Coliseum

While everyone loves a flashy combo video, you sometimes just want pure optimization. In the spirit of the refined Ms. Kanzuki, HitBox Sora has compiled a list of Karin’s most damaging and optimal combos, collected from tournaments throughout 2016. These 10 combos are designed to be as powerful as possible, and very hard to drop in a high-pressure environment. If you are looking to main Karin, these are the combos you should go about learning ahead of all else.

This list is by no means exhaustive and you should try to learn as many combos as possible, but this selection is designed to be as reliable as can be, so prioritize memorizing these inputs first before you start getting creative. As the name suggests, all of these combos are performed on a HitBox controller, but Sora has left the notation on screen so you can replicate these sequences, no matter your input method.

Source: HB Sora

Outside of maybe Super Smash Bros., very few fighting games use the environment as a way to extend or start off certain combos. Thanks to the interactables present in the backgrounds of stages in Mortal Kombat X, certain characters can use the brief invincibility created by jump interactables to create situational combo opportunities.

Expanding on his initial video discussing how to armor launch opponents with certain interactables, MK_REO has created a video to display how characters can use these jump interactables to escape strings and start their own combo, providing they have enough stamina. Using Kung Jin as an example, REO is able to mash out the interactable while blocking a pressure string, then use the first few frames of invincibility gained from jumping off the interactable to instantly input a divekick and start his own combo. Characters with divekicks like Sonya and Kung Lao, as well as fighters with aerial specials like Alien’s EX Flip or Tremor’s instant air Earthquake, are able to utilize this tactic to get round enemy pressure and lead into a combo.

This tactic is stage specific, but plenty of stages to have jump interactables like:

• Dead Woods with the tree stump
• Refugee Camp with the truck
• Outworld Marketplace with the lion
• Destroyed City with the car
• Krossroads with the right side rock
• The Kove with its two posts
• Quan Chi Fortress with the chest
• Lin Kuei Temple with the upright coffins
• The Pit with the two lanterns

Source: MK_REO