The Mortal Kombat series isn’t necessarily designed for newcomers to just pick up a controller and start winning matches, but Mortal Kombat 11 gives novice players a better chance of staying in the fight than they had in the past. A new attack system called “Fatal Blows” gives you the chance to do a devastating combination of moves once per fight, and if you use it properly, it can swing the momentum of a match back in your favor or even help you win it outright. Here’s what you need to know about Fatal Blows, including how to execute them properly and how to defend against them.
How to do a Fatal Blow
In Mortal Kombat 11, you can only execute a Fatal Blow once per fight. It will become available once your health has fallen below 30 percent in a given round. Once this occurs, the “Fatal Blow” alert will appear beneath your health bar. Pull the left and right triggers on your controller at the same time and you’ll hear a loud noise indicating you’ve pulled it off.
This attack must hit your opponent just like any other attack so if they manage to block it, it will do almost no damage and you’ll leave yourself open to their own attack. If you miss completely or your Fatal Blow is blocked, you will be able to do it again, but you will have to wait a short time for it to recharge. Try to do a Fatal Blow as the last hit in a combo, as it will be much harder to avoid.
Once the Fatal Blow begins, however, it cannot be stopped. An animation will play out as your character performs several brutal attacks on your enemies, gradually taking down their health. Fatal Blows can take off almost 30 percent of your enemy’s health, so if you see that they also have one available, hit them a couple more times before activating your own and you’ll win the round.
When not to do a Fatal Blow
As we mentioned before, you only get one successful Fatal Blow per fight in MK11, so this makes it extremely important to know when to use it and when not to use it.
Don’t use a Fatal Blow if you have no hope of winning the match. If your enemy has already knocked your health down to below 30 percent and you haven’t hit them yet, you’re probably not going to win the fight just because you performed a Fatal Blow. Instead, save it for the next round, and work on starting off stronger.
You also don’t want to do a Fatal Blow if your opponent is already blocking. It’s very unlikely that it will land, and you’ll leave yourself open to an attack or even a Fatal Blow from your opponent.
How to defend against a Fatal Blow
When you’re facing an enemy who has a Fatal Blow ready to go in Mortal Kombat 11, spacing is your best friend. You don’t need to permanently stay away from them, but vary your attacks between close-range and long-range blows, always blocking at the end of a combo to avoid getting hit.
If you’re facing a particularly aggressive enemy who seems poised to use their Fatal Blow immediately, mix in low attacks and jumping attacks. These can keep them off balance and do a tremendous amount of damage, potentially ending the fight before they can use them.
However, if you are truly destroying your enemy and the Fatal Blow will still leave you with more health than them, it’s sometimes more worthwhile to stick to the game plan you’ve been using. They’ll likely manage to connect with a Fatal Blow, but if that’s the only trick they have in their bag, you’re still going to win without issue and end the fight with a nice Fatality.
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