Assassin's Creed Unity: Dead Kings Tips - Franciade, Lanterns, and Raider Fights

Assassin’s Creed Unity: Dead Kings is single-player DLC for Assassin’s Creed Unity, developed by Ubisoft Montpellier and published by Ubisoft. It sends Arno from Paris to Saint-Denis, called Franciade in the DLC, for a darker post-story route built around tombs, catacombs, Raiders, lantern puzzles, and new gear.

Content warning: Assassin’s Creed Unity is rated Mature 17+ for violent and adult-themed content. This guide stays non-graphic and focuses on practical play.

This is a beginner guide, but Dead Kings still expects you to know Unity basics: stealth mode, Eagle Vision, cover, smoke bombs, parkour descent, and combat timing. If you are brand new to Unity, spend a little time in Paris first before treating Franciade like a tutorial zone.

Essential Tips

1. Enter Franciade Deliberately

Dead Kings is reached through Unity, not from a separate standalone campaign menu. Look for the Franciade access point on the in-game map, then treat the trip as a DLC commitment rather than a quick side errand.

Before you go, restock medicine, smoke bombs, phantom blades, ammunition, and lockpicks. Equip a melee weapon you trust instead of testing weak gear in the first catacomb route. The DLC gives you new toys, but dense interiors punish a sloppy loadout.

2. Use Eagle Vision Before Every Courtyard and Crypt Room

Franciade has a lot of cluttered approaches: courtyards, abbey rooms, tomb passages, guarded ladders, and puzzle spaces. Eagle Vision is your safest habit because it reveals guards, patrol pressure, clues, symbols, and threats before you drop into trouble.

Use it from rooftops, windows, and doorway edges. If a route looks obvious, scan anyway. Dead Kings often rewards entering from a side window or upper opening instead of walking through the guarded front path.

3. Play the DLC Like Stealth First, Combat Second

The Guillotine Gun is tempting, but Dead Kings is still Unity. Clean stealth, cover kills, roof movement, smoke bomb escapes, and target isolation keep optional objectives manageable and save supplies for forced fights.

When a memory asks you to avoid conflict, do not confuse that with never touching a guard. Quiet takedowns can clear a path if you avoid open fights. If the area is too busy, go high, circle wide, or wait for patrols to separate.

4. Refill the Lantern Whenever You See Oil

The lantern is not flavor. It supports tomb traversal, dark routes, and puzzle spaces, so treat oil jars like checkpoints. Refill before climbing, before plate rooms, and before pushing deeper into underground routes.

If you are stuck, check whether the room expects lantern use instead of another parkour angle. Dead Kings likes to mix climbing, plates, hidden symbols, and light-based progression. Slow down and read the space before forcing jumps.

5. Target Raider Leaders Early

Some Raider groups have a leader marked above the enemy. Prioritizing that leader can make the encounter easier because the group may break once the leader falls.

Scout first, then decide how to remove the leader. A Phantom Blade shot, aerial assassination, Berserker Blade, or smoke-assisted melee attack can be better than fighting the whole mob honestly. If you get pulled into open combat, keep the leader in view and do not waste your first burst on the least dangerous target.

6. Save the Guillotine Gun for Clusters and Panic Moments

The Guillotine Gun is powerful because it gives Arno a heavy weapon with explosive ranged pressure, but it is noisy and easy to overuse. It shines when enemies are grouped, when a boss arena starts to crowd you, or when smoke gives you enough breathing room to aim.

Do not fire it just because one guard saw you. Use standard melee, phantom blades, or smoke bombs for small problems. Keep the gun for moments where several enemies are about to turn a manageable fight into a reload.

7. Start Suger’s Legacy After Memory 3

Suger’s Legacy is the DLC’s major riddle chain. Two entries are part of the story path, and the rest open after the third memory. The structure is similar to Unity’s symbol-hunting enigmas: find a start marker, read the clue, use Eagle Vision, and follow symbols.

Do not rush these while half-alert in a restricted area. Clear nearby patrols, use rooftops, and approach each clue with Eagle Vision already active. The reward, the Eagle of Suger, is worth planning around if you like one-handed swords and crowd-control effects.

8. Treat Optional Objectives as Route Planning, Not Cleanup

Dead Kings memories can ask for conditions such as avoiding conflict, cover kills, air assassinations, or double assassinations. These are much easier when you plan from the start.

