Beginner’s Guide#
Sifu is a kung fu action game built on Pak Mei kung fu, with a main story of a prologue plus five levels. This page helps new players clear up the most commonly misunderstood mechanics before setting out on the revenge road: how aging works, how deaths are handled, and which difficulty to choose.
What the Game Is#
- You play the sole son of a kung fu school master, hunting the five members of the “Dawn Group” who killed your father. The route is fixed: The Squats, The Club, The Museum, The Tower, and The Sanctuary.
- Each level’s hub boss is one of the five: Fajar, Sean, Kuroki, Jinfeng, and Yang.
- Single-player only, no multiplayer, fully playable offline.
- Official support includes Simplified/Traditional Chinese subtitles and Chinese voice-over (including Cantonese).
Basic Controls#
Common gamepad mappings (defer to the in-game bindings; PC is remappable):
| Action | PlayStation | Xbox | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Move | Left stick | Left stick | Character movement |
| Light attack | □ | X | Fast strikes, bread-and-butter offense |
| Heavy attack | △ | Y | High damage, slower startup |
| Block | R1 | RB | Absorb enemy attacks |
| Dodge | R2 | RT | Sidestep attacks |
| Push | L1 | LB | Shove enemies back, create space |
| Execute / interact | R1 (when prompted) | RB (when prompted) | Trigger a takedown when their structure is broken |
The whole system in one sentence: your attacks fill the enemy’s structure bar; when it breaks, you execute — while blocking and dodging protect your own structure. Loop those three things and combat clicks.
The Age Mechanic — Understand It First#
Age is the game’s core mechanic and the place beginners get misled most. The actual rules:
| Common Misunderstanding | Actual Rule |
|---|---|
| Each death adds a fixed 1 year | The death counter increments by 1 per death, and on each rise the whole counter is added to your age: the 1st consecutive death costs 1 year, the 2nd costs 2, the 3rd costs 3 — escalating each time |
| Death returns you to a checkpoint | After death you “Rise” on the spot and continue the current fight |
| Older means stronger blocking | No official source; the only verified effects are +damage per 10 years older and lower max health |
| Turning 70 ends the game instantly | Only dying again after reaching 70 is true death; the talisman holds 5 coins, each carrying 10 years |
| Age only changes numbers | Past certain ages, some skills and shrine rewards become unlockable no longer |
The most important corollary for beginners: consecutive deaths are the most expensive. Dying three times in the same spot can cost 3 years in a single rise; if you reset the counter between deaths, the same three deaths cost only 1 year.
Choosing a Difficulty#
- At launch the game had no difficulty selection, but the Summer 2022 update added difficulty modes (including an Easy mode) and gameplay modifiers.
- On Easy, shrines offer an extra “Rejuvenate” reward: take it to shed 5 years at once.
- Advice: if this genre is new to you, start on Easy and learn the route guilt-free — the structure-based combat already has plenty of depth.
HUD Guide#
Core combat HUD elements (exact layout, defer to the game):
| Element | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Health | Current HP; aging lowers max health |
| Age | The protagonist’s current age — the direct cost of dying |
| Structure bar | Your and enemies’ structure; break an enemy’s structure to execute |
| EXP | Currency for buying skills, earned in combat |
| Weapon durability | Picked-up weapons degrade; when they break you’re back to bare hands |
Five Opening Steps#
Step 1: Clear the Prologue, Watch the Story#
The prologue is the night raid on the kung fu school — a tutorial fight establishing the backstory: the Dawn Group’s assault, your father’s murder, and the talisman that revived you. Follow the tutorial through movement, attacks, and blocking.
Step 2: The Squats — Drill the Fundamentals#
- The Squats is where the revenge properly begins, with the blade-wielding Fajar as boss.
- Take as few deaths as possible in the early group fights — age is cheapest in this level, making it the golden window for keeping your age low across the whole run.
- This level hides a shortcut-exclusive 4th shrine — the most shrines of any level — worth the detour.
Step 3: Learn to Read the Structure Bar#
- Breaking an enemy’s structure and executing on the prompt is the game’s safest, most efficient kill.
- Your own structure filling up leaves you staggered, so blocking and dodging aren’t optional — they matter as much as attacking.
Step 4: Spend Shrines, Don’t Hoard#
- Each level has about 3 shrines; each offers 1 pick from 9 rewards (in 3 categories), and rewards persist across levels.
- The “Reset Death Counter” reward costs 1000 EXP and zeroes the current counter — when deaths pile up, find a shrine and clear it. Don’t sit on it.
Step 5: Stuck? Go Back to the Wuguan#
- After each chapter you can practice and unlock skills at the Wuguan (the kung fu school).
- Skills are bought with EXP; buying the same skill 6 times in total unlocks it permanently across runs.
- When stuck, buy skills first, then replay earlier levels to lower your starting age — brute-forcing is the last resort.
Beginner FAQ#
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What happens on death? | You Rise on the spot and age; the escalating death counter is added |
| Can levels be replayed? | Yes — after clearing, any level can be replayed from the level select screen |
| What happens at age 70? | Dying after 70 is true death (game over); in special cases you can exceed 70 |
| Is there a difficulty option? | Yes — difficulty modes and gameplay modifiers arrived with the Summer 2022 update |
| How do I heal? | Through shrine rewards; exact mechanics, defer to the game |
| Do weapons break? | Yes — weapons have durability and degrade; when they break you’re back to bare hands |
| How do I earn EXP? | Combat; spent on skills and some shrine rewards |
| Boss won’t fall? | Buy skills at the Wuguan, replay earlier levels to lower age — see the site’s Tips page |
Section Navigation#
- Combat System — structure, blocking, dodging, and executions fully broken down
- Age Mechanic — the death counter, the coins, and age reduction
- Walkthrough — the five levels in order and per-level notes
- Boss Guide — the five bosses’ identities and fight frameworks
- FAQ — more common questions
Scope Notes#
- Exact HUD placement and styling, and per-difficulty enemy tuning, were not captured in this verification — defer to the game.
- Specific combo inputs are not documented; check the in-game movelist in the Wuguan practice mode.