All Mortal Kombat 1 Fatalities and how to perform them

How to dominate you enemies in the most creative way possible

By Ryan Gilliam@RyGilliam Sep 19, 2023, 11:58am EDT

Baraka stabs Baraka through the chest in Mortal Kombat 1

Ryan Gilliam (he/him) has worked at Polygon for nearly seven years. He primarily spends his time writing guides for massively popular games like Diablo 4 & Destiny 2.

Mortal Kombat is known for being disgusting, and Mortal Kombat 1’s Fatalities certainly don’t disappoint in that regard. However, if you want to perform more than the finishing moves you start the game with — one per character — you’ll need to know the special combo input and distance for Fatalities. That’s where we come in.

In this Mortal Kombat 1 fatality guide, we explain how to do Fatalities and provide all Fatality inputs for each of the game’s 23 characters as well as all 15 Kameo fighters.

Note: Sorry we killed Baraka so many times for these screenshots. He deserved better.

How to do a Fatality in Mortal Kombat 1

Johnny Cage squares off against Baraka with a “Finish Him” notification on screen

To do a Fatality in Mortal Kombat 1, when you drain your enemy’s health to zero for the second time in a match, a message that says “FINISH HIM/HER” will appear on screen; this is your not-so-subtle hint that the time has come to perform a Fatality on your enemy.

To execute a Fatality properly, you’ll need to input a four button combo that typically consists of four directional inputs and one of the main four attack buttons. Even if you execute the combo correctly, you’ll still need to ensure that you’re in the right position (close, middle, or far distance from your enemy) and that you don’t run out of time during the “FINISH” phase.

If you can manage to complete the combo in time and at the proper distance, you’ll fire off a fantastically gory attack, which will eviscerate your enemy’s body beyond repair.

Kameo Fatalities work the exact same way, except you’ll hit the assist button instead of one of the four main attack buttons. When done properly, your character will duck out of the way and your Kameo fighter will take over.

An additional note is that all Fatalities are technically different to Brutalities, which are performed before a fight ends, and has their own button inputs.

How to unlock Fatalities in Mortal Kombat 1, and how many Fatalities does each character have?

Each character in Mortal Kombat 1 has two unique Fatalities, one that’s available from the start of the game and one that you’ll discover by playing that character. However, you can actually use the second Fatality without unlocking it first, as long as you know the correct combo and distance — all of which we’ve listed below.

If you want to unlock all of these Fatalities yourself before using them, you’ll need to increase your Mastery level with each character. As you play a specific character — in Invasions, Towers, etc. — you’ll gain experience points for them. And when they level up, you’ll get new cosmetic options and other goodies. One such unlock is the character's second and final Fatality. But be warned: late-Master character unlocks like Fatalities can take a long time to earn organically.

Either way, if you want to practice — or just see all the grisly animations without having to do a fight first — you can practice doing Fatalities in the Learn menu.

Mortal Kombat 1 Fatality controls on PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch

Mortal Kombat 1 is available on multiple different platforms, which makes describing the exact controls you’ll need to input for your Fatality difficult.

Check out our control breakdown below, and figure out how each attack correlates to the buttons on your specific controller. We’ll be using these controls for the rest of the guide.

Up — Up on the D-pad
Down — Down on the D-pad
Forward — Toward your enemy (input changes depending on which side of the screen you’re on)
Back — Away from your enemy (input changes depending on which side of the screen you’re on)
Front Punch — Square (PlayStation), X (Xbox), Y (Switch)
Back Punch — Triangle (PlayStation), Y (Xbox), X (Switch)
Front Kick — X (PlayStation), A (Xbox), B (Switch)
Back Kick — Circle (PlayStation), B (Xbox), A (Switch)
Assist — R1 (PlayStation), RB (Xbox), R (Switch)