The character roster of the Mortal Kombat franchise is vast and diverse! Since its beginning, we’ve seen some well-crafted characters whose powers, moves, and personalities have won our hearts! But in this universe that is all kinds of fatal, who is the strongest character? Why don’t you find out?
Here’s my list of the top 15 strongest characters of the Mortal Kombat Franchise
15Scorpion
Let’s begin this list with Mortal Kombat’s showstopper – the scorpion! A legendary character who tamed the fires of the Netherrealm to come back and seek his vengeance.
Scorpion is one of the most agile and robust characters with abilities that very few mortals can match. His most significant driving force and also his biggest setback is his rage.
With powers such as teleportation and spewing hellfire, this character is adept at fighting with his kunai, spears, and samurai swords. But his most crucial strength is that he is a specter who is neither alive nor dead. This makes him close to invincible!
14Kotal Kahn
Kotal Kahn was the emperor of the Outworld after Shao Kahn and was even regarded as a god by humans on the Earthrealm.
Kotal has superhuman strength that can easily overpower mortals and also derives his energy from the sun. He can bring down sunbeam on his opponents and can cause them enormous damage.
In his Blood Magik avatar, Kotal can take away the opponent’s life by taking away their blood and also strengthen himself with their blood.
His most prominent weapon, the Macuahuitl, is a large hammer-like blade that the god can wield with just one hand.
13Goro
Goro is one of the most popular characters from the Mortal Kombat roster. This four-armed gigantic Shokan prince is so powerful that he’d been the undefeated champion of the outworld for nine consecutive tournaments.
Despite the massive demeanor, Goro is pretty agile and stuns the opponent with incredible speed. However, just brute force is not his way. He can ambush his opponents by leap stomping and ground-pounding when they least expect it.
The beat is also known to play with fire. He can shoot fireballs from his arms and breathe fireballs through his mouth, giving him the ability to attack from a distance.
12Quan Chi
Perhaps one of the most deceptive characters who has manipulated his way through so many games. His ability to summon the dead and even make them his minion is his most remarkable ability.
Quan Chi is one of the finest sorcerers of all realms and has always used this to his advantage in combat or outside it. His ability to teleport between realms, summon an army of skulls to protect him are just a couple among the many tricks up his sleeve.
He has even come close to beating Shang Tsung and has, on a couple of occasions, with deceit, of course. Got to make use of the strengths, right?
11Shang Tsung
He is the greatest sorcerer that the universe has ever seen. Like Quan Chi, even his biggest weapons are manipulation, deceit, and betrayal. As bad as it sounds, it has made him quite powerful and also given him the place of tertiary antagonist in the universe.
Shang Tsung is technically mortal but can stay immortal as long as he consumes others’ souls. That’s why he has lived on for so long and perhaps will for eons to come. He can teleport through realms, throw projectiles of flaming skulls, and even create a giant flaming cobra.
One ability that makes him unique is his ability to shapeshift into other characters. Since he has devoured the souls of several combatants, he also houses their memories and abilities. This makes him quite unpredictable and hence dangerous.
10Shinnok
The fallen elder god has been the main antagonist in numerous editions of the game. As an elder god, he was mighty and technically an immortal who could never be killed. But after he interfered in the matters of the realms, he was stripped of this status and banished into the Netherrealm.
Because of this, his powers were minimized too. But his amulet is still a vital source of his power, and with it, he is almost invincible. After all, he has beaten almost all his adversaries, save a few.
With his amulet, this god of death can perform almost any feat. You name it, and he’s done it.
Telekinesis – check. Teleportation – check. Absorbing souls – check. Turning opponents to dust – check! He has done it all.
Pretty much why he was worthy of being the main antagonist until, of course, Kronika and Cetrion arrived.
9Cetrion
She is the goddess of virtue and life, which is quite ironic since neither possesses virtue nor she cares much for anyone’s life. Cetrion is Shinnok’s sister and perhaps more powerful than him. After all, she brought an end to the other Elder Gods, who were thought to be unkillable.
Being an elder god has its perks, and she makes sure of leveraging all of them. She doesn’t have to walk but can glide over the ground. She can manipulate the five elements of Earth and use them in combats.
His most considerable power, yet her least used one, is that her mere presence can give birth to living beings such as plants.
8Kronika
She is a Titaness and the mother of Shinnok and Cetrion. She is one step above the elder gods and has some mind-bending superpowers.
Considered to be the architect of the universe and the keeper of time, she is the main antagonist of Mortal Kombat 11.
She can manifest and manipulate sand to attack her opponents, summon characters from other timelines to fight her opponents, and summon dinosaurs and other creatures to cause damage to her opponents.
