Prepare for the most dangerous tournament out there by picking the best character in our Mortal Kombat 1 characters tier list. With our hands-on experience with the latest fighting game, we’re prepared to perform some great fatalities, and if you want to have the best chance at winning, you’ll need to pick the best fighter which are highlighted in this Mortal Kombat 1 tier list.
No matter which of the Mortal Kombat 1 characters you decide to play as, or the Mortal Kombat 1 Kameo Fighters you choose to bring along, you’ll have a great time in one of the latest entries in the best fighting games series. But if you want to up your chances of winning matches, here’s the best of the best fighters to pick.
Mortal Kombat 1 characters tier list
Here’s the current Mortal Kombat 1 tier list for September 2023:
- S-Tier – Johnny Cage, Kenshi, Baraka, Reptile
- A-Tier – Tanya, Li Mei, Kung Lao, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Geras, Smoke, Liu Kang, Reiko, Mileena
- B-Tier – Havik, General Shao, Sindel, Nitara, Shang Tsung, Rain, Kitana
- C-Tier – Ashrah, Raiden
This tier list is based on our hands-on experience with the game for our Mortal Kombat 1 review. There’s bound to be some stiff competition once the latest entry gets into full swing after a few weeks, with tons of new characters to play with and get the hang of. Nevertheless, these are the best characters right now.
S-Tier
S-Tier characters are the strongest in the game, both for beginners and veterans. Whether they have plenty of advantages to playing and learning, while very few shortcomings, making them a perfect choice for your next match.
Johnny Cage
Johnny Cage is more terrifying than he ever has been. His mixups and special moves are insane in Mortal Kombat 1 and Rising Star, Shadow Dash, Ball Buster, and Shadow Kick are all incredibly powerful, especially when combined with his powerful overheads and knock-ups.
His combos aren’t too complex off the bat, but there are a lot of chain attacks you can string together with combos and special moves, especially when you use his Hype ability. This allows you to special cancel into other special moves making Johnny even more terrifying in a fight.
There is a lot to learn with Johnny, but he also has some great damage potential for mid-tier players or newcomers, so that is why he makes it into the S-tier.
Kenshi
Puppet characters are more common in anime fighters like Guilty Gear. While operating two characters at once sounds like a nightmare to control – and it is – those who can master them will be well rewarded, as they’re frequently high-tier.
Kenshi’s Mortal Kombat 1 appearance sees the blind swordsman equipped with a special stance that summons a ghostly samurai to fight alongside him. This ghost can, uniquely, attack while Kenshi himself is blocking, making it incredibly risky to take advantage of any gaps in his pressure. You can also wind up sandwiched between Kenshi and this ghost – if you wind up in this situation, the Kenshi player might as well have already won the round.
Baraka
Mortal Kombat 1’s Baraka is a menace in every sense of the word. He’s got the insane pressure and damage expected of him – Kameos just let him do it safely. Things like Goro’s punchwalk or Cyrax’s chopper Kameos turn Baraka into an absurd chip damage-dealing machine. Once Baraka gets the hit, he has no problem staying in the opponent’s face and doesn’t care if they block because of the absurd amount of chip damage he deals to them.
Baraka is great in this game, don’t sleep on this character – aggression and whiff punishing feel important in Mortal Kombat 1, and Baraka can not only hold his own in the midrange but outright ignore it while being at an advantage by spinning in from the air while covered by his assist.
Reptile
Just about every version of Reptile has superb neutral, with slow-moving projectiles, solid normals, and an excellent block-dash; Mortal Kombat 1’s version of the slimy green ninja feels especially potent. The key to Reptile’s strength here isn’t just in his obnoxiously long-reaching and safe sweep and tail attacks – it’s his utility.
As a point character, many Mortal Kombat 1 characters need something to generate good damage from their openings. Reptile is one that bucks this trend – force ball gives him incredibly consistent juggle routes to lead into his excellent combo enders. Add on the fact that he’s got a solid whiff-punishing game, and you’ve got a deadly character who is a definite contender for an early top-tier.
