Mortal Kombat 1 Gets Surprising New Balance Update, Patch Notes Revealed

Mortal Kombat 1 has received a surprising new update that fans were not expecting. Earlier this year, developer NetherRealm Studios announced that it was moving on from MK1 to instead begin focusing on its next game. As a result, Mortal Kombat fans expected that balance patches for MK1 were more or less done entirely. Now, before the end of 2025, NetherRealm has let loose one more update for the game that makes some pretty big changes.

Videos by ComicBook.com

Available now for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC, this new Mortal Kombat 1 update is almost completely centered around balancing various characters on the game’s roster. In total, 18 fighters have gotten adjustments of some sort with Shang Tsung, Raiden, Tanya, and Li Mei having received the most changes. Eight different Kameo fighters have also received tweaks, although these overhauls are much smaller in nature.

All in all, there’s a chance that this could be the final balance update that Mortal Kombat 1 ever received. Today’s patch is the first one that the game has received in seven months, which suggests that any future updates are going to be very far down the road. Still, it’s nice to see that NetherRealm’s support of MK1 hasn’t completely ended yet, which is surely appreciated by those in the Mortal Kombat community.

If you’d like to see the full list of changes with this new Mortal Kombat 1 update today, you can view the patch notes below.

Mortal Kombat 1 December 2025 Update Patch Notes

General Adjustments

Interrupting a Kameo with an attack deals 50 damage (up from 20)
Down + Back Punch has reduced combo damage scaling

