I've tried to kill Sif no less than 8 times now. There is a massive confluence of things that prevent someone from being able to beat her.

• I didn't join the Forest Hunter Covenant so now I have to deal with the mage, thief, cleric, and warrior every time I want to try her. You can just kill the mage and warrior and skip the rest but so help you if you trigger any of the other while trying to sneak around. Doesn't help that the thief is a phantom and annoying to fight. They're good for farming soul I give it that, though.
• Every time I reverse Hallow and become human and get invaded. I mean EVERY time. I've been invaded 7 times in a row trying to get to Sif while human so I can summon other players and EVERY time I've been invaded. None of these times have went well because enemies don't care about them so they just wander around the forest and wait for me to trigger something. If I try to just leave the forest they just wait to ambush me. I can't PROVOKE them into doing anything because they just wait for me to aggro or try to wait me out. I did get 1 shotted by a magic user even though I was wearing a Grass Shield with good magic resist. Argh! I know this has something to do with the fact that I didn't join the Forest Covenant but damn thats harsh!
• I've spent a grand total of 3 hours in grid-locked arena combat with Sif and I know her patterns inside and out. I could draw you a map of every telegraph she has. The reason I can't beat her is due to the horrible framerate drop that happens while playing her. It isn't Blighttown levels but its worse because her attacks are so fast that even a moment of lag can kill you. I die in two hits so I have to heal after every video lag that gets me hit. The lat is SO bad that if I wait for her to do her whirlwind attack so I can heal myself with flask or miracle. I've seen it as bad as a full 5 seconds after the attack is through it will finally kneel and heal. Doesn't seem that bad with a flask but thats still ridicules that its actually the framerate drop that is killing me. Sometimes my attacks won't even occur because the game is lagging so bad that I think it stops accepting controller input. I had her down to where she's limping and the game lagged and the shield block didn't animate/occur and I died.

I swear I think my apartment neighbors thinks I'm a wife abuser!

You're right in thinking Sif is a lady. I was under her belly for several attempts and I did not see a male part.

Sif the name of a Norwegian nature goddess so naturally I assumed they were pulling Norse mythology. I kind of defaulted the wolf to being female.

Eh, I beat it first try, without getting hit once. You can bait out the npcs in the forest by hiding on the ledge near the entrance, and the all with fall to their deaths. And I beat Sif by spamming great heavy soul arrow when he went into his spin attack. I found it to be the easiest boss so far.

I have not fought her yet but all I can say is yo, the forest covenant is spawning all the invaders.
These lads get a summon everytime you wade into that part of the forest.
Hell if I put on the ring I'll be summoned every 5 minutes.

The forest is the best place for low level invasions since everyone is always farming souls there, and it's usually easy to off them on that ledge. You can run past the phantoms in the forest as long as you know the direct route to the boss door you should be able to outrun them. If you haven't already, kindle the flame behind the secret wall to make the fight easier. Beyond that I don't know what to say, I played a lightweight character so it was pretty trivial to dodge out of her attack range and under her for attacking.

So I don't know if you caught it with my post, but the best way to beat her is stay under her belly and attack. If you are not under that sweet silver furry tummy, get there.

@TaliciaDragonsong said:

I have not fought her yet but all I can say is yo, the forest covenant is spawning all the invaders. These lads get a summon everytime you wade into that part of the forest. Hell if I put on the ring I'll be summoned every 5 minutes.

My favorite weapon when it comes to that is the cliff by the hidden bonfire entrance. I maneuver so my target has his back to the cliff, and just wait for him to walk right off due to not paying attention. Same spot on the cliff, took out four guys in a row with that tactic.

You can try to take the long way around through the dark root basin, or just find Alvina in that small brick tower in the forest by those big mushroom dudes to join the covenant so the NPCs leave you alone and hunters won't be all over your ass.

If anything it makes it an easier trek to Sif since it is one of the longer bonfire to boss routes that I have come across so far.

There is a different path you take to get to Sif.  The proper path as it were, that involves going up a ladder in the Hydra nest area.  It's a longer walk, but you fight nothing but the crystal golems that can be ran past anyways.
 
