Sifu is out in the wild, landing pretty solid reviews consisting of a Top Critic average of 80 and an 81% critic recommendation on Opencritic. While there’s a lot to praise, like its art style, there is one thing many agree on for Sifu: it’s tough. It’s a roguelike game where players must strive to get the best out of their runs, so they can begin the next level as well-equipped and as young as possible.
Managing age in Sifu (something that constantly increases when players die) is another important aspect; defeating Sean and the Club at age 70 is not helpful in terms of beating Sifu. But, for players who are struggling with Sifu’s second level, The Club, and its boss, Sean the Fighter, here are some useful tips to keep in mind.
Sifu: General Tips for Getting Through The Club
In terms of managing age and being prepared enough to beat Sifu, players should thrive to finish The Club around the age of 35, though younger is better. Players should repeat The Club enough to keep themselves below this limit. In terms of gameplay specifics for The Club level, here are things players should keep in mind:
- Don’t worry about beating The Club until players unlock the Disciple's Pass from Sean’s Disciple. This will make clearing it much more manageable.
- Players should do their best to not die at all until after beating the First Dancer (after clearing the first big mob in the club). This will lower their death counter and assist them in completing the level.
- Weapon Durability (Age requirement 24 or less) should be a key skill picked up from Sifu’s shrines.
- Always have a weapon. The Club is filled with them: save the Baseball bat from the second fight to take to the third. When entering the room with the second shrine, where one of the opponents is stretching, there is a hidden bat in the corner (pictured below).
- Carry the Staff from its introduction all the way to Sean, if possible.
Sifu: How to Prepare for Sean
After players finally get to Sean, beating down every single person in their way, they will enter a small dojo. Immediately on the right, pictured above, is a Shrine. Players should save their experience up to this point to buy the Death Counter reset item.
No matter how well players do against Sean, they are likely to lose, so going in with zero deaths helps a lot. If they’ve gotten this far in a Sifu run with only 1 death, then by all means, purchase another skill. If 2 or more, though, it’s highly recommended to choose this option. Up next is Sean The Fighter himself.
Sifu: How to Beat Sean The Fighter (Phase One)
The final boss has two stages, as most bosses in Sifu do. This first stage will be conducted in the small dojo. If players no longer have a staff, they should sprint and grab one as soon as they are in the room with Sean. Sean is stronger and hard to beat, but he also follows an identifiable pattern by which players will want to form their strategy.
Players should remain defensive in this fight and not try to fight aggressively against Sean in Sifu. Instead, players should hold their Block button and wait for his combos. There are two primary combos: one which ends with a vertical downward strike and a three-part combo that ends with a strong overhead spin of his staff.
The vertical downward strike combo is harder to predict, but dodging back is the best option here. Sometimes, just dodging downward is enough for the attack to miss, but players should be mindful of which combo he is using.
Accept or deal with these combos as one must, but following Sean's charges, it’s best to dodge back then dodge downward for his spinning combos. It’ll be a pattern of dodging his charge, then dodging downward three times.
After his big overhear spin attack, players can score an easy combo on him, and they should focus on strong attacks (Triangle on PS5)—if players use a staff, they have the benefit of occasionally sweeping him. This adds more damage, but players shouldn’t push it. Repeating this pattern of dodging and then a strong attack combo is enough to beat Sean’s first phase (as seen above).
Another thing to focus on is focus attacks. Against Sean’s first phase, players should use the Sweep Focus Attack as often as they can to score easy bonus damage.
Sean: How to Beat Sean The Fighter (Phase Two)
In the second phase, players are likely to lose their weapon early. This means players will have to deal with Sean without a weapon, and more importantly, players should save their focus for the second half of this phase.
At this point, the core pattern to beat Sean is the same—dodge his combos, duck the massive spin attack, and then deliver a strong combo. The problem here is that Sean will also throw in a low-sweeping attack. It doesn’t deal much damage, so players should try to avoid it each time by dodging up, but Sean WILL score hits with these. Players shouldn't worry if they can't handle the unpredictable nature of this strike though, as if players can block or dodge Sean's other attacks, this small amount of damage won't make or break the fight. Players should roll out of the way as fast as they can if swept.
Patience is key to Sifu's combat and key to beating Sean in both phases. Watching Sean’s moves, though, players should continue to look out for that overheard pole twirl combo and then deal damage. Players should watch Sean’s health meter though; at half-health, he will catch on fire, becoming more aggressive and erratic.
At this point, it’s recommended players use their focus attacks to sweep Sean and get extra damage in. Otherwise, they must continue to watch out for the low attack and wait for Sean’s massive combos to end (he has others than the two aforementioned here, but when he lingers in place, that is the time to strike).
In this mode, Sean will rush forward, perform one or two attacks, back up, rush forward, rinse and repeat. Despite this increased pressure from Sean, players should focus on dodging, waiting on that combo to end, and striking when Sean opens himself up. Eventually, players will whittle his health away until he’s defeated.
It may take a few tries and players will die a couple of times thanks to Sean and Sifu's difficulty, but once they nail Sean’s patterns, he’s a much easier boss to beat in Sifu than he first seems. Players should aim to beat him at less than age 35 to move forward and be prepared for the next Sifu level: The Museum.
Sifu is available now on PC and PS5.