I just beat it this morning. God awful grind the entire way through. Its baffling how somebody at NRS can sit down and think that every enemy in the entire mode should have hyper armor, invincible hyper armor. I can't see how anyone found that fun.
I just wanna rant about random shit I guess:
They lead you on early, having you think there's gonna be fun little commentary around each map. There isn't. Liu Kang only shows up on the map's final boss to say some shit like "Scorpion brought in Johnny Cage to stop you!"
The inventory space. By like the 2nd map, you're gonna be maxed out on Talismans, and the game just keeps on giving them to you every other fight. I'm constantly having to go into my inventory and toss them out because no, Reiko, I would not like another level 1 Ice Armor talisman.
They tricked us early on with the footage of Invasions and the Survival missions (where you dodge the fireballs). It looked like it was going to be a callback to MK9 where they had the weird minigames sprinkled throughout the Challenge Tower. No. That is the one, and the only one minigame throughout Invasions. And it does not change. You jump over low projectiles, you crouch under high ones. The patterns never change, the timing never changes.
There is no map. This honestly might be one of the most annoying parts of it. There are little lights on each space that show you if there are uncleared missions in that direction, but beyond that nothing at all. If you missed a chest because you didn't have a key and you're trying to find it again. Good luck, because these areas are mazes. You move slow, and can also be ambushed just adding more to the time sink.
The enemy reuse. Every map in Invasions has a set cast of characters you're going to fight, for the entire time. They aren't random, its always the same. So like in say Sun Do you're gonna be fighting Havik, Reiko, Sub Zero and a handful of others. Over and over, pay attention to how many times you see "Chaosmaker" Havik, because I swear to god I feel like I fought him 20 times in one of the maps.
Talismans are nearly useless, and need to be "recharged".
There are about a 10th of the amount of modifiers MK11 had on launch. The vast majority of them are "Orb comes out of portal" or "toxic cloud"
The XP, oh my god the XP. I used Shang Tsung and Sektor for almost the entire run. 243 fights, about 100 brutalities, around 70 fatalities. And somehow my Sektor is at level 10. They also flat out stop giving you anything at all for Profile Levelups after a while. No currency, nothing. Saving them instead for the larger milestones.
Idk what else, this mode sucks and I hope they drastically reduce the grind for the next season.
I am not trying to say your opinion is wrong. You can totally not like the Invasion Mode, and I would get that. But some of your information is just wrong, and I would like to correct it.
Not every enemy or battle has hyper armor lol. Also, this makes fights more strategic instead of allowing someone just to run up and uppercut every fight to death. I actually am paying more attention to doing as many dailies as I can during fights, since dailies are unlimited and always gives you a new one to do after you finish one.
The early part is a tutorial for the entire mode. The fact that it's voiced at all is awesome. There is no lead on that there is a story besides the opening cutscene. I would have been surprised if there was much of one given the fact this is seasonal content.
You can sell Talisman's for invasion money. With that money, you can buy various items to help you during invasion as well as items to improve your Talisman's. I'm not sure why you were throwing them away instead of selling some. Also, even if you do get a duplicate, that is okay. I want a duplicate of my main Talisman I use in fights because I want to add different stats to it with the forge.
The Survival missions with the projectiles DO change. As well as new ones, well instead of just having balls on the screen, I got one that was shooting Kitana's Fans across the entire screen. Also, there are different elemental ones. Meaning if you are having trouble surviving one, you might want to equip a character or talisman that works well against that element to make it easier.
There doesn't really need to map, and there is no way you should get lost, even when coming back to do something later. For one, if there is something to do, follow the arrow with the green line. If a line is blue, you've done everything that way. If you need to hit the store or forge, you can pause and teleport to the last visited one on the map. If your on a new map, you can go to the Mesa and pick a map you've done before to go to a shop or forge if you need to. Also, you can totally avoid being ambushed with one of the items you can either win or buy from the store. It prevents you from getting ambushed for 20 squares. (so 20 spaces of free movement.) Be aware however, you can also randomly get teleported to what looks like the Netherrealm. In any case, when that happens, you get to open 3 random chests and these typically have some really good items like gear and skins and palletes.
Talismans will recharge on their own. You do not have to pay every time you want to recharge a talisman. Paying to recharge can be a benefit if you need some more charges for a fight before it has naturally charged back up. I am unaware of what exactly helps it recharge, besides time. I think doing certain things during the fight charges it faster. In any case, Talisman's can basically beat fights for you if you are forging them and paying attention to the elemental chart and the elemental defense of your opponents. Some can give you Super Armor, take away an opponents special meter, fill your special meter, etc.
Pretty sure the modifier's are determined by the seasonal theme and locations we go. I am not fully sure, but say next Invasion season we get Sub-Zero as the big boss. Then I would think we would see some totally new modifier's in both the invasions and invasion towers. Also remember that some of those modifiers in MK11 was totally patched out or changed because of how unfair they were.
Yes the exp for Kameo's is very low, or maybe I am just not using mine enough. However I did find that using the Kameo's Fatality and Brutality gives more exp to you and your main. I would awesome actual use during the match using Kameo's with combos would also give more exp. I am not a really "amazing" combo guy so I might be missing out on some exp for Kameo's as I haven't started to mix them with my mains combos. Also remember Kameo's do not have but 15 levels, instead of 30 like normal character's. So you are five levels away. Yes it's a grind, but every MK game has had grinds to get stuff. Not that that is an excuse, just I am not surprised. I agree they could increase the exp a little bit more for Kameo's.
Anyway, if you didn't like invasion, I get that, and it's cool. I find it quite fun.