Watch other people that are good at the game and always stay in practice so you can execute your combos better. Practice makes perfect.

I mean you're doing pretty good for someone who started today lmao but yeah you'll find good guides on youtube for each characters + combo ideas for all levels. and then practice !

The nice thing is, you've already chosen my two favorite characters.😄❤️..good luck with the Game 👍🙂

Block low, react to overheads. Overheads start slower in this game than any other hit placement and very few characters can start combos with overheads, excluding jump-ins of course.

Do not play bots. Bots do not play like people

Go in training, find your fastest string, usually a mid, anything under 10 or 11 frames is decent, the lower the better, that is your punishing string.

Get comfortable moving around without jumping

Get comfortable with one character, you will learn fundamentals with any one character that will apply to the entire cast. (Flawless blocking, rolling, delayed wakeup, wakeup armor/launcher, breakaway, ducking highs...)

Get familiar with your krushing blows and their requirements

Go on YouTube and learn all of your optimal combos and practice them on both sides in lab

And remember you're playing an old game that has a weird mix of necros and newbies, so just keep fighting people, some will be amazing and some will be terrible, randomly uppercutting and jump kicking at you constantly, if you know you know.

A lot about learning this game is going to suck and be a grind, but it is up to you if you want to take that journey. My msgs are open if you have questions, I do play liu so I can help there but he is not my main, I main fujin.

Happy hunting

Just play as much as u can to learn how to block. U need to know all the combos from all characters. At the same time u could learn the combos on YouTube.

Watch videos,Go in the lab. I mean we’re different but I got better by playing online casuals and losing, helped me get better with combos, mixups, and defense

Learn some bread and butter combos for the roster and then choose who you want to play further. Play the krypt and character towers to get some nice outfits.

He's a great choice! He's in a lot of games, so chances are if you play another MK game, he'll be in it. Lore wise, he's such an interesting character that NRS doesn't do enough with. His move set is as good as you can make it!

Bottom of the barrel, stop playing as him immediately

https://youtube.com/live/v_C6VPan7Is?si=ANtWSY38x70VBFNE

Let me just quickly slide some crazy gameplay footage of how High Level Kung Lao can look like at 2:00:54

OK so first, play the story to know the characters and the universe. Then just pick whatever character and/or Kameo looks cool to you (you said you're interested in Mileena or Baraka, so pick one of them and then try to figure which Kameo works the best with them and for you as well). Then to really understand the game's mechanics, go to the tutorial mode, after that go to training, get a couple of easy combos with your team of a main roster character and Kameo, as well as general gameplan, and then do a couple of matches in CPU vs. mode and then easy Arcade ladder, and then go online for casuals. After you play casuals for a while, once you feel ready enough, go for Kombat League.

Hope that it helps.

Whatever you do, do NOT pick JC as your main. He’s a douche. Not really a tip but an opinion. Also, in invasions mode you probably want to use a character you feel comfortable playing. Esp. In the harder towers. The “seasonal tower” I’ve discovered is fairly easy to beat but generally you have to beat it multiple times. Like this season to get a specific raiden skin you’d have to beat the tower 11X.

Disable release check and set input window to medium in settings. Then play the story, complete tutorial, play klassic towers, learn the character. Go play kasual, try to befriend some people on your skill level or better. Practice together. Once you feel comfortable you can try ranked. Be warned ranks reset after the end of each season, so ranked is a pain to play for beginners at the start of season, because there will be chance you'll be matched against former elder god players. So wait a week or two so the people will move up to there respected ranks.

Welcome! As you have already played other fighting games and have watched MK Kontent that’s good so you already have fighting game experience and familiar with fighting game general terms so I won’t get into a verbose breakdown. Those other fighting games mechanically are different tho so best to clear your mind and absorb MK1’s mechanics specifically as its own entity.

It doesn’t matter what the skill level is of a character to a certain degree, everybody is different and you should play whomever you like because it will feel less of a chore and you will feel more enjoyment when learning. However, if you’re learning/taking interest in particularly high execution characters that have cancels, puppet mechanics, morph mechanics in their gameplay like Ermac, Kenshi, Shang, Smoke, Sindel then you should be aware of that and if you are struggling learning them consider changing to another character you like.

