It's possible to kill some of Sifu's toughest enemies in a single hit

pcgamer.com:

You can KO non-boss enemies in Sifu without killing them, which means that the brawler can be completed without murdering any of the dozens of minions guarding its five bosses. Perhaps that's the 'true' way to beat Sifu, if you're not trying to be its villain. I'll never know, because in order to finish the game I used a cowardly trick that has no place in a gentler run, since it involves sticking swords in people's guts.

Something I like about Sifu is that it doesn't explain every detail of its fighting system, so if you don't want one of its little touches revealed to you, maybe go check out Natalie's comparison between the game and Sloclap's prior work, Absolver. Otherwise, here's what the trick is all about:

The best unlockable attack in Sifu, if you ask me, is the Charged Backfist. It lets you deliver a solid whack to the head of anyone in front of or behind you (without turning to look at them, of course, because you're a badass) and when wielding a bat weapon, it becomes an endlessly useful trip attack.

When you're holding a bladed weapon, however, Charged Backfist becomes something very different. Partially charging it results in an unexciting upward sweep, but if you fully charge it before releasing, you'll dash forward and run the blade through the torso of whomever you're aiming at, sacrificing the weapon in exchange for an instakill (it gets stuck in their torso).

You do have to land the strike cleanly to get the kill: It can be blocked or avoided, and the charge-up animation takes a couple seconds, which makes it tough to use in regular combat. (I discovered it by accident.) It also doesn't make much sense to give up your sword just to kill one regular enemy. The move is extremely useful in a few specific