#Speedrunning Mortal Kombat: Johnny Cage

Before we get started, it helps to understand exactly what it means to speedrun a fighting game. If you approach fighting game speedruns the same way you would approach fighting a human opponent, you are destined for failure. The AI in fighting games, especially Mortal Kombat, simply does not play by the rules. It cheats. It can read your inputs and react with inhuman timing, it can break out of situations in which the player cannot and in some situations it can completely cancel your moves in favor of its own. So how do we beat it then? .. well, you gotta cheat it back.

Think of the AI as someone who has a huge unfair advantage mechanically, but has zero ability to learn. In a lot of situations the AI is going to repeat the same cheating moves over and over again without thinking about how you as a human might adapt. And that’s exactly what we will do. If you know exactly what the AI is going to do you can find certain moves that counter them and use them to your advantage. Sometimes it is a simple repeatable loop, and sometimes it is a well designed plan that caters for every possibility the AI can throw at you. Either way, it will be you with the unfair advantage.

Keep this in mind as you read this guide, while there are certain things that “come down to RNG” there are many things that are predictable and even manipulatable which give you, the player, an overwhelming advantage. The only question you have to ask as a speedrunner is … which of those moves is the fastest?

  #The Rules From the Speedrun.com rules page: Permitted Arcade Emulators: WolfMame : In order to qualify for any time claiming to be under 7:00, you MUST be running on Wolfmame & an inp recording must be submitted with each attempt to the appropriate moderator in the discord link here [ https://discord.gg/RxuJWQT ] A guide to inp creation can be found at [ https://www.speedrun.com/mk1/guide/euoqg ] Permitted Arcade-Perfect Ports:

• Arcade and MAME
• MK Arcade Kollection (PSN, XBLA, and PC) Acceptable Arcade/MAME revisions:
• Revision 1.0 (Y-Unit PCB Hardware)
• Revision 2.0 (Y-Unit PCB Hardware)
• Revision 3.0 (Y-Unit PCB Hardware)
• Revision 4.0 (Y-Unit PCB Hardware)
• Revision 4.0 (T-Unit PCB Hardware)
• Revision 5.0 (T-Unit PCB Hardware) Special Rules:
• The timer starts when the character is selected and stops when the final blow is delivered to Shang Tsung.
• Difficulty - 5 Very Hard Your video submission must show that the correct difficulty is set at the start or end of the run

#About the rules: The emulator of choice is MAME. Any version of MAME is allowed, however if you are planning to submit a time that is faster than 7 minutes you must specifically be using WolfMAME and you must record an INP to submit with your run. A WolfMAME INP is basically an input recording of everything you did in your run which will play back on another persons computer to show the run. WolfMAME specifically blocks things such as Save States, Cheats and Pausing while recording an INP. The INP will also tell verifiers which version of MAME was used and ensure that the run was performed on a legitimate rom file that was not tampered with. You only need to worry about doing this if you are ready to submit a time that is under 7 minutes and you can find a guide to help you do this here: https://www.speedrun.com/mk1/guide/euoqg

Other than that, the main thing you need to worry about is that you set the difficulty to Very Hard and it is shown in the video footage of your run. This can be done by going into Service Mode (default key in MAME is F2). This may be done either before or after your run, however it must be shown in the same footage as your run with no breaks in-between.

#Which version of the game should I use? There are 5 versions, or “Revisions” of Mortal Kombat for the Arcade which are legal in the speedrun.

• Revision 1.0
• Revision 2.0
• Revision 3.0
• Revision 4.0 (T-Unit or Y-Unit)
• Revision 5.0

Revision 3.0 is currently regarded as the best version to use in the speedrun for Johnny Cage. This is due to the fact that there is no increasing gravity with each hit and Johnny Cage’s shadow kick is not knocked back when you shadow kick an opponent in the air.

Revision 1.0 is definitely the slowest and the weirdest. You cannot skip the opening tower scroll which is already a severe time penalty. Additionally, it does not have the Player 2 side AI of the later versions that are crucial to the speedrun.

Revision 2.0 is pretty close to Revision 3.0, and it may be possible to use this version to speedrun as well. However when I investigated I found that the AI tends to have a higher chance to arbitrarily block, which can be frustrating.

Revision 4.0 added the increasing gravity with each hit which makes the endurance infinite juggles impossible and removes the 2 cycle juggle strategies on Raiden, Liu Kang and Kano. It also added a knockback to Johnny Cage’s Shadow kick whenever you knock an opponent out of the air after jump punching them. This means it takes longer to initiate the next combo cycle and adds up to another significant time loss.

Revision 5.0 is essentially the same as 4.0 speedrun wise. I have been unable to find any functional difference between 4.0 and 5.0 which effects gameplay. I know of only one glitch which appears to have been fixed between 4.0 and 5.0, but it is inconsequential to the speedrun.

