Mortal Kombat 1/FAQ

What Is Considered Safe On Block?

-7 is considered the magic number when looking at Block Advantage. Attacks with this amount of block advantage and above are considered safe while attacks at -8 and lower are punishable if the opponent is close enough. The majority of characters do not have a move with a startup fast enough to punish anything at -7 on block, with a few notable exceptions:

• Liu Kang’s jab (S1) starts up in 6 frames which can easily cancel into his 12/121 string, allowing him to connect an easy full-kombo punish against moves that are -7 (NOTE: remember to consider the additional frame needed to leave the blocking state)
• Kung Lao has a command normal (B1) that also starts up in 6 frames, and normally only has a Low string ender that ends in a knockdown but can be cancelled by itself into specials/assists to convert a -7 punish into a kombo
• The Enhanced versions of Li Mei's Shi Zi Lion and T-1000’s Sacral Spike (EX DB3) start up in 7 frames, meaning that they can punish -7 moves when used as a Reversal to occur immediately out of blockstun

A move is considered truly safe against these characters at -6. The startup frames of an attack must be less than or equal to the amount of minus frames a blocked move has in order to punish (meaning -7 must be punished with a move 7 frames or faster). With this in mind, spacing "unsafe" moves properly can still keep players from being punished in given situations, as well as using Kameo assists to cover unsafe moves.

Why Can’t I Punish This Unsafe Move?

Players must also account for the pushback of an attack they block when determining if their punish attempt will connect successfully; some attacks may theoretically be fast enough to punish an “unsafe” attack but will not reach the opponent due to the blocked attack pushing them out of the desired range. This may require players to utilize Reversals with longer reach and/or forward-advancing movement to connect against the opponent before they recover in time to block.

For example, a player may block an attack from the opponent that is -15 but pushes them back nearly fullscreen distance; if the player’s character does not have a normal attack with a 15f startup and nearly-fullscreen range, they will not be able to punish the opponent. However, their character may have a 13-14f special move that quickly advances towards the opponent fullscreen, which can be inputted as a Reversal immediately out of blockstun to connect with frame-perfect timing against the punishable opponent.

Why Are Fast Mids Important?

Many attacks (such as long-ranged normals, Uppercuts, projectiles, and especially Basic Throws) are considered Highs that can be evaded by crouching without holding Block (known as neutral ducking). Skilled players may commonly utilize microducking, a technique that involves quickly tapping Down to neutral-duck a High (such as at the start of a string) and standing up in time to quickly perform another action (i.e. punishing the whiffed High before a follow-up hit can connect).

A fast Mid can condition opponents to block at closer ranges with the risk of being hit for attempting to microduck and/or low-profile incoming attacks. Having a 9-11f Mid can create a 50/50 mixup between a crouchable Throw (which is universally 10f) and the Mid that must be blocked; this is referred to as strike/throw mix. Mids with a 12-15f startup can also be considered on the faster side of the game’s attacks, especially Mids that advance forward.

How Can I Practice Jailing Highs?

Set the AI’s Movement Mode to “Crouch,” which will cause it to return to a crouching state after all resets/knockdowns and automatically allow it to neutral-duck Highs that begin a string (as well as Highs in the middle/end of strings if the AI’s Block Mode is set to “Auto” or “Stance”); if timed/spaced correctly, following up a successfully landed attack(s) with a jailed High that has a startup equal to or less than the prior move’s hit advantage will prevent the AI from being able to neutral duck under the High to evade it, forcing it to either block or take the hit. The same principle can be applied to labbing moves that are avoided by jumping; players can set the Movement Mode to “Jump,” “Jump Forward,” or “Jump Backward” in order to practice strategies that deal with these evasive tactics.

Because the game’s meta favors moves such as Mid checks, autoshimmy strings, and Low/Overhead buttons to condition opponents from disrespecting by crouching without blocking and/or mashing against Highs with pokes or low-profiling moves, players will want to lab these options with their given character by hitting the AI with the desired button/string to keep it standing and then have it block the follow-up High. This is best achieved by setting the Block Mode to “Auto” (which will cause the AI to automatically block after being hit by the first hit/kombo/knockdown); players can use this to practice properly timing a High attack after a successful hit to jail the AI, preventing it from ducking and forcing it to block.

How Do I Find My “Meaty” Button(s)?

A meaty describes a move that connects with the opponent on its later active frames to improve its advantage on hit or block. The magic number of active frames for a certain standing normal to be considered a good meaty button in most cases is 3-5 frames (or higher depending on the move). Players can observe the frame advantage increase by 1 frame for each additional active frame (as all attacks will have 1 active frame when connecting at the earliest). For example, Ermac’s F2 Overhead is safe on block at -6 and +10 on hit when connecting on frame 1, but has a total of 5 active frames that can connect with the opponent; timing and/or spacing this attack to hit on frame 2 will increase its block/hit advantage to -5 and +11 respectively, and will further increase accordingly for each additional active frame counted (with the possibility of connecting on the 5th active frame leaving the attack -2 on block and +15 on hit).

How Can I Practice Consistent Meaty Timing?

As it can often be unpredictable to control spacing in the heat of kombat in order to reliably land attacks on later active frames, the optimal method for applying a practical meaty is on oki after landing a knockdown in attempt to connect with the opponent on the first frame of their wakeup (disabling them from performing any action except Block or a Getup Reversal with armor/invulnerability); players can practice timing an attack with multiple active frames against an AI that is getting up after being knocked down by setting the Block Mode to “Auto,” landing a knockdown and timing the meaty attack to connect on any active frame after 1.

The optimal method for labbing consistent meaty timing on oki is to look for a knockdown that has a hit advantage greater than the startup frames of the desired meaty button; the hit advantage on a move that ends in a knockdown can be referred to as knockdown advantage (or KD advantage). Although this can technically be done with knockdowns even 1 frame greater than the startup of the desired meaty, the magic number is at least 4-5f more plus on knockdown than the meaty’s startup. The knockdown should also ideally leave the AI within a close enough range to connect the desired meaty or have enough advantage to allow the character to dash up in time to connect the meaty.

For example, Ermac’s B2 has +36 KD advantage, knocking them down within the ideal range to perfectly time and space a meaty F2 due to its 23f startup. Timing the normal to connect on later active frames (4-5) has the dual benefit of making Ermac’s F2 safer against a Getup Block while also guaranteeing that it connected with the opponent as early as possible on their wakeup to disable them from acting.

Practicing consistent meaty timing will better guarantee the opponent cannot mash, duck, or jump on wakeup and must generally respect the executing player’s pressure; however in addition to armored/invulnerable reversals, Delay Getup can also be used by opponents to throw off the executing player’s meaty timing (encouraging players to lab variable timings).