Mortal Kombat 1/Quan Chi/Introduction

Introduction

Netherrealm Sorcerer

"Quan Chi was born into hard labor in an Outworld mine. He had no future, just the guarantee of certain death in its dark tunnels. To curry favor with the mine’s owner, Quan Chi informed on fellow workers who were planning a strike. It was broken and many strikers killed. The survivors were not going to forgive and forget. They plotted to kill Quan Chi. Quan Chi’s life was saved by a mysterious benefactor. In exchange for his service, she offered to free him from the mines and train him in dark magic. Quan Chi eagerly accepted. Now a master of the Netherrealm's most vile sorcery, Quan Chi plots with Shang Tsung to conquer the realms. He will not be denied."

Quan Chi is a zoner/setplay archetype that generally boasts the lowest health in the game (900 HP) as a trade-off for having various oppressive projectile/trap options in addition to mixup potential; his 12f High s.4 is punishable but tracks directly behind the opponent at any point onscreen and can be used to convert into kombos and projectile setups from fullscreen. Although most of his strings have gaps that can be exploited by armor reversals, he has several safe, disjointed and/or long-reaching attacks that can still hit opponents for trying to kounter his various mixups without armor; some of his tools include a jab with a safe 24f Overhead launcher (s13) which can be looped twice, another jab string full of disjointed Low/Overhead options (213/2144) that can lead to kombos, and a safe forward-advancing 16f Low B3 starter. Unsafe specials like his 25f Overhead EX BF4 armor reversal and 20f Low EX DB4 2-bar launcher can also be covered by Kameo assists to remain safe or convert into kombos. Quan Chi’s gameplan is designed around setting up various “Zone” portals that buff his powers and/or control the screen; two different portals can be placed onscreen and be moved forward or backward. “Zone Of Power” (DB3) alters the properties of his projectiles, while “Zone Of Fear” (EX DB3) repels the opponent away; “Zone Of Waste” (DF3) summons a portal near the opponent which drains their meter and siphons it into armor to cover his defensive weaknesses. Quan Chi is also designed around locking down opponents with his directable “Field Of Bones” (BDF2) which restricts their forward/backward movement even on block and can lead to resets, further setups, and/or kombos on hit.

Strengths

Weaknesses

I Am Everywhere: Quan Chi's standing 4 tracks the opponent no matter where they are on screen; when used in conjunction with his projectiles and teleport, Quan Chi can punish at ranges most other characters can only dream of; Skull O'Maniac: Quan Chi has a plethora of fireballs to frustrate his opponents, with straight skulls which can destroy incoming projectiles when enhanced, aimable overhead skulls that reward reading the opponent's movement and an air fireball which fires at an oppressive angle, especially for those who can master the instant air timing. This only gets stronger when he summons his Zone of Power to enhance his fireball game further; Mid Screen Monsters: Many of his buttons have excellent range and are disjointed since they're summoned creatures rather than part of Quan's own body; F21 launches a skeleton to keep opponents away on the ground, standing 3 is a tentacle lash which covers a lot of airspace, and B342 is a strong whiff punisher that full combo launches when confirmed into. Many of these buttons also have the benefit of pushing his opponents back on hit, which keeps them at his preferred range; Trap Setups: Bone Cage can lock down his opponent even if they block, scaring them into attempting to jump out and giving Quan time to run his improved portal game; Portal Kombat: The reworked portals can now be active simultaneously and come with notable improvements, namely with Zone of Fear being given a longer active duration, making his keepout game better than before. Special mentions goes to his new portal: Zone of Waste: A summonable portal that drains meter is already pretty strong but it providing armor if enough is drained (up to three hits' worth when Enhanced) lets Quan Chi create borderline unfair okizeme and mix-up scenarios in his favor; it can even give him the equivalent of MK11's Breakaway if he gets the armor while being combo'd; Meter Advantage: Quan's reliance on special moves means he builds meter especially quickly, with Zone of Waste's drain only widening the gap in the course of a match;

No Panic Button: His basic pokes are uniquely slow, as his D1 is 9F startup and -10 on block; he can get steamrolled if his opponent gets in on him and he can't punish their pokes like everyone else can. This weakness in defense is exacerbated by the next point; Squishy Wizard: He starts at 900 HP, tied with Nitara for the lowest in the game, so he dies faster than any other character in the game for his mistakes. This also affects his choice of Kameos as he may prefer one which gives him extra HP to address this weakness; Dicey Reversal: Much like in MKX, his Enhanced teleport drop has a lot of problems when used on wakeup, as its slow startup and awkward tracking can make it punishable in more situations than other characters will encounter with theirs; Meter Issues: Enhanced Beyond the Fog, which would otherwise be his main combo extender, costs 2 bars, which limits how often he can actually rack up large combo damage. Otherwise, he needs to somehow set up Zone of Power to convert off his enhanced fireball for 1 bar and even then he's not gaining much damage from it; Gaps Absolutely Everywhere: Quan Chi is the most gap-plagued character in the game, with most of his normals having no gapless cancel options whatsoever.