No Rom-hack or Bootleg versions are legal for the main category of Mortal Kombat speedrunning, however separate leaderboards and categories do exist for those versions if you are interested. The required strategies on those versions do differ greatly and some or most of the strategies talked about in this guide probably won’t apply. This guide is meant strictly for the official versions of Mortal Kombat and specifically for speedrunning with Johnny Cage.   #The Run

#Playing from Player 2 Side Mortal Kombat’s AI was written in a very weird way (aside from the obnoxious cheating). The AI patterns you play against are actually completely different depending on whether or not you play from Player 1 side or Player 2 side. It’s almost like playing 2 different versions of the same game.

For the speedrun, all of the fastest strategies only work on the Player 2 side. There are techniques to beat the Player 1 side AI as well which are used in the speedrun during the Endurance Matches (See Endurance section), however the exploits used from the Player 2 side are far more effective and faster for the majority of the run. So make sure to be playing from Player 2 side.

On a side note: This is also true in Mortal Kombat II, however in that case it’s the reverse and Player 1 Side is faster than Player 2. In Mortal Kombat 3 / Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 there are also some advantages/differences to using Player 2 however those advantages are much smaller.

#The Towers When playing against the AI, the line-up of opponents you play against is traditionally referred to as the “Tower”. Towers in the classic Mortal Kombat games are not completely random, but instead there are several fixed assortment of opponents and it is just random which one you get. There are 4 towers in Mortal Kombat which are different based on which character you choose. We named these towers based on the first opponent you fight against in that tower.

For Johnny Cage, the 4 Towers are: Sonya:

• Sonya
• Sub-Zero
• Scorpion
• Liu Kang
• Raiden
• Kano
• Mirror Match
• E1: Kano/Scorpion
• E2: Raiden/Sub-Zero
• E3: Liu Kang/Sonya
• Goro
• Shang Tsung

Scorpion:

• Scorpion
• Sonya
• Sub-Zero
• Liu Kang
• Raiden
• Kano
• Mirror Match
• E1: Kano/Raiden
• E2: Sub-Zero/Sonya
• E3: Raiden/Sub-Zero
• Goro
• Shang Tsung

Sub-Zero:

• Sub-Zero
• Scorpion
• Sonya
• Kano
• Raiden
• Liu Kang
• Mirror Match
• E1: Sonya/Sub-Zero
• E2: Kano/Scorpion
• E3: Kano/Raiden
• Goro
• Shang Tsung

Kano

• Kano
• Raiden
• Liu Kang
• Scorpion
• Sub-Zero
• Sonya
• Mirror Match
• E1: Kano/Raiden
• E2: Liu Kang/Scorpion
• E3: Sonya/Sub-Zero
• Goro
• Shang Tsung

The Tower you end up running does have some effect on how the speedrun performs. It is currently believed that with optimal strategies the Sub-Zero Tower is the fastest. This is due to the fact that Sub-Zero/Scorpion are on fights one and two respectively and can they can both be beaten with the “High Punch Trick” more effectively to get a slightly faster match. It also features Sonya and Sub-Zero on Endurance 1, which with some of the high level strategies can be beaten the fastest.

Endurance 1 tends to be a difficult match due to the larger stage size. This makes it difficult to set up the infinite corner juggle on the second opponent as you need to perfectly combo and push the first opponent into the corner before hes beaten while placing Johnny Cage in the correct position to punish the 2nd opponent. Playing against sub-zero first on this match makes it more viable as he often tends to open with a freeze which you can jump over and punish, where as on the other towers Kano can open with a roll ball attack which makes everything positioned wrong. There are ways around this which will be covered later, but they are RNG reliant and can often cost a few seconds if things don’t happen perfectly.

The Sonya Tower, while suffering a poor setup for the optimal WR strategies is actually the best for a beginner to use. Playing against Sonya on round 1 is often a lot easier as her round 1 AI is more co-operative than the others, meaning you will get more runs started using this tower. You also don’t have to deal with “Raiden as an Endurance 2nd opponent”. Having Raiden as a 2nd opponent is great with advanced strategies and getting the infinite juggle in the corner. However if you failed to get the corner infinite for any reason, Raiden is very frustrating to deal with and can easily cost you a PB. This makes the 3 non-Sonya towers really tough for beginners, where as the Sonya Tower doesn’t have to deal with it.

Both the Scorpion Tower and Kano Tower are more or less equal. They have the same Endurance 1 with Kano/Raiden, once you are at an intermediate/advanced level and do the corner juggles its just a matter of learning to overcome Kano’s opening patterns to set up for the perfect Raiden when he enters. However getting a run started on the Kano tower can be very difficult if you are uncomfortable with the High Punch Trick, as his fight 1 AI almost never responds to the core jump punch/shadow kick strategy. On the other hand, you can very often get away with using high punch trick on him in fight 1 just by letting him walk up to you and beginning the loop as soon as he gets in range.