Pause at the memory opening and identify what the objective is asking you to avoid or create. If it wants air assassinations, enter from above. If it wants no conflict, move slowly and favor isolated takedowns. If it wants double assassinations, do not immediately kill every paired guard you see before the objective counts.

9. Keep Moving During Relic Escape Moments

Late in the DLC, you use relic power during an escape sequence. The important habit is timing: activate, move, and keep advancing instead of standing still to test the effect.

Watch your health, but do not turn the escape into a fight unless the game forces it. The safest route is usually the one that keeps Arno moving through the intended path while the power is active.

10. Return to Paris Only After You Understand Your Current Objective

Because Dead Kings is a DLC region inside Unity, players often get disoriented when they enter Franciade earlier than expected. If you are in the middle of a memory, finish the immediate objective chain before worrying about broader cleanup.

Once the DLC opens up, use the map and progress tracker deliberately. Separate story memories, Suger puzzles, murder mysteries, co-op/heist content, and collectible cleanup into different sessions. Franciade is compact, but mixing all of it at once makes it easy to lose track of why you entered a crypt or climbed the Basilica.

Franciade Route Priorities

Start by synchronizing viewpoints and learning the roofs around the Basilica. Height gives you cleaner approaches to abbey windows, restricted courtyards, and puzzle starts. It also gives you time to scan Raider groups before dropping into a mission marker.

In tomb routes, move like you are clearing a stealth room, not like you are sprinting through a chase. Check side chambers for chests or pickups before triggering the next door. Refill the lantern at oil jars whenever the game offers one. If a puzzle uses plates, symbols, braziers, or relic objects, solve it calmly before you start searching for a hidden combat solution.

For combat, carry smoke bombs and keep a ranged option ready. Smoke buys time to heal, reload, assassinate a leader, or escape a cluster. The Phantom Blade is useful for removing a priority enemy before a room wakes up. The Guillotine Gun can end a crowded mistake, but it should not be your default opener when stealth is still possible.

Gear and Puzzle Habits

Dead Kings adds gear that also works with the main Unity game, so do not ignore the reward loop. New weapons, outfits, and the Eagle of Suger can matter beyond the DLC region. That said, avoid turning your first clear into a gear spreadsheet. Finish story access, unlock the Suger chain, and then decide whether you want full puzzle cleanup.

For Suger’s Legacy, make Eagle Vision part of every step. The riddles depend on symbols, and the path often starts from an icon rather than an obvious combat marker. When a clue points you toward a landmark, climb, scan, and look on walls, roofs, trees, fountains, or stonework before assuming the riddle is broken.

If a reward does not appear immediately, check whether the chain has a final interaction back near the Basilica or another scroll marker. Do not overwrite your mental checklist with random collectible cleanup until you know the riddle chain is actually complete.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. Launching Franciade with empty tools - Restock medicine, smoke bombs, ranged ammo, and lockpicks before starting the DLC.

2. Walking into courtyards at street level - Use rooftops, side windows, and Eagle Vision before entering guarded abbey approaches.

3. Treating the Guillotine Gun as a stealth replacement - Save it for clusters, boss pressure, and emergency crowd control.

4. Ignoring Raider leaders - Identify marked leaders first because removing them can reduce the rest of the group.

5. Passing oil jars without refilling the lantern - Refill before climbs, puzzle rooms, and deeper catacomb routes.

6. Starting Suger riddles while guards are active nearby - Clear or bypass patrols before reading symbols and searching clue paths.

7. Forgetting optional objectives until the end of a memory - Plan air assassinations, cover kills, and no-conflict routes from the opening approach.

8. Standing still during relic escape sequences - Use the power, move with purpose, and keep advancing instead of testing the hazard.

9. Mixing story, co-op, murder mysteries, and collectibles in one pass - Finish one activity type at a time so Franciade stays readable.

10. Chasing every nearby map marker at once - Pick the story, Suger, mystery, co-op, heist, or collectible activity you mean to finish before moving to the next icon.

Summary

Focus	Best Habit
Access	Use the Franciade icon inside Assassin’s Creed Unity
Preparation	Restock tools before leaving Paris
Stealth	Scan with Eagle Vision before each approach
Combat	Remove Raider leaders and use smoke to reset bad fights
Lantern	Refill at oil jars before puzzle and tomb routes
Guillotine Gun	Save it for groups and high-pressure fights
Suger’s Legacy	Start after Memory 3 and follow symbols with Eagle Vision
Rewards	Treat the Eagle of Suger as optional cleanup, not required story progress
Difficulty	Beginner-friendly if you already know Unity’s core systems