Also haven't had any frame rate issues fighting Sif.  It might just be your game.

just run right pass everyone that's it

@Kyelb22: I'm starting to wonder if my lag is hardware related. I almost beat her on the first try also but then I got lagged out while trying to use a miracle and got destroyed. I also don't have a problem with the phantoms and humans in the forest except when I'm being invaded. I've killed all of the phantoms minus the Thief one that appears to be excempt from the respawn rule the others follow. Ha! I'm melee and have no offensive spells so Sif, while not hard, is much harder battle for me then a magic user. :)

@TaliciaDragonsong: I had a feeling that it was the covenant that was screwing me. Argh! I wish I could push that stupid cat off of a ledge! I can't even talk to it now. I've seen the error of my ways! No redemption. :(

@NekuCTR: If I kindle the fire I'm human...the unwashed masses will spill over me like a great tide of sharp objects. Your right though, five more flask would make that fight so easy. The miracle is too slow and is acting odd due to lag. I'm the second category of weight which is night the best roll but the next so I'm pretty nimble also. My problem is just that if I get hit once I'm no killable by the next hit and then I get lagged while healing and die.

@Valames: Ha, I actually checked your user icon to see if your where a furry. :) Yea, I want to pat her on the stomach every time I get under there just before I try to impale her with my Drake Sword. Its about time to get a better sword also.

@Turambar: Says your on the PS3. PS3 users not getting the crazy framerate issues the 360 users are? Not being biased but usually its the PS3 user who have these issues. I wish I had a PS3 so I could play the original game. :(

@Zombieheadbutt: Ha! lol, nooooo... I found that image when I typed in elephants vs. tigers, and thought the image was cool. But now that I look at it like the tiger is trying to mount the elephant and the elephant performing fellatio on the other tiger, well, I'm still keeping it. But not because of the boner I now have.

Use range. She has no range at all. Get pyromancy if you don't have it. A well leveled glove and a few spells can kill her quickly.
 
Don't fucking go through the forest as human.
 
Don't fucking go through the forest as human.
 
Also you can kill everyone in the forest like this.
  

Oh hey and also try upgrading your shield. I think I had an eagle shield +7 or something like that at the time I fought Sif. I could easily take that double spin attack no problem, with plenty of time to let down my guard to get stamina back.

@LordXavierBritish: Very nice! So....I should go through the forest as human? Yea, its good to know that I not just crazy and everyone else has that same problem. Normally I would say that farming technique is cheap but for as many cheap ass deaths as I've had no I think I might get some SL doing that, LOL. I have no ranged weapon other than a +5 Longbow and normally that'd work like a charm but Sif has a charging attacking that is hard to out maneuver. Its pretty rare and I might be able to doge it if I get the timing right so I might give it a shot. Its going to take a year and a month to kill her with arrows though. Damn that lag!

@Zombieheadbutt: It sounds like you might not be a high enough level to take Sif on? Dodge and block the sword strikes, run up and attack or use pyromancy. Like @LordXavierBritish said, don't go into the forest as a human! You could always pay the NPC by the gargoyle fight to request absolution and join the forest covenant.

Sif is easy if you just block and attack when she isn't spinning around. I never had a FrameRate drop while fighting her and i fought her a few times trying to see how to let her escape (Damn those lieing Japanese wiki pages!)

And the 3 enemies, just use the pathing glitch and have them run off the cliff for an easy 6k souls. And to stop the invasions.. Just join the forest covenant and have no more worries.

Framerate drop or not, you can just run under legs and start whacking.

She can't hit you and when she jumps up run at her again under her legs.

I'm so confused how Sif is such a problem for everyone =\ that fight was so easy. Just block an attack then move under her =\

@wolf_blitzer85: My Eagle Shield is +5 which I think is the max. Upgrading the shield doesn't decrease the amount of stamina it takes to block an attack. All shields have a stat called stability that can mitigate how much stamina an attack will take off when blocked if I'm not mistaken. I think stability doesn't go up with the upgrades which sucks. Eagle Shield has some very name stability, though.

@gla55jAw: I was wondering if I could use absolution for that! Still kind of confused as to how the covenants work in the game in regards to leaving them and joining them. I know just willy nilly leaving some can get your name in that name Darkmoon Book...which nobody wants.

