Mortal Kombat 1: All known Brutalities and how to do them

Mortal Kombat 1 is bringing back Brutalities, and they’re incredibly fun to perform. Instead of simply inputting a separate isolated string of commands for a gruesome fatality, this finishing move feels like they connect to the overarching gameplay more smoothly. Though there aren’t many known to players right now, the odds of there being secret/hidden options are very high. It’s not an uncommon thing to see in this blood-soaked fighting game.

We’ll go over how to perform these moves in general and all the currently-known Brutalities in Mortal Kombat 1. While there isn’t a huge offering in the beta test, this will certainly change as the game launches.

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How to perform Brutalities in Mortal Kombat 1

To perform Brutalities in Mortal Kombat 1 right now, you have to hit the input for the move as your final move of the match. That means you have to plan and prepare for this move as you play the game. If your last input is the Brutality move, you will skip the “Finish Him!” state and start smashing through the other player.

For that reason, comboing into this move is incredibly satisfying to do in the game. However, it’s also worth noting that some other finishing inputs may have other requirements - such as distance, not blocking in the final round, and things of that nature. Should it be important, we’ll add it to this article.

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Mortal Kombat 1 characters have multiple unlockable Brutalities

The real question is how many each character will have.

Now that Mortal Kombat 1 has launched officially, it’s clearer how many more Brutalities are in the game. Each character has at least one more, though more could be lurking as you improve your character mastery. As you level up characters in Mortal Kombat 1, you’ll gain character mastery, which adds cosmetics as well as finishing moves.

It’s not clear at this time how many hidden Brutalities there are, however. That will take more time, as players need to grind through character mastery to unlock these. We have not seen many of these yet, but we’ll include the ones we’ve found below and update as more become known.

Known unlockables per character (PS5 input)

• Kitana: Some Off The Top: Throw (Press D, D, D During Hit)
• Kitana: Hit The Fan: Back, Forward, Square (Jump Distance, Hold B during hit)
• Mileena: Did That Hurt?: Throw (Press D, D, D During Hit)
• Mileena: Maybe Next Time: Triangle, Square+Cross (Hold D during hit)
• Tanya: Rest In Pieces: Throw (Hold U during hit)
• Tanya: Hot Head: Cross, Square+Cross (Press D, D, D During Hit)
• Rain: Just A Little Dip: Throw (Press any attack rapidly)
• Rain: Down The Drain: Back, Forward, Circle
• Smoke: An Eye For An Eye: Throw (Hold D During Hit)
• Smoke: If It Bleeds: Back, Forward, Cross (Hold Block During Hit)
• Scorpion: Burn For Me!: Back, Forward, Circle (Hold Up During Hit)
• Scorpion: Choke On It: Throw (Tap F, D, B, U during Throw)
• Sub-Zero: Absolute Zero: Back, Forward, Cross (Press D, D, D, During Hit)
• Sub-Zero: Snowball: Down, Forward, Square (Full Screen)
• Reptile: Damn Tasty: Throw (Press D, D, D During Hit)
• Reptile: Krocodile Done Right: Back, Forward Circle (Press U, U, U During Hit)
• Li Mei: Fast Enough For Ya: Back, Forward, Circle (Hold B During Hit)
• Li Mei: Head Over Heels: Forward+Circle, Circle (Hold D during Hit)
• Kenshi: Where You Going?: Throw (PRess D, D, D During Hit)
• Kenshi: Out Of Sight: Throw (Must be in Sento Stance, hold Square during the final hit)
• Baraka: Nom Nom: Throw (Press D, D, D During Hit)
• Baraka: Chop Chop: Back, Forward, Cross (PRess any Basic Attack during hit)
• General Shao: Is That Your Best?: Throw (Press U, U, U During Hit, With Axe)
• General Shao: Feel My Power: Throw (Press D, D, D During Hit, With Axe)
• Reiko: No Turning Point: Throw (Press Circle 4 times)
• Reiko: You Had Enough?: Down, Back, Cross (Press D, D, D During Hit)
• Raiden: That's A Shocker: Throw (Close, Press Square or Triangle 6 times During Hit)
• Raiden: Overload: Down, Back, Cross (Hold U During Hit)
• Raiden: Inside Out: Back, forward, Cross (Press D During Hit)
• Raiden: Headed Nowhere: Square, Triangle, Cross (Hold Up During Final Hit)
• Liu Kang: Bleeding Heart: Throw (Press F, F, F On Hit)
• Liu Kang: Dancing Around: Back, Forward, Circle (Press Cross or Circle 6 times During
• Hit)
• Johnny Cage: Here's Johnny: Throw (Tap D During Hit)
• Johnny Cage: Game Over Man: Square+Cross or Throw (Must be a Throw Escape)
• Kung Lao: Spin Cycle: Throw (Tap F, D, B, U During Hit)
• Kung Lao: Grind Away:Back, Forward, Square (Hold Square During Hit, Jump Distance)
• Havik: Good To Be Back!: Square, Square (Hold D During Hit)
• Havik: Need a Hand?: B+Triangle, Triangle, Square+Cross (Hold F During Hit)

One of the best ways to farm experience points on a character is to play them in the Invasion mode of Mortal Kombat 1. First, go into your settings and change “Rounds to Win” to 1, to make this faster. Just grind through battles, and hit as many Brutalities as you can to gain as many points as possible.

Unfortunately, the beta test only features one of the game’s future Brutalities: The Klassic. It’s easy to do, and everyone in the main cast can access it. Right now, Kameos do not have this finishing move, and it’s unlikely that they will have access to this feature in the future.

“The Klassic”

• PS5 input: Down+Triangle
• Xbox X|S: Down+Y

If you want to perform this Brutality in Mortal Kombat 1, you need the last hit of your match to be that aforementioned input. Whether you're playing as Liu Kang or Sub-Zero, it's an identical input. It’s easier to do this during a combo instead of hoping you can hit Down+Triangle as an isolated move during a match. The Klassic is a nice, simple decapitation. It's elegant in its own way.

Fans have known for the past several months that there would be Brutalities in the game, but it is unknown how many there will be. Considering that the developers confirmed it with a plural instead of a singular, there are many more to come. The real question is how many each character will have.

Once the game has launched and further information is known, we’ll come back to this and update it so you have all the info you need to brutalize your opponent with devastating attacks to finish a match.

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These finishing moves are incredibly fun because they can be comboed into, giving MK1 matches a very sudden, violent end. While the beta test ends on August 21, 2023, fans won’t have to wait for the full launch. That will take place on September 19, 2023.