Mortal Kombat 1 Season 2, aptly titled ‘Blood Moon’, was a memorable one for many MK1 fans. With Nitara being the focal point, its vampiric aesthetic was a delight, and there was plenty of excellent new content to enjoy as well.
Despite its amazing visuals, incredible roster of MK1 characters, and fun story mode, it’s safe to say there were a few grumbles about Mortal Kombat 1 when it first launched – especially around the Invasion mode. Well, Season 2 took that feedback on board and made some important tweaks to the mode alongside adding new content to the game overall.
When was MK1 Season 2?
Mortal Kombat 1 Season 2 ran between November 14, 2023, and December 11, 2023, lasting 27 days.
The start of Season 2 also coincided with the launch of new fighter Omni-Man – the first DLC character from the first Mortal Kombat 1 Kombat Pack.
MK1 Season 2 theme
The Mortal Kombat 1 Season 2 theme was all about Nitara. As the most high-profile member of the Mortal Kombat 1 voice actors and cast list, superstar actress Megan Fox lends her likeness and talents to the notorious Vaeternus – there’s even a reference to vampy cult classic Jennifer’s Body in an interaction with Kung Lao.
In MK1 Blood Moon, Nitara and her Vaeternian brood discovered that Vaeternians in other timelines had failed to conquer them, inciting them to take action. Reaching across the timelines to exert their influence, Nitara made the perhaps-unwise decision of reaching into Liu Kang’s.
With the clue from the end of Season 1 (after beating Hellfire Scorpion) which featured splattered blood spelling out “Season 2: Koming Soon”, it makes perfect sense in hindsight that blood itself was the main thematic of the season. Saying that, blood is more common than water in Mortal Kombat 1, so we don’t blame you if you didn’t see it coming.
MK1 Season 2 updates
Mortal Kombat 1 Season 2 not only added new cosmetics and a new Mesa called ‘Rampart’, but also drastically improved the Invasion game mode with a number of welcomed quality-of-life tweaks to it. In our Mortal Kombat 1 review, we felt that Invasions were “mostly a slog” at launch, so this upgrade was urgently needed.
The key changes made to Invasion in MK1 Season 2 were:
- There is now a Progressive Tower in the Gateway that gets harder each time you beat it, though you will be rewarded with exclusive skins
- Talismans are now only Legendary quality and drop from Chests
- More Talismans added to the pool
- Ambush chances have been decreased
- Critical hits now deal three times the damage
- Non-boss enemies can no longer gain Super Armor
Arguably the most important update in MK1 Season 2 was the reduction of Super Armor. Season 2 made it so this powerful buff can only be applied to Invasion boss enemies. As a result, gameplay became much more engaging overall, as players could use their full suite of combos rather than simply blocking or uppercutting at the right time.
Another great change was that Talismans were only rewarded from chests rather than fights. After hopping in post-update, we enjoyed spending less time faffing around in our inventory after only a few fights.
Overall, this update provided impactful improvements to the Invasion mode that made it much more fun to play.
MK1 Season 2 skins
Season 2 brought with it new character cosmetics to unlock in Invasions and the Shrine, as well as new seasonal content that can be purchased with MK1 Koins, which you receive for completing daily and weekly quests, and playing Invasions.
You can check out all of the MK1 Season 2 skins below thanks to content creator ‘MrBob’:
After Season of the Spectre emphasized a fiery color palette with a lot of red and yellow costumes, it was great to see Season 2’s cosmetic items change things up a little with red, white, and black. These skins were gruesome, befitting of Nitara and the general blood theming.
There you have it, a primer on everything that went down in Mortal Kombat 1 Season 2. Be sure to check out our best fighting games list for more brilliant brawlers you can jump into right now. Meanwhile, if you’re having a tough time getting your combos in, it could be time to upgrade to one of the best PS5 controllers or best Xbox controllers. A good fighter always blames their tools after all – or whatever the saying is.