Sifu has one of the most intriguing death mechanics of any game in recent memory. You’re sort of immortal in this action game, but there’s a limit to it. Every time you die it places stress upon a special pendant of sorts that you inherited from your Sifu and father. The pendant is made up of five coins, and each one breaks if it is placed under too much strain but how many times can you die in Sifu?
However, while the pendant itself might be magical, the actual mechanic behind it is far more mathematical. There are a few rules in play in the game that’ll dictate how many times you can die, and dying isn’t always a bad thing either when it comes to Sifu deaths.
So, to explain what the hell we’re actually talking about here, we’ve written this handy guide to Sifu deaths. We’re going to explain how it works, the upsides and downsides of ageing, and the things you’ll need to keep in mind to make it through this difficult game, including nailing down how many times you can die in Sifu. Also, we apologise in advance for the maths we’re about to explain – but there’s no other way around it. We promise it’ll all make sense.
How Many Times Can You Die In Sifu?
In Sifu, you start at the age of 20, and then age whenever you die. The simple answer is you can die 10 times before the game restarts. However, it’s not as simple as your age going up one year every time you die. Instead, you have a death counter that ticks up as you die, and that dictates how much you age. Here’s a simple breakdown:
- First death: 21
- Second death – 23
- Third death – 26
- Fourth death – 30
- Fifth death – 35
- Sixth death – 41
- Seventh death – 48
- Eight death – 56
- Ninth death – 65
- Tenth death – 75
If you die once you’re past the age of 70, that’s game over, and you’ll have to restart the level. You’ll also lose any skills you’ve unlocked unless you’ve unlocked them permanently, along with whatever best shrine rewards you picked up during that level.
Every time you enter a new decade, a coin on the pendant will break, and you’ll also gain some damage, but lose some health. There are also some of Sifu’s skills and shrine rewards which you can only get when you’re under a certain age, so it pays to stay young. You can, however, game the system by lowering your Sifu death counter.
How to lower your Sifu Death Counter
There are two main ways to lower your death counter in Sifu. That means that when you die for the second time, if you’ve already lowered the death counter, you’ll only age by one year instead of two. It’s the only real way to try and make sure you make it through to the end of the game outside of not dying at all, so it’s worth knowing how to do it.
The first is to purchase the Reset Death Counter option at one of Sifu’s Shrine locations. This costs 1,000 experience to do, and can be done as many times as you want as long as you’re at a Shrine and have the experience spare. The only issue with this is that you’re then not spending the experience points on the best Sifu skills – or anything else – at the shrine.
The other way is to defeat special enemies, mini-bosses, or bosses themselves. You’ll occasionally have enemies that don’t die when trying to use a takedown on them, so killing them will lower your death counter by one. The same is true of certain mini-bosses you come across during each level too. Finally, each boss can also lower your death counter upon getting to their second phase, then again upon finishing them off properly. None of this is easy, but that’s how death in Sifu works, and how you can use it to your advantage.
Now you know how Sifu death works, you can hopefully get through the game without ageing too much. There’s a lot of work involved, but when you finally get the knack for it, you’ll become a kung fu master in no time.