Johnny, Sonya, Kenshi and the rest of battalion arrive at the Dead Woods where it is guarded by the spectres of Jax and Smoke. Suddenly, Quan Chi arrives and brings Kabal, Sindel and Stryker under his control to fight them. Meanwhile, Raiden and Fujin are in the Sky Temple protecting the entrance to the Jinsei from the Netherrealm demons. Johnny is able to defeat both undead warriors, and rejoins Kenshi and Sonya. With the pilots killed and the helicopter damaged, Sonya is able to crash land the craft. Scorpion manages to teleport away leading Johnny to hit the ground, stunned but otherwise unhurt. During the ensuring fight Johnny manages to push Scorpion off the helicopter. While on one of the helicopters, the trio are attacked by Scorpion and a spectre of the undead Kuai Liang. Two years after the events of Mortal Kombat, Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade and Kenshi coordinate a battalion to protect the Jinsei from the forces of Shinnok who was found manipulating the events of Mortal Kombat. Players can extend their combos even more by juggling their opponent while they are in the air.

Every character has combos that they can do by pressing a certain button sequence (a list of combos and other types of attacks can be found under the 'Movelist' while paused in-game). Like all past games in the main series, Mortal Kombat X uses 4 buttons for attacks Back Punch, Front Punch, Back Kick, and Front Kick. X-Rays are super moves that do multiple hits and big damage if they land ( for more information, read: X-Ray). Using all three bars of super meter allows the use of the 'X-Ray' attack mentioned above. Breakers allow interruption of an opponent's combo, pushing them away. By using two bars of super meter, the character can preform a 'Breaker'. Enhancing special moves may increase the damage of the attack, do additional hits, add special properties and so on.

One block of the super meter can be used to 'Enhance' special moves. Just like in MK 2011, the player can gain up to three blocks of super meter, by either taking damage, or by doing special moves. The 'Super Meter' from Mortal Kombat (2011) also makes a return in MKX. One block of stamina is used if the characters use an interactable and they will gain all of their stamina back by not doing any actions that use stamina for a few seconds. Interactables from NetherRealm Studio's previous game, Injustice: Gods Among Us, are also in MKX.

Running from some of the past Mortal Kombat games also makes a return, and drains the stamina meter.

The stamina meter has two bars which are used when the player does certain things (however, not all actions use a whole bar of the stamina meter). The stamina meter is located below the characters' health bars. The game also introduces the 'Stamina Meter'. This was of course in reference to Factions Mode, a new online mode in which the player is allowed to choose between the five available factions, consisting of the Special Forces soldiers, the Lin Kuei warriors, the White Lotus monks, the Black Dragon mercenaries and the Brotherhood of Shadow acolytes. The press release promised 'all new gameplay' featuring 'a new fully-connected experience that launches players into a persistent online game where every fight matters in a global battle for supremacy. The game also features the return of the X-Ray moves introduced in the previous title. Character variations are perhaps the biggest new gameplay addition in the game. For example: in Scorpion's 'Ninjutsu' variation, he gets swords to use in kombat, but if his 'Inferno' variation is selected instead, he gets the ability to summon a demon from multiple directions to attack the opponent or grab them. For the first time in the series, players are able to choose from multiple variations of each character (3 by default), which changes how that character plays. Mortal Kombat X features some new and some returning gameplay elements.

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