@Zombieheadbutt said:

@wolf_blitzer85: My Eagle Shield is +5 which I think is the max. Upgrading the shield doesn't decrease the amount of stamina it takes to block an attack. All shields have a stat called stability that can mitigate how much stamina an attack will take off when blocked if I'm not mistaken. I think stability doesn't go up with the upgrades which sucks. Eagle Shield has some very name stability, though.

@gla55jAw: I was wondering if I could use absolution for that! Still kind of confused as to how the covenants work in the game in regards to leaving them and joining them. I know just willy nilly leaving some can get your name in that name Darkmoon Book...which nobody wants.

I accidentally said No to the cat when I first met it, so I had to pay 150,000 souls for absolution because it wouldn't talk to me. I think you can join new covenants without worrying about not being able to go back to others. You can't go back if you do something they specifically say not to do.

And here I felt sad when I saw Sif skipping like a hurt dog after a certain damage threshold :'( I felt sorry putting her down. If you dont have a long range magic you can use crossbows I use them and that is how I killed her at the end. My black knight shield +2 worked well except against the double spinning attack , the first would parry but the second attack always got me , so the best is to dodge/roll back when she uses that attack , unless you are under her , under her that attack is harmless. Also healing miracles while on boss fight is a bad idea ( I would know im a Cleric). Altho I didnt had as much trouble in the forest as people seems to be

@Aetheldod said:

And here I felt sad when I saw Sif skipping like a hurt dog after a certain damage threshold :'( I felt sorry putting her down. If you dont have a long range magic you can use crossbows I use them and that is how I killed her at the end. My black knight shield +2 worked well except against the double spinning attack , the first would parry but the second attack always got me , so the best is to dodge/roll back when she uses that attack , unless you are under her , under her that attack is harmless. Also healing miracles while on boss fight is a bad idea ( I would know im a Cleric). Altho I didnt had as much trouble in the forest as people seems to be

Fought Sif twice, and i've never seen her go into that hurt animation, she always died before that happened.

Also, upgrading shields DOES increase stability, but that might be dependant on the shield though. My +4 Silver Knight shield totally blocks the double spin attack with stamina left to spare, and i only have 30 END.

@LordXavierBritish said:

Use range. She has no range at all. Get pyromancy if you don't have it. A well leveled glove and a few spells can kill her quickly.

Don't fucking go through the forest as human.

Don't fucking go through the forest as human.

Also you can kill everyone in the forest like this.

Oh my God... You have no idea how much this video made me happy....

@Shirogane: Yea, I was just referring to the Eagle Shield. I'm pretty sure it's stability doesn't increase. :(

@Immuniity: Nice flow chart! "Giving a fuck." Has to be the hardes part of the fight.

Didn't notice a frame rate problem for that boss. Did you try a disc install on your Xbox360? I'm running my game from the hard drive.

I'm on 360 and I had absolutely no problems, framerate or otherwise, with Sif.

@Immuniity: Bullshit on it's double spin "instakill"! I blocked his attacks like a champ with less then 30 END and an Eagle Shield. Maybe it's that people should use a great shield? I heard they cut stamina damage in half... no idea if that is true though. The rest of that chart is pretty cute though. It's one of those things again where I didn't experience it the same as other people and just stand on the side lines lookin' all confused.

I beat Sif on my first try, he hit me twice with his spinning attack but that was it. No fps issues on the 360 either, perhaps bad luck? :/ i get a horrible fps drops on the room with 3 rats that it's just under the Hellkite Dragon gate.

@Zombieheadbutt: just thought id add that you dont need to go through the forest hunter section to get to sif , but its an even longer run and you need to make it past the cat monsters , you can go past the hydra if your game , and climb the ladder hidden a little bit behind the waterfall near the hydra , this takes you right near sifs door

of course none of this helps you with sif , but if you dont want to fight the forest hunters or get forest covenant pvp hassles , you can skip that area ... still wont stop regular invaders in the forest outside sifs door still

or just play offline in human form , get to the door , quit the game and go online , and mablye be able to summon someone before you get invaded ...

as for the lag , :( .. stupid fur shaders .. its something like that .. as snuggly the crow has a similar lag effect if you get him in your camera view while your fighting the skeletons .. not that snuggly has fur but its a similar shader effect on a large model ... that happens to get between you and the camera , you coudl try angling your camera during the fight (which would make fighting alot harder :/ ) so that you dont let sif get above or behind your character in regards to the camera..