Her most significant superpower is capturing characters in a time-bubble for several seconds to do whatever she wants to them during those few seconds.
7Lord Raiden
The god of thunder, the protector of the Earthrealm, and honestly one of the most disciplined warriors ever. This character’s powers have led him to new heights of glory.
He can manifest and manipulate lightning and thunder. He can teleport across realms, read minds and even fly. He has defeated various antagonists, including Shinnok, and has also put an end to him.
His prowess even made the Elder Gods turn him into an Elder. But he stepped down since he had to protect the Earthrealm from Shinnok and his army. I know, can anyone be as selfless as him!
6Liu Kang
By the end of Mortal Kombat 11, Liu Kang became the fire god, thanks to Lord Raiden, who turned into a mortal. Liu Kang has defeated some of the greatest combatants of all time. The list includes his archenemy Shang Tsung and the Titaness Kronika.
His powers include manifesting and manipulating fire at his will. I mean, he is a fire god, right? He can throw fireballs from his fists and even create a flaming dragon to destroy his opponents.
He has been the Mortal Kombat tournament champion on several occasions and, by the end of Mortal Kombat 11, even begins to reshape the timeline to create a better world.
5Shujinko
Shujinko is not popular outside the Mortal Kombat fandom, but his powers are remarkable. Trained by the same master as Liu Kang and Kung Lao, he is a destructive combatant. Moreover, his pursuits led him to be gifted by the Elder Gods.
Due to this gift, he can mimic the powers of his adversaries. He has absorbed the powers of some of the strongest characters, such as Liu Kang and Scorpion. This makes him one of the most formidable opponents to face in an arena.
4Blaze
Blaze one of the most deadly characters, not just for fighters but for the universe itself. Being a literal fire element, he can do anything and everything with fire, including things that Liu Kang can never do!
He was the main villain of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon and possessed god-like powers. It was said that anybody who defeated him would get all his power and would become omnipotent. In fact, Blaze was so mighty that he solely had caused armageddon.
3Onaga
Onaga is known to be one of the strongest characters of the series and is said to be a pawn of the One-Being. His appearances in the series have been few but catastrophic.
His powers are unbeknownst to anyone, but we get a glimpse of it when Lord Raiden, Quan Chi, and Shang Tsung try to defeat him, they are unable to. In fact, it merely slows him down. The combined power of some of the finest and the strongest characters known to the universe barely scratched him. Well, I guess it’s time the creators explore more of this invincible beast!
2Shao Kahn
The emperor of Outworld is perhaps one of the strongest characters to be shown in the universe. He has defeated the undefeatable not on one but on several occasions. He was the one who killed Blaze and Onaga.
He has superhuman strength, can use magic, clone himself, and even wields the mighty wrath hammer with ease. His powers surpass every other character’s in the entire universe, and he’s come so close to invading and merging all the realms several times.
Though Raiden managed to kill him in a long-drawn battle where he barely won, Shao Kahn had killed Raiden with much ease in one of the alternate timelines. It just goes on to show how powerful he can be!
1The One-Being
The One-Being is the single-most powerful character in the entire Mortal Kombat universe. He existed at the dawn of time, and it took all the Elder Gods to defeat him and divide him into the six realms that we know!
With each edition, we see more and more characters that are higher on the ladder. We saw the Titaness in Mortal Kombat 11, and I can only hope that we see the true extent of the One-Being in subsequent games. After all, it’s more than two decades now, and several timelines have been explored. It’s time we see the mightiest one we’ve ever known!
Honorary Mentions
I couldn’t do without an honorary mentions section cause there are just too many favorite characters that I wish were on the list but are not as powerful. Here are a few.
Sub-zero, Sindel, Kintaro, Johnny Cage, Mileena and Kitana.
About Mortal Kombat (2021)
Mortal Kombat (2021) is an American martial arts action fantasy film directed by Simon McQuoid. It is based on the video game franchise of the same name and serves as a reboot.
Hunted by the fearsome warrior Sub-Zero, MMA fighter Cole Young finds sanctuary at the temple of Lord Raiden. Training with experienced fighters Liu Kang, Kung Lao, and the rogue mercenary Kano, Cole prepares to stand with Earth’s greatest champions to take on the enemies from Outworld in a high-stakes battle for the universe.
The film stars actors like Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Tadanobu Asano, Mehcad Brooks, Ludi Lin, Chin Han, Joe Taslim, and Hiroyuki Sanada in various roles. It was released on HBO Max on April 23, 2021. A sequel is currently in development.
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