"The Tower of the Elder Gods" - The Challenge Tower Q&A + Tips/walkthrough thread

Current Fighting Games Mortal Kombat
1

UPDATED TO CHALLENGE 102

The challenge tower is a new feature in the Mortal Kombat series that is comprised of challenges and mini-games. The main reward of the Tower is the Koins you get from each mission. After completing a mission once, doing it again will not give you koins (there are exceptions to this). The other reward from the challenge tower from the final mission, End Game, is

Final Reward

Spoiler

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The way the tower is organized is that they give you a certain character to use for a specific number of missions before giving you a different character to use, with a Test Your minigame being their final mission of the bunch. The exception to this is the “Shaolin Monk” missions which are not grouped together. So without further ado, here’s a listing of the missions, basic tips for them, and the koin amounts earned from them (TO BE ADDED ONCE I GET THAT INFORMATION, feel free to add to these and I will update this post ASAP) You may also want to check out everyone’s guides on Test Your Might.

Missions:

  1. Training: Special Tech - Character: Sonya (until mission 6), Opponent: Jax - Your first mission is a simple one to get you used to the timing for special attack inputs. You are to land 5 of Sonya’s special attacks (the excluded attacks being her Air Drop and Air Throw). Simple, with plenty of time to spare. Should have no trouble with this one.
  2. Training: Defense - Opponent: Jax - In this mission you must avoid or block all attacks for 15 seconds, and cannot attack, throw, or use specials. A simple strategy for this one is to jump backwards until you reach the end of the screen, and once Jax gets close jump over him and keep jumping backwards to the other end of the screen. By the time you reach the edge of the arena time will be up.
  3. Training: Offense - Opponent: Jax - Here you are tasked with landing 15 hits within a 45 second period. The arena size has been shrunk which will help greatly to get your opponent to a “corner” and use wall juggles to rack up the hits quickly. Alternatively you can just use Sonya’s 1,1,2 combo over and over again, blocking in case Jax blocks your string.
  4. Training: X-Ray Training - Opponent: Baraka - Here you must land an X-Ray to complete this mission. Your special attacks build meter more quickly than usual. Once you have your meter filled throw out your X-Ray attack once you see Baraka whiff an attack.
  5. Training: Finishing Techniques - Opponent: Baraka - As the name suggests, you are to perform a finisher on Baraka. But first you must defeat him! Very simple actually, as the AI is like a Beginner level AI and uses single attacks mostly. Once you drain Baraka’s life, the Finish Him prompt comes up with the Fatality input on screen as well as the area you have to perform it in, as seen in the Fatality Trainer. If you fail the fatality Baraka will stand again, 1/8 of his life restored, and you’ll be given another chance to do the fatality. He will keep standing until you do the Fatality or he defeats you.
  6. Test Your Might #1 - Material: Pine Boards - You have 10 seconds to fill up the meter on the left side of the screen above the line. To fill the meter, mash any/all of the 4 face buttons, when it’s above the line hit either L2 or R2 to stop the meter and hit the boards. You can also just mash until time runs out, at which point the game will stop the meter where it is without you having to take your fingers away from the face buttons.
  7. The Hard Way - Character: Jax (until mission 13) - Opponent: Cyborg - This one is a straight up fight. You have 2 advantages in this battle, 1 that the Cyborg doesn’t have any specials, and that the AI is still Beginner level. Free coins basically.
  8. In-terror-gation - Opponent: Baraka - In this mission you have to defeat your opponent by hitting certain sections of their body a specified number of times. Here you’ll have to hit Baraka in the head 8 times, his chest and stomach 5 times, and his legs 3 times. For his head, use Jax’s basic 2,2 combo a few times. Jax’s jumping kick will always count as hitting both the head and chest, so 5 jump kicks will suffice. Finally, land 3 sweeps.
  9. Ambushed! - This one is a mini-game in which you have to keep the tarkatans from reaching Jax using his Energy Wave, and Ground Pound. For simplicity’s sake Energy Wave is set as Square on the PS3 (info on what it is on 360 would be appreciated) and Ground Pound is set to X. You only have access to Ground Pound after killing 5 tarkatans.Missions:
  10. Training: Special Tech - Character: Sonya (until mission 6), Opponent: Jax - Your first mission is a simple one to get you used to the timing for special attack inputs. You are to land 5 of Sonya’s special attacks (the excluded attacks being her Air Drop and Air Throw). Simple, with plenty of time to spare. Should have no trouble with this one.
