How does ageing work in Sifu? All age effects explained

Sifu, the Kung Fu Beat 'em up game, will definitely not be a walk in the park for the vast majority of players.

This unique action-adventure was designed around the meaning of Kung Fu, which can roughly be explained as endless self-improvement and achieving perfection through practice, hard work, and patience.

This is exactly what you will need to do if you are planning on beating Sifu. Let us be clear - Sifu is a really hard game and absolutely not for those who are not ready to commit to practising and don't like dying over and over again.

Fail, get up, try harder. That's Sifu for you.

One of the unique mechanics that revolve around this philosophy is how dying works in Sifu. Here's everything you need to know about it.

Sifu ageing and dying explained

Sifu favours perfection and the fewer times you die, the bigger are your chances of beating the game. When you die in Sifu, you are literally losing your life. Our hero is in a possession of a special magical talisman, and this pendant protects him from death, but at a cost.

Its power is not endless and each time you die, it losses a bit of its magical energy.

This is reflected in the game with your age. You start the game at age 20, and eventually, you will be 75 or older, which will mean your permanent death and a good old game over screen.

Now, you might think that this isn't that bad, essentially having 55+ lives to work with, but that's not how it works.

The pendant loses its power rapidly with each new death, and it will add an extra year with each new death.

This means you age a year on your first death, two years with the second death, three years when you die for the third time, and so on.

The game has five chapters you will need to beat in order to finish the game. Each chapter is progressively harder to beat, and you have equally fewer years of life to lose, as you will be quite old by the time you reach the 5th chapter.

One of the facilitating circumstances in this system is that the death counter resets after you successfully complete a chapter. You will not lose your current age, but the first death in the next chapter will start again from one lost year. Aside from beating the chapter bosses, Shrines will also give you options to lower the death counter during a chapter.

Another benefit of death is that you will be able to use your gained experience and unlock special abilities (passives and moves) while you are dead. Take your time and think about what you need, what you lack in combat, and then spend your points on skills that will cover those shortcomings.

Will you be weaker if you die too many times and get old in Sifu?

Aside from being a death counter, the ageing feature itself doesn't have other straightforward downsides, but it will change your character.

Other than getting visually changed to represent their age, your hero will also trade its life for offensive power. This means it will become a sort of a glass cannon character, who hits very hard, but it's rather low on life points.

You will die more easily, but killing enemies will become easier as well. If you are able to manage this and avoid taking damage, it will actually be easier for you.

Finally, one last thing we should note is that your age upon finishing a chapter is always saved, and if you find yourself cornered in a dead-end situation due to too many deaths, you can always go back and try that chapter again.

And there you have it, that's all you need to know about ageing and dying in Sifu.

• Read more: Is Sifu coming to Steam or GOG?

Featured image courtesy of Sloclap.