Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3/Scorpion

From SuperCombo Wiki

Introduction

Resurfacing from the Netherrealm after the events of the second tournament, Scorpion's allegiances during the Outworld invasion are up in the air. The only thing that is certain is that he is still seeking out the Lin Kuei warrior known as Sub-Zero.

While his return to the series was welcome following his strange absence from vanilla MK3, Scorpion has the misfortune of being redundant within the game's cast. This is due to Human Smoke having access to everything Scorpion does and with more tools on top of that. Without Human Smoke's higher combo damage and move speed, Scorpion is resigned to the mid tier.

Biography

When Shao Kahn makes a failed attempt at stealing the souls which occupy Earth's hell, Scorpion is able to escape from the nether region. Free to roam the Earth once more, Scorpion holds allegiance with no one. He's a wild card in Earth's struggle against the Outworld.

Scorpion
Strengths Weaknesses
  • Good Rushdown: Scorpions's pressure consists of kara jabs, mid auto combo staggers, crossup jump kicks with Air Throw buffers and Teleports.
  • Great Runaway: Scorpion can use Teleport to reset spacing if the opponent gets too close.
  • Male Ninja Normals: Male Ninjas have a great LP, HP, HK, RH and Uppercut.
  • LK, HK, Sweep Punish: Scorpion can punish LK, HK and unsafe Sweeps on block with Spear. Scorpion's Spear will not punish Female Ninja's and Liu Kang's Sweep due to low hurtboxes.
  • Good Punishment Mode Combo Damage: Scorpion punishes blocked Teleports for around 50%.
  • Teleport: Teleport allows Scorpion to escape corners and run jab pressure.
  • Air Throw Air throws are generally great. Buffer air throw before every jump kick Teleport in case the opponent tried to jump.
  • Good Anti Airs: Scorpion can anti normal jump attacks with HP, HK, Uppercut and RH. If RH is done at the edge of the screen, Teleport can be juggled after for a full combo. Scorpion can anti air crossups with air throw or reset neutral with Teleport.
  • Male Ninja Hurtbox: The Male Ninja hurtbox is the status quo for UMK3 combos. Expect most combos to work against you.
  • Poor Throw: The Male Ninja throw is negative on hit. At worst, it is universally punishable by uppercut in the corner.
  • Weak Ground Combo Damage: Scorpion's ground combo damage is around 30%.

Notable Players

  • Stew (UK)
Scorpion
Umk3 Scorpion pose.png
Character Data

Differences from MK3

  • Scorpion did not appear in MK3

Move List

Basic Moves

Male Ninja Basics moves:

The Male Ninjas have excellent basic moves, good height and range on everything in relation to their sprite proportions, their roundhouse is extra wicked and can connect in almost any situation. The only thing that can be weird about them is their aaHPs. Sometimes they tend to miss in situations where you wouldn't expect them to and this is due to kara canceling with run to speed the last hit up, in this situation, often you can do aaHP, LP and it'll work, with slightly less damage, otherwise, always take an extra small step in before doing aaHPs.

Kombo Strings

  • HP, HP, HK, B + HK (24%)
  • HK, HK, LK, LK (23%)
  • HP, HP, U + LP (18%)

Special Moves

Harpoon

  • B, B, LP
  • 5%
  • The Harpoon (or Spear, I tend to throw both words around randomly) is an essential move as it is a very quick containment and relatively safe to do from full screen depending on the who the opponent it. It's good on wake ups as it seems to have a hit box in front of him before it even comes out. You can try throwing out a harpoon afterward a combo for mix ups on jumpy players. It can be linked in juggle combos with a normal limit of 4 hits before it, and can be broken to 5. It can counter many simple standing attacks for free. You might want to also get the feel down for players who jump back and snag them on a landing. A situation where you might be able to consistently connect a spear would be when running jabbing, then doing a teleport punch without leaving the screen. At this point a lot of players try to jump in, hit a spear right as they are coming down, into a convenient combo of choice. You can also just throw out a spear as wake up at this point on characters who don't have teleports.

Teleport Punch

  • D, B, HP
  • 9%
  • The Teleport Punch is a great move if used for escaping and overall positioning and manueverability. If you use it too much players will see your patterns and counter by getting in the way of it and blocking. If you are experienced enough with the placement and timing you should be able to teleport almost anytime it is available (it has a small time limit between usages) and not get punished. Essentially think of the screen's width as 1 unit, and then if there is more than half of the entire screen behind you and the opponent combined, you are safe. Use if when you are getting up to escape run jabs, HKs or knee starting combos. It is best to try and get the placement down to land right next to them even if they are blocking, this sets up free throw potential and/or rush down. Watch out for counter sweeps, LKs, HKs or uppercuts if you rush in immediately. Utilize the teleport punch as a combo extender but try not to actually hit them with it as it activates damage protection. Its limit is 4 hits before it is locked, has a small window of time limit recharge. Do not use the teleport punch as a safe guard chip hit when someone is on danger because it only does about 2% chip damage and danger can mean the person has 4% life left. It is common to see people lose matches they should have won because of this. You can also glitch cancel the teleport punch if you want to get fancy.