  11. Training: Defense - Opponent: Jax - In this mission you must avoid or block all attacks for 15 seconds, and cannot attack, throw, or use specials. A simple strategy for this one is to jump backwards until you reach the end of the screen, and once Jax gets close jump over him and keep jumping backwards to the other end of the screen. By the time you reach the edge of the arena time will be up.
  12. Training: Offense - Opponent: Jax - Here you are tasked with landing 15 hits within a 45 second period. The arena size has been shrunk which will help greatly to get your opponent to a “corner” and use wall juggles to rack up the hits quickly. Alternatively you can just use Sonya’s 1,1,2 combo over and over again, blocking in case Jax blocks your string.
  13. Training: X-Ray Training - Opponent: Baraka - Here you must land an X-Ray to complete this mission. Your special attacks build meter more quickly than usual. Once you have your meter filled throw out your X-Ray attack once you see Baraka whiff an attack.
  14. Training: Finishing Techniques - Opponent: Baraka - As the name suggests, you are to perform a finisher on Baraka. But first you must defeat him! Very simple actually, as the AI is like a Beginner level AI and uses single attacks mostly. Once you drain Baraka’s life, the Finish Him prompt comes up with the Fatality input on screen as well as the area you have to perform it in, as seen in the Fatality Trainer. If you fail the fatality Baraka will stand again, 1/8 of his life restored, and you’ll be given another chance to do the fatality. He will keep standing until you do the Fatality or he defeats you.
  15. Test Your Might #1 - Material: Pine Boards - You have 10 seconds to fill up the meter on the left side of the screen above the line. To fill the meter, mash any/all of the 4 face buttons, when it’s above the line hit either L2 or R2 or Xbox equivalent triggers to stop the meter and hit the boards. You can also just mash until time runs out, at which point the game will stop the meter where it is without you having to take your fingers away from the face buttons.
  16. The Hard Way - Character: Jax (until mission 13) - Opponent: Cyborg - This one is a straight up fight. You have 2 advantages in this battle, 1 that the Cyborg doesn’t have any specials, and that the AI is still Beginner level. Free coins basically.
  17. In-terror-gation - Opponent: Baraka - In this mission you have to defeat your opponent by hitting certain sections of their body a specified number of times. Here you’ll have to hit Baraka in the head 8 times, his chest and stomach 5 times, and his legs 3 times. For his head, use Jax’s basic 2,2 combo a few times. Jax’s jumping kick will always count as hitting both the head and chest, so 5 jump kicks will suffice. Finally, land 3 sweeps.
  18. Ambushed! - This one is a mini-game in which you have to keep the tarkatans from reaching Jax using his Energy Wave, and Ground Pound. For simplicity’s sake Energy Wave is set as Square on the PS3 (info on what it is on 360 would be appreciated) and Ground Pound is set to X. You only have access to Ground Pound after killing 5 tarkatans and it will hit all enemies on screen, killing all of them except the big ones unless they’re on their last hit. There are 3 kinds of tarkatans that you will have to worry about. The slow ones (1 hit to kill), the very fast ones (1 hit to kill) and big slow ones (8? hits). I’d just recommend using Energy wave until both the big and the fast tarkatans on are screen at the same time and use the Ground Pound then.
  19. This Is The Pits! - Opponent: Scorpion - This mission is actually very similar to the mission 5 as you are fighting a normal fight, but at the end you must use a finisher, more specifically Jax’s Stage Fatality. Once again the AI is a breeze to beat, just be ready for a lot of random teleports. You’ll be given the input for the stage fatality but not the distance you have to be. Just be right next to Scorpion when you do the input. Also, congratulations, with that, Jax’s Stage Fatality input is permanently unlocked!
