Assassin’s Creed first introduced the hidden blade as a weapon used by the player character. Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad uses the concealed wrist-mounted blade during assassination missions in the original 2007 game.
The hidden blade became one of the franchise’s signature weapons. Its design lets an Assassin conceal a short blade beneath clothing and extend it from the wrist for a close-range strike, matching the series’ emphasis on stealth and infiltration.
Later games expanded the weapon with new animations, materials, and modifications. Assassin’s Creed II added a second hidden blade and a poison blade, while later protagonists used variations suited to their historical settings.
The hidden blade is fictional within the series, although the games place it in historical settings and connect its use to the Assassin Brotherhood. It should not be confused with the wrist-mounted rope launcher introduced much later in Syndicate.