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Great Grey Wolf Sif is a boss in Dark Souls.

Location[]

Sif can be found in Darkroot Garden behind large, glowing doors, guarding the grave of Artorias the Abysswalker, one of Gwyn's four knights.

Artorias of the Abyss[]

Sif makes an appearance in the Artorias of The Abyss DLC. The player finds the wolf located behind an Illusory Wall after being led about by Alvina in the Chasm of the Abyss. Sif is found protected by a magical barrier, which was created by Artorias using his Greatshield in order to shield the wolf from the corruption of the Abyss. Upon reaching Sif after defeating the Humanity Phantoms, Sif will vanish and leave behind Artorias' shield. Sif can be summoned during the battle against Manus, Father of the Abyss, after being rescued by the player.

If the Chosen Undead saves Sif in the Chasm of the Abyss before killing Sif in Darkroot Garden, a different cutscene will play before the fight; however this will prevent you from meeting Kaathe, because you need to place the Lordvessel and visit the Duke's Archives to access the DLC. In the cutscene, Sif will recognize the player as they approach and let out a whimper. The protagonist reaches out to pet the wolf, but Sif pulls away and howls mournfully before sadly picking up Artorias' greatsword. The fight will continue as normal after this point.

Strategies[]

  • For melee fighters, getting underneath Sif is generally the best strategy, as it makes most attacks miss the player character completely. Care must still be taken to dodge, block or move out of the way of the slam attack, though. Locking on is not always a good idea when doing this, as it can make the camera spin and make it harder to control one's position. Two-handing is more effective, as it will make the fight shorter and reduce the number of slams that need to be dodged.
  • For ranged characters, players can simply target-lock Sif and kite Sif backwards around the edge of the arena. Staying as far as possible away from Sif will cause most, if not all, of Sif's attacks to miss.
  • Using miracles, sorcery, or pyromancy to soften Sif up before moving in with melee attacks can also prove to be effective.
  • Using a summoned phantom as a decoy can make positioning oneself under Sif easier. In a party of two or more players only one should try to get under Sif, otherwise players may bump into each other when trying to dodge Sif's attacks.
  • Sif's attacks can be blocked, but most of them will cause a significant loss of stamina, even with a good shield. Learning Sif's attack patterns and avoiding them completely, either by dodging or simply walking out of the way, is highly recommended.
  • Before the player enters through the fog gate, there is a broken piece of bridge to the left that can be jumped onto. This is most easily accomplished by unequipping all gear beforehand. After reaching the bridge there is another pile of rock resting at the top that can easily be reached through jumping. When at the top, Sif will be visible. Sif will be unable to reach the player, but the player will be able to damage Sif with arrows or other ranged attacks.

Notes[]

  • Sif will start visibly limping at critical health, which vastly decreases the wolf's speed and agility. Sif's moveset also changes, having less attacks and the ones remaining being much slower and having much more ending lag.
  • Sif also limps at critical health when summoned to assist the player with Manus.
  • It may be hard to summon a phantom before the battle, as Darkroot Garden is a PvP hotspot, allowing invasions.

Boss information[]

Attacks[]

Dashing Slice[]

Dmg phy Dmg mag Dmg fire Dmg lght Attack Type Status Parryable Tracking Speed
399 0 0 0 Normal None No Both Fast

Like all of Sif's attacks, this can be blocked. If Sif switches the sword to the right side the attack will be followed by a Sword Slam.

Spinning Slice [note 1][]

Dmg phy Dmg mag Dmg fire Dmg lght Attack Type Status Parryable Tracking Speed
588 0 0 0 Normal None No Both Fast

Sif repositions the sword to a straight position, and spins around twice. Causes massive stamina damage if blocked and can kill players if the slices connect. However, if Sif is at low enough health to where it is limping, Sif will only spin the sword once. Can be dodged by backing or rolling away before the attack is unleashed. Sif will pause afterwards, creating an opportunity for attack.

Sword Slam[]

Dmg phy Dmg mag Dmg fire Dmg lght Attack Type Status Parryable Tracking Speed
420 0 0 0 Normal None No No Medium

Sif slams the sword into the ground. Powerful, but has no tracking and poor hitbox. This attack is only used as a follow-up to Dashing Slice and Finishing Combo.

