Once you complete the story mode in Mortal Kombat 11 and its Aftermath DLC, as well as succeed in Klassic Towers and Towers of Time, you’re going to spend a good portion of your time in the game’s Krypt. This third-person exploration area houses a huge number of the game’s customization items and gear, and if they’re available in the Krypt, you’re not going to find them in the other modes. The Krypt can be overwhelming when you first begin, as it’s filled with secret passages, multiple types of chests, and puzzles, but with our Mortal Kombat 11 Krypt guide, you can make sense of it all and get the gear of your dreams.
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How the Krypt works
The Mortal Kombat 11 Krypt is essentially an enormous dungeon filled with treasure, and you’ve been invited to collect as much of it as you can afford. Running along the walls and in the middle of nearly every area you explore are chests that can be opened with the Koins currency you’ve been accruing over your time in the game’s other modes.
The cost of opening a chest in the Krypt is directly tied to the value of the items inside. A chest that costs 2,000 Koins will contain minor items like development art or music, while chests at or above around 8,000 Koins can contain character-specific gear, augmentation items, or skins. You can acquire more Koins in the Krypt by smashing certain objects — more on that below — and by opening up new pathways, but the primary way you will get more Koins is to go back into the Towers and fight against enemies.
There are two other currencies in the Krypt — Hearts and Soul Fragments. Hearts are used to open rare chests that can be spotted by the terrifying mask located above them. This must be smashed, and then you can spend 250 Hearts to unlock the contents. These contain some of the best rewards in the entire game, including several customization pieces for a character. To acquire Hearts, you can perform Fatalities during matches, and you can destroy the bodies found hanging in the Krypt itself using Scorpion’s Spear.
Soul Fragments are used to unlock the green Soul Chests that you’ll start encountering soon after you begin the Krypt. You’ll accrue these through normal play, and occasionally for completing certain tasks in the Krypt, but you won’t be able to use them to open Soul Chests until you’ve acquired Ermac’s Soul Amulet. Don’t worry about them until you’ve progressed further into the Krypt.
Key items to find
Much of your progress in the Krypt is tied to key items scattered through the sprawling map. These vary in use but are all tied to letting you continue progressing to new areas and unlocking better gear. Below, we’ve detailed the most important items you’ll discover and what they allow you to do. They’re listed in order of when you should acquire them.
Shao Kahn’s Hammer
Shao Kahn’s Hammer is impossible to miss, as it’s located directly in front of you as you first enter the Krypt. The hammer is what you’ll use to destroy damaged walls and doors, and you’ll find one of each in the very same room. It’s crucial that you look for damaged areas as you progress, as you’ll often find enormous rooms behind them loaded with treasure.
You can also use Shao Kahn’s Hammer to destroy pots and skeletons scattered throughout the Krypt. This will reward you with a small amount of Koins, but it’s so trivial that it will make very little difference in how many chests you can open.
Gem of the Living and Cracked Horn of the Motaro
The Gem of the Living is a special item you need to progress further into the Krypt and enter Goro’s lair, which is home to some of the best treasure in the game. When you’re in the outdoor area, head to the center and then north until you see an area with statues of several characters. Progress forward and a meteorite will smash the Raiden statue. Hit the meteorite with your hammer to get the Gem of the Living.
The Cracked Horn of the Motaro is also needed to progress further into the Krypt, and can only be acquired after already having the Gem of the Living. Use the Gem of the Living to open a door near Kronika’s Time Vault — and progress into the underground area. You’ll find the horn behind an unlockable gate inside. With the horn, head to Goro’s Lair Door on the western part of the outdoor area and you can enter.
Ermac’s Soul Amulet
This is the item you need to unlock those pesky green glowing Soul Chests you’ve seen throughout the Krypt. Once you’ve made your way into Goro’s Lair, progress until you reach an enormous hall that has a statue in the front and a feasting area. Go forward, walk all the way around the outside using the stairs, and in the front-right corner, there will be a chain you can pull to open a gate. Do this, progress until you get a cutscene showing a man getting impaled, and locate him in the room. He has Ermac’s Soul Amulet, and you can now open those chests.
Ermac’s Soul Amulet is also used to open up certain new pathways. You’ll use it for the first time to exit the room you found the amulet in, which has caved in with rocks.
Spear of Hanzo Hasahi (Scorpion’s Spear)
Scorpion’s Spear can also be found inside Goro’s Lair, but this time you’ll have to head to the Armory area on the southeast side. Once you’ve reached this area, search until you find a flaming vertical line running along a pillar. Interact with it to pull the spear and equip it.
Once you have Scorpion’s Spear, you can use it to interact with certain environmental objects, including drawbridges. The main purpose of the spear, however, is to pull down the bodies you’ll find hanging above your position. These are destroyed and usually contain hearts that you need to open the Krypt’s valuable chests.
The Forge
You’ll occasionally find materials while opening chests that are not used for customization or for opening new pathways — these are called “Forge Items” and they can be found on their own page in the Krypt menu. For the beginning of your time in the Krypt, they will be useless, but you will eventually find a gong that you can hit with a hammer and open the path to the Forge – it’s an intimidating area with flames behind it, but by feeding it the materials you’ve gathered, you can produce rewards.
The rewards you get are based on the combination of materials you throw in, but you can also get nothing from the Forge if you put in the wrong combination. If you throw three items in and it fails to yield a reward, don’t do it again, as the same result will happen every time.
Not only does the Forge need materials to produce anything, but it also needs currency. This can take the form of Koins, Soul Fragments, and Hearts, so make sure your combination of materials is going to produce something valuable before you throw them into the Forge.
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