One of Mortal Kombat 11’s most requested features is making its return in May 26th’s Aftermath DLC: Friendships, a non-lethal finishing move that ends the fight on an upbeat note, rather than an explosive burst of slow-motion gore. Here’s everything we know about them so far.
Every Mortal Kombat 11 ‘Friendships’ Guide
In addition to the return of stage-based Fatalities and an additional chapter in the game’s story, MK11’s Aftermath DLC features the return of Friendships. Every character will have one, which wraps up a match with an over-the-top display of positivity rather than violence. Friendships are planned to debut with Aftermath as part of the DLC package, but Netherrealm plans to make Friendships available to all owners of MK11 in a free update at some point in the future.
So far, we’ve seen five Friendships out of the 31 confirmed (konfirmed?) characters in MK11’s cast. Scorpion, Noob Saibot, Sub-Zero, and Kano’s Friendships were all shown at or around the same time as Aftermath’s debut, although Sub-Zero’s seems to have premiered exclusively on the PlayStation Twitter account, so it took a while to circulate out into the larger community. Kung Lao’s Friendship made its debut today via a post on the official Mortal Kombat Twitter.
Friendships initially debuted as a secret move in 1993’s Mortal Kombat II, where you had to not only know the command, but couldn’t have used any buttons in the final round besides High or Low Kick. Friendships returned in Mortal Kombat 3 and its two big content updates, Ultimate MK3 and Mortal Kombat Trilogy, where they would only work if you won the final round of a match without ever using the Block button.
Mortal Kombat has had a couple of shout-outs to Friendships in the years afterward, such as the name of the Facebook clone shown in Cassie’s infamous selfie fatality in Mortal Kombat X. Raiden can also perform his MK2 Friendship, summoning a childlike version of himself named “Kidd Thunder,” as a between-rounds taunt in Injustice 2; you even get an achievement for it. While their return has been teased off and on for years, MK11: Aftermath marks Friendships’ first appearance as an actual game mechanic in a Mortal Kombat game in 24 years.
At time of writing, Netherrealm hasn’t revealed what you’ll need to do to make Friendships available for use in-game. It’s possible they may be added to the Krypt, much like the base characters’ Brutalities, or that they may have extra win conditions attached like they did in MK2 and 3. We’ll continue to update this article as we learn more, both in the next two weeks and in the days after Aftermath’s debut.
Check out Prima’s Mortal Kombat 11 game hub for more articles about the franchise, including:
- There are more DLC characters coming for MK11, and some of them were leaked months ago… maybe
- All the crazy character costumes for Spawn in MK11
- Check out the red band trailer for Scorpion’s Revenge
As Mortal Kombat 11 continues to give ’80s and ’90s movie characters spots on its roster, it’s gone past cool and into vaguely strange. It’s enough to make us wonder if Netherrealm is warming up to make a Warner Brothers Movie Classics crossover fighting game, and if so, who else would be in it. Share your wishlist for this entirely theoretical game–I’m holding out for Ferris Bueller–with us via our official Twitter, @PrimaGames.
