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    How To Do Combos in Mortal Kombat

    Fatalities are nice, but combos are deadly!

    In the fierce world of Mortal Kombat, mastering the art of combos can be the difference between victory and defeat. The latest installment of this iconic franchise has players busy as aspiring warriors seek to unleash devastating combos. In this guide, we’ll unravel the idea behind combo execution. After reading, you’ll have the tools and knowledge to elevate your gameplay to the next level.

    How To Do Combos in Mortal Kombat – What Are Combos?

    Kitana pulling off one of her combos in Mortal Kombat

    Before we begin, what are combos exactly? Simply put, combos are a chain of hits that happen consecutively. This means that once the first hit touches the opponent, they can’t stop it. Part of the appeal of combos lies in the ability to unleash potential crazy damage after landing the initial attack.

    Kitana doing a combo against Sub-Zero

    But I know what you’re thinking. “How can I start executing combos in general?”. Well, it all starts with looking at your move list!

    1) Get To Know Your Combos in the Menu

    Scorpion and Sub-Zero standing across each other in training mode

    First of all, be like Sub-Zero and Scorpion and go straight to training mode! To clarify, training mode is an ideal place to practice combos without having to worry about another player defeating you. Once you enter training mode, press the start button on whichever game controller you have. You should see a lot of menu options, with one of them being “Move List.” Select that particular option, and this screen should appear:

    The list of basic attacks and mortal kombat combos in the move list menu

    You should see many basic attacks in a long list, but don’t feel overwhelmed! Finding a combo is our main focus here. 

    In Mortal Kombat, there are many different characters in the roster. This means that each move list will also be different, but every character has their basic combos in them. For this example, we will be using Sub-Zero’s move list. Here’s a combo I found in it:

    Input command for Sub-Zero's mortal kombat combo, "Lin Kuei Storm"

    While this combo looks simple, this is the start of the foundation of how to do combos in Mortal Kombat. All combos start small somewhere and can potentially grow even larger. So get back into training mode and start doing that combo. This is how it should look if you play Sub-Zero:

    Start of Sub-Zero's mortal kombat combo "Lin Kuei Storm" Second hit of Sub-Zero's mortal kombat combo "Lin Kuei Storm"

    Did you do it? Congratulations! You technically just did a combo! Remember, though, this is only just the beginning. What if you could get something else off of this? Perhaps you can cancel this into a special move? There are a few questions you can ask in this situation. So, let’s test some things out!

    2) Get To Know Your Special Moves in the Menu

    Go back into the move list menu and look for the “special move” tab. After that, this is how it should look:

    The list of special moves that you can possibly cancel from your mortal kombat combos in the move list menu

    From here, you should find different special moves that can cancel from your original combo. For instance, I found a specific special move that I wanted to try out. 

    Input command for Sub-Zero's special move, "Ice Klone Charge"

    After finding a special move from the list, you want to see if it can cancel from your original combo. If it can, it gives your combo a lot more flavor as a result! For instance, I tried doing it myself, and look what happened:

     

    As you can see, the special move idea worked for me! It ended up becoming a 3-hit combo. Most importantly, we have created another layer to the combo.

    How To Do Combos in Mortal Kombat – The Beauty of Combos

    Returning to my previous example, what if the special move didn’t work after the original combo? That’s fine! Try to see if another special move can work after it. That’s the beauty of how to do combos in Mortal Kombat. You test out things and see what works as well as what doesn’t. It’s part of what makes watching fighting game tournaments so special! You get to see combos that other players pull off that you would’ve never thought were possible.

    I hope that this guide on how to do combos in Mortal Kombat was helpful to you. You’re going to need it for when Omni-Man comes out!

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