MK1 Invasions Mode: (It Sucks)

[Art Lean]

I grinded to level 60 on the Seasonal Tower and finally got the second Tanya glowing-eyed mohawk skin that's more yellow that I was after (I'd prefer it if it was yellow and black obviously, but think the mohawk really suits her in this game and reminds me of Grace Jones... without the insanity). Job done and one of the only skins this season I even remotely like. Will use this skin for her until I can get her OOD ones.



But that was an absolute slog without a Windbreaker and zero fun (I am NOT playing it another 30 times for the Order of Darkness palettes that turn up in the later levels). So I'm checking out of MK1 until the Titan Mesa appears... which I expect won't be be for another 3 weeks (I'm hoping one of them will be Tanya given that MK Warehouse confirms there's a Season of the Huntress palette for it), so nothing to do until then.

Jeez, aren't games meant to make you want to play them?

 

[Kiss the Missile]

I don't even see the point of making Invasions a grind like this. Like usually, when games make you grind for things it's because they want you to use real money to buy them. But you can't buy these skins with Dragon Krystals, it's straight up just unfun because it's designed to be unfun.

 

[Law Hero]

I don't even see the point of making Invasions a grind like this. Like usually, when games make you grind for things it's because they want you to use real money to buy them. But you can't buy these skins with Dragon Krystals, it's straight up just unfun because it's designed to be unfun.

My guess is it's just more of a player retention thing. Make it a major grind to make sure you keep coming back so they can keep advertising to you, and continue to increase the chance of you buying something from the store.

 

[Art Lean]

My guess is it's just more of a player retention thing. Make it a major grind to make sure you keep coming back so they can keep advertising to you, and continue to increase the chance of you buying something from the store.

Except the stuff in the store is sadly absolute crap too. MK11 had skins worth spending money on, this game so far absolutely does not. The HIDEOUS MK3/UMK3 skins? The Deadly Alliance skins? Brazilian popstar Tanya? Ugh, they're almost all complete rubbish.

Only good one so far has been JCVD Cage (great to have a stoic cage in MK1 gear) if that counts since it was also a freebie with my Premium Edition, whilst the only other ones I've thought were ok (emphasis on 'OK') were Deadly Alliance Sub Zero and Nitara, the rest I thought were absolutely terrible, especially the UMK3 ninjas.

 

[Mikemetroid]

I grinded to level 60 on the Seasonal Tower and finally got the second Tanya glowing-eyed mohawk skin that's more yellow that I was after (I'd prefer it if it was yellow and black obviously, but think the mohawk really suits her in this game and reminds me of Grace Jones... without the insanity). Job done and one of the only skins this season I even remotely like. Will use this skin for her until I can get her OOD ones.

View attachment 21492

But that was an absolute slog without a Windbreaker and zero fun (I am NOT playing it another 30 times for the Order of Darkness palettes that turn up in the later levels). So I'm checking out of MK1 until the Titan Mesa appears... which I expect won't be be for another 3 weeks (I'm hoping one of them will be Tanya given that MK Warehouse confirms there's a Season of the Huntress palette for it), so nothing to do until then.

Jeez, aren't games meant to make you want to play them?

I did the same grind for that dark blue Johnny skin around tower 45 last season. Abysmal. Fucking absolutely abysmal.

 

[xRantex]

Lol I never played seasonal towers and never will because it's not like MK11s and no skins I want.

 

[G82Boost]

Stuck in this stupid ass portal room
There is no option for me to continue past this point. I have tried reloading the game with no mods, going to a different mesa and returning to this one, and swapping characters. Nothing seems to work which sucks because i have been waiting for this raiden skin >.<

 

[Macman]

The Seasonal Skins in this new season look so similar to last season’s skins. They are not worth the grind. Feels so lazy from the developers.

 

[Art Lean]

This season’s store is once again abysmal, other than a few of the gear pieces there’s literally nothing I would want. I know it doesn’t cost real money or anything but it’s all so ugly and worthless. The skins in the shrine should go into the store and would make it far more enticing to bother (and ditch the mind-numbing slog of using the shrine altogether).

And what’s with the random seasonal color scheme again? Raider’s most known for a fresh combo of white, blue and black, so what’s with all the ugly yellow and brown?

