clear out their maps.
Unfortunately, it's not made entirely clear in-game just how you open these chests, and downloading the Assassin's Creed: Unity companion app doesn't make it much more obvious.If you're keen to open all those blue Nomad chests, let us guide you through the process.
Warning: as of November 24 using the Assassin's Creed: Unity companion app puts you at risk of save game wipes, so if you can bear to wait you may want to leave this until you've done everything else.
The Assassin's Creed: Unity companion app
Let's start with a very important point: if you want Arno to open the chests in-game, you need to be using the companion app as you play Assassin's Creed: Unity. If you don't have the app and game synched up as you play, Arno won't be able to open the chests when you unlock them, and you'll have to send a recruit to collect them 24 hours later.
As such, it's very important that you don't finish missions while using the app on the go. This isn't ideal at all, but it is what it is. You've been warned.
Your first step to opening Unity's blue Nomad chests is to downlaod the companion app from the App Store or Google Play, and as soon as possible, synch it with your Unity save game. That means you need to log into Uplay in the game and the app.
Now let's talk about how to make the app yield up its chests. Here's the general flow:
- Unlock glyph puzzles
- Solve glyph puzzles
- Send Assassins on missions
- Collect chests
Unlocking and solving Glyph puzzles
You need to unlock and solve Glyph puzzles first. One is good to go right from the moment you start using the app, and is part of the tutorial, but the others are unlocked by synchronising viewpoints in Assassin's Creed: Unity.
Once you've unlocked a Glyph puzzle, you need to solve it. Load one up and tap the screen to fire a concentric circle of Eagle Vision. This will highlight glyphs on the structure; tap these before they vanish to complete the puzzle. Remember to rotate the structure and look on top, and be sure to check all sides of features like towers.
You only have a limited number of Eagle Vision uses for each attempt at solving, but if you retry the position of discovered glyphs won't change, so just keep plugging away at it until you get it; no need to spend points on continues if you can remember the locations.
Send Assassin's on missions
Each viewpoint is home to three Glyph puzzles, each of which will unlock a mission. The missions are in turn made up of three checkpoints.
The missions are completed by assigning one or more assassins to the task, then waiting while they go and do it; it's just a matter of patience. Each mission requires a different amount of attack, defence and stealth, so you need to assign enough assassins with the right skills to get the job done. Assassins away on missions are not available
Assassins will earn XP when they complete missions, and when they level up you can spend points to increase their attributes. You can also use points to recruit more powerful assassins and to heal your assassins after a mission.
Assassins take quite a while to level up if you're stuck doing the basic missions over and over again, so if you're using the free version of the app, which only supports a small number of assassins, you may want to dismiss some low-level ones and hire more powerful staff. The best assassins are those whose attributes can be upgraded multiple times; some cap out at a low level.
It's pretty easy to run out of points to recruit new assassins or heal existing ones. You can earn points by purchasing social clubs in Unity; these will then generate points in the app, which you can collect regularly. Assigning an assassin to a club will increase your earnings, so I suggest doing that whenever you log out after a session.
Unlocking Nomad chests
When you successfully complete the third checkpoint of a mission, you'll be notified that a chest has opened, and given the choice to have Arno collect it or send an assassin. If you are not playing Unity right then with a synched save, send the assassin - Arno won't be able to open the chest if you aren't playing right at that very moment.
If you are playing right then, drop a waypoint on the chest in the app, and you should be able to track it down in Unity easily.
Good luck, Assassin! The app is cumbersome to use and very badly explained, but with a bit of effort you can grab all those goodies and clear your map.