hope you overcome it .. this figth was over so fast for me .. probably the 2nd biggest disapointment after i killed the last boss in like 6 attacks

@kyteki: Yep, I've installed it. What I'm experiencing is mostly input lag. I don't me "that animation takes too long!" input lag I mean I'm doing absolutely but standing there after I block an attack and lower my shield and the input I put in doesn't animate until a good 4-5 seconds later. Miracles that won't start casting until 3-4 seconds later even though I've already blocked the attack and lowered my shield and stood stock still for 3 seconds. THAT is whats killing me and I seem to be the only one getting this. Maybe its my controller? Its wired so it isn't normal wireless latency. It always seemed to happen right after a drop in framerate. My system isn't a lunch machine but it is an elite that came out just before Jasper.

@envane: Already killed the cat monsters. :) First try on those. Standing in the woods while they did there spin attack made that easy. Your the first person to actually agree that there is lag in this fight, lol. As I mention above, it isn't the lag itself thats killing me so much as the input lag it creates. I my PC hand't blow up or I would record it while happening because it seems to be unique to me. I'm talking INSANE amounts of time between pressing the button and actions occurring. I play a lot of fighting games so I'm kind of sensitive to input lag and frame drops, etc.

@SuperfluousMoniker: I don't think I'm too early but rather that I've been relying on the Drake Sword to much. I'm actually in the Depths right now farming Large Titanite Shards to upgrade an axe to +10. I'm SL 40 right now and I haven't been doing any farming but rather just sprinting through the game with my bad ass early game sword and not until I go to the Depths did I start to feel like it was coming up lacking. I've put in 33 hours so far so I hope I'm not to far ahead. I haven't beaten the Hydra yet so I'm thinking of re-prioritizing my kill order. I know I can kill Sif but I think I'm having some odd hardware / controller issues since no one else seems to be having the same issue as I am.

Is there any reason why you have to fight Sif at the moment? I didn't bother until Ornstein and Smough, after I'd picked up Havel's armour and needed the soul to make Artorias Greatshield. By that point the fight was trivial. I think I was SL 64 or something.

Yeah I totally know what you mean by the input lag. Happens all over the game. It's not enough to be a game killer but when the input lag happens it can be devastating. I'm really hoping it's something that can be addressed in the upcoming patch.

I had framerate issues on Sif as well. PS3 version. Same thing with the 3 cats in the area before her. Probably has something to do with the fur. Much worse then the framerate in blighttown. The best strat I've heard is to stand between her legs and melee, but with the framerate problem I couldn't do that. So I just gravestone humped and flung fireballs at her while she was animating. Had a few instances of input lag in that fight as well, not in any other part of the game yet though.

@Zombieheadbutt: pretty much the different covenent act as sdiffrent multiplayer modes almost. some are for helping each other out while others are ment for pvp. go to the dark souls wiki for covenents for better explaination.

@ichthy: I've let myself fall into the "If if bleeds I can kill it" mentality at the moment. I deal bout 56 dmg to Sif right now with the Drake Sword. Anyone think thats too early? I'm actually farming Large Titanite Shards in Depths right now to get a weapon up to +10.

@Xerxes8933A: Its seems like I might just be low SL enough right now that the input lag is will kill me since I have to put in a perfect performance as a melee user. But I'm glad some people are finally agreeing that there is some input lag and framerate issues at this fight. Wonder why some get it and others don't? Thats the whole point of playing console games, right? No one has said they've seen something as bad as I've seen it yet. 4-5 second lag on casting miracles.

Equip highest defence armor, activate that pyromancer Iron Skin spell (Or whatever its called), stand there and fire away with soul arrows or the butterfly crystal shield.

@Zombieheadbutt: Where abouts are you, story-wise? You don't actually need to take out Sif until fairly near the end of the game. Basically she's a "sub-boss" that you need to kill to get access to one of the others. By the time you actually need to fight her you definitely should have ditched the Drake Sword a long time ago.

@Xeiphyer: Unfortunately, I didn't know that the boss souls could be used to craft items before I used the Moonlight Butterfly soul for just that, souls. :I No awesome magic shield for me. I have thought about giving Iron Flesh a shot just to see how it works.

