Who are the Mortal Kombat 1 characters? NetherRealm Studios is once again rebooting the MK timeline, only this time, we have Liu Kang as the Fire God guiding the mortals of EarthRealm instead of the Thunder God Raiden, as history repeats itself once more. However, instead of being a traditional fighter, Mortal Kombat 1 introduces assist characters called Kameos, who you can call to help get out of sticky situations.
Now that Mortal Kombat 1 is out, you can even read our Mortal Kombat 1 review here, it’s time to look ahead and see which characters are coming in the upcoming Kombat Packs. We’ll also detail the current roster, as their backstories are fascinating, but it’s likely that we’ll see more of the fighting game‘s classic characters in either playable or Kameo forms. Here are all the upcoming Mortal Kombat 1 DLC characters that have been confirmed so far.
Mortal Kombat 1 Kombat Pack 1 character release date
The second Mortal Kombat 1 Kombat Pack 1 character release date was December 21, 2023 and is Quan Chi. He entered early access on December 14, though he didn’t come with his Kameo counterpart. Khameleon is the next Kameo character and will arrive in January 2024.
Veterans of Mortal Kombat will know the sorcerer Quan Chi. He’s the mastermind behind the corruption of the Lin Kuei, the murder of the original Scorpion’s clan, and the murder of the original Sub-Zero. In the new timeline, however, his status is drastically diminished at first, but he soon gains power from a mysterious source.
Khameleon is someone we’ve not seen properly outside of the Nintendo versions of Mortal Kombat Trilogy and Mortal Kombat Armageddon. She is a ninja who historically uses the moves of the other Outworldians: Kitana, Mileena, and Jade. In MK1’s new timeline, she is one of the guards protecting Queen Sindel.
The first Mortal Kombat 1 Kombat Pack 1 included Omni-Man from Invincible as the playable fighter and Tremor as the Kameo fighter. Omni-Man is one of the main characters in Invincible and has a particularly ruthless way of fighting with his almighty superpowers. His X-Ray attack and known fatality are both homages to scenes at the end of the first season. Tremor debuted in the god-awful spinoff Mortal Kombat: Special Forces, but returned in the PlayStation Vita version of the first Mortal Kombat reboot, and then as DLC in Mortal Kombat X.
Upcoming MK1 Kombat Pack 1 characters
Shortly after the announcement of Mortal Kombat 1, VGC reported on an Amazon listing that details the contents of the first wave of DLC characters. Some seem to be returning characters, while others take superheroes from DC, Image Comics, and Dynamite Entertainment, who all now have popular films or TV shows. The other characters were officially revealed, and they are:
- Quan Chi
- Ermac
- Takeda
- Homelander (The Boys)
- Peacemaker (The Suicide Squad/Peacemaker)
So far, the rumored Kameo characters potentially joining the roster in the same Kombat Pack have rung true as Tremor was on the list. The other Kameo fighters we can potentially get in the future are:
- Ferra
- Johnny Cage
- Khameleon
- Mavado
While Johnny Cage is just the other timeline’s version of the action-movie star, all the others are returning characters who had one or two appearances at most in previous MK games. Ferra is one part of the Ferra/Torn tag team that was a main roster character slot in Mortal Kombat X.
Mavado first appeared in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and was a member of the Red Dragon criminal organization, rivals to Kano’s Black Dragon. Finally, Khameleon is a ninja character who was a Nintendo 64 exclusive character in Mortal Kombat Trilogy. Aside from Mortal Kombat Armageddon, where every known character was playable, Khameleon actually features as part of the Mortal Kombat 1 storyline, usually standing alongside Tanya.
Mortal Kombat 1 roster list
The roster for Mortal Kombat 1 is split into two different types. There are characters you directly control and Kameo characters that act as assists. If you’re familiar with the original Marvel vs. Capcom, then this mechanic should bring back some memories. These Kameo characters act either as extensions to your combos or to break an opponent’s combo.
Mortal Kombat 1 playable characters
Here ‘s every Mortal Kombat 1 character in the game:
- Reiko
- Nitara
- General Shao
- Sindel
- Reptile
- Havik
- Ashrah
- Geras
- Li Mei
- Tanya
- Baraka
- Smoke
- Rain
- Scorpion
- Sub-Zero
- Kung Lao
- Johnny Cage
- Kenshi
- Fire God Liu Kang
- Raiden
- Kitana
- Mileena
- Shang Tsung (preorder bonus)
Regarding timeline differences, Scorpion and Sub-Zero seem to be allies rather than enemies with a loftier goal than just protecting EarthRealm. In the latest trailer, Smoke joins them with a new look, and Lin Kuei comes to blows with Rain, who, instead of being the purple ninja, is now a sorcerer with even more power over water.
So what of the characters in the new timeline? Well, Liu Kang is now the Keeper of Time, taking the mantle from Kronika in the events of Mortal Kombat 11. Geras, the guardian of the mantle, is the only other character in the current timeline who seems aware of what came before. He observes that when Liu Kang restarted the timeline, he made key alterations, but his “vision of peace might already be compromised”.
Kung Lao is now the teacher of the rather green Shaolin Monk, Raiden, whom Liu Kang chooses as Earthrealm’s champion. At the same time, the mystical samurai Kenshi is annoyed that his sword seems to be in Johnny Cage’s weapon collection in his penthouse suite, indicating that he’s actually a good actor in this timeline.