But you’re leaning towards Mileena and Baraka and they are considered generally good characters for beginners. Baraka is all about pressure and being up close so you can press buttons for days, Mileena is up close too but also has good mobility and mid range/neutral tools like her sais although they’re watered down in terms of range in this game (they reach only mid range and only can reach far range if you amplify them), her teleports, ball roll and air ball attack that acts like a Sonic homing attack if you amplify it. You can’t go wrong with the Tarkatan couple.

I suggest watching Rooflemonger’s videos on MK1 as he has time stamps for each character in a video for beginners if you haven’t already.

https://youtu.be/vGIazIb_zjw?si=08OiDJ6XSyO2pY4e

Play the main tutorials breaking down the game mechanics. Then play the character tutorials of Mileena and Baraka (great taste btw and totally not because they’re my other mains). Then play story. You’ll get good experience and be familiar with the buttons and the game’s flow and pacing.

Once you’ve done all that, pick a kameo you like and learn a few combos, you don’t need to get massive ones contrary to popular opinion. 30% at least but if you play your throws, neutral, zoning and chip damage right you can get away with 27-28% and win games still. The kameo system itself is also quite deep, I recommend either sub zero kameo, Sareena kameo, Scorpion kameo, Sonya or Kano. They’re pretty good for beginners and not as complex as the others and provide either easy extra damage like Sareena, defensive armour against zoning and easy freeze combo ser ups like Sub Zero, mix ups like Sonya’s overhead and extra zoning tools with her onion ring blasts, pressure like Kano ball and his knives or a mix of damage with fire or defensive mobility with a rope that pulls you back away from your enemy like Scorpion.

Play some towers and matches against the cpu with your team and maybe invasions and then hop into Kasuals. Don’t get into Kombat League yet especially at this time when the season has started and the egotistical sweaty players are grinding, one of them will record a match with a learning newbie like yourself and brag about it to the world with a YouTube or Twitch video as if they accomplished greatness and others are frustrated and want to grind and get the gear as quick as possible. If you run into toxic people in Kasuals don’t mind them, turn off voice chat (which I do cuz I’m listening to music and don’t need to hear people raging or doing whatever on the mic) and blacklist/block toxic players whose ego are bigger than their brains. Move on and enjoy games with others.

Plenty of other people buying and learning the game so don’t be afraid. I’ve watched MK kontant for years and just started earlier this year playing, not “good” but I beat some toxic people and having fun. Play at your own pace. Have fun!

P.S. Forgot to mention, throws in MK games are weird. It’s a 50/50 game. Enemy can throw forwards or backwards, you have to press a button for forward and a separate button for backwards to tech. Silly but that’s just the way it is for MK currently. Learn duck OS (holding down or releasing block quickly) when waking up from knockdown or when an opponent finishes a string. Learning to use your pokes that can reach far and quick checking your opponent if they try to move in to throw you which to keep them and yourself at mid range (playing keep away/slight zoning) and constantly moving and not staying still holding block longer than needed are also good ways to defend yourself from throws.

Wow you could not have gotten 2 more different games.

Practice by playing some Invasions mode, towers, story mode. Once you feel comfortable with a character of your choice, play offline vs hard opponents, and then go and play some online (protip, mute mics)

Play story on a good difficulty

LEARN TO BLOCK! Really good for online

Drop the game

well i would say you want to check out your move list and see if any strings start out with lows or overheads, those are useful.

next you wanna see what strings start out with mids, having a go to mid is important as highs can be ducked.

the whole D1 interaction is something to pay attention to:

Learn the VERY IMPORTANT Technique of Jailing in Mortal Kombat 1!

while the game is basically balanced around 40% or even higher combos off a lot of touches, i sometimes can still beat people with just mixup's and stuff, since i can't do big combos. so that's something to keep in mind too.

It depends on what you're getting good for. If you just want to enjoy the game on single player, you need to practice against higher level AI, understand its behavior, and work on your best combos with the characters you wanna play as.

If you want to get good competitively, you need to go get your ass kicked repeatedly by people who are better than you and pay close attention to what they are doing right and what you are doing wrong. This is what will reinforce good habits and help you get rid of bad ones.

