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The ending of Sifu probably leaves you confused. There is no real resolution, and the cycle simply repeats itself, putting you back in your kung-fu school. To break the cycle, you have to do something different — you have to save all your enemies instead of getting violent revenge. Forgiveness is the only path, and by sparing each boss, you’ll finally unlock your true potential.
Earning the true ending of Sifu is a challenge, and many players are going to have some serious worries — do I have to spare all the bosses in a single run? Do I have to do better than before? What if my progression doesn’t overwrite on a level? There are many complexities to the systems in Sifu, and here I’m going to try to answer all your questions related to unlocking the true ending. Earning the true ending is also difficult. To make your final steps through Sifu easier, you’ll find my tips for breaking the structure of bosses without killing them below.
More Sifu guides:
Beginner’s Guide | Best Skills To Permanently Unlock First | 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 Unlock The True Ending
To earn the true ending in Sifu, you must spare all five bosses. Get more details on how to spare bosses here.
- How To Spare Bosses: To spare a boss, you need to reach Phase 2, then break their structure twice. After breaking structure a second time, a [Spare] choice will appear. Select it to end the battle.
Once a boss is spared once, they will count as spared forever. You don’t need to perform a perfect run — you can die more than a previous run and you will still retain the mercy status on a boss. You can also show mercy in any order.
- After sparing a boss and showing mercy, you will gain an item that is a permanent unlock. If you spare a boss, you’ll earn this item and will never have to spare them again.
- You can spare the first four bosses in any order. You just need to spare them once to unlock their permanent item.
- A boss will continue to be counted as spared, even if your mercy level run is not saved or continued. The item counts as a permanent unlock and will still allow you to unlock the true ending, even if you go back and kill the boss again.
After earning the four mercy items, you’ll need to travel to The Sanctuary. Right before Yang’s boss arena, there are four walls — look at them and a symbol will appear if you’ve spared the boss. Make the symbols appear for all four blank walls, then fight Yang. Defeat Yang by sparing him and you’ll earn the true ending.
Yang is the only boss that is easier to defeat by breaking their structure. The rest of the bosses, once you get better at the game, are easier to take down — and you’ll likely be wrecking them. You basically have unlimited lives to defeat them, as you don’t need to get a good age score to permanently unlock the “spare” — you can win the second battle at Age 68, then reset and start Level 3 back at Age 25 or wherever you left it last.
Defeating bosses by sparing them gets trickier once you’re really good at Sifu. Here’s a few tips to keep in mind.
Tips For Sparing Bosses
- Unlock the expensive Parry Structure Damage Shrine Reward early in the game and upgrade it as much as possible. You’ll need to replay levels to get high enough score to earn it. I recommend running through Level 1 and 2 to unlock it early. This reward upgrades how much damage you do to structure after performing a parry.
- Parries are your best friend. To deal the most structure damage, try to hit the boss with parries as much as possible. This rapidly drains their structure.
- Keep attacking even when the boss is blocking. Especially when the boss is blocking. Attacking a blocking boss drains their structure. You’ll want to be aggressive and attack as often as you can. Not just when they’re open to hits.
- Don’t use Focus attacks. Focus attacks tend to do too much damage. Only use them if the boss has plenty of health left. You want to focus on dealing damage to structure. Even at the expense of your own life. Don’t forget, you can do badly in a fight and still earn the spare forever.
To break the boss structure twice, you’ll want to attack their guard, parry often, and generally beat them up aggressively. Some of the bosses are trickier, and if you leave them alone too long, they’ll slowly regain structure. For The Artist, you’ll want to unlock the skill that allows you to catch weapons thrown mid-flight. You can catch her knives and throw them back at her. You can’t chase her, so that’s your best option.
If you can beat Sifu, you can get the true ending. Surprisingly, it isn’t that difficult — beating Yang is the hardest challenge. When a boss recovers structure, it’s only about 25% of their meter. Maybe even less. If you’ve come this far in Sifu, that’s child’s play. My biggest challenge in these boss fights is just breaking their structure before I defeat them traditionally.
