Getting Started with Mortal Kombat Onslaught

Mortal Kombat Onslaught is Netherrealm Studios’ latest effort to bring the world of Mortal Kombat to mobile. It’s an exciting auto-battler that brings a splash of blood and gore to an otherwise pretty mild genre.

So, if you’re looking to explore the realms of the Mortal Kombat universe, we’ve put together this starter guide to take you through the first steps in getting acquainted with everything there is to know! This’ll take you through the first questions, the various game modes and a basic guide to the kurrency and economy!

Before we begin: While a lot of mobile games are relatively blood-free, fans of Mortal Kombat will be glad to know that Onslaught doesn’t shy away from spilling the red stuff. However, gamers not used to gore should be wary, since Netherrealm Studios didn’t shy away from adding some pretty brutal fatalities to the game too. With that out of the way…let’s get into it!

Getting started

Mortal Kombat Onslaught requires an additional download before you begin playing. Fortunately, you get a nice cinematic featuring the characters of Mortal Kombat duking it out in the meantime, but it still might take a while. Naturally, you’ll also need an internet connection - so be careful where you play!

The first story battles

You’ll start off your journey playing as Scorpion (The ‘get over here’ guy if you’re not familiar) and will get a free set of guardian spirits to help you out. These are generic mooks that will likely be swapped out for named characters or at least more elite goons further down the line. However, you get a warrior (melee), support and attacker (ranged) character right out of the gate.

Scorpion is tasked by Quan Shi, a former elder god, with collecting a number of artefacts that contain fragments of his power and which, when collected, would elevate him to an elder god once more. If you’re not familiar with the background, don’t worry, the main focus is on fighting - it’s not called ‘Mortal Story’ after all.

Quests are fairly simple too, with certain pre-set objectives you need to follow to continue the story and gain the rewards. Usually, this means having at least one character of a certain kind, for example, in Scorpion’s story you need…well, Scorpion. Beyond that you complete objectives, and can go back to complete bonus ones you may have missed the first time around.

This set of starter quests will also introduce you to the basic mechanics of the game. It’s a relatively straightforward auto-battler. Lay out your characters, hit ‘go’ and watch them fight. You have auto-casting abilities which perform various effects and hit for various damage. Naturally, there are also active abilities to use throughout, and some of them are surprisingly useful.

For example, Scorpion’s special move “Get over here” can drag an enemy across the screen towards him. Very useful if one of your characters is on the cusp of defeat, and also does a hefty slice of damage itself.

Your first target is Noob Saibot, and he’ll also be your first fighter in the kollection (if you haven’t already guessed the ‘k’ instead of ‘c’ motif is quite common…or should that be ‘kommon’?). We’ll look at levelling up shortly - but after defeating Noob Saibot you’ll want to hop out and get acquainted with levelling because the difficulty will keep going up as you fight on.

Many of the mechanics are explored through simple tutorials, although if you’re the exploratory type of learner you may be a bit miffed that there’s so much restriction and no option to skip. However, pretty quickly you’ll be let loose on the world of Mortal Kombat Onslaught.

The main battle

From there, we have Arena Mode, where you battle in multiplayer against other characters. You can set a defensive team that will battle other players who attack you, or create your own offensive team and take the fight to them. You’ll want to complete a lot of story missions and build up your character’s levels and gear first of course - but as a reward, you’ll earn arena medals which are valuable kurrencies that can be used to earn rare items and other special goods. Arena mode requires Arena Scrolls, a refreshing currency.

After that, you have the Boss Towers, where you battle special characters with boosted stats and gain rewards as a result. These are where you can really see elements of strategy come into play, and like arena mode, they require Tower Energy, which is a refreshing currency.

And, also, you’ll find that there was a recent addition in the form of khronicles. These are special story missions you complete that offer exclusive rewards and have been added with the Halloween update. They’ll introduce new characters to the roster, although it doesn’t seem that you’ll earn a character directly from completing these missions.

Your kurrencies

We have our own guide to the kurrencies and resources in Mortal Kombat Onslaught. But for a brief overview, you have Krystals, Koins and Fighter XP. Koins and Fighter XP are used to level your characters and you’ll earn them pretty quickly, while Krystals can be used to get more koins, relics and other items.

You’ll gain these kurrencies from daily log-ins, battles and also quests, these are basically challenges which task you with simple things like levelling a character once or making a summon. But - at least early on - the rewards are generous, so be sure to check in often!

Relics & Fatalities

Relics are special items which can be added to your character to boost your stats…and they’re also how you gain fatalities. Fatalities are really more fan service than anything, as they only occur at the end of the fight when you’ve already won. However, there is something satisfying about all the silly and brutal ways you can dispatch a defeated foe.

Be sure to check your relics and see if they enable fatalities for certain characters.

Summoning

Summoning is straightforward as well, you have two types of orbs that can earn one. Skull Orbs are easy to acquire but you’ll usually get items or low-level fighters. Meanwhile, Master Orbs guarantee fighters and are mostly used for acquiring seasonal characters or those on special offer.

Duplicates are also quite useful in Mortal Kombat Onslaught. By using them you can Soul Bind resources gained from duplicates to level your characters further and enhance their stats. Bear in mind the orbs you gain will be based on a character’s Spirit, and thus can only be Soul Bound to a character of the same Spirit

And that’s everything you need to know to get you started! Mortal Kombat Onslaught is a pretty generous RPG when it comes to kurrencies, and graphically it manages to stand out quite a bit from other auto-battlers in the genre. So check it out and test your might with Netherrealm’s new mobile game.