Air Throw

  • BL in air near opponent
  • 15.5%
  • His Air Throw is very useful on jumpy opponents, remember to tap block in air a few times any time you leave the ground just incase they do as well. Use it on cross attempts, it's not quite as useful in sweep situations as Jax or Kano's, but still possible to do. It's good to link at the end of juggle combos.

Finisher Moves

Fatality 1

  • D, D, U, HK (One Jump Away)
  • Scorpion removes his mask exposing a skull head. His opponent screams and then Scorpion sets his opponent on fire.

Fatality 2

  • F, F, D, U, RUN (Next to)
  • Scorpion raises his hand and then he teleports himself and his opponent to Hell. Then about 10 Scorpion characters come up and look at Scorps Opponent then then run at him/her and the screen goes dark and then you hear lots of punches rips and screams and thats it.

Friendship

  • B, F, F, B, LK
  • Scorpion takes out a box, turns the knob many times. Then the top opens revealing a big skull head. The head scares the opponent and then they run off.

Animality

  • F, U, U, HK (Mercy First) (Next to)
  • Scorpion turns into a penguin, waddles under his victim, and lays an egg. He then waddles away, and then the egg starts to shake and then explodes blowing the opponent to pieces.

Babality

  • D, B, B, F, HP (No Block in Winning Round) (Past Sweep)

Mercy

  • Hold RUN, Wait 1 Second, D, D, Release RUN (Round 3) (Past Sweep)

Stage Fatal

  • F, F, U, U, LP

Strategy

As Scorpion

Scorpion is a mid tier character, ranked around # lucky 13 of 23 in the roster. His combo potential on the ground is very low, but juggles are somewhat prosperous. Overall, this guide is going to be very similar to Human Smoke's, except with the differences being combo potential. His air throw makes him slightly dangerous during cross ups, but there's not much he can do after that except rush down with the kick combo. What you should do is run jabs, then the kick combo for 3 hits, leaving off the last hit, and mixing up after that. Male Ninjas can play a nice defensive game and he is one the best to make use of that with because of the available damage he can deal in those situations, similar to Reptile, Human Smoke and Ermac, but to a lesser degree since he has no pop up. He has moder to big damage opportunities on defense, but it is possible to rush down with them as well. There is a common misconception that Human Smoke is just a clone of Scorpion, who is gray and smoking, with no difference in moves. In reality, Human Smoke is much more powerful than Scorpion because he has pop up combos, and he also has a slightly faster walking speed, which makes certain juggle combos easier. His damage range is anywhere from 10 to 35% more at any given time in the same situation as Scorpion. He is still played much like Human Smoke, only with a handicap, meaning it takes more skill and patience to win. Run jabs and safe teleports are your game mixed with the 4 hit kick combo of doom. Off a jump punch start it is sensible to use the 4 hit punches to kicks combo because it does about half a percent (1 pixel) more than the 4 hit kick combo. For example, do 3 jump punch to 4 hit kick combos and it will leave your opponent on danger, if you do this with the punch to kick combo, they will be done. Mix up his run jabs with knees, for example, double run jab, run in, knee, run jab, knee, knee, and keep them guessing. Again, don't forget about his airthrow, and try and get them low on cross up attempts. When run jabbing, sometimes an opponent will jump away, watch for a juggled LP and get them with a harpoon afterward. Also pay attention to collision detection. For some reason when male ninjas duck and block, a lot of distance gets between them and the attacker, causing their combos to miss, like Jax and Kabal. When Jax's first punch in his combo, or Kabal's uppercut misses, capitalize on that with a harpoon, or run in and combo. Specifically with Scorpion, it might be a good idea to try and learn the spacing and timing to get his aaHPHP on jump attacks as a counter to set up the 51% damage combo.

VS Scorpion

Combos

Basic Juggles:
1. aaHPHP, harpoon, HP, HP, HK, B HK 7 hits 42%
2. aaHPHP, JK, air throw 3 hits 28% (43% actual)
3. aaHPHP, teleport (miss) aaHPHP, harpoon, HP, HP, HK, B HK 9 hits 55%

Advanced Juggles:
1. aaHPHP, JK, teleport punch, harpoon, HP, HP, HK, B HK 9 hits 51%
2. aaHPHP, JK, harpoon, HP, HP, HK, B HK 8 hits 57%
3. aaHPHP, teleport (miss) aaHP, JK, harpoon, HP, HP, HK, B HK 9 hits 64%

Corner punishers:
1. (very close to wall) aaHP, RH, harpoon, RH, HK 5 hits 60%
2. (half screen distance from wall) aaHP,HP, JK, aaHP, RH, HK 7 hits 72%
3. (sweep distance from wall) aaHP,HP, JK, RH, harpoon, RH, HK 7 hits 83%

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UMK3 Navigation

General
Controls and Notation
HUD
System
FAQ
Characters
Kitana
Reptile
Sonya
Jax
Nightwolf
Jade
Scorpion
Kano
Mileena
Ermac
Classic Sub-Zero
Unmasked Sub-Zero
Sektor
Sindel
Stryker
Cyrax
Kung Lao
Kabal
Sheeva
Shang Tsung
Liu Kang
Smoke
Human Smoke
Non Arcade Characters
Rain