Character Specific Adjustments

Main Fighters
- Ashrah
  - Dark Mode Sins last 50% longer before expiring
  - Summoning The Darkness enters duck state 2 frames earlier and recovers 3 frames faster
  - Invoking The Light recovers 9 frames faster
- Baraka
  - Desperate Tarkatan builds meter 50% faster and drains health 50% slower
- Kenshi
  - Enhanced Rising Karma has no gravity scaling in a combo
  - Ancestral Guard Cancel recovers 14 frames faster
- Kitana
  - Royal Bow (Towards + Front Punch) has 5 more frames of blockstun and recovers 2 frames faster on block & miss
  - Unbreakable (Back Punch, Back Kick, Back Punch) hits Overhead (was Mid)
  - Head Over Heels (Back Kick, Towards + Back Punch, Back Punch, Back Kick) recovers 4 frames faster and causes 5 more blockstun with slightly increased pushback
- Li Mei
  - Slightly increased the hit region on Warrior’s Strike (Front Punch), Forces Of Light (Front Punch, Back Punch), Seasoned Warrior (Back Punch, Front Punch), Double Palm (Away + Back Punch), Nova Burst (Away + Back Punch, Front Punch), Rough Zuffa (Back Kick, Front Kick), Clean Sweep (Away + Back Kick), Sliding In (Towards + Back Kick), and Shin Breaker (Down + Back Kick)
  - Adjusted hit region on High Heel (Away + Front Kick) when the opponent is crouching
  - Slightly increased the hit region on Against The Rope (Back Punch, Front Punch, Back Kick) and Kick Precision (Towards + Back Kick, Front Kick) when opponent is in a combo
- Liu Kang
  - Enhanced Dragon’s Breath has no gravity scaling in a combo
  - Chosen One (Front Kick, Back Punch) starts up 5 frames faster
- Nitara
  - Bloody Bolt and Enhanced Bloody Bolt start up 5 frames faster and recover 5 frames faster
- Raiden
  - Electric Charge passively grows over time instead of draining
  - Razzle Dazzle and Enhanced Razzle Dazzle start up 2 frames faster. Hold Back Punch during startup to spend Electric Charge and reduce startup by 1 additional frame
  - Razzle Dazzle deals 20 more damage and recovers 3 frames faster on hit
  - Enhanced Razzle Dazzle deals 40 more damage, recovers 5 frames faster on hit, and the opponent is launched higher into the air with less pushback
  - Lightning Strikes (Away + Back Punch) deals 20 more damage
  - Slightly increased the hit region on Focused Energy (Towards + Back Punch)
  - Electric Charge (Towards + Back Punch, Front Punch) recovers 6 frames faster and has 10 more frames of blockstun
  - Double Strike (Towards + Front Kick, Back Kick) recovers 3 frames faster on hit
- Reptile
  - Adjusted Enhanced Acid Spit Ball hit region to be slightly larger
  - Devastating Blow Charge starts up 2 frames faster (Devastating Blow Charge maximum is unchanged)
  - Dr. Wreckyl (Towards + Back Punch, Front Punch, Front Punch) and Kneet Trick (Towards + Back Punch, Front Punch, Front Kick) recover 5 frames faster on hit, 8 frames faster on block & miss
- Shang Tsung
  - Snake Oil (Away + Front Punch, Back Punch) hits High (was Mid), causes 5 more frames of blockstun, and recovers 4 frames faster on miss & block
  - Shang falls faster after Surgery (Jump Front Punch, Back Punch)
  - Form Stealer and Enhanced Form Stealer recover 8 frames faster
  - Perfect Form recovers 10 frames faster
  - Kameo Kopy and Enhanced Kameo Kopy against Kung Lao, Frost, Subzero, Sareena, Janet Cage, Mavado, and Madam Bo deal more damage. Kameo Kopy against Tremor and Darrius deal more damage
  - Kameo Kopy against Darrius starts up 2 frames faster and has 5 more frames of blockstun
  - Enhanced Kameo Kopy against Darrius starts up 2 frames faster, has reduced combo damage scaling, has 10 more frames of blockstun, and reduced blockstun when Flawless Blocked
  - Enhanced Kameo Kopy against Tremor recovers 3 frames faster, has 4 more frames of blockstun, and reduced blockstun when Flawless Blocked
  - Kameo Kopy against Janet Cage recovers 3 frames faster on miss and 2 frames faster on block
  - Enhanced Kameo Kopy against Janet Cage recovers 4 frames faster on hit, 3 frames faster on miss, 2 frames faster on block, has 10 more frames of blockstun, and reduced blockstun when Flawless Blocked
  - Enhanced Kameo Kopy against Khameleon absorbs 66% of damage from one hit (up from 50%)
  - Fixed Kameo Kopy using incorrect attack data against Madam Bo
- Smoke
  - Quick Cut (Front Punch) cancel frame occurs 1 frame earlier
  - Never Submit (Front Punch, Front Punch) starts up 1 frame faster
- Sub-Zero
  - Lin Kuei Storm (Front Punch, Back Punch) starts up 1 frame faster
  - Shin Shatter (Away + Front Kick) cancel frame occurs 1 frame earlier
- Tanya
  - Guidance Charge no longer has a time limit
  - Heavenly Hand deals 10 more damage. Enhanced Heavenly Hand deals 20 more damage
  - Guidance adds 10 more damage to Heavenly Hand when Front Punch is held, causes 5 more blockstun with slightly increased pushback
  - Boomerpain (Away + Back Punch) deals 20 more damage, recovers 8 frames faster, and the first hit has a larger hit region outside of combos
  - Message From Above (Away + Back Punch, Front Kick) has a slightly larger collision region, starts up 3 frames faster, recovers 2 frames faster, and causes 5 more blockstun with increased pushback
  - Answers (Away + Back Punch, Back Kick) can be special canceled in a combo
  - Branching Out (Front Kick) recovers 2 frames faster on block, 3 frames faster on hit & miss, and has 1 more frame of hitstun against a grounded opponent
- Omni-Man
  - (Air) Mega Clap and (Air) Enhanced Mega Clap start up 3 frames faster, recover 5 frames faster, and have larger hit regions
  - Unstoppable Force (Back Punch) cancel frame occurs 1 frame earlier
  - Demon Slaying Punch (Back Punch, Back Punch) starts up 1 frame faster
  - Around The World (Towards + Back Punch) starts up 2 frames faster
  - Satellite Kick (Back Kick) recovers 5 frames faster
- Ermac
  - Slightly increase the hit region of Mass Driver (Back Punch, Front Punch) when opponent is in a combo
  - Hell Spiller (Back Kick, Back Punch, Back Kick) recovers 18 frames faster and has slightly increased combo damage scaling
  - Returned To The Earth (Jump Front Punch, Back Punch, Back Punch) recovers 3 frames faster
- Peacemaker
  - Reduced the Eagley cooldown after Ground-Air Offensive and Beautiful Bird Bullet by .5 seconds
  - Nosebreaker (Towards Front Punch) cancel frame occurs 1 frame earlier
  - Peace Eater (Towards Front Punch, Front Punch) starts up 1 frame faster
- Homelander
  - Enhanced Blast Off has 60 frames of armor (up from 23)
  - Blast Off and Enhanced Blast Off are considered grounded 2 frames earlier, and have 4 more frames of recovery on miss & block
  - The first hit of Vought Drop and The Seven Slam deals 20 less damage, the second hit deals 20 more
  - Adjusted the hit region of Blaze It Up (Towards + Back Kick) to slightly reduce its range
- Cyrax
  - Capture Foam releases the victim 10 frames earlier on hit
- Noob Saibot
  - Embrace Khaos lasts 14 seconds (up from 10 seconds)
  - Adjusted the hit region of Shadow Sweep and Enhanced Shadow Sweep to hit an opponent between Noob and his clone
Kameo Fighters
- Cyrax (Kameo)
  - Kopter Chopper cooldown reduced by 1 second
  - Horizontal Kopter Chopper cooldown reduced by 1.5 seconds
- Frost (Kameo)
  - Snow Flakes cooldown reduced by 1 second
  - Snow Flakes starts up 4 frames faster and recovers 9 frames faster
  - Ice Karpet causes 10 more blockstun with increased pushback
- Goro (Kameo)
  - Raise The Roof cooldown reduced by 1 second
  - Punch Walk summon recovers 7 frames faster
- Kano (Kameo)
  - Knife Toss deals 20 more damage and has no gravity scaling in a combo
- Sareena (Kameo)
  - Demonic Dance has 20 frames of invulnerability on wakeup (up from 11)
- Scorpion (Kameo)
  - Get Over Here recovers 4 frames faster
- Stryker (Kameo)
  - Stryker takes 80 damage when Rapid Fire is interrupted by an attack
- Ferra (Kameo)
  - Ferra takes 80 damage when (Air) Torr Stance is interrupted by an attack