A-Tier
The A-Tier is for characters who are almost as excellent as the S-Tier, but they have a few weaknesses or difficult learning paths to make them as strong as the top characters in our list.
Tanya
Mortal Kombat 1’s Tanya is a bully in the midrange – with an especially oppressive advancing mid and a kit of defensive normal that makes her a pain to walk in on. She’s great at punishing people’s approaches and controlling space – but she’s a little less potent on the offensive side, at least without her teleport buff.
Alone, Tanya’s goal is to bully people in the midrange and sneak in charge of their teleport. Once that’s stocked, you can initiate and extend pressure and combos with it – it’s like her old MKX teleport. She feels strong, but in a game with Kameos, that offensive teleport doesn’t feel as cheap when compared to what some other characters can get for free. She does have a very strong neutral on her own, and you can beat a lot of players with her main advancing mid alone.
Li Mei
Li Mei finds herself in the A-tier after our time with the beta. She is one of the easiest characters to use in the game right now due to her rushdown capabilities. She has a lot of powerful simple combos, that can be extended and some great anti-air and special moves that can extend combos and set you up for incredibly long chains.
In particular, her Sky Lantern and Chain Reaction moves are great, alongside any uppercuts as they can all be combined together for immense attack chains. She is also pretty flashy with her purple explosions. Initially, many presumed Li Mei wouldn’t have much going for her, but after some playtime, she is a really effective fighter that can go up against some of the slower characters.
For a beginner, Li Mei’s combos are also easy to grasp which makes her a great choice for someone jumping into Mortal Kombat for the first time with this entry.
Kung Lao
Kung Lao is in possession of one of the single fastest moves in the game in the form of his back-left punch. At six frames, this normal will punish moves other characters can’t and turn those punishes into a full combo, not unlike his rival Liu Kang. Kung Lao has a toolkit of excellent close-range normals, projectiles, and his incredible dive kick.
He’s very tricky on the approach and synergizes well with Kameos. He just doesn’t feel especially strong without them. That might not be a deal breaker in the long-term of the game, but right now, Kung Lao’s close-range mix-up feels non-threatening without the proper assist.
Scorpion
Mortal Kombat 1’s version of Scorpion takes the previous iteration of the character and gives them a range boost. Giving up the blade in favor of his iconic rope-spear, Scorpion has the ability to trip their opponent from almost an entire screen away.
Where previous iterations of the character struggled with punishing the character for ducking under their highs, this version solves that issue by granting Scorpion a mid version of his spear-toss special move, a tracking low and plenty of range to play around that weakness. While not super strong point blank, this Scorpion is still a very tough version of the character.
Sub Zero
In Mortal Kombat 1, Sub Zero feels built around solid footsies and a simple high-low mix-up. Like Liu Kang, he’s not a far departure from his Mortal Kombat 11 version – it’s just that the game has changed around him. You would think that the presence of assists would allow him to turn his risky high-low mix-up into something, especially deadly, but instead, he just gains additional safety.
He certainly has excellent conversions with his new deadly vapors move and classic ice ball, but instead of strengthening the character, it feels like assists give him things he should already have. Alone, however, Sub-Zero is a whiff-punishing, defensive monster that wants the opponent to overextend. If he finds himself on the offense, he can easily crack open defenses with his strong overhead.
Geras
The Mortal Kombat 11 newcomer Geras reappears here in Mortal Kombat 1 as the familiar bruiser he was introduced to. He takes his spot on the roster as a wielder of the game’s two command throws, the other belonging to Reiko.
Geras in Mortal Kombat 1 has a lot more than his previous iteration – his midrange and screen control aren’t as strong as they were when he was introduced in 11, but to make up for that, Netherrealm Studios has gone all in on his time-mechanic. Geras can create insane, hard-to-escape setups by summoning and controlling a second version of himself and skew risk-reward in his favor by making manipulating the flow of time.