With everything considered there is really only a handful of seconds difference between each of the towers, but the Sub-Zero tower edges out ahead by around 5 seconds or so assuming perfect RNG and all optimal strategies are used.

#Measuring The Fight We often use the count-down clock to measure how fast a fight was beaten. The clock counts down from 99 at the start of the round with each “clock tick” being worth 0.6 seconds in real time. It’s also worth noting that Flawless Victories are BAD. Each Flawless Victory costs 1.1 seconds, so it can be roughly equivalent to 2 clock ticks give or take 0.1-0.5 of a second depending if it was “late or early” within the clock tick when the round finished. We often refer to how fast a round was by the clock tick at the end of the round followed by either “Hit or Flawless” depending on whether or not a hit was taken in the round to negate the flawless victory.

For example, if you took a hit and the round ended with a 90 on the clock, it would be referred to as a “90 Hit”. If it ended with a 92 but you also had a flawless victory then it would be referred to as a “92 Flawless”. Given that a Flawless is close to the same amount of time spent as 2 clock ticks, a 90 Hit is roughly equivalent to a 92 Flawless.

It may not be an accurate representation to the millisecond or to the frame, but it is a convenient way to measure fights on the fly while running, practicing, or strat hunting that is more or less consistent. At the optimal speedrun level, a 91 Hit is considered a good round on a normal opponent, with some top level strategies allowing a 92 Hit or even a 93 Hit in some rare cases with perfect RNG and execution. Endurance matches allow for a 95 hit on the second opponent with the perfect setup and corner juggle strategies.   #Terminology The following terms will be used for ease of explaining certain things: HP -> High Punch LP -> Low Punch LK -> Low Kick HK -> High Kick BLK -> Block JP -> Jump + Punch

• Neutral JP – a Jump + punch involving a vertical jump with no horizontal movement

• Arcing JP – Jump Kick where you press kick at the peak of the jump while jumping over towards the opponent

• Rising JP – a Jump kick in which you press kick as you leave the ground

• Late JP – a jump kick in which you press kick late as you jump over towards the opponent, often pressing kick just before you land next to them. This is usually followed with a Shadow kick (SK). JK -> Jump + Kick

• Neutral JK – a Jump + kick involving a vertical jump with no horizontal movement

• Arcing JK – Jump Kick where you press kick at the peak of the jump while jumping over towards the opponent

• Rising JK – a Jump kick in which you press kick as you leave the ground

• Late JK – a jump kick in which you press kick late as you jump over towards the opponent, often pressing kick just before you land next to them. This is usually followed with a Shadow kick (SK).

• SK -> Shadow Kick (Back, then forward + LK)

• HPT -> It stands for High Punch Trick. It's a strat where you keep pressing HP in a certain rhythm. The opponent usually takes all hits and you can drain all their health allowing you to quickly deal with them. Unfortunately it only works against certain characters. 17 HP attacks are needed to drain the whole health bar, but you can use 14 HP and a Shadow Kick as the 15th attack if you time it correctly.

• 2 Cycle -> a 2 Cycle Combo, for example JK, JP, SK then JP, JP, SK. The Jump Kick will inflict a bit more of damage allowing you to defeat the opponent in 2 cycles. You can fit the JK in 1st or 2nd cycle.

• 3 Cycle -> a 3 Cycle Combo, for example JP, SK then JP, SK then JP, SK. Against some characters it's easier to use JK instead of JP, but JP is usually a few frames faster.

• RNG -> Random Number Generation, a general term used to described a random event which is considered un-predictable. In Mortal Kombat, this will often refer to a randomly assigned behaviour pattern or special move that the AI will perform against you. AI -> Artificial Intelligence, a general term used to describe the character that is controlled by the game as opposed to the character controlled by you, the player.

#Fight 1 Oh boy, if you thought level 1 resets are bad you haven’t seen anything yet. Fight 1 in Mortal Kombat is notorious for having some of the worst RNG in the game. Some of us even refer to it as the “hardest fight in the game”. It can be extremely difficult to make it out of the first fight with anything better than a couple of 85’s sometimes, even with optimal strategies.

To explain why this is, you really need to understand how the difficulty works in Mortal Kombat. When you select the difficulty in Service mode it doesn’t really change the difficulty of the WHOLE game, it just changes what difficulty you START on. As you progress through the game the difficulty increases until it reaches its maximum level. If you started the game on Very Easy, it reaches maximum difficulty around the fight before the Mirror Match. If you started the game on Very Hard, it reaches maximum difficulty on Fight 3. Either way you will be on the hardest difficulty of the game before the endurance matches whether you like it or not.

