Sifu Tips: 12 Things You Need To Know About The Kung-Fu Game

These Sifu tips will allow you to have your wits about you when playing this brutal brawler. Sifu is an unrelenting beat-em-up, and anyone approaching it as a thoughtless button masher is going to be sent packing time and time again. As such, you need to be tactical with your approach to this game if you want to succeed, but the game likes to let you figure that out for yourself.

But we've been through the cauldron and have come out victorious, so here's our breakdown of the best Sifu tips that'll allow you to become a kung-fu master. 

Best Sifu Tips: Take Your Time

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Our first Sifu tip is simply to take your time. While there are moments that call for speed, more often than not rushing into combat scenarios will lead to unnecessary death and subsequently ageing.

If you are feeling overwhelmed, dodge back and give yourself some breathing room. This will allow you to assess the situation, and begin to pick off your enemies one by one. 

Best Sifu Tips: Always Use Weapons

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Our next Sifu tip is to always use weapons, as not only do they do more damage, they have far more stunning capabilities and can even be thrown. Weapons will come in the form of bottles, bricks, knives, sticks, and staffs, and while not all are as powerful as others, they still give you a distinct advantage over your fists. 

Best Sifu Tips: Use Your Combos

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When the going gets tough, it's easy to spam buttons in the hope you pull off the ultimate kung-fu moves. But in reality, you'll usually end up missing blocks, and dealing soft blows to enemies blocking. In line with our first of the Sifu tips, take your time and remember to use your combos. Combos can deal that extra bit of damage, but they can also give you space from enemies as you send them reeling. 

Best Sifu Tips: XP Farm The Lower Levels

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You are going to be playing the same five levels in Sifu a lot. Like seriously a lot. However, as you get older upon each death and you try to reach further and further along, you shouldn't forget to deliberately go back to those earlier levels to earn XP. 

Thanks to the process of purchasing skills, players will need to unlock a skill, then purchase it a further five times before it is permanently unlocked between runs. So go back, farm those lower levels for XP, and expand your arsenal of combos and skills. 

Best Sifu Tips: Keep An Eye Out For Shrines

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One of the most important parts of any mission in Sifu are the shrines. These holy places give you the ability to not only unlock your skills without dying but also upgrade your character, whether that be through health gains, resilience boosts, or toughening up your weapons. There are usually only three in each level, and they are very easy to miss, but keep an eye out and get upgrading, especially when you are going for the long haul. 

Best Sifu Tips: Learn Your Enemy Types

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One of the most important Sifu tips is to learn your enemy types. Sifu has a wide cast of enemies ranging from large brutes to swift kickers, and each comes with their own attack styles and combos. Becoming aware of these is crucial to success, especially when death can really only be reserved for the bosses.

While it may be tempting to go for the big guys first, quite often the swarms of little ones can be more troublesome. Deciphering those that are most dangerous in any given moment will help formulate an attack plan in your head. 

Best Sifu Tips: Use The Environment

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It might not seem immediately obvious how you can use the environment to your advantage, but you will steadily learn the tricks of the trade. Just as you do, enemies can take small amounts of damage from banging off of walls. More egregious injuries can be dealt by pushing them down stairs or off ledges.

There are even some environmental challenges such as the pendulum ink well, which players can use to inflict damage on nearby enemies (or themselves if they aren't careful). Once you have the Environmental Mastery skill, you will be able to quickly throw chairs, stools, bulbs, and more at enemies giving you the opportunity to strike. 

Best Sifu Tips: You Don't Always Have To Fight

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While of course, as a beat-em-up you are going to want to get in a fistfight every now and again, you don't always have to fight through hallways of enemies. As you progress through the game you will find shortcuts that will allow you to bypass a lot of the enemies in each level, which can be excellent when pushing for the boss fights. There are also a couple of enemies sprinkled throughout the game that you can avoid fighting via dialogue options, so keep an eye out for those too. 

Best Sifu Tips: Don't Forget About Focus Attacks

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A very easy tool to forget, your focus attack allows you to carry out quick and varying attacks that can deal high amounts of damage. The severity of attacks and how much focus they use up depend on how much you upgrade it on any given run via shrines, but they can be a lifesaver, especially on those tougher enemies that love to block.

You earn focus through dealing damage, so it's always smart to use it as early on as possible in a boss fight so you stand a chance of using it again. 

Best Sifu Tips: Keep Pushing

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While it can be tempting to pack it all in when old age hits, our latest Sifu tip says "keep pushing". While you may not make it all the way to the end, or all the way through a boss's health bar, every run is important whether that be through unlocking additional skills or even just learning the level and boss attacks. No run is entirely pointless. 

Best Sifu Tips: Learn When To Quit

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On the contrary to our last Sifu tip, you should also know when to quit. When pushing for those boss fights, you will begin to get a sense of when you will be able to make it with any given age you are. If you have all the unlocks and are just trying to complete the game, there is no point in starting level two in your sixties. Make yourself some personal goals, and know exactly what age you want to be going into each level. 

Best Sifu Tips: Memorise The Levels

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Our last of the Sifu tips is all about memorising the game's levels. With just five, and the aforementioned replayability of each, you should pay attention to all five settings. Taking in where the enemies are, which enemy types, shortcuts, and even weapons will allow you to make informed and tactical decisions.

While you might not need to fight through a certain room, maybe you know that they are weaker enemies and therefore act as an opportunity to earn some health back. 

That's all we have for our best Sifu tips. Why not take your kung-fu game a step further by checking out our best Sifu skills guide.