Great Grey Wolf Sif

Great Grey Wolf Sif (灰色の大狼シフ) is a Boss encountered in Darkroot Basin.

Description

Great Grey Wolf Sif is the wolf companion of Sir Artorias, the Abysswalker. After Artorias passed away, Sif became the guardian of Artorias' grave in the Darkroot Garden. Sif wields Artorias' Greatsword and uses some of his moves in combat.

A younger Sif appears in the additional content. Sif accompanied Artorias on his quest to save Oolacile from the spread of the Abyss. But Artorias and Sif are eventually overrun by Humanity Phantoms, so the former leaves his shield to erect a barrier around Sif.

Location

Darkroot Garden
After the second stone bridge, Sif serves as the area's boss. Opening the stone gate does not trigger the boss fight, as you need to approach to the Greatsword at the tombstone to trigger the fight.

Chasm of the Abyss
To find Sif, you must follow an illusion of Alvina, until the illusion is standing next to a wall. Attack the illusory wall, and you find Sif inside a protective barrier, surrounded by Humanity Phantoms. Defeat them, and Sif disappears to leave behind the Cleansing Greatshield. After saving Sif, their soul sign can be found in Manus' boss arena on the lighter grey stone floor within the circle of pillars, about five steps left from your starting position after the cutscene.

Drops

• Soul of Sif
• Covenant of Artorias
• Humanity
• Homeward Bone

Resistances

Physical resistances

Elemental resistances

Auxiliary resistances

Notes

• The name Sif itself is a female name of Norse origin. However, all translations into European languages with grammatical gender use male gendered language for Sif, though many of them can be interpreted as the most neutral phrasing of the name. This includes French, Italian, German, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese and Russian.
• When down to the last segments of their health, both old and young Sif start limping. Sif moves and attacks slowly, and does less damage.
• When Sif starts limping, they will fail to swing the sword and instead fall.
• If you have not met Sif yet (i.e. triggering the boss fight) in the base game but have received the Cleansing Greatshield from Sif (when playing the Additional Content), the introductory cutscene changes, with Sif now recognizing you as their savior and reluctantly choosing to fight. In each playthrough, you have to save Sif in the Additional Content before facing them in the base game for this to happen.
• Attacking and killing Sif does not betray the Forest Hunter covenant.
• If you have an Eye of Death active you cannot interact with the doorway to Sif.

Attack Patterns

• Two circular slashes: Sif will hold the sword straight in their mouth. Dodge/roll backwards to be safe. Can be blocked if you have a very good shield (both attacks combined will cause a guard break with heavy damage on most players). If you time it right you can dodge/roll through the attacks towards Sif and attack them.
• Jump slash backwards: Usually very powerful but can be blocked. Creates distance between Sif and the player, and thus is usually followed up by a Charge slash.
• Charge slash: Sif uses this when at medium-long range. Either dodge or block it if you have a good shield. Can be followed by a Sword Slam.
• Combo (3 moves): Slash from left to right, back, then a Sword Slam. Sif will stop the combo if the player is too far away.
• Sword Slam (Used after Charge slash or as part of the Combo): Rears up and slams sword straight down in front of himself. Powerful attack with long reach, but easily dodged by moving to the side.
• Hopping about, Sif's paws can hit you as they jump, but this does minimal damage. Still, if you're down to a sliver of life, it's something to consider.

Strategy

Dodging and Blocking

• All Sif's attacks are very easy to block, simply lock on (take care as Sif will often jump out of lock range and you'll have to retarget) and hold up your shield. You can then walk/run underneath them or otherwise position yourself accordingly. Note Sif's double horizontal slash attack will drain a lot of stamina so if you are still early in the game or do not have a good shield and a fair amount of endurance (about 70 stability, 30 endurance) then you should roll at least the second attack if you cannot get out of its range. You should try to avoid the final vertical attack of Sif's 3-hit combo either way.

• To dodge Sif's attacks it is easiest to roll through them and underneath; Sif is unable to hit you here. Sif will jump away after various lengths of time and re-engage so you will likely have to do this multiple times during a fight. Note the backflip attack usually does not provide you with an opening to get under Sif. You can watch a video of a shieldless strategy here.

• As you can engage Sif much later in the game, you can equip a very heavy armour such as the Stone Set, use Iron Flesh and just tank up Sif's attacks. With a good weapon and a bit of Vitality you can easily take Sif down before they kill you. Havel's Ring is recommended but not necessary.

When Sif jumps away it is a good chance to heal up, but be ready to block or dodge the next attack as soon as you finish.

Melee

As soon as you are able, get underneath the body and hack away at Sif's legs. If/when Sif backs up, make sure you stay under them, eventually Sif will jump away and re-engage you. Repeat as necessary. You can watch a video here

• For a longer but safer alternative, you can get a hit or two in at the end of some of Sif's combos. Learn Sif's moveset and get a hit on him/her in the appropriate windows. A good window is during the final vertical attack of Sif's three-hit combo as if you are right up against Sif it will not hit you.

Ranged

• Recommended spells are Combustion, Great Chaos Fireball, Soul Spear or Dark Bead. Homing spells such as Homing Soulmass tend to miss due to Sif's high mobility.

• Do everything you can to keep yourself out of the range of the sword, but still within target lock range.
• Keep a lock on the wolf and attack whenever they jump back, or after they start to swing. Be sure you are ready to move again before Sif's next attack. The double circular swing gives you your widest window for tossing long-range damage at Sif.

Other

• Bow Cheese - Just walk into the Boss area and get killed by Sif. Run back to the fog and and before you enter, turn left. There you will see a destroyed wall that slopes upwards, jump on it and start shooting at Sif. Your vision may be obscured by some leaves, but you can shoot arrows through them. You can also poison Sif using Poison Arrows. You can watch a video here.

Information

Strategies

Drops

Lore

Notes

Trivia