@Aishan: I've long since given up on trying to piece together a coherent story arch (though the lore does fascinate me). I've only rang one bell. I've killed the Taurus Demon, Bell Gargoyle, Gaping Dragon, and the Moonlight Butterfly. I didn't go into Quelaag's Lair and kill her. I was ready to be done with that damnable swamp and didn't think I was leaving it when I went up that waterwheel (horrible place, that). I probably need to work my way back down and take her out. I also still haven't offed that horrible Hydra. I think the size scares me into wanting to leave it alone.

@Zombieheadbutt: I had trouble with Sif at first but here are some tips:

You don't need to run straight ahead from the soul door to get to the boss. A much easier route with less enemies (no enemies if you've killed the shadow cats) is:

1. Go hard right as soon as you get down the steps.
2. Dash towards the glowing flower you can see. The spellcaster NPC will follow you but not catch you, if you keep running
3. From the glowing flower, run towards the next glowing flower you can see (in the same direction)
4. The flower is in a pool, and to the right of the pool as you approach is a small pathway that leads down towards a cliff
5. Run through here, across the bridge, and up through the next area where you fought the shadow cats
6. Follow the flowers and you'll see the bridge to Sif on your right. The Ent that was following you will go back at this point.

Takes about 40 seconds in total, bonfire to door, and no enemies.

Then for Sif, make sure your shield + stamina is enough to let you absorb both swings of the double 360 without taking damage. I used a Black Knight Shield but a Crest Shield will probably work as well. Then it's just a case of careful stamina management.

Always make sure you have enough stamina to absorb the double 360 when you're not attacking her. Keep your distance until she makes a move and jumps towards you or comes in for a single slash. Then use this opportunity to get underneath her with a couple of slashes (absorb the blow and move in). Never slash so much that you use all of your stamina. Once she jumps away or you get out from underneath her, back away and recover stamina quickly with your shield down, so you're ready if she does the 360.

Also don't try and use heal miracles dude, bring estus flasks and only use them when you're underneath her belly.

@gerrid: I've already unlocked the Astora's Lock (that the right name?) that leads to Sif from the Undead Parish and its quick as long as you know the soul farming trick. My issue was that I couldn't summon other players because if your Human in that forrest your going to get raped or spend a lot of time raping others.

Those tips are very close to what I've been doing. I use a +5 Eagle shield and have enough END to let me block the 360 attack but usually I'm dancing just on the outside of it and do a dashing attack as soon as its about to end. Doesn't always land the hit but I'm full STA and deal a good bit of dmg when it does hit before she jumps back.

@Zombieheadbutt: Well if you spawn at the bonfire outside the forest gate, you can summon someone there and just dash to the boss door, unlikely that anyone invading will catch up to you or stop you before you go through the fog.

You should be able to make it without any PvP.

If you're already doing all that my only tip is just to be patient, only go in for damage when you know it's safe and only heal when you're underneath her. Good luck.

@Zombieheadbutt said:

@Aishan: I've long since given up on trying to piece together a coherent story arch (though the lore does fascinate me). I've only rang one bell. I've killed the Taurus Demon, Bell Gargoyle, Gaping Dragon, and the Moonlight Butterfly. I didn't go into Quelaag's Lair and kill her. I was ready to be down with that damndable swamp and didn't think I was leaving it when I went up that waterwheel (horrible place, that). I probably need to work my way bad down and take here out. I also still haven't offed that horrible Hydra. I think the size scares me into wanting to leave it alone.

If this is the case, don't sweat Sif and go do other areas. You have (at least) 3 other bosses to take care of before Sif is an issue again. Sometimes it's good to take a break and try something else rather than just butting your head over and over again.

I just waited for her 360 double attack. Rolled twice under it, got under her, and attacked. She jumps away and you can repeat it.

Sif isn't too hard, she has only one attack to watch out for and that's the double 360 sword attack. All the other ones are easily blockable and give you the chance to get under and hit her.

Sif was really easy, just circle strafe and block. Switch to 2 handed and attack when you see an opportunity.

I've hung out in the forest as a human plenty of times without getting invaded. As for Sif, I beat her pretty early (level 30 or so). Wasn't nearly as hard as some of the later bosses