  20. The Invincible Reptile - Opponent: Reptile - During this mission Reptile is semi-invisible throughout the match, and while he is invisible he also takes no damage; all while the point of the mission is to defeat Reptile. So how do you do it? The Ground Pound special. In this mission the Ground Pound will remove Reptile’s invisibility, and consequently, his invincibility. You will have enough time to do a combo or two before he turns invisible again, and then you have to Ground Pound again. Do not use Xrays as you will almost never get the full damage off of it.
  21. Test Your Sight #1 - In this minigame an object is hidden underneath one of 3-7 skulls, cups, or heads, and they are shuffled around on screen, and after that you must choose the one that hides the object. Failure results in the character’s death, varying depending on which character is playing, you should check them out before completing the challenge. In the first one there are 3 heads hiding an eye. The heads are shuffled around slowly so this shouldn’t be difficult. No tricks to it.
  22. Hey Jerk - Character: Johnny Cage (until mission 19) - Opponent: Stunt Man - A normal match against a generic fighter with no specials. You also get the bonus of doing 200% damage.
  23. Round Two - Opponent: Stunt Man - Rematch, but this time you do only 50% damage. Still, the AI is simple and you can make a bunch of mistakes and they won’t capitalize on it.
  24. Walking Dead - Opponent?: Stunt Zombie - This is more minigame than fight. The zombie won’t attack, you just have to drain its health before it pushes you to the corner, else you lose. Just mash Back Punch (2).
  25. SWAT - Teammate: Stryker - In this minigame you must use Johnny and Stryker’s projectile specials to kill 25 zombies before they reach you. You can only use 5 projectiles with one character before you need to switch. Unlike “Ambushed!” you need to pull of the character’s special move input instead of using 1 button. Try to hit the zombies just as they rise to keep from being overwhelmed when the fast zombies come out.
  26. I’m a Celebrity - Teammate: Director - Opponents: Sonya/Jax - You are teamed up with a generic character with no specials, but try to make the most of it. Sonya and Jax are both sped up a bit so they’ll attack faster, move faster, and they’ll also fall faster, making juggling them a bit more difficult. Try not to fall for the switching shenanigans that the CPU try to pull all the time (switching just before an attack hits). Be sure not to jump against Jax as he’ll almost always do his air grab.
  27. Test Your Strike # 1 - Material: Brick - This minigame is similar to Test Your Might, but the twists in this are that you have to get the bar above a certain point and below a certain point, then you have to keep it there until the bar changes green, then hit the R2/L2 or Xbox equivalent triggers.
  28. One Hand Tied Behind Your Back - Character: Scorpion (until mission 25) Opponent: Jax - In this mission you have to defeat Jax, but your normal attacks have been disabled, so you can only use specials. The tradeoff is that your specials do much more damage here. The AI still isn’t that smart so you can just spam teleport and get away with it without much trouble.
  29. I Hate Teddies - Opponent: Mileena - This is a normal match really, just with the added humor of Mileena holding a teddy bear in hand the whole match. She likes teleporting, so watch out for that. Don’t use random specials, she’ll punish all of that with more teleports.
  30. Yin And Yang - Teammate: Sub-Zero - Opponents: Raiden/Liu Kang - In this tag match both teams have their inactive partners heal. Take advantage of this. AI level is stepped up a bit, so if you have trouble with this one, you should check out the guide’s for both characters in the link near the top of the post.
  31. I’ve Got Friends in Low Places - Opponent: Raiden - In this mission you start out with a full bar, with good reason. Check out the background, and you’ll see 4 Lin Kuei warriors on the other bridge. They’ll be throwing ice balls constantly to disrupt you. To be rid of this annoyance use that full bar you started with to do Enh. Hell Fires. They’ll have the added bonus of killing one Lin Kuei warrior per use in this mission. Alternatively, if you know a damaging combo that deals with Xray, you can do that too. I wouldn’t recommend it though.
  32. Poisoned Rage - Opponent: Sub-Zero - In this mission both fighters are under the effects of poisoned kombat and vampire kombat, meaning their health will drain over time, while doing damage will replenish health. Health drains at normal speed even during an Xray, so if Sub has around 35% health left, try landing the xray for the match.
