However, deflecting also adds to your own structure meter, so be sure to back off and let your structure recover before enduring more attacks. Once you learn the cadence of enemy attacks, it gets a lot easier to deflect accurately. The timing of deflects have a relatively long window, so you can sometimes just mash the guard button as your enemy attacks to deflect each one. (This is especially crucial with bosses if you want to be able to spare them to get the 'true' ending.)

If you can break their structure, you can execute a finisher without needing to wear down their entire health bar. Deflecting attacks adds to your enemy's structure, and potentially breaks their attack, giving you an opening for a quick counter.īuilding your enemy's structure is key to beating tough enemies and bosses. Once you have guarding down, instead of holding the button, you can try and time it with your enemies attacks to deflect them.

Once you recognize this pattern and can react to it accordingly, it makes this fight much easier. Rather than trying to guess which he'll open with, you can always block the first attack and then either deflect or avoid his remaining attacks until you have an opening to counter. Sean typically opens each string of attacks with either a thrust attack or a sweep attack. You don't want to guard every attack, but you can selectively block high/low attacks while using other means to prevent incoming damage to prevent your structure meter from filling too fast.Ī good example is the second boss, Sean, who adds a low, sweeping attack in his second phase. When your structure meter is full, your guard will break and you'll be vulnerable to attacks for a brief period of time. Holding the left button without moving the stick will block all incoming attacks, but add to your 'structure' meter. The key to Sifu is understanding its four different ways of dealing with incoming attacks and then countering with your own attacks when the opportunity arises. It manages to look pretty badass as you pummel enemy after enemy, but it won't get you too far in the game. It's tempting to go into Sifu and just start mashing buttons.

I know a lot of people are still struggling to get past the second boss, so here's some tips I learned from my time mastering Sifu. I was completely absorbed in Sifu and went from barely making it past the first level to earning all the trophies on PS5 in just over two weeks. It's also an extremely challenging game, taking elements of Souls-likes (shortcuts, beefy bosses) and Rogue-likes (permanent upgrades across runs), which can give players who aren't used to these types of games fits when they're expecting more of a button-mashing brawler. It's an action-packed, gorgeously-styled love letter to martial arts movies. Sifu (PS4/PS5/PC) has already cemented itself as one of my top games of 2022.

Sifu bosses