But unlike the launch version of his previous edition, this Geras really cares about forcing the opponent to the corner because outside of it, his command throw doesn’t do that much damage, nor does it lead to loopable offense. We could see Geras moving up or down in the tiers because of how unique his toolkit is.
Smoke
Smoke is Mortal Kombat 1’s biggest ninja, the character who is the most dedicated to mixing up people. His strings are loaded with tricky highs and lows that are meant to be used in conjunction with his teleports to keep an opponent guessing wrong until their lifebar hits zero. He’s the character you pick if you don’t mind sacrificing your midrange or damage for the simplicity of confusing your opponent.
Smoke is somewhat weak if he’s not point-blank, his smoke-dash helps him close distance and create pressure, but it’s not a replacement for a healthy kit of mid-ranged normals. Now, since Mortal Kombat 1 is feeling like an offensive game out of the gate, his strengths do pull him up higher than his weaknesses can pull him down.
Liu Kang
Kung Lao is in possession of one of the single fastest moves in the game in the form of his back-left punch. At six frames, this normal will punish moves other characters can’t and turn those punishes into a full combo, not unlike his rival Liu Kang. Kung Lao has a toolkit of excellent close-range normals, projectiles, and his incredible dive kick.
He’s very tricky on the approach and synergizes well with Kameos. He just doesn’t feel especially strong without them. That might not be a deal breaker in the long-term of the game, but right now, Kung Lao’s close-range mix-up feels non-threatening without the proper assist.
Reiko
One of Mortal Kombat 1’s grapplers, Reiko is a close-range bully of a character with an already deadly command throw that only gets even more absurd when paired with the right Kameo. This character is stacked top-to-bottom with plus-on-block moves to enforce a simple pressure game and two strong avenues to capitalize on a blocking opponent.
Reiko also has some deceptively long range. Several of his normals have these big, disjointed hitboxes that – while they don’t lead to combos directly, allow Reiko to close the gap if they hit. With such a robust set of normals and a simple game plan, Reiko feels very strong – but not every match-up is played at that range. Whether Reiko rises or falls depends on the match-ups he runs into and what Kameos give him, but high damage and great mids are just a great thing to have.
Mileena
Mortal Kombat 1’s Mileena is an obnoxious, in-your-face rushdown monster. Untethered from Mortal Kombat 11’s more measured appearance, this Millena is a crazy combo monster that is impossible to keep out. With launching teleports, a metered projectile that instantly closes the gap if it hits, and a small set of strong, focused strings, fighting Mileena is a test of your reactions.
Previous versions of Mileena tended to be somewhat unsafe in the way they approached. Randomly doing a roll was, and is, death on block. With the right assists, you can completely change that in Mortal Kombat 1, unsafe moves can become safe or even advantageous -n-block with the usage of the right Kameo. With Mileena’s already impressive kit, Kameos make her feel like a monster in launch Mortal Kombat 1.
B-Tier characters
B-tier characters are fine, they’re not particularly impressive, but they can still certainly win. Typically, they have a poorer match-up spread or are outshined by a stronger character.
Havik
Returning from the 3D era of Mortal Kombat, Havik is a weird self-mutilating fighter with an interesting kit. Their main mid is 18 frames, but it has a small 50/50 mix-up between a safe low and a duckable command throw – neither end leads to much damage.
He has a strange projectile that’s very good at controlling due to its odd, wavelike trajectory – and even launches when used in a combo, but he’s not a zoner. As a result, he’s this character of extremes, where he wants to either be directly in your face or across the screen. When he does find an opening on a duck-read or whiff punish, he can end his combo and set up for a guaranteed unblockable on the next hit, but it’s heavily scaled.
That’s the thing about Havik, he does very little damage and isn’t particularly threatening when he’s in your face. He has no problem getting in, in a lot of match-ups but if every other character can kill you in two touches – Havik will do it in four.
