Normally, you’ll never know what skills are best in Sifu — you’d have to try them out yourself. We’re helping you skip a step, because the skills listed below are the best, and you really should unlock them ASAP. Certain skills are incredibly useful and unlocking them early makes your life easy. Skills, once permanently unlocked, carry over to any point in the game forever. Whether you’re going back to an earlier level or trying to forge your path ahead, permanently unlocked skills are yours to use at any time. And these are the skills that are so useful, you’ll want to waste your precious XP getting them.
Farming XP is possible, even in the first level. The Club is the better choice — there are lots of opportunities to fight enemies and earn big XP. Taunting enemies also adds to your multiplier, giving your more XP if you can keep from taking a hit. More XP means more permanent unlocks faster. After unlocking a skill once, you can dump XP into the skill (usually x5 times) — it can be a huge investment for some skills. It’s worth the effort.
More Sifu guides:
Beginner’s Guide | Best Shrine Rewards To Unlock First | How To Beat The Warrior | How To Beat The Artist | How To Beat The CEO | How To Beat The Leader | How To Spare Bosses & Unlock The True Ending
The Best Skills You Need To Unlock ASAP | Permanent Skills List
Skills are unlocked from the Skill Tree. When you die or reach a Jade Statue, you can spend XP to unlock skills. To permanently unlock a skill, you need to purchase it x5 more times.
Here are the skills we’ve found most useful. You can replay any level, earn XP, and work your way toward a permanent unlock.
- Strong Sweep Focus: The best Focus attack. Knocks down enemies with an unblockable kick. Works on bosses — use ground pound to deal easy guaranteed damage. Great for tough enemies in level. All-around incredibly useful.
- Snap Kick: Strong kick that quickly closes distance from medium to close range. Can interrupt combos and briefly staggers enemies. Usually doesn’t allow you to move into a full combo. Great for the first boss.
- Spin Hook Kick: Powerful skill for dealing with crowds of enemies. Can also knock enemies on the ground — when they’re on the ground, go for the ground pound for free bonus damage.
- Charged Backfist: One of the best abilities for tough non-boss opponents. Not great for bosses. Back away and charge your attack, letting elite enemies come to you. Release to land a hit (or hold [L1] and dodge high) — if you connect, you’ll usually stagger the enemies enough to go straight into a full combo.
- Raining Strikes: The best move against fodder enemies. Use Strong Sweep Focus, then unleash the Raining Strikes. This move absolutely destroys regular enemies — if you’re struggling to clear levels with lives, get this move.
- Environmental Mastery: Allows you to kick objects in the environment or weapons. Very, very useful for taking out Juggernauts and other annoying enemies. If you don’t unlock this move, you won’t be able to interact with the environment as much. Basically, gives you free damage. Useless against bosses.
- Weapon Catch: Seems not that important. Allows you to catch weapons thrown at you. Enemies only rarely throw, but the third boss is different. The third boss uses constant throwing knife attacks. Unlock this skill to completely wreck her second phase.
These skills will help you dominate. Unlock and upgrade skills such as Focus Regain and Structure Regain early, and you’ll be blasting through levels in no time. Learn each of these skills, practicing them mid-mission while working on the permanent unlock. By the time you’ve got them, you’ll be able to use them to their fullest.