However, despite the rules requiring a Very Hard setting, it turns out we actually LIKE it being on the hardest difficulty. This is because, as mentioned before, the game cheats you and it does so consistently. We are relying on it trying to cheat us so we can use those attack patterns against it. Unfortunately, even if you select Very Hard in service mode, Fight 1 still starts on a lower difficulty. This means there are more AI patterns to deal with, ones that are passive and/or unresponsive to our strategies. This means more RNG. Fight 2 is nowhere near as bad as Fight 1, but some AI jankiness does still remain here and can still screw you over. It’s almost as if the difficulty increases in Fight 2 but not all the way.

If you are just starting out with trying to learn this speedrun I highly recommend just “making your way to fight 3” first and making a save state. Otherwise everything you attempt in the first fight is not going to reflect how the speedrun actually plays out and its going to be much more difficult to learn. The next section will cover a simple beginner strategy which can be used to at least get you that far so you can get started.

  #The Beginner Strategy “All ya gotta do is jump kick” Just sight seeing? Just want to beat the game at all? This strategy will more or less get you through the game. It’s slow, its not very efficient, but it will beat them and It can generally be done with any character that has legs.

1. At the beginning of the fight Jump backwards twice. Be prepared to block if the opponent threw a projectile.
2. As the opponent begins walking towards you jump over and perform an arcing JK. Press any of the kicks just as you are above their head and it should connect about 80% of the time.
3. If it connected, walk back so that by the time they are standing again you are at the perfect distance to jump over at them again. Go back to step 1 and repeat as necessary.
4. IF the opponent still manages to block the JK, very often they will follow up with a projectile. You can counter this with an uppercut if you are quick enough. Otherwise continue jumping back and try to re-orient yourself so the opponent is far away and approaching.
5. Go back to Step 1, Rinse and repeat. This strategy can take you all the way to the end of the game if you are persistent and/or lucky enough. Simple, slow, but effective.

It’s also worth noting that something that consistently occurs in this speedrun is that every lower level strategy winds up being a backup strategy for a higher level strategy. With this in mind I would advise against trying to go straight to the WR strategies and ignoring the beginner/intermediate strategies completely. Having something to fall back on when things go wrong is crucial to maintaining progress in this speedrun. Remember it well and learn as much as you can.   #The Core Strategy “The Jump Punch Intercept” Now we’re getting into the real stuff. As mentioned previously, to start learning everything here you will want to make sure you make your way to at least Fight 3 so everything you encounter won’t be “tainted by the Fight 1/2 RNG”. Also make sure you make it to an opponent that is not Kano, Sub-Zero or Scorpion. Preferably Sonya is the best one to start on (just not in Fight 1), but Liu Kang, Raiden or Mirror Match will also work fine. I will explain more on why this is important later.

The Core Strategy of this speedrun involves abusing the “Jump Punch Intercept”. The way this works, is normally if you try to jump over your opponent it will immediately respond with a neutral JK which will counter you and knock you back down. It is almost 100% consistent and the AI will even break out of a knocked down state to jump up and hit you without even performing any kind of get up animation. We are going to use this to our advantage. As it turns out, a few characters have JP hitboxes which will actually beat an opponents neutral JK hit box. The 3 characters in the game that can do this are Kano, Raiden and of course .. Johnny Cage. While Raiden and Kano do have some speedrun potential as well, Johnny Cage’s Shadow Kick (SK) puts him over the edge as it combo’s so well with the JP and can allow you to aggressively close distance on the opponent and shorten the amount of time it takes to re-engage, thus saving the most amount of time.

#Vs Sonya, Liu Kang, Raiden or Johnny Cage When fighting against Sonya, Liu Kang, Raiden or Johnny Cage, the best way to get started learning this strategy is:

1. Begin the fight in the crouched position. This should cause the AI to start blindly walking towards you.
2. When the AI approaches just outside sweep range immediately do a forward rising JP. The AI should attempt neutral JK and counter you, but if done with the correct timing your JP is going to come out on top and beat the opponent. Once you get it a few times, you will want to remember this “distance” in which you initiate successfully.
3. As the opponent is falling, there is actually enough time to SK your opponent on the way down. This 2 hit combo is worth slightly more than 33% of the enemies health. 3 cycles of this combo is enough to defeat any normal fighter.

#Vs Sub-Zero, Scorpion and Kano While this works fairly easily against Sonya, Liu Kang, Raiden and the Mirror Match. You may run into trouble getting this to work against Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Kano. This strategy CAN be done against them but where there is a solid distance window that allows it to work on the previous 4, against Scorp/SZ/Kano the distance has to be pixel perfect when you time the JP. It is extremely difficult to do when you are just learning it. However, there is an easier alternative to use on the troublesome 3 using JK in a similar way, instead of JP.