General Shao
Shao’s ranking here is based on the limited playtime we have had with him so far. We will update this section with more detailed thoughts when we have spent more time as him in the game.
Sindel
The Edenian Queen Sindel is one of the game’s premier zoners. Like others of her archetype, she excels in keep-away with her extending hair and projectiles – what Sindel brings to the table is her excellent air fireball and Kameo manipulation. For the former, you can perform a tiger-knee motion to do Sindel’s fireball just as you leave the ground – this makes it capable of hitting grounded opponents while maintaining the retreating properties of the aerial version of the attack, not dissimilar to Mortal Kombat 9’s Kabal and his instant-air gas blasts.
Sindel doesn’t feel nearly as strong as Mortal Kombat 9’s Kabal, which is good – she also exists in a game where any character can have a teleport due to the Kameo system. If zoning winds up being a dominant strategy in Mortal Kombat 9’s meta, Sindel will likely be up there, but as of right now, she feels somewhat middling.
Nitara
Not seen in Mortal Kombat since Armageddon, the vampire Nitara arrives in Mortal Kombat 1 as a hypermobile rushdown character. While not super exemplary on the ground, Nitara’s wings grant her an eight-way airdash incorporated into every corner of her gameplay.
While it’s early in the game’s lifespan, this airdashing, bloodsucking vampire feels strong but flawed within the game’s engine. The risk of being airborne can be mitigated with Kameos; however, her actual lows are lacking. It will remain to be seen if that is a big enough weakness to keep Nitara from success in Mortal Kombat 1, but right now, she seems fine.
Shang Tsung
Shang Tsung’s ranking here is based on the limited playtime we have had with him so far. We will update this section with more detailed thoughts when we have spent more time as him in the game.
Rain
Mortal Kombat 1’s version of Rain might as well be a new character, he doesn’t look like any previous iteration of the character. He still has superkick, but basically every other move has been replaced with something new – he’s a zoner now.
Rain’s kit is large and expressive in ways that make it difficult to gauge his strength initially. He’s very strong from mid-range and longer, but also a half-decent high-low game up close that can be made lethal with the right Kameo. It’s just that he doesn’t present many threats from that full-screen range – once you understand how to approach a zoner, you can very easily defend his projectiles, meaning he’ll have to take a risk to open you up before you fully push him towards the corner.
Kitana
Classically a zoner, and that doesn’t change here. Mortal Kombat 1’s version of the character uses her fans to target portions of the game’s larger screen space to punish people for trying to approach her. It’s classic Kitana; she’s still great at poking and annoying the opponent. Right now, however, there isn’t a part of her kit that seems obnoxious to deal with.
Kitana feels like a familiar version of the character, which isn’t bad, this just doesn’t feel like a keynote iteration of the princess. She’s stable, so right now she feels like she sits right in the middle of the pack. Kameos might pull out something we’re not seeing, but as of right now she feels like dry bread.
C-Tier characters
C-Tier characters are those that don’t quite have a place in the meta and their toolset, moves, and kit struggle against other players. They can win matches but they aren’t quite as easy to use as others.
Ashrah
Ashrah’s ranking here is based on the limited playtime we have had with her so far. We will update this section with more detailed thoughts when we have spent more time as her in the game.
Raiden
Raiden’s ranking here is based on the limited playtime we have had with him so far. We will update this section with more detailed thoughts when we have spent more time as him in the game.
D-Tier characters
The D-Tier characters should not be chosen in competitive play. Right now they aren’t too strong compared to the competition and will need some work to rise up the rankings.
There are no characters in D-tier.
That’s the best fighters in our Mortal Kombat 1 character tier list. Make sure to put in your Mortal Kombat 1 pre-orders to get access to the game, and find out how to play Mortal Kombat 1 early too. You still have a few days to jump in ahead of everyone.
