Kuroki is one of the bosses that you’ll fight against in Sifu. She is well versed with the aesthetic arts, as well as the art of using the bladed three-section staff. She was part of the group that killed martial arts masters in the city, including the protag’s father. In this guide, we will look into how to prepare against Kuroki including the tips and tricks to win the fight.
Who is Kuroki?
Kuroki is a mysterious Japanese woman who got exiled to China. She runs an art museum and is known in the group as “The Artist“. Little is known about her and her operations, but some rumors say that she has ties in the underground. She bears the water element in the group, as seen in the motif of her art exhibitions.
How to Prepare for Kuroki
Bring a weapon to the fight
As much as possible, you would want to bring a staff to Kuroki’s fight to help block and parry her strikes. You can get one from a statue just two rooms before the last arena, but you’d have to be careful not using it too much during the Twins fight or it will break.
Get bonuses from the Jade Dragons
With the regular route, you can get to use 3 Jade Dragons. It’s recommended to get Focus Regain (2,000 score), Focus Reserve (costs 250XP) and Weapon Proficiency (costs 500XP) since you will be using a weapon most of the time.
If you’ve followed along with the recommended skills from our Fajar and Sean guides and started a regular run through The Squats, depending on your skill and your age, you may still get the Weapon Durability bonus and swap it with one of the other bonuses instead.
In succeeding runs, try to prioritize getting Weapon Durability or Weapon Proficiency on early levels. It is easier to do especially if you manage to reach The Club in a younger age.
Start the run through The Squats
Though it is time consuming, starting a run from The Squats will let you use at least 4 (shortcut run) to 6 (full run) Jade Dragons. Each buff that you can get will definitely help going through enemies easier in The Museum and in the later stages.
Recommended Skills to beat Kuroki – Boss Fight
- Strong Sweep Focus
- Execute this focus attack whenever you have the opportunity so that you can easily get openings.
- Snap Kick
- Easy entry to close the gap between you and Kuroki.
- Weapon Catch
- It’s imperative to unlock this skill before entering the fight. Kuroki will throw kunai in the second round that you can catch and throw back at her.
- Ground Counter
- Kuroki can sometimes do sweeping attacks that can knock you down, so this counter can be useful.
- Chasing Strikes
- To put in more hits whenever an opportunity arises.
- Crooked Foot
- Another skill that can knock down Kuroki.
- Duck Strike
- Another move to use to close the gap.
- Chasing Trip Kick
- To put in more hits whenever an opportunity arises.
- Raining Strikes
- Another offensive skill to deal more hits.
- Slide Kick
- Usable when Kuroki is stunned following a couple of hits from her thrown kunai as she usually is some distance away from you.
- Weapon Mastery
- When your staff breaks, you can still use the broken part for a few more hits or blocks.
Kuroki’s Moves – Boss Fight in Sifu
First Round
- Kuroki will whip her three-section staff around her immediate area
- This attack is a long combo, so you can recover your structure just by keeping some distance from her.
- She usually ends this attack with the downwards whip which is a structure break and can immediately put your structure in the red. Evade sidewards or backwards to void it.
- After doing her downwards whip, she’s open for around 1-2 hits.
- Kuroki will do forward rolling whips in quick succession
- Totally blockable, but make sure that you have enough structure to endure the hits and its follow up attacks. Disengage by evading backwards when necessary.
Focus Tactic for the First Round
Similar to the fight against Sean, you’ll have to charge your Focus bars by engaging with Kuroki and blocking as many hits as you can, while sneaking in some of your hits whenever possible. The main difference is that her three-section staff is bladed, so the whip attacks can still deal some damage even if you block them unless they are parried at the right moment.
This is where your staff comes in and hopefully you still have it at this point. Blocks using the staff can mitigate the damage from the blades, thus letting you gain more Focus reliably until it breaks.
To start off the fight, you want to at least have one or two Focus bars available. Use them as early as possible to take off huge chunks of health from Kuroki and to prolong the need of using the staff. Then, you can stall for time whenever you need to recover structure. Just be careful when engaging, especially with the final downward whip.
Whenever a Focus gauge is ready, use it right away or save it for the next round if Kuroki’s health is low. You can also stall and just fill up your gauge/s in preparation for the next fight, provided that you can block the hits without taking too much damage.
Second Round
- Kuroki will jump high backwards and throw a fan of kunai
- She can do this attack around 2 to 3 times in succession.
- Depending on where you stand, you will either be hit by an incoming kunai or not.
- This is where you’ll need the Weapon Catch skill. Just time your block to catch the kunai. If you get one, you can throw it back at Kuroki for some damage.
- If you manage to break her structure by doing this, quickly run towards her and do a slide kick to knock her down.
- Kuroki will throw a single kunai towards you
- She can do this attack around 2 to 3 times in succession.
- The kunai can also be caught and thrown back at her for some damage.
- Kuroki will prepare for an attack, dash towards you, and use her kunai to deal damage
- This attack usually happens when she’s some distance away from you.
- She can either dash straight towards you if the distance is shorter, or she will dash from side to side in a zigzag manner if she is farther away.
- This hit deals a lot of damage, so prepare to block or parry on time.
- She will then proceed to do here close-combat attacks and then cycle back to the kunai attacks.
Focus Tactic for the Second Round
Similar to the first round, you would want to use your Focus attacks to create openings and charge the gauge up whenever possible. The timing on the blocks and catches are more spaced out that before which is easier to do, but failing to block on time will hurt a lot more.
Luckily, there are easy tells for her attacks. For the kunai attack, look out for the jump and the kunai trails. For the dash, there’s usually a flash just right before she does it, or you can estimate when she will hit if she does the zigzag dash.
Can Kuroki be beaten at age 20?
Theoretically, yes, that is if you have managed to start The Museum level at age 20, survived all the fighters in the way, and defeated Kuroki without dying. That will take an awful lot of skills and plenty of runs.
At this point, you would have to have all the necessary skills unlocked so that you can put more of your XP towards the Focus Reserve or Weapon Proficiency skills. If you can reliably go through The Squats and The Club without dying, that would be better since you would get to use more Jade Dragons to get more bonuses prior to starting The Museum.
If you like this guide, check out out other Sifu articles:
- Sifu Trophy Guide and How to Get Platinum
- Sifu Will Not Have Difficulty Options at Release Confirms Producer
- All Skills and How to Unlock Each | Sifu
- How to Beat Fajar Boss Fight | Sifu
- How to Beat Sean Boss Fight | Sifu
Sifu is available on PS4 and PS5 through the Playstation Store, as well as on PC through the Epic Store.