 

[MateoFoShizzle]

I actually don’t mind this season so far…
I like the variation in node challenges and I don’t mind the ambushes since they’re usually mix characters out robots

 

[Juxtapose]

I'm definitely getting tired/burned out of Invasions, not enjoying this Season as much.

I'm also not keen on the Time Trials, forcing me to use characters I have no interest in. At least, like Survival Nodes (which I've never liked) and the new Kombo Trials (which I'm "meh" on), they're optional and you can simply move right past them.

 

[Zimbobweigh]

where's a list of skins available through this season's invasions so i can see if they're worth doing

 

[Kiss the Missile]

where's a list of skins available through this season's invasions so i can see if they're worth doing

https://www.reddit.com/r/MortalKombat/s/mxDbO90yA2

 

[chud_munson]

This season's a bit of a mixed bag for me. There are a few really cool skins. The palette swap skins are boring though and I agree that the colors they chose are really strange. This season and last season both have weird colors that don't remind me of the character in question at all.

I think the time trials are fun...when the buttons allow them to be. I still think there is something fundamentally wrong with the inputs in this game. For the Nitara ones, I was going insane trying to hit her F+L2, and it just doesn't come out most of the time. I try many different ways, holding L2 and hitting forward, hitting both at the same time, one before the other, holding them down, etc., and it feels almost random when it comes out and when it doesn't. This isn't limited to Nitara or Invasions though, I've had so so many examples of me doing the inputs and the thing just not happening across multiple characters in multiple situations.

I love facing the mash-up characters you get ambushed with. I faced Smoke Kahn last night and laughed out loud, it was so neat. There was a weird Reiko/Kano hybrid too, which was fun to see given that Kano is a kameo.

Ermac is sick. I can't believe how stoked I am to see them knock it not just out of the park, but into the stratosphere and off this fucking planet. His gear is dope as hell, his gameplay is way harder than I am good at the game, but has so many possibilities and feels fun. I was so sad to miss my favorite MK character the last time around, but this is worth the wait.

As a Reptile main, and a Rain-curious person, the new moves are icing on the cake.

This was the first patch that made me optimistic about the game and the fact that they're actively fighting the game going dry, but I have to say I do still feel like there's a ways to go to make Invasions not feel like a chore to me. It's much better now, but it needs to be much much better before I feel like I actively want to play it for reasons other than practicing the BnBs of a new character.

 

[Art Lean]

I still think there is something fundamentally wrong with the inputs in this game. For the Nitara ones, I was going insane trying to hit her F+L2, and it just doesn't come out most of the time. I try many different ways, holding L2 and hitting forward, hitting both at the same time, one before the other, holding them down, etc., and it feels almost random when it comes out and when it doesn't. This isn't limited to Nitara or Invasions though, I've had so so many examples of me doing the inputs and the thing just not happening across multiple characters in multiple situations.

Thank god it's not just me!!! I'm aware I'm not a particularly good player, but I was beginning to think there was something wrong with me in not even being able to complete even the first section of any of the Nitara ones (hell the Shaolin Spin move for Kung Lao barely works either). The controls literally do not respond to the commands, I'm on PS5 and don't know if it's an adaptive trigger issue or not, but I'm just so grateful these nodes are optional, because I'm skipping all of them.

 

[chud_munson]

Thank god it's not just me!!! I'm aware I'm not a particularly good player, but I was beginning to think there was something wrong with me in not even being able to complete even the first section of any of the Nitara ones (hell the Shaolin Spin move for Kung Lao barely works either). The controls literally do not respond to the commands, I'm on PS5 and don't know if it's an adaptive trigger issue or not, but I'm just so grateful these nodes are optional, because I'm skipping all of them.

Yep, I feel that. It's almost like they just scrapped any sort of "intelligence" around processing inputs and we're just like "fuck it, the player just needs to be 100% precise or nothing will happen". It's a substantial difference from MK11 somehow. Fatal blows, kameos, kombos, everything, there will just randomly be wrong or no things coming out when I'm extremely sure I did the right thing, or close enough to the right thing that any sane person would understand what the intention of the input was. Fatal blows and combo breakers are particularly bad, I can just be mashing them over and over again and nothing happens. It's really my biggest complaint about the game. It's just too frustrating to play a match and lose because my kameo didn't come out.

