Unnatural Selection
Unnatural Selection takes Jacob into the Starrick Brewing Company's distillery, where he meets Charles Darwin snooping at the window. Together they get inside, and Jacob blows up the tanks that brew Soothing Syrup.
- Type
- Story
- Given by
- Charles Darwin
Storylines
Part 3 of 7 in Sequence 4: A Quick and Reliable Remedy
Good to know
- Sequence 4, memory 3 of 7; global story order 10; played as Jacob Frye.
- Ally introduced: Charles Darwin, who identifies Devil's snare (Datura stramonium) among the ingredients.
- Optional objective: kill everyone in the building with the gas.
- Date in the memory: July 1868.
- The title is a pun on Darwin's theory of natural selection.
Objectives
Watch the Blighter patrols around the distillery, then break the padlock and pull the old man inside before a group passes. Walk through with Darwin, who opens one pressure valve and releases gas. Turn the remaining valves yourself, pull the lever to wreck the tank and jump out of a window as the building burns. Leaving guards inside when the gas spreads is how you meet the optional objective.
Things to notice
Blighters on watch argue about tasting the syrup they guard, which is against orders. Darwin scolds Jacob for waving a blade at a respectable gentleman, then praises the destruction once they are outside. The Blighters on watch know someone is targeting their network. One sneaks a taste of the syrup he is guarding against strict orders and gets caught by his partner. Darwin, unbothered by Jacob's blade, pushes it aside and lectures him on manners.
Outcome
Darwin introduces himself and shows a ledger saying a sample of every batch goes to Lambeth Asylum. He talks Jacob out of storming it straight away, which leads to On the Origin of Syrup.
Tips
The door guard and patrols move in a loop, so wait for the group to pass before breaking the padlock. Inside, the valves are spread around the tank; turn all of them before pulling the lever, then leave quickly through the window.
- Charles DarwinCharles Darwin helps Jacob destroy the Soothing Syrup distillery in Sequence 4 and then gives the Charles Darwin London Stories, in which the twins protect his work and reputation from Templar-backed attacks.
- Crawford StarrickCrawford Starrick is the main antagonist of Assassin's Creed Syndicate: Grand Master of the British Templars and the industrialist who controls London in 1868 through his factories, railways, banks, the Blighters gang and a ring of Templar lieutenants. Every major target the Frye twins kill is one of his people, and the main story builds toward a final confrontation with him at Buckingham Palace.
- John ElliotsonDr John Elliotson is the Templar physician behind Starrick's Soothing Syrup, the addictive tonic dulling London's poor. Jacob Frye tracks him down through Sequence 4 with Charles Darwin's help, and he is the target of the memory Overdose at Lambeth Asylum.
Related missions
- Story
On the Origin of Syrup
On the Origin of Syrup is a carriage interrogation: Darwin points Jacob at his old rival Richard Owen, and you hijack Owen's coach and drive it recklessly until he names the man who created Soothing Syrup.
Image: UbisoftStoryOverdose
Overdose is the assassination of Dr John Elliotson inside Lambeth Asylum. As Jacob you explore the asylum, help a trapped nurse and stop a brutal electroshock session, then reach Elliotson's lecture theatre by hiding under the sheet of a cadaver.
- Story
The Lady with the Lamp
The Lady with the Lamp brings Evie back to Lambeth after the asylum's closure. When Clara O'Dea collapses at the asylum doors, Florence Nightingale takes her in and gives Evie a list of medicines to fetch from a peddler and a besieged pharmacist.
- Story
A Spoonful of Syrup
A Spoonful of Syrup starts Jacob's investigation into Starrick's Soothing Syrup, a cheap tonic leaving its users dazed. You chase a street seller, tail a silent distributor and kidnap the distribution boss from a fight club to find out where it is made.