With so many challenges and unlocks inMortal Kombat 11, it’s a daunting undertaking to get a single character access to all of their moves and equipment. Thankfully, the AI can do some of the work and players can program a friendly kombatant to take on many of the game’s towers and fights.
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Unfortunately, without some tweaking, these fighters are plain terrible. It takes some adjustments for players to get what they need out of their AI buddies. They might never be as talented as some of the ridiculous online gamers out there, but, with some love, they can take on any gauntlet thatMortal Kombat 11throws down.
Quick And Easy Template
For those who don’t have the time to go character-by-character and program every single one individually, don’t feel bad about using the following stats for each kombatant:
Some of the fighters in the game have a steep learning curve. Whilenew players should use an easier fighter to understand, the AI can handle the rest. This setup works at least moderately well for every character.
What Grappling Does
A grapple is a move that latches onto an opponent. It shines best against enemies that are constantly blocking since it goes through their defenses if it lands. The catch is that players have to be in melee range and on the right level for the grab to work, otherwise the player’s character sets themselves up for a free hit.
Characters with great grapple moves like Kano, Shang Tsung, Johnny Cage, Cassie Cage, Jax, Baraka, Raiden, Cetrion, and Geras can all use about 10-15 points in grappling, but no more than that. Too much grapple and the AI will be setting themselves up for one ofthe game’s devastating kombos.
What Rushdown Does
Rushdown is a fancy way of phrasing how much the AI will naturally want to go toe-to-toe with an opponent. Characters with great ranged abilities will see this as a liability while quick and snappy melee brawlers will want to invest a few points here.
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Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, Liu Kang, Jade, and Kabal are all candidates to put 20 points or more into Rushdown. As newer players arelearning about the game, they can watch how these characters behave when they do get in close and copy some of their abilities when it’s their turn at the controls.
What Kombos Do
Think of a Kombo as a special ability. Sequences of buttons that have unique attacks and animations for the character are listed as Kombos. Unsurprisingly, these unique moves encompass some of the best abilities in the game for most characters, so it is very rare for a kombatant to have a 0 in this category.
A few characters have such incredible special moves (and lukewarm or worse regular attacks) that they should max out this category. This includes fighters like Shang Tsung, Liu Kang, D’Vorah, and Kollector, though almost every character should have at least the default 15 in Kombos.
What Reversal Does
When going from blocking to attacking, Reversal quickly initiates a move after absorbing a hit. At higher levels, this can enable many characters to get off an attack in between opponent strikes and break Kombos as they are in progress.
Because it is applicable to both offense and defense, most characters have a decent investment of points into Reversal. Some, like Jacqui Briggs, Kung Lao, D’Vorah, Kotal Kahn, and Kollector should have this at a maximum of 30 since they have special moves when transitioning from blocks to attacks.
What Zoning Does
Contrary to many opinions, Zoning does not mean that the kombatant tries to keep the opponent away from them (that’s a different AI Behavior). Rather, zoning is how much stock the AI tries to keep opponents at a range where their moves and Kombos are most likely to trigger.
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It is rare for this to be any number except for 0. It’s not that zoning is bad, it’s that so many characters have teleportation, grabs, and slides that maintaining a specific distance isn’t often realistic. There are exceptions for characters like Sub Zero and Erron Black who should have this at 20+ because of their projectile attacks at specific ranges.
What Runaway Does
Runaway is the ideal behavior for fighters that like to get ranged and stay ranged. Sometimes it is due to having weaker melee-ranged blocks and attacks but it’s more often used to rattle off devastating ranged attacks that require patience to execute.
Many people who program AI characters have this on 0 for everyone because, like with Zoning, most kombatants have moves that bridge the gap. Pro players like to put about 10 points into this stat for Kitana, but everybody else is at or close to 0.
Getting Each Character Right
It’s important to note that even the best of the best have varying opinions about how these settings should look for each character.Gamers Decide has a great breakdown for each characterbut their opinions at sometimes at odds with thefindings on Reddit.
Ultimately, a combination of luck and changing challenges means that experience will necessarily vary. And that’s OK! Take this as a license to experiment and play around with each one. Ultimately, the gamer should assess what they need most for the situation and adjust for personal taste.
Mortal Kombat 11was released on April 22nd, 2019, and is available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