Similar to the previous strategy:

1. Begin the fight in the crouched position. This should cause the AI to start blindly walking towards you.
2. When the AI is almost right next to you but just outside throw range, do a rising forward JK instead of a JP. If done correctly your JK hit box should work its way “under the opponent” when he tries to counter and your JK will gain priority. Its important to understand these 2 different distances as you cannot JK at the same distance you perform a JP and vice-versa.
3. Similar to the JP strategy you can also SK the opponent on their way down. It’s important to start buffering the left/right inputs so that you finish the back-forward movement before you reach the ground and press LK ON the frame you hit the ground.

Using these 2 strategies you can defeat all of the normal fighters in the game and get somewhere between an 87-89 Flawless when done correctly. You will want to use both of these strategies until you are comfortable with their exact distances.

On a side note, something you may run into on Liu Kang or Raiden: If you attempted to JP and they JK in response but neither of you connected and you both danced in the air like some kind of wonderful ballet, then it means you are too close for the JP to work on them. You can correct the problem by immediately switching to JK since it will work from the closer distance.

#The Endurance 2nd Opponents and “Snap Punching” Up until now, the core strategies should more or less have carried you all the way until Endurance 1. But you will find that the moment the 2nd opponent pops out after defeating the first that he no longer responds to your jump punch intercept. This is because the 2nd opponent of each Endurance match is using a different AI pattern and has no “cheat neutral JK” trigger when you try to jump over them. Instead they will just aggressively keep walking towards you until they get in range to punish you. The best option to deal with them is ideally get them into the corner and trap them with an infinite JP, but doing this is difficult and requires a perfect setup which we will cover later.

The best alternative to defeating them quickly is to do a “snap punch”:

1. As soon as they jump into the screen, SK them. Make sure this connects, if it doesn’t: see below for a backup strategy.

2. Wait until they get into point blank range and do rising back+JP. If done correctly your Jump back punch will “snap off” and hit them just as you leave the ground, it will then cancel the jump and drop you back down, knocking them back a few steps.

3. They will then proceed to walk forward again. Wait for them to get close and repeat the strategy until they are dealt with. Note: At this point under certain circumstances or bad RNG they may perform a projectile instead of walking forward again, if this happens you must resort to the following backup strategy: There are a couple of things you need to be aware of using this strategy. When the 2nd opponent enters after defeating the first, you MUST shadow kick them immediately. If you fail to shadow kick them in time, then they will shift into a slightly different AI pattern. This pattern will fire projectiles at you each time you try to do the “snap punch” meaning you cannot just simply do it over and over. Additionally, Raiden specifically will always do his Electric Fly move on you between each Snap Punch, regardless of if you hit him with the Shadow Kick. There is also a very small chance of the AI on other opponents slipping into this pattern regardless of if you hit them with the Shadow Kick, it is an outlier situation but if it does happen you must immediately switch to the following backup strategy which will cover both Raiden and the general “projectile heavy AI”:

4. In-between each time you do a “Snap Punch”, crouch and wait for the opponent to approach again.

5. When they approach to a closer distance, stand up again and snap punch again Ducking in-between each snap punch will force the AI to approach you again and negate its current “projectile mode” AI state. Unfortunately, once the Endurance 2nd opponent AI enters this “projectile mode” there is no known way to change its AI back to the “approach mode” and you must persist with the crouching strategy until they are defeated.

#Goro (Easy) The big man himself. You will need to be very vigilant in this fight because 1 mistake can end the run very quickly. Luckily though, there is a very simple strategy that will allow you to deal with him as the broken JP hitbox Johnny Cage is blessed with extends to the Goro fight as well.

The easiest way to beat Goro using Johnny Cage is to just jump back to the corner of the map and crouch, waiting for Goro to approach. When Goro reaches just outside your sweep distance, jump over him. He should most of the time resort to a projectile to try and stop you, however if you got the distance right his projectile will whiff completely and you will land on the other side of him with his back completely exposed. From this point its just a matter of repeatedly doing a forward JP until he is dead. It is a corner infinite and he cannot break out of it as long as you time each JP correctly. The timing is not hard to learn, just make sure you press up+forward and punch just as you land after each JP.

If you fail a JP in the corner and he grabs you he will often slam you into the corner. This situation is usually enough to end a run at the higher levels of play, but at lower levels you can still sometimes salvage the run if you immediately uppercut when you get up and then do a fire ball with back-forward LP, assuming you did some amount of damage with your infinite JP’s until you messed up it can be enough to finish him off. If he still isn’t dead at that point, then you may be in trouble and the run will most likely be dead. If you’re desperate, you can sometimes try to jump over him but very often in this situation he will just uppercut you or punch you across the screen.

