Sifu introduces 5 main bosses for you to defeat. Here is our guide on how to beat or spare every one of them.
Sifu is a martial-arts-based action game developed by the French studio Sloclap. In Sifu, you play as the son of a master martial artist. The story starts off with your father being murdered right in front of your eyes as a child, and you are too helpless to do anything to prevent it. After rigorously training for 8 years, you venture out to exact revenge on the people responsible for your father’s murder in hopes of avenging him.
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As you keep on investigating and connecting the dots, you find five main culprits that you need to confront. They are Fajar “The Botanist,” Sean “The Fighter,” Kuroki “The Artist,” Jinféng “The CEO,” and lastly, Yang “The Leader.” They each have their unique fighting methods. And while you do need to rely on your skills to beat them, relying on your wit will also prove to be equally important. All boss battles in Sifu consist of 2 phases. In this guide, we will discuss how you can beat or spare all 5 bosses in Sifu.
How to Beat Fajar “The Botanist”
Fajar is the very first boss you’ll encounter in Sifu. He will challenge everything you have learned til now. It would be best if you tried to beat him while you are still in your 20s. The mute botanist can be found at his indoor botanical garden during The Squats mission. He will always start the fight by launching himself in the air and landing an unblockable kick on you. Most of his fighting style is reliant on powerful high kicks, but he may also switch up his combos with punches once in a while.
Before you even start the fight, you need to make some preparations. Firstly, make sure to have the Strong Sweep Focus permanently unlocked. Fajar is incredibly fast and agile, so you need to be able to incapacitate him for a while to land a few blows at once. Since the move consumes 1 focus bar, we recommend upgrading your Focus meter.
Secondly, we advise you to get the Structure Regain upgrade unlocked, as it will increase the structure you regain from successfully evading attacks each time. Winning this fight will require you to evade and weave constantly. Lastly, we advise you to start the fight with a pipe or staff in hand. It will be an added bonus if you can unlock Weapon Mastery to make sure your weapon lasts longer in battle.
For the first phase, your strategy should be focused on dodging his attacks and breaking his structure. As mentioned earlier, his first attack cannot be blocked, so keep holding block and dodge right as he lands. Your goal should be to pull back every time he goes for a high kick. You should be able to follow up with a few combos to deal a good amount of damage before he gets ready to strike again. You can regain your own structure by vaulting over the plants.
Once you have broken his structure, you can unleash a triangle + circle combo on him which will trigger a cutscene. This will begin the second phase of the fight, which takes place in a bamboo forest. This time, Fajar will swing his blade at you. He will disappear within the bamboo and jump out to pounce on you with his blade. But you’ll still be able to tell which direction he’s going to jump out from as the bamboo will pulsate.
To avoid his blade strikes, we recommend that you hold the block button and dodge right before he swings his blade. He will follow up his blade strike with a kick, so you can use the same strategy you used in phase one to get to him. We recommend picking up bamboo sticks from the ground to use as a weapon in this phase as well. There will be no shortage of weapons in this area, so be sure to make use of them.
How to Beat Sean “The Fighter”
Sean “The Fighter” is the second boss of the game, and you will fight him during The Club chapter. Sean runs an underground fight club under his nightclub, and you’ll keep coming across challenging foes right until you reach his lair. If your death counter is already over 3, you should consider spending XP on Death Counter to reset it to zero.
That’s because you might not be able to beat him in a single try. And you should ideally end this fight at 35, going up to 40. There will be plenty of Avoid or weaving involved in this boss battle as well. So we recommend that you have both Focus regain and Structure regain unlocked by this point. You’ll also need the Strong Sweep Focus to take him down. But be sure to save your focus bars for the second phase.
The fighting ground will be a lot less clustered this time, with the center area being wide open. There are rows of pillars on both sides, and you’ll find plenty of poles or staff to pick up and use as weapons. However, it’s not mandatory to use them to win this fight.
Sean himself will use a staff in combat. And his combo comes in a string of three. He will keep repeating this combo over and over again, sometimes adding a push just to intimidate you. The goal here is to keep blocking until his third strike and then duck. You can then follow up with a few strikes of your own.
You can practically carry on with this strategy until his health drops below 50%. When his health comes down to 25%, he’ll finally switch up his moves and start throwing low attacks at you. It is at this stage that you might have some trouble coping. However, you can quickly take him down with that Strong Sweep Focus, finishing him off with a few punches.
Don’t worry if your own health is below 25% at the end of phase 1, as you’ll start phase 2 with a full health bar. The fight will now take place in a fiery pit that resembles hell itself. Sean’s staff will have a fire burning on both ends as well. His moves will become more aggressive from here. He will throw those low attacks more frequently, so you need to dodge upwards to block those successfully.
Once he goes flaming hot, he’ll start attacking even more aggressively and land more low attacks. This is when you should be using your focus bars on Strong Sweep to catch him off guard and deal a good amount of damage. He’ll keep unleashing combos that you need to dodge to build up your focus meter and take him down with a Strong sweep. Keep repeating this process until you beat him.
How to Beat Kuroki “The Artist”
Kuroki “The Artist” is the third main boss in Sifu, and she can be fought during The Museum chapter. The fight takes place in a snowy arena. Kuroki will come at you with a bladed three-section staff. Her movements are fast and almost feel like a dance. We recommend you bring a baseball bat to this fight.
