Sloclap’s kung fu odyssey Sifu stakes its claim as one of the most challenging games of 2022. Sure, Elden Ring will probably claim that crown by the end of the year, but Sifu is still a game that’ll kick your ass if you’re not careful. Sifu’s five bosses are the game’s key roadblocks and the second level’s boss, Sean, is no exception. Here’s everything you need to know about how to beat Sean in Sifu.
Where Is Sean?
Sean is located at the end of Sifu’s second level: The Club. At the venue, Sean is hosting a combat event known as The Burning, where martial artists from across the land have gathered for a bit of a scrap. Unfortunately for them, they’re not a match for you, but unfortunately for you, Sean will knock your head off in no time at all. Without a clear gameplan, you’re toast.
How To Defeat Sean – Preparation
Sean’s entire moveset requires a certain approach, one which is enabled by the shrine upgrade that increases the amount of focus gained by parries and dodging. If you’ve been following on from the previous Fajar guide, you’ll have focused on getting the focus bar upgraded, so your goal during The Club is about increasing your focus gain.
The opening moments of The Club see you going through the Club’s entrance, beating up some stray goons before entering the dancefloor proper. The dancefloor is filled with 8 or so enemies who can mostly be dispatched with ease, before an agile woman drops in as a sort of mini boss-ish. If you have two bars of meter and vertical strikes focus attack unlocked, she can be dealt with via a focus attack and some wall splats. Use the light, light, heavy combo string to push her to the wall and take her out quickly. Hopefully by this point, you’ll have reached the 1200 level points threshold required to obtain the focus gain upgrade from the shrine. If not, body the goons that come through the door on the left of the dancefloor then backtrack.
Use the shrine, then if you’ve already ran through The Club before and reached Sean, take the shortcut on the right of the dancefloor. The default route is great for XP gain, but other than that, it adds unnecessary risk to your run by potentially padding your death counter. There’s a training area where someone will question you about the “three trials”, and there’s a shrine in that room for your second focus gain upgrade.
Continue through the level as normal, though beware of the two enemies located just before the fight with Sean. These are two of the most aggressive enemies in the entire game and will cause issues. A good strategy is to use focus attacks to deal damage to either foe, taking them out of the fight quickly and effectively. With one target to deal with instead of two, the fight becomes much easier. Head through the gate, stop by the shrine for the final focus gain upgrade, then get ready for the showdown with Sean.
How To Defeat Sean – Phase 1
Like all bosses in Sifu, there are two stages to each battle. Sean’s different stages aren’t quite so dissimilar from each other, making him an easier fight to learn than some of the others. Sean cuts an imposing figure, towering over the player character with a huge staff in hand. Naturally, he’ll swing the staff around, dealing massive amounts of damage if you get hit, but the moves in this form at least are pretty easily telegraphed.
There’s three main strings to look out for: a thrust attack followed by a quick swing, a series of vertical swings with a shoulder barge in the middle, or three huge horizontal swings. Pretty much all of the attacks can be spot dodged (L1+any direction) to the left or right, though on the horizontal swing, performing a downwards spot dodge will duck the swing. It just looks cooler, that’s all.
As Sifu’s levels are based on a consistent run, your shrine abilities will have carried over from the first level, and it’s recommended that you try to focus on the ability that increases focus gain when parrying and avoiding attacks. With Sean’s easily telegraphed moveset, you can use the ability to dodge his attacks, build focus and unleash either vertical strikes or the leg sweep to deal some huge damage. Once his health or structure have depleted and you’ve hit the takedown, you move on to stage 2.
How To Defeat Sean – Stage 2
So the arena is now on fire. Sean’s staff is also now on fire, and halfway through the fight, Sean himself catches on fire. If that sounds intimidating to you, don’t worry too much, as he has the same moves from the last phase, only with a few extras to boot. He’s also more unpredictable in the moves he uses, largely because of the fact that he’ll dash in and out of combos to try and catch you off guard.
With regards to new moves, the main one to watch out for is a low sweeping attack, which will knock you on your ass in no time at all. From this point on, bosses and enemies will have no problem sweeping the leg like Cobra Kai’s finest, which presents a bit of an issue. Sweep attacks can be blocked and parried, but if you spot dodge in any direction other than up, you’ll be knocked down. Sean will use the sweep attack to start a combo, which has a huge tell to it, before following up with some vertical attacks. Despite the huge tell though, expect to be knocked around by it.
Sean will also spice up his current move set in some tricky ways. We’ve already mentioned his new penchant for dodging, but his vertical attack string can also be followed up with some new ground slams. They can still be dodged by sidestepping, like the rest of the original combo string, but it’s still a tricky one to watch out for. If you’ve been knocked on the ground, Sean will go for a huge slam attack, but dashing with R2 while on the ground will get you out of dodge.
The method of defeating Sean in this phase mostly remains the same as the first phase, as trying to engage him in a straight fight is almost suicide. Let him attack, using dodges and parries where you’re comfortable in order to build up focus and deal some hefty damage. If you’re confident, dodging and parrying his sweep attack will make this fight much easier, but if not, just block when you see the wind-up coming, then dodge and parry Sean’s more predictable moves.
Sean is Sifu’s first real test of your defensive skills, but the third level’s boss, Kuroki, is another story.
Sifu is available on PC, PS5, and PS4.
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