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With a new game entering the series and over 20 characters to choose from, it can be intimidating to find a main inMortal Kombat 1. After all, you don’t want to waste time on a bunch of characters then discover they don’t fit your style — you’ll feel like you wasted your time.
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Instead of spending hours worrying about who you should main, you’re able to apply a couple of crucial tips to help you determine who’s best for your playstyle. Whether you want to play Raiden, Nitara, or anyone else, you can focus your efforts on your main once you decide on someone.
Try Out Their Normals And Specials
Characters have two major move types that’ll help you get a feel for who you want to play:normals and specials. Normals are your main attacks for poking, fighting, and comboing enemies whilespecials will allow you to interact differently, such as zoning, closing the gap, or as an anti-air.
Specials are what make characters truly stand outfrom each other, so see which ones you like the most. For instance, you may love how Sub-Zero freezes people in place, allowing you to extend combos. On the other hand, you may love the enhanced version of Ashrah’s specials to take down enemies.
With that in mind, go through the entire cast, try their specials, and see what they do. From there, you canmake a list of the ones you like, the ones you don’t like, and the ones you don’t mind playing.
Immediately ignore the ones you don’t likeand aim to have a list of ten or less, so you won’t feel as overwhelmed. If you find yourself struggling with this part, try to order them instead of categorizing them.
For instance, you canpick your top five characters from your first impressions. You can then keep adding people to the list and putting others to the side if you don’t like them. Once you pick your ten, look at the roster again and see if you want to swap any of them.
Narrow Down Your Choices
Once you pick some options that you like, you shouldget your choices down to the characters you love. Doing so will require you to spend some time looking through the list and understanding what you like about them.
If you can’t narrow them down, try them again in Training Mode and see what combos you can form with their moves. If youlike the combos and notice that they feel natural to do, you should consider those characters.
The same applies to unique mechanicsthat some characters have. You may love the way Johnny Cage plays, but if you don’t like his star mechanic, then you shouldn’t play him, since you must fully use it to perform well with the character.
It also doesn’t hurt to drop characters that aren’t performing well. Try out the characters, get a feel for their attacks and moves, and fight some computers. If younotice some characters perform significantly better than others, you should stick with those options.
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Comparing Your Characters
With a diverse cast,they will vary in potential, making it crucial for you to compare them. You may find that some characters click well with you, providing plenty of opportunities for you to land combos. On the other hand, you may find thatsome characters have too little or too many tools, which could make you feel limited or overwhelmed, respectively.
You’ll want to try out the character andsee what makes each one different. Let’s say you like how Rain, Sindel, and Reptile play. You may like them all, but you find Reptile more challenging to play as, so if you don’t have the time to practice for hours on end, he may not be a good choice for you.
A character may require tons of time for you to learn them, but if you notice that you could potentially perform powerful combos and become good with them, then you may want to stick with them.It comes down to your situation and whether you want to put more time into a character.
If youfeel a character isn’t worth the time they need, then you know to drop them.
Some characters have a straightforward game plan, such as keeping the enemy away or getting in. As you becomemore comfortable with the characters, you’re able to get a feel for whether they’ll be a good choice. Otherwise, sticking it out with one character until you master them might be better for you.
Since making comparisons on the fly can be challenging, you shouldweigh out the pros and cons of choosing your charactersand seeing which one has the most of what you want.
Remember that some characters may click with your playstyle, despite them being strange for others.Focus on what you feel and what works for you.
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Don’t Forget About Kameo Fighters
The Kameo Fighters function as a tag system, where you’re able to have a character hop in and help you.They come with a few specials eachthat can help you apply pressure, extend combos, and even use ranged attacks.
While this may not seem like it matters too much,Kameo Fighters can be the perfect way to cover a character’s weakness. For instance, if you’re playing Reiko, who’s slow and struggles to get in, you could pick Kung Lao as a Kameo fighter. He can throw his hat to deal damage or teleport you behind the enemy.
That means if a character had a weakness that was a dealbreaker for you, then you should try them with various Kameo fighters to see who synergizes well. you may alsopick options that’ll work with your playstyle, such as using Frost to extend combos on characters with strong combos, like Scorpion or Ashrah.
With that in mind, you should view Kameos as extensions of your moveset, meant to work with your playstyle and help you win matches. See which ones you like the most and evenbecome comfortable switching up the Kameos, allowing you to make adjustments while sticking with your main.
For example, you may like to use Cyrax, Jax, and Kano. Cyrax might be good for matchups where you deal with zoners and want to apply pressure, Jax can work for chasing and locking down opponents, andKano has some zoning toolsto keep faster characters off you.
Take Your Time And Don’t Fear Secondary Characters
Remember thatyou don’t have to pick a main immediately. If you narrow down your options, that’s more than enough for you to continue. Keep playing as all the characters and see how they feel.
It also doesn’t hurt tocompare your performance with each character, seeing who leads to the most wins. Even if you find the performance similar with wins and losses, you’ll start to pick up on differences between them. Doing so will help you better understand them, and you may determinewho’s the best to use in various situations.
If that doesn’t work, you can always keep those characters as secondaries. That way, if you find that one character has a bad matchup, you can swap to another option. Doing so willallow you to remain flexible against your opponents.
Remember that your main isn’t a one-time choice. you’re able to main one character for a while then switch to another. You may want togo back to a character after you’ve played for a while and retry them. Doing so could help you discover that they now click and are the perfect main for you, so keep experimenting.