Evasive Slice[]

Dmg phy Dmg mag Dmg fire Dmg lght Attack Type Status Parryable Tracking Speed
378 0 0 0 Normal None No No Fast

Sif will attempt to slice the player while jumping backwards and away from the player in one motion. Has little to no starting lag. Blocking it won't give the player an opportunity to attack, but will help the player survive.

Slash Uppercut[]

Dmg phy Dmg mag Dmg fire Dmg lght Attack Type Status Parryable Tracking Speed
??? 0 0 0 Normal None No No Fast

Single Slice[]

Dmg phy Dmg mag Dmg fire Dmg lght Attack Type Status Parryable Tracking Speed
420 0 0 0 Normal None No Both Fast

Sif will do a quick chop from side to side. Good tracking and high hitbox. Possible to roll underneath it with good timing. Also does not do much damage to the stamina bar, thus it can be blocked quite easily.

Double Slice [note 1][]

Dmg phy Dmg mag Dmg fire Dmg lght Attack Type Status Parryable Tracking Speed
441 0 0 0 Normal None No Both Medium

Two slashes from side to side. Great tracking, thus very difficult to sidestep. However, the slices can be rolled under and blocked fairly comfortably without the stamina bar being fully drained. If Sif is at the point of limping, the wolf will fall on its side and struggle to get up on attempting the second slice, so use this to your advantage to do some damage.

Finishing Combo [note 1][]

Dmg phy Dmg mag Dmg fire Dmg lght Attack Type Status Parryable Tracking Speed
441 0 0 0 Normal None No Both Medium

Sif will slice twice and then finish with a Sword Slam. The last attack has poor tracking and a small hitbox, so use this as an opportunity to get some hits in.

Defenses[]

Physical Defenses Elemental Defenses Resistances
Regular Defense Strike Defense Slash Defense Thrust Defense Magic Defense Fire Defense Lightning Defense Poison Toxic Bleed
260 260 260 260 196 182 196 A A B

These stats are sourced from FuturePress's Official Dark Souls Strategy Guide.


Drops[]

Item Boss Soul
Soul of Sif
Covenant of Artorias
Covenant of Artorias
Drop Rate Guaranteed Guaranteed

Trivia[]

  • In Norse mythology, Sif is the golden-haired wife of the god Thor.
    • The goddess Sif's name in Old Norse is pronounced /siːf/, "seef", though it is often anglicized to /sɪf/, "siff". It is also a female given name in modern day Iceland.
    • The name "Sif" is believed to be a singular form derived from Old Norse sifjar, "connection by marriage". The modern English "sib", as in "sibling", comes from the same root, as does the German "Sippe", meaning "tribe" or, coloquially, "family".
    • In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons sourcebook Legends & Lore (1984), the goddess Sif is depicted wielding a longsword and wearing white and silver. These traits are shared with the Dark Souls boss Sif.
  • Despite sharing a name with a Norse goddess, Sif's gender is unconfirmed, and is not directly stated in either the English or Japanese versions of the game.
    • In translations for languages that have grammatical gender, the masculine form of "wolf" is often used when referring to Sif. In French, Sif is called Le Grand Loup Gris, using the masculine "loup" rather than the feminine "louve", In Spanish, Sif is called El Gran Lobo Gris, using the masculine "lobo" rather than the feminine "loba", In Russian, Sif is called Великий Волк, using the masculine "волк" rather than the feminine "волчица".
    • In the strategy guide by FuturePress, Sif is referred using masculine pronouns.
  • Another possible naming influence is the Arabic saif or sayf, meaning "sword".
  • In Japanese, Sif is named 灰色の大狼シフ (Haiiro no Ookami Shifu), meaning "Grey (literally "ash-colored") Wolf Sif". "Ookami", "wolf", is often written in Japanese with 狼 alone (such as in the Japanese title of the anime Spice and Wolf, 狼と香辛料), but here is written 大狼, also read "ookami", with the first kanji carrying the meaning "great" or "large". 大狼 is also used in the Japanese translations of A Song of Ice and Fire to refer to the direwolves, though in that series it is read ダイアウルフ (katakana for the English "direwolf"). The alternative reading "Dairou" for 大狼 has been suggested, but this is not attested in the game.
  • In the fight against the Chosen Undead, Sif wields the sword of Artorias, former companion who sacrificed himself in order to protect Sif.
  • The sword Sif carries in their mouth appears to be a replica of Artorias' sword. The sword also apparently changes size between the events of Artorias of the Abyss and the main game.

Gallery[]

Videos[]

Footnotes[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Damage is listed per slice.
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