The Aggie
New member
I thought it might be useful to post some basics on combos for a few characters. I'm a casual & old school MK fan so I thought this might help others like me and give our 360 friends a head start when the demo comes out. Feel free to add suggestions to this and correct me if I'm wrong (nicely) because I'm no pro.
Combo Starters:
Each character has pre-loaded 2-3 hit combos that are listed in the moves list. Learn these first before doing anything. Once learned, you will be able to chain them together with a few basics. Everything I talk about below is started or chained with a basic combo.
Sub-Zero:
Combo Starter:
Ice Pick B+FP, BP, FP
Frost Bitten BP, HP, BP
The key here is that the 2nd punch in both of these moves will temporarily stun the opponent (one with an ice pick, the other with a short lived freeze move)... you want to stop this preset combo after the 2nd move and follow it up with an Ice Ball (D,F,FK). Now, you've already got a 3 hit combo going and a stationary target.
Follow up:
From here you can easily pull off another preset 3 hit combo for a nice 6 hit combo worth 15-20% damage. Easy. Once you get this, start getting more advanced with juggles. I don't know of any good Sub-Zero specific juggle starters, but a universal one will work... with your opponent frozen, jump straight up and on the way down punch as you get closer to the ground. Now you have a 4 hit combo already and your opponent is up in the air. From here you will need to dash to get closer and go to town with whatever you can think of. 7+ hit combos with 20%+ damage are achievable here with minimal practice.
Scorpion:
Combo Starter:
Torment FP, FP, FP
Unlike Sub-Zero, there is no temporary disable move here, but you can break in after the 2nd hit again with a special... in this case, Scorpions Spear (B,B,FP). This is really easy to break into... what I do is after the first FP (this starts the Torment combo), I start hitting back, back while hitting FP, FP. It's an easy button masher move and will give you two hits in the Torment combo and immediately break out of the combo with a Spear. As with Sub-Zero, you now have a 3 hit combo going and a stationary target.
Follow Up:
From here your options are a little more varied than Sub-Zero because Scorpion has an integrated Juggle move in his arsenal (Blade Overhead, B+BP). You can use this or the jump/punch described above to start a juggle and then proceed with a dash and combos. Again, experimentation and timing is needed for the best results at this point.
Johnny Cage:
DCP already did a great job with Johnny Cage basics. Check out his video here and be sure to give him +rep.
http://www.trmk.org/forums/showthread.php/15806-My-JC-Tutorial-Combo-Ideas
Mileena:
I have not played Mileena yet cause I'm still trying to get decent with Scorpion/Sub-Zero. If anybody wants to post something below I can edit my post to include your findings with credit to the author of course!
Advanced:
From here it's really a matter of practice and timing to figure out what works to make longer and longer combo strings. The basics above are great starters and are pretty simple to practice against the AI in the demo. Once you get the basics down you can really see how many of these fancy combos you see on you tube have the same or similar methods for starting and stringing them together.
LocustToyBox posted a thread with his youtube videos:
http://www.trmk.org/forums/showthread.php/15740-Scorpion-And-Sub-56-Combos
If you practice some of the basics I talked about for Scorpion/Sub-Zero, you will easily be able to spot these same moves in the crazy youtube combo videos. In some cases the moves I listed are used as starters... in other cases they are used mid-way in an existing combo to string one 5+ hit combo into another. Practice and see how everything chains together in a simple 5-7 hit combo and then these 10+ hit combos you see will make a lot more sense to you.
Combo Starters:
Each character has pre-loaded 2-3 hit combos that are listed in the moves list. Learn these first before doing anything. Once learned, you will be able to chain them together with a few basics. Everything I talk about below is started or chained with a basic combo.
Sub-Zero:
Combo Starter:
Ice Pick B+FP, BP, FP
Frost Bitten BP, HP, BP
The key here is that the 2nd punch in both of these moves will temporarily stun the opponent (one with an ice pick, the other with a short lived freeze move)... you want to stop this preset combo after the 2nd move and follow it up with an Ice Ball (D,F,FK). Now, you've already got a 3 hit combo going and a stationary target.
Follow up:
From here you can easily pull off another preset 3 hit combo for a nice 6 hit combo worth 15-20% damage. Easy. Once you get this, start getting more advanced with juggles. I don't know of any good Sub-Zero specific juggle starters, but a universal one will work... with your opponent frozen, jump straight up and on the way down punch as you get closer to the ground. Now you have a 4 hit combo already and your opponent is up in the air. From here you will need to dash to get closer and go to town with whatever you can think of. 7+ hit combos with 20%+ damage are achievable here with minimal practice.
Scorpion:
Combo Starter:
Torment FP, FP, FP
Unlike Sub-Zero, there is no temporary disable move here, but you can break in after the 2nd hit again with a special... in this case, Scorpions Spear (B,B,FP). This is really easy to break into... what I do is after the first FP (this starts the Torment combo), I start hitting back, back while hitting FP, FP. It's an easy button masher move and will give you two hits in the Torment combo and immediately break out of the combo with a Spear. As with Sub-Zero, you now have a 3 hit combo going and a stationary target.
Follow Up:
From here your options are a little more varied than Sub-Zero because Scorpion has an integrated Juggle move in his arsenal (Blade Overhead, B+BP). You can use this or the jump/punch described above to start a juggle and then proceed with a dash and combos. Again, experimentation and timing is needed for the best results at this point.
Johnny Cage:
DCP already did a great job with Johnny Cage basics. Check out his video here and be sure to give him +rep.
http://www.trmk.org/forums/showthread.php/15806-My-JC-Tutorial-Combo-Ideas
Mileena:
I have not played Mileena yet cause I'm still trying to get decent with Scorpion/Sub-Zero. If anybody wants to post something below I can edit my post to include your findings with credit to the author of course!
Advanced:
From here it's really a matter of practice and timing to figure out what works to make longer and longer combo strings. The basics above are great starters and are pretty simple to practice against the AI in the demo. Once you get the basics down you can really see how many of these fancy combos you see on you tube have the same or similar methods for starting and stringing them together.
LocustToyBox posted a thread with his youtube videos:
http://www.trmk.org/forums/showthread.php/15740-Scorpion-And-Sub-56-Combos
If you practice some of the basics I talked about for Scorpion/Sub-Zero, you will easily be able to spot these same moves in the crazy youtube combo videos. In some cases the moves I listed are used as starters... in other cases they are used mid-way in an existing combo to string one 5+ hit combo into another. Practice and see how everything chains together in a simple 5-7 hit combo and then these 10+ hit combos you see will make a lot more sense to you.
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