You need to make sure you have Strong Sweep Focus, and Weapon catch unlock to start off. Having Snap Kick is a bonus. Ideally, you should be beating her in your late 40s or early 50s. Kuroki’s strikes can be fast and deadly, so the best way to avoid dying is by dodging her combos and creating distance from her.
She will pause for a brief moment after finishing her combo, and that’s your cue for running up to her and landing a few hits. You’ll have little luck parrying or blocking her moves, so we don’t recommend it. You need to keep running from her until she finishes her string of attacks. But you need to be patient, as it keeps going on for quite a while. You’ll know when to go up to her when her feet turn orange. When you see the opportunity, hit her with an Eye Strike or Strong Sweep.
Once you break her stance completely, the triangle + circle combo will appear, and it will begin the cutscene for phase 2. At this stage, she will drop her bladed staff and start throwing Kunai or Japanese throwing blades at you. This is why having the Weapon Catch unlocked is an absolute must because you can deal tons of damage by throwing those kunai right back at her.
She’ll occasionally charge right at you to attack. At that point, just parry and block everything. You can follow up with a three to four-hit combo to drain her health by dodging her last hit. She’ll go back to throwing knives at you, and the pattern will repeat. So keep following this strategy to beat her.
How to Beat Jinféng “The CEO”
Jinféng “The CEO” is the fourth main boss you’ll battle in Sifu, and you’ll battle her towards the end of The Tower chapter. Jinféng is considered to be the easiest boss to beat of all five bosses. However, you should definitely take a weapon to this fight as well. There is a large room right before the pit where you’ll find a machete lying around. It’s placed in the room’s northwest corner.
Before jumping into the pit, be sure to reset your Death Counter, as well as invest in Weapon Durability. Not to mention, you should have the Strong Sweep Focus unlocked. She uses a chained weapon that extends over a great distance and deals plenty of damage. However, her combos are repetitive, hence predictable. She’ll strike high twice, finishing with a low strike. To avoid getting hit, duck, duck, and jump.
Once you’ve read her movements, you’ll notice that there’s a delay between her combos. That’s your opportunity to run up to her and strike her with your blade (or any other weapon you may have picked up). Then, you should follow it up with a Strong Sweep and land multiple hits. Keep repeating until you beat the first phase.
She’ll use the same combo in the second phase as well. So keep following the same strategy and take her down with a Strong Sweep. If you have two focus bars, follow your first sweep with another one to deal even more damage in one go. With that, you’ll have her choking in her own chains in no time.
How to Beat Yang “The Leader”
We are finally down to the last boss. Yang “The Leader” is the person that killed your Sifu and set your entire journey in motion. You’ll battle him towards the end of The Sanctuary chapter, and fighting him is like fighting a reflection of yourself. Yang has every skill in his arsenal. He can use any of the moves from the game’s entire skill tree. And to make things even harder, all your focus skills are disabled. So, Strong Sweeping your opponent is no longer an option.
His attacks are fast, and just like you, he, too, will try to dodge and parry all attacks thrown at him. The fight will begin with him throwing a few punches your way that you need to parry. And after he’s done, he’ll quickly sidestep to your right and come at you with a few more punches. And this is one of the key moves that he’ll be using throughout the fight. In order to not get hit, you need to keep button-smashing L1 to Avoid. As soon as you get an opening, follow up with a few strikes of your own.
Every once in a while, he’ll fall back and do a slide kick. That’s when you should jump up to avoid falling. However, there is a pattern to that move. Every time he parries you, he’ll fall back to a great distance, indicating that he’s about to perform a slide kick. If you dodge successfully, you can instantly follow up with a punishment.
You can almost never hit him by making the first move. Rather, you need to avoid or parry his attacks to find an opening. That’s why shaving off his health can be a lengthy process. However, you can bait him by pressing R2 and backing away instantly. He’ll come forward to hit back that you can easily avoid or parry, leaving you up with an opening to strike back.
As you move on to the second phase, he will start launching three-hit punch combos that will require you to Avoid. So you need to button-smash L1 every time he falls back and launches forward with his fist. This will give you an opening to counterattack. He will sometimes follow up with a three-hit combo that ends with either a high or low kick, so watch out for those. At this point, you just need to keep focusing on breaking his structure, and he will fall eventually.
How to Spare Bosses in Sifu
As stated earlier, every major boss fight in Sifu happens in two phases. After breaking a Boss’s structure, the prompt for the finisher move appears. As soon as it does, we press it without hesitation to start the next phase or finish the battle. However, there is an option where you can spare every one of them.
Although exacting revenge through death might feel like the natural course of the story, it is not the one Sifu wants you to follow. If you murder any one of the bosses, you will have failed the teachings of the Wude. This will prevent you from reaching the game’s true ending.
In order to spare a boss in Sifu, you need to get to the second phase of the battle. Once the finisher prompt appears, do not press it. Instead, allow your opponent to recuperate themselves. Once their Structure bar depletes, they’ll get back in the fight. At this point, you need to break their structure again.
The opponent’s structure can be easily broken by attacking them with weapons, along with blocking and parrying their attacks. Once their structure breaks for the third time, wait until the “Spare” option appears on the screen. Remember, you need to spare all five bosses to unlock the true ending. Unlocking each boss unlocks a different talisman, as well as the Muk Yan Master trophy.
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