Remember that human opponents and AI opponents are two different beasts. Don't assume that just because you're good at beating one that it means you'll be good at beating the other.

once you understand the basic fundamentals, play against hard cpu, it will train your brain to get better at hit confirming into combos safely. Watch a basic bread and butter combo on yt for your desired main. Dont give up! This game is fun and everyone quits cuz they suck at cameos.

1. Learn to block.
2. Try VERY BASIC COMBOS (build that muscle memory)
3. Don't do online matches, play the CPU on hard.
4. Watch pro's play and pay attention to their movement.
5. Have fun, play for a bit, take a break. The road to be decent at this game is long and hard.

play the tutorial, pick any character and practice, go to towers play online. Just have fun amigo

I think sparring with people and having them give input helps, as well as tutorial mode and learning the technical aspects of the game! I love getting input and giving it, as well.

I’m working on learning all of the characters and have mastered about 5 of the 25 * on the roster. It really helps to know as much as you can so you can be more efficient.

Do the tutorial and do not skip it is rge best wy to learn things

Good tip is what the other guy said, play the tutorial. Then learn a pretty easy character first before a more complex one, some include:

Scorpion Liu Kang Cassie Kano Sub-Zero

The game will have a tutorial section you can play first. Watching video guides and learning combos will also help.

For starting out, watch the tutorial so you can get a feel for the mechanics of the game. It'll teach you what everything does and what buttons to press.

After that, maybe instead of jumping straight into story, try out practice mode or single fight. If you're doing single fight, put it on an easy difficulty (Easy or Very Easy).

On the character's move sheet in the pause menu, they will have a list of basic attacks, combos, and special moves. I'd recommend learning one or two 3 button kombos to start with.

Once you feel comfortable doing combos, try out a special move or two. Its usually a string of directional movements and then a button (like for example: Scorpion's Spear on MKX is left, right, X).

Its easier to do once you use a character for a little while, as then everything just comes naturally and then you won't need to look at the novelist for anything (except maybe the fatalities or brutalities).

I hope this helps out!

Git gud

How do you learn specific character though, I've always wanted to main kitana but that character is too difficult to learn.

Go through the tutorial but definitely come back to it after learning the ropes from playing online. You’ll forget stuff and the tutorial will be a great refresher on systems.

If you want to get good playing against others, focus your time there and not offline. Ai plays very different than real players; strategies and moves that work on ai won’t fly online.

Use practice mode regularly, but don’t feel like you have to stay in it. I use it to learn character moves and ways to connect their stuff to create a game plan and then take it online. Eventually you can start to use it to deal with problem areas you run into.

Finally, have fun and try not to look at your w/l.

Find an easy basic beginner friendly combo. Go into practice mode and make sure you can do it three times in a row. Then do it from a jump in attack. Once you’re confident you can do that go into endless tower and have fun, the cpu starts off very easy in endless and progressively gets harder so it’s great for beginners and/or learning any new character.

Think through your button presses and don’t mash. And welcome to the game!

Be sure to spend a good amount of time in practice mode. It's boring, but it's important to get a fundamental understanding of a character before trying to fight someone else who is already way better than you. If you jump straight into Kombat League, yea you might be able to pull off a few wins, but you'll reach a point where you'll start fighting more and more people who know the characters well and will make it a very difficult experience for you.

Practice your combos until you can do them without really thinking about it. You'll want to master your bread and butter combos so you'll be ready to optimize your damage when you punish an opponent's mistakes.

Try everyone out to see who you like, but then pick one or two characters you really enjoy and stick with them for a while. If you keep switching characters, it'll be much harder to master them, at least until you become very familiar and comfortable with everyone.

It can be overwhelming and frustrating when just starting out. Try not to get discouraged. We've all been there. Just know, that you are going to lose, a lot, but try to learn from each match and use that knowledge to improve on your next match. Fighting games are a constant learning process. The meta is always evolving with each patch or update, tier lists are always changing and people are always finding new ways to play a character. Every character is viable, sure some have better moves than others, but there are plenty of examples of characters who are considered bad to do very well in the right hands.

Most importantly, try to have fun! MK11 can be frustrating at times, but I absolutely love it and hope you do too.

Finish the tutorial and the story,then the tutorial again once you have the hang of things.