An alternative way to deal with him is also just to JP him whenever he is walking towards you. Each time you hit him, he will stumble back. You can try to close the distance and JP again and keep doing this until you reach the corner, then go for the JP infinite. You can also follow up any of these mid-screen JP’s with an SK for extra damage and extra “push” to try and position him in the corner. This largely makes up the optimal strategy which we will discuss later.

A major problem you may run into with this strategy is if you were not precise in how you performed the JP, Goro may block. If he blocks, he will keep blocking forever and getting him to stop is very tricky. It is possible to break him out by just being stubborn and continually JP’ing him until he decides to stop blocking, it will usually cost you way too much time though. You can also try to jump away and re-orient yourself before trying again with JP’s, which will also cost time but also potentially trigger a counter attack you cannot avoid. Unfortunately the best way to get out of his blocking state is also the most difficult/tricky to do. Assuming a JP was blocked you must delay a very small amount of frames, 1-2 frames before doing another JP. It just needs to be enough frames so that Goro will attempt a counter attack, and assuming you timed it absolutely perfectly your JP should be already on its way to counter his counter.

#Shang Tsung (Easy) The advanced strategies to beat Shang Tsung are very effective and very consistent, however they are also very complex. We will cover these strategies in a later part of this guide. For now we will keep it simple. The easiest way to deal with Shang Tsung is to just begin the fight crouching and hope that he morphs into a normal fighter. This will happen very often, however we are at the mercy of RNG with this strategy as there are multiple behaviours which can save or cost us time, multiple opponents he can morph into and the chance that he can just morph into Goro and make life a living hell. The basic opening patterns Shang Tsung can perform are:

1. He immediately morphs into another fighter.
2. He stands still for 1-2 seconds and then morphs into a fighter.
3. He does fireballs and then morphs into a fighter.

Obviously route 1 is the one we hope for, but route 2 is also a manageable situation. Route 3, assuming you are ducking the fireballs will miss you, however the amount of time it takes him to finish throwing his fireballs is extremely costly.

Once he performs one of the above patterns he will almost always morph into Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Liu Kang, Raiden, or Johnny Cage. There is also very small but frustratingly real chance that he will morph into Goro as the first morph. For unknown reasons, Shang Tsung never morphs into Sonya as the first morph. Assuming you were not horribly unlucky, dealing with the normal fighter he morphs into is as simple as every normal fighter you have faced so far. He retains the same AI properties of the regular normal fighter he chooses to morph into. However be sure to defeat him immediately, because if you fail to do it soon enough he will unmorph back into Shang Tsung and then almost always morph into Goro on his second morph.

If he morphs into Goro, then you are already losing time regardless as he takes less damage than a normal fighter, just like normal Goro, and also retains all of the same frustrating AI behaviours and properties as the normal Goro.   #Advanced Strategies By using all of the above strategies you will likely be able to put together a run that will give you a time in the 8:00-9:00 range. If you’re good enough you can probably push it as low as 7:30 ish. But if we’re going to break the 7 minute threshold we’re going to need some more tools and some better weapons to really push us over the edge.

#Learning to Walk Now that you know how to crawl, its time to learn how to walk … literally. Using the previous Jump punch Intercept strategy, after you successfully land the SK on the opponent as they fall, immediately hold forward and walk up to the opponent. Remember the correct distance for JP versus JK and jump at that distance accordingly. IGNORE whether or not the opponent has gotten up yet or not. If you are at the correct distance, they will cheat and jump out of being knocked down to try and counter you. It will take some practice to master this, judging the correct distance is much easier if you’re crouching and much harder when you are walking but the concept is the same.

If done correctly you will close the distance with each cycle which will save a lot of time and push that 87-89 Flawless up to a 91-92 Flawless depending on whether or not a JP or JK was used.

#Jump Kick vs Jump Punch The JP can actually still be performed on Kano, Sub-Zero and Scorpion and is actually slightly faster but it requires frame/pixel perfect timing. This does sort of make the JK strategy somewhat obsolete as a core strategy, however it is still used in certain niche situations as it does have other beneficial properties and it still sees use even at the WR level. It also just doubles as a good intermediate strategy for dealing with Sub-Zero/Kano/Scorpion while you are learning and makes for a good backup strategy when you aren’t confident enough to hit the JP on them every time.

The JK may be marginally slower than the JP but it does also push the opponent slightly further which can be an important tool if you need to position your opponent into a certain spot (especially on the endurance matches). It may also be a fall back strategy on Shang Tsung if you are close to a PB and don’t have the nerves to use JP on Sub Zero/ Kano / Scorpion consistently and you just want to close it up and finish the run. You will also need a single JK with the 2 cycle combo on Raiden, Liu Kang and Kano which we will cover next.