 

[kingjolly]

For the Nitara ones, I was going insane trying to hit her F+L2, and it just doesn't come out most of the time. I try many different ways, holding L2 and hitting forward, hitting both at the same time, one before the other, holding them down, etc., and it feels almost random when it comes out and when it doesn't. This isn't limited to Nitara or Invasions though, I've had so so many examples of me doing the inputs and the thing just not happening across multiple characters in multiple situations.

Try switching your R2 button (block) for L2 for her trials. It seemed to help me out.

 

[Kiss the Missile]

Being able to skip certain nodes is a godsend. I wish I could have skipped every one of them

 

[Ptehu]

I wish I can skip this Reptile air fangs trial in the Sun Do mesa. I feel like I'm getting to the point of actually passing my account to someone to get me through that.

And yes, I always complained about Invasions (and I still will) but it's still the fastest way to get Ermac/other champs to decent character mastery level, it's the only way to get the Raiden skin and it's the only single player mode when I'm bored of KL grinding, which is definitely not worth past III this season.

Is there any way to pass this shitty trial? skip it or use anything to make it easier? I feel like any input I'm doing while in the air is random: YES/NO.

Nvm - managed to beat it but it was as far away from fun as me from Elder God rank

 

[Juxtapose]

I was going insane trying to hit her F+L2

Yup, me too. I got through this one, but the one using her bite attack I can not clear, so I've just moved on for now. Having the same issue with the Reptile ones. I also despise having to use Stance Switch to change my characters direction in certain encounters, which also doesn't seem 100% responsive. I'm on Xbox Series X, by the way, so it's not just a PlayStation 5 thing.

Hmmm... I should try playing with my controller connected via a USB cable. On an Xbox, doing so actually makes it a wired controller, greatly reducing input delay.

I wish I can skip this Reptile air fangs trial in the Sun Do mesa.

You can skip any of the Survival, Time Trial, and Kombo Trial ones. Simply keep walking.

 

[Ptehu]

You can skip any of the Survival, Time Trial, and Kombo Trial ones. Simply keep walking.

I couldn't. Not sure if it was a bug in game, but I couldn't move forward through this one node. I managed to skip all the others in the 1st mesa and Tarkatan one. But not this particular one. That's why I found that so annoying. But anyway, I've passed this now and I hope I will never need to do that kind of shit ever again.

 

[Kiss the Missile]

Yeah some of them are forced for some reason.

@Ptehu what helped me complete it was realizing I had to do the targets on the left last

 

[Shania Twain]

OMG. finally found out how to beat time Raiden 2. Komplete the playing catch kombat klue in shang's laboratory to get the "sacrifice" relic and now easy peasy. I lost nearly 2 HOURS of my life playing that. this is why invasions is not fun. I'm just posting this here so all knows. Here is a youtube video I found breaking them all down.

 

[Art Lean]

I also despise having to use Stance Switch to change my characters direction in certain encounters, which also doesn't seem 100% responsive.

You're giving me MK Mythologies PTSD.

And here's me thinking they learned their lesson in 1997!

 

[PrinceGoro]

Completed this season purely because of tbe dark raiden skin.

The mode is just a total mess,i mean it supposed to be this mini story/narrative driven mode where the another timeline character invades our own but you dont get the feeling you are playing through or progressing through any sort of story.

Its just test your luck over and over again,with less modifires,that are not even that impactfull in this game,so even that is just like there more then anythig else.

It doesnt feel special fighting boss johnny cage if i fought johnny cage 50 times in that mesa already,there is no sense of urgency or progression.The new kitbash secret fights/ambushes are the closest thing to actually feeling like you are playing something different and unique.

The game mode is in my opinion beyond saving,it needs to be completely reworked into some kind of third person beat em up(potentially making it possible to play coop) with boss fights transitioning into the standard 2d fighting plane.Transform past seasons into chapters(so new players can play through them)and you have mesa maps serving as stages of the chapters,themed to the boss invader.Expand the current mesa maps,fill them with chests,secrets,puzzles and you navigate through them fighting themed npcs(for example season of blood,you fight different kinds if veternians,season of fire you fight scorps fire ninjas etc),character sub bosses.