  33. Test Your Luck #1 - In Test Your Luck not only is your opponent chosen through slot reels, but so are certain buffs/conditions and the person getting the buff/condition is random. In this one, there is only 1 condition reel added to the machine. As far as I know, getting the koin symbol on this one is impossible, as I tried over 100 times to see if getting it would give you the achievement for getting all MK dragon symbols, to no avail. Since it’s only one condition it shouldn’t really matter even if you get one, but if you still have trouble just retry if you don’t get a buff, or your opponent doesn’t get a condition. Quick Uppercut Recovery is the probably the best, as you can mash uppercut and it’ll combo.
  34. Foul Ball - Character: Nightwolf (until mission 30) - Opponent: Sonya - Not really sure what the title has to do with the mission… Simple fight, no twists to it besides having to do Nightwolf’s stage fatality at the end. Now would be a good time to practice some combos with Nightwolf for the missions ahead. By the way, congratulations, Nightwolf’s stage fatality input is now unlocked.
  35. Reflect And Connect: Opponent: Sektor - This mission is to get you used to using Nightwolf’s reflect. Be sure to take it all in. They also add in a little death scene+close up of Sektor at the end.
  36. Spirit Walk - Opponent: Nightwolf (Zombie) - Your health is draining over time. Nightwolf likes to use his Shoulder, be sure to duck it, but do not block. Ducking Shoulder will make it whiff. Follow up with an uppercut, or combo of your choice.
  37. Big Shoulers - Opponent: Ermac - You can only use Shoulder in this mission, while Ermac can only use his specials. Do not try using Shoulder on Ermac’s wakeup as he’ll just teleport. Instead, hold block and do the input for the shoulder like you would when doing a fatality to avoid moving.
  38. Ancestral Light - Opponent: Scorpion - During this mission a pillar of light will appear, and you must attack scorpion while he is in this light to do any damage to him. if you move far enough away from the light, it’ll disappear and reappear closer to you. Try to keep your combos small and compact, and try not to use your Xray, as it’ll push Scorpion out of the light most of the time.
  39. Shaolin Monk: Act 1 - Characters in all Shaolin Monk acts: Liu Kang/Kung Lao - Opponents: Two Tarkatan Soldiers - The Shaolin Monk missions are like recreations of specific battles in the game Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. At the end of each you must perform a fatality. Your inactive partner will also recover health. Now that the overview is over, your opponents are generics with no specials. You should start with whoever you are more comfortable with and if they have their health go below half, switch out to the other character so they can heal.
  40. No Throw = No Go - Character: Kano (until mission 37) - Opponent: Jax - To defeat Jax you must get his health down to a certain point (indicated on his bar) then throw him to win. Be careful using Kano’s specials as most are very unsafe on block, and Jax will likely use Ground Pound if you start spamming knives. Stick to combos, and block on his wake up so you don’t get grabbed, and watch out when he has Xray. If you see his flash, or hear the sound, jump out of it, as it is unblockable and he has super armor.
  41. Demon Hunter - This minigame is similar to SWAT in that you must use your projectile special to kill zombies before they reach you. This time however, you need to defeat only 8 zombies, but they all take 3 hits to kill. Not much strategy to this, just mash out those knives as soon as the zombies stand.
  42. Pulling My Strings - In this minigame Quan Chi has taken control of Kano and you need to break free before Kano reaches Quan Chi. To do this you need to press a button indicated over Kano. You don’t have much time to do this so be ready. If you miss twice it’s pretty much over.
  43. The Hell With This! - Opponent: Scorpion - A bit of a spike in AI difficulty, but he’s still Scorpion so he’ll still use teleports. As in any normal fight with Scorpion be aware that on wakeup his teleport is invincible, so be prepared to block. During the battle a hellfire-like opening in the floor below Kano will appear frequently and if Kano is standing there while it’s up he will be immobilized for a short period of time.
  44. Discombobulated - Opponent: Quan Chi - In this mission your attack power is reduced by 25(%?) and if you take too much damage your controls are randomized, the directions and the attack buttons. With the AI at around Medium difficulty this challenge can be difficult for those who don’t use Kano. Just don’t use knives randomly, he’ll always teleport, and use the block button. Learn a combo that you can pull off consistently and you should be golden. If you do take too much damage, don’t panic. Find your block button and wait until the effect wears off.
