Mortal Kombat 1: How to Do a Brutality & Unlock More

Pulling off a fatality in Mortal Kombat requires some memorization and quick button inputs to see that gruesome final move on your opponent. But if you’re looking to change things up a little then why not end the match on a Brutality instead to get the round over and done with quickly. 

A Brutality is a final finishing move that kills your opponent outright at the end of the match. This is where things could get a little tricky though, because you might not know when you’ve got to do the special move to trigger it. Once you figure out the timing and understand when you can do a Brutality, you’ll have no problem at all knocking enemies’ heads off. Here is everything you need to know about how to do a Brutality in Mortal Kombat 1.

Related: Mortal Kombat 1: The Original Dark History of the Lin Kuei

How to Perform Brutalities in Mortal Kombat 1

When trying to do a Brutality in Mortal Kombat 1 you could be mistakenly doing the button inputs in the wrong place. While it might seem like doing this during the ‘Finish Him/Her’ screen is the right moment, at this point, you’ve gone too far and will just need to settle with a Fatality instead.  

To do a Brutality, you’ll have to make sure it is the very final attack move of the winning round. The most basic Brutality combination that all characters have is The Klassic Brutality. To do this, all you need to pull off is an uppercut as the last attack move when your opponent has a slither of health left. Hold the down button and press Triangle on PlayStation, or Y on Xbox. If done correctly, your opponent’s head will come flying off in a gory swift action.

How to Unlock Brutalites in Mortal Kombat 1

Each character in Mortal Kombat 1 has a selection of Brutality moves that they can unlock. This is done by ranking up the fighter and earning new rewards. For example, Sub-Zero has a Brutality unlock in Rank 3 and Rank 5. You rank up the mastery of your fighters by playing as them in the various modes of Mortal Kombat 1, except for the Story mode – you don’t earn XP here.