How the death counter works in Sifu

Sifu is a challenging game. You’ll likely die a lot while going toe-to-toe with the game’s various skilled fighters. However, the game is somewhat forgiving because of how it handles death. Upon death, you’ll instantly respawn where you died, giving you another chance at defeating your foes. However, each death will also raise your death counter by one, and if you let that metric get too high, it can prove to be a bit problematic.

Sifu’s death counter is directly linked to how much you age by once you respawn. For example, the first time you die, you get one year older. A subsequent second death would bring your death counter to two, and increase your age by two years. Effectively, whatever number your death counter is at indicates how many years you will age by once you respawn.

Upon reaching the age of 70, any subsequent deaths will cause a game over, so you’ll want to keep your death counter as low as possible throughout your runs to prevent aging. If you let your death counter get too high, you might find yourself aging over five years at a time for every death you suffer.

Luckily, you can reduce your death counter in a few different ways. Your death counter will be lowered by one for every boss and miniboss you defeat. Additionally, you can purchase an upgrade at any one of the game’s Shrines using the XP you’ve earned to reset your death counter to zero. Unfortunately, there is no way to reduce your age, however.