  45. Test Your Might #2 - Material: Teak - The bar has been raised very slightly. If you had no problems with the last one, you’ll have no problems with this one.
  46. Survive Koins - Character: Kabal (until mission 43) - Opponent: Kano - This one is very special as you get koins for every hit you get in and you cannot lose. BONUS: In missions where you get money DURING the mission, you can stop and retry the mission before completing it, and the koins you gathered during the mission will be saved! If you have completed Story mode and have a rough idea on how much you need to complete the krypt these missions are the way to go. If you have completed the mission already however, doing it over again will give you only 1 koin per hit. How many koins you get per hit normally is unknown to me at the moment.
  47. Keep Away From Me! - Opponent: Sonya - In this mission Sonya will keep jumping away and towards you, sometimes using an air throw. Either use Kabal’s air projectile or his Nomad Dash + combo for an easy win.
  48. Bloody Pulp - Opponent: Sub-Zero - In similar fashion to “In-terror-gation” you must hit Sub in different parts of his body a certain amount of times to win. Head: 6 hits, Chest: 14 hits, Stomach: 3 hits, Legs: 4 hits. Kabal’s Tornado throw hits the head, both his projectiles hit the chest, his 1,1,1 combo hit both head and chest, and for stomach hits use jump-kicks, and for legs use sweeps. Be careful using the projectiles as he’ll try trading using his ice ball. Be on guard when he has x-ray as well.
  49. Healing Light - Opponent: Stryker - The pillar of light returns, but it’s effect is different this time. Whoever is in the light will be healed slowly. Be sure to hog that light and not let Stryker in it. Zone him out, Tornado throw him when he gets near.
  50. Assassination Proclamation - Opponent: Nightwolf - During this fight Nightwolf has a super powerful version of his lightning attack. It’ll track and if it hits you it’s an instant loss. You must damage Nightwolf enough to get him to stop charging it once he starts. He has super armor during the charge so you can’t throw him or use an xray. Use 3 uppercuts quickly on him to stop it. Besides that he’s not difficult. As always, watch out during his wakeup, as he’ll likely use Shoulder.
  51. Test Your Sight #2 - 5 skulls this time, hiding a brain. They shuffle slightly faster, but still for a short period of time.
  52. Stealth - Character: Reptile (until mission 49) Opponent: Liu Kang - You cannot use special attacks, but the AI is back to the old beginner level so not much trouble. Don’t use jump kicks a lot, as Liu will try parrying them most of the time. Empty jumps usually work better, but combos should be your main tool to defeat him.
  53. The Best Laid Plan - Opponent: Johnny Cage - The next few missions with Reptile play out like a story, so enjoy that if you like. Straight up fight until Johnny’s health get’s around 40% where he’ll start glowing red and his damage output increases. If you have Xray at this time, use it to make short work of this mission.
  54. 1st responder - Opponent: Stryker - Oh look, Johnny’s laying in the background. Anyway, before the fight starts you have to dodge Stryker’s gun then his grenade or you lose. Just hold down. Stick to forceball combos. He must be finished with a fatality.
  55. Spin Cycle - Opponent: Kabal - Before this battle begins you have to time your invisibility special before Kabal’s Nomad Dash hits you. The timing is very lenient. As long as you are invisible when his dash comes you’ll dodge it. If you don’t dodge it he’ll do his 1,1,1 string then you have to try to dodge his dash again. It’ll keep repeating until you dodge the dash. Once you do, Kabal will be dizzy long enough for you to get a free combo. After that the battle continues normally.
  56. Who Ya Gonna Call? - Opponents: Jax/Sonya - Final part of the mini-story, you gotta do an endurance match. You also have a time limit of 60 seconds. Don’t try to just scrub it out with jump kicks, you don’t have time for that. Combos, uppercuts, and avoiding wakeup attacks are necessary here.
  57. Test Your Strike #2 - Material: Human Skulls - The minimum requirement is up a bit more than it was for Test Your Might. Still, shouldn’t be too tough.
  58. Target Practice - Character: Sektor (until mission 55) - Opponent: Cyrax - A minigame in which you must hit Cyrax with 5 upward missiles before time runs out, and you cannot move. Cyrax