Mortal Kombat 1 Ending Explained

SPOILERS: Mortal Kombat 1's story mode ending introduces multiple timelines! Here's a breakdown of what it means.

By Nick Valdez

Mortal Kombat 1 was a surprising announcement for many as while it might be the 12th entry in the franchise, the number has reverted all the way back to 1 for another major reboot for the series. Mortal Kombat is a franchise that's no stranger to rebooting its timeline, and that's happened once more as the new Story Mode entry for Mortal Kombat 1 reveals a timeline where Fire God Liu Kang had crafted a new world that he wanted to see play out in peace. But as the story continues, it's clear that this only started a new problem. Spoilers for Mortal Kombat 1's ending to follow! 

Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath notably had two major paths for its ending where either Fire God Liu Kang or Shang Tsung claimed victory over one another. Mortal Kombat 1 reveals a timeline in which Liu Kang had won, but before long it's soon revealed that his isn't the only timeline that exists. In fact, the ending in which Shang Tsung had won is canonical as well. It's just that the two paths diverged into two distinct timelines. That's only the start of the reveals for Mortal Kombat 1's wild ending, however. 

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(Photo: Warner Bros. Games)

How Mortal Kombat 1 Ends

Mortal Kombat 1's story mode takes place within Liu Kang's new timeline where each of the characters has a different origin than before. He made enemies such as Shang Tsung and Quan Chi live terrible lives to the point where they could never obtain the powers they had before, but soon a mysterious figure (who looks like Kronika) interferes and helps them claim the powers Liu Kang never intended them to have. It's soon revealed that this hooded figure is from a different timeline entirely, and wasn't Kronika, but was in fact, Shang Tsung from another timeline. 

He reveals that in his timeline he won the final fight against Liu Kang and gained control over the Hourglass of Time. He's since conquered all of the realms and bred all of its warriors for war to take over Liu Kang's timeline. But Liu Kang discovers that it's not just their two timelines, but there are now multiple timelines in place where any character could have become the Keeper of Time. This comes to a head in the climax as in order to stop Shang Tsung from taking over, Liu Kang goes to thousands of timelines to amass a giant army of Kombatants and their variants to put a stop to it. 

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This leads to a gigantic war where the players will fight fusions of characters (such as a Reptile and Sindel blend named Lizard Queen), and ultimately Liu Kang is able to defeat Shang Tsung and save the timelines. Mortal Kombat 1's timeline is thankfully not reset at the end of the story, and will feasibly continue in the next Mortal Kombat entry. What has changed, however, is there are multiple timelines out there that could interfere at any time with any character being a potential ruler of it such as Havik, who's teed up as the next potential major villain. 

Mortal Kombat 1 is now available on Early Access for those who have the Premium or Kollector's Edition, and releases on September 19th for those with the Standard Edition on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X/S.

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