Meanwhile, Kitana and Mileena have a sisterly bond waiting to break, though, in this timeline, Kitana currently idolizes her sister. Mileena has also changed in that she is now inflicted with a disease that’s turning her into a Tarkatan rather than being born one. As Baraka mentions in another trailer, the ‘Tarkat’ virus “disfigures, then debilitates. In time, it will turn us all into bloodthirsty monsters”.
The most significant change is that Sindel, who was originally the queen of Edenia and enslaved by a resurrection spell by Shao Kahn, is now the ruler of Outworld. Rather than a desert-like wasteland in the previous timeline, it seems this version is flourishing with beautiful gardens and a celebratory mood among its people. Sindel has a good relationship with Liu Kang, seeing Mortal Kombat as a spirited competition rather than an opportunity for conquest. Shao is now Sindel’s most trusted general and champion, showing some signs of his more tyrannical self in his attitude towards Raiden.
Mortal Kombat 1 also sees the return of characters rarely appearing in mainline games. Tanya first debuted in Mortal Kombat 4, and in the original timeline, is an Edenian who betrayed her kind to serve the Outworld overlords. Here, it seems she is one of Mileena’s trusted confidants and loyal to Queen Sindel.
Li Mei is the most surprising inclusion so far, as she’s only ever been playable in the 3D Deadly Alliance trilogy of games. In the original games, she was a fighter trying to save her village’s fate from Quan Chi and Shang Tsung’s machinations but ultimately met her demise. In this new timeline, she was the leader of Umgadi warriors who swore to protect the royal family but became an outcast after Mileena’s father died on her watch.
At EVO 2023, there was the reveal of three more characters. Reptile is a classic Mortal Kombat character and a long-term adversary to the Earthrealmers. However, he is now on their side, having been exiled from Outworld due to his shapeshifting abilities to transform between human and reptilian forms. In the trailer, he is seen attacking Princess Kitana and is even referred to by his birth name, Syzoth, by Liu Kang.
The demon Ashrah is a returning character who first appeared in Mortal Kombat Deception. Banished from the Netherrealm by her sisters for purging most of the evil from her soul, she now takes on a human-like form. Liu Kang recruits her and Reptile to train with the monks for the war ahead.
We also have Havik, another character who first appeared in Mortal Kombat Deception. In the original games, he is a cleric of Chaos who doesn’t really take sides, but here, he takes on a more obviously undead appearance and wants to conquer other realms to free his own, going up against Ashrah in the process. Unlike the majority of the roster, you’re going to have to unlock Mortal Kombat 1 Havik by completing the game’s Story mode first.
Nitara seems to have an updated backstory, as the vampire seems more evilly aligned. Debuting in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Nitara’s new design is more of a warrior than her first succubus-like iteration. She now properly hates Ashrah, and it seems she leans more towards the ideals of the Netherrealm than her original origin story of being a displaced vampire whose realm was absorbed into Outworld. She’s also the only character to get a featured celebrity voice actor, Megan Fox, a relative newcomer to voice acting outside of a couple of Transformers games. Most relevantly, she was the lead antagonist in Jennifer’s Body.
The last non-DLC character is Reiko, who first appeared in Mortal Kombat 4 as a general of Shao Kahn’s army. We’ve not seen much of him outside of a cameo during Comic-Con. As far as we know, he’s still loyal to Outworld, but we know little else than that, as the prerelease footage doesn’t show much outside of mocking Raiden.
Finally, we have the preorder bonus character, Shang Tsung. Footage of the story mode shows that he meets Kronika, the antagonist of Mortal Kombat 11, who somehow survived the reestablishing of the timeline and subsequent erasure by Liu Kang. Shang Tsung is depicted as nothing more than a conman selling bogus cures to the populace of Outworld and is widely mocked by the people he tries to trick. However, Kronika seems to be forging some bond with Shang Tsung, convincing him that he was bound for greatness but that fate was never on his side.
Mortal Kombat 1 Kameo characters
We also caught a brief glimpse of the Kameo character select screen, which you enter after picking your main combatant. There are enough slots for 16 Kameo characters, though more could be added in the future. Give our Mortal Kombat 1 Kameo unlock guide a read to discover what you need to do to unlock the entire roster of characters.
The gimmick here seems to be that the Kameo fighters are from the original timeline from when Kronika was the Keeper of Time. This is why we see Sub-Zero and Scorpion in their classic ninja gear, and Cyrax and Sektor are robots. It also explains why other characters wear outfits from their first appearance in other Mortal Kombat games, such as Jax’s Mortal Kombat 2 outfit with his real arms or Sonya and Kano having their original Mortal Kombat gear. Speaking of gear, check out our Mortal Kombat 1 gear guide to learn how the costume customization system works.
Here are the confirmed Mortal Kombat 1 Kameo characters so far:
- Motaro
- Shujinko
- Sareena
- Darrius
- Classic Scorpion
- Cyrax
- Sektor
- Frost
- Classic Sub-Zero
- Jax Briggs
- Sonya Blade
- Kano
- Goro
- Kung Lao
- Stryker
Those are all of the Mortal Kombat 1 characters so far. If you’re excited about the future of the long-running series, you may wish to check out the Mortal Kombat 1 system requirements to see if you need to upgrade your PC. We also have the entire list of Mortal Kombat 1 fatalities and Mortal Kombat 1 brutalities if you wish to finish your foes in gruesome ways.