#The 2 Cycle Combo This strategy will allow you to defeat certain opponents using only 2 combo strings. It only works on Raiden, Liu Kang and Kano, however it is easiest done on Raiden and I recommend creating a save state on his fight to learn this technique. The Combo is as follows:

• JP, JP, SK
• Close the distance
• JK, JP, SK It doesn’t actually matter if you start with the JK cycle or the JP cycle as long as you have one of each it will be enough to beat the opponent 100% and get a fairly easy 92 Flawless.

#Opening Patterns and Routing the Hit So far up to this point we have been beginning each fight in the crouched position and been ending up with Flawless Victories unless something “accidentally” went wrong. However as mentioned earlier, Flawless Victories are bad and ideally we want to figure out a way take a single hit to negate it while losing as minimal time as possible. Additionally, there are a few more optimal ways to tackle certain opponents other than just crouching and waiting for them. There are many different strategies but it varies based on the opponent you are facing and can be completely dependant on the RNG of the opponents opening AI pattern. Some of these strategies are hard and some are easy. I will list all of the known strategies and how to perform them below tagged with the difficulty level that I would rank them as. I suggest learning the easy ones now and coming back later for the more difficult ones when you are more adept at the game.

#Sonya Sonya will 99% of the time open with a projectile attack and we can exploit this. It is also possible for her to just walk forward but its extremely rare. You are safe just planning around her opening with the projectile.

• Open jump over the projectile and late JK as you reach her. You can then do a SK just after connecting and go into 2 cycles of the JK/SK combo for a 92 Flawless – Easy
• Start the round blocking, block the projectile, walk forward and do 3 cycles of the JP/SK combo for a 90 Hit – Easy
• Open Jump over and late JK, SK. Do 1 cycle of JK/SK. Then Jump over and don an arcing JK in the air. This should trigger the AI to block. Then immediately hold crouch and block. She should follow up with a projectile, after you block it, immediately perform an uppercut. This gets a 91-hit – Intermediate. Getting the timing right for pressing Kick in the air before you hit the AI is tricky and must be done towards the end of the jump arc.

#Scorpion Scorpion will open with a projectile 99% of the time. Once again, you are more or less safe playing around the projectile happening. There is still a small chance he will walk forward, same as Sonya.

• Open Jump over the projectile and late JK, then walk back to the correct distance and jump over again when he gets up. He should projectile again allow you to late JK/SK again. Repeat until defeated for a 90 Flawless - Easy
• Open Jump over the projectile and late JK, SK. Then do 2 cycles of rising JK/SK for a 91 Flawless – Easy
• Open Jump over the projectile and late JK, SK. Then do 2 cycles of rising JP/SK for a 92 Flawless – Hard
• Open Jump over the projectile and late JK, SK. 1x JP, SK. Jump over and arcing JK with the right timing. It should get blocked, you can then hold block and wait for projectile. After blocking the projectile, uppercut for a 91 Hit – Hard. Getting the timing right for pressing Kick in the air before you hit the AI is tricky and must be done towards the end of the jump arc.

  #Sub-Zero Same as Scorpion and Sonya, Sub-Zero will open with a projectile 99% of the time. Blocking it will not help you in any way though as the freeze does no damage and does not count as a hit if it is blocked.

• Open Jump over the projectile and late JK, SK, then walk back to the correct distance and jump over again when he gets up. He should projectile again allow you to late JK, SK again. Repeat until defeated for a 90 Flawless - Easy
• Open Jump over the projectile and late JK, SK. 2x Rising JK, SK for a 91 Flawless – Easy
• Open Jump over the projectile and late JK, SK. 2x Rising JP, SK for a 92 Flawless – Hard
• Open Jump over the projectile and late JK, SK. Uppercut the air on the frame that Sub-zero hits the floor, if done correctly he will cheat out of knockdown with a slide attack. Hold block and wait for the slide to hit, then wait for the frame in which he reaches a standing position before going for an immediate JP, SK. Do another JP or JK, SK and it will finish him off for a 91 Hit - Hard

#Kano Kano has 3 main opening patterns. He can throw a knife, do a cannon ball attack, or walk forward. Unlike the previous 3 the walk forward pattern is just a little more common, however the cannon ball and knife are more likely. Always begin the round blocking and then: If Kano Cannon Balls:

• Block the Cannon Ball, JP,SK, then 2x JK, SK. This gets you a late 91 Hit - Easy
• Block the Cannon Ball, go for 2 Cycle Combo starting with Jump Punch off the blocked cannon ball. This gets you a 91 Hit that is faster, just short of a 92 hit – Intermediate
• Block the Cannon Ball, JP, JP, SK. Then Jump over as he lands and do a frame perfect late JK, if done correctly he will attempt to sweep and get hit. Then immediately JP, SK as he flies back. This will get you a 92 Hit – Hard If Kano Throws a Knife:
• Block the Knife and crouch, wait for him to approach then 3x Jump Kick, Shadow Kick for a 90 Hit – Easy
• Block the Knife and crouch, wait for him to approach then go for 2-cycle combo. 91 Hit – Intermediate If Kano Walks forward:
• Walk Forward and initiate 3x Jump Punch, Shadow Kick. 91 Flawless – Easy
• Walk Forward and initiate 2 Cycle Combo using Jump Kick twice. 92 Flawless – Intermediate
• Walk Forward and crouch block when he gets close. He should do a crouch kick, after blocking it go for 2 cycle combo for a 91 hit. – Hard Additional Exploit: At any point in time you can uppercut the air while far away from Kano and he will either throw a knife or cannon ball attack. If you hold block after uppercutting, you can use this in some niche spots to trigger a cannon ball and combo him off at will, but it is RNG whether or not he will throw a knife or cannon ball. It is generally not used, but worth knowing about regardless.

#Raiden Raiden has 3 opening patterns. He can do a projectile, do an electric fly move or walk forward. Raiden is similar to Kano in the way that his Walk Forward pattern is also fairly common. Raiden is also one of the easiest opponents to defeat as his hurt boxes are very generous both in the air and on the ground. Always begin the round blocking then: If he does a projectile:

• Block the projectile then immediately crouch and wait for him to approach. When he gets close enough do 3x Jump Punch, Shadow kick for a 90 hit. – Easy
• Block the projectile then immediately crouch and wait for him to approach. When he gets close enough do the standard 2 cycle combo for a 91 hit. – Easy If he walks forward:
• Crouch and wait for him to approach. When he gets close enough do 3x Jump Punch, Shadow kick for a 91 flawless. – Easy
• Crouch and wait for him to approach. When he gets close enough do the standard 2 cycle combo for a 92 flawless. – Easy
• Crouch and hold block, waiting for him to reach you. When he gets close enough he will do a crouching kick. After blocking the kick, stand up and wait 1 frame for him to begin standing up. The exact wait time is very specific, but if done correctly you can move immediately into a 2 cycle combo for a 91 hit. - Hard If he does an Electric Fly attack:
• Block the attack then immediately crouch and wait for him to approach. When he gets close enough do 3x Jump Punch, Shadow kick for a 90 hit. – Easy
• Block the attack then immediately crouch and wait for him to approach. When he gets close enough do the standard 2 cycle combo for a 91 hit. – Easy
• Block the attack then immediately jump forward after him and perform an arcing JP, pressing punch at the very peak of the jump. If done with the correct timing it will connect 100% of the time. You can then go straight into a single JP > SK, then follow it up with the second half of the 2 cycle combo (JK JP SK). This gets a 91 hit. - Hard

  #Liu Kang Liu Kang has 3 opening patterns. He can do a fireball, a fly kick or walk forward. Similar to Kano/Raiden, the walk forward pattern is fairly common here too. Always begin the round blocking then: If he does a projectile:

• Block the projectile then immediately crouch and wait for him to approach. When he gets close enough do 3x Jump Punch, Shadow kick for a 90 hit. – Easy
• Block the projectile then immediately crouch and wait for him to approach. When he gets close enough do the standard 2 cycle combo for a 91 hit. – Easy If he walks forward:
• Crouch and wait for him to approach. When he gets close enough do 3x Jump Punch, Shadow kick for a 91 flawless. – Easy
• Crouch and wait for him to approach. When he gets close enough do the standard 2 cycle combo for a 92 flawless. – Easy
• Crouch and hold block, waiting for him to reach you. When he gets close enough he will do a crouching kick. After blocking the kick, stand up and wait 1 frame for him to begin standing up. The exact wait time is very specific, but if done correctly you can move immediately into a 2 cycle combo for a 91 hit. - Hard If he does Fly Kick:
• Block the attack then wait for Liu Kang to land on the ground in front of you. The amount of time to wait is very short and very specific (only a couple of frames). Once he touches the ground, immediately do 3x Jump Punch, Shadow kick for a 91 hit. – Intermediate
• Block the attack then wait for Liu Kang to land on the ground in front of you. The amount of time to wait is very short and very specific (only a couple of frames). Once he touches the ground, do the standard 2 cycle combo for a faster 91 hit. – Intermediate
• Block the attack then wait for Liu Kang to land on the ground in front of you. The amount of time to wait is very short and very specific (only a couple of frames). Once he touches the ground, do the High Punch Trick on him. (see later section on how to do this). Assuming it is done perfectly and you are lucky enough that it doesn’t arbitrarily fail, it can get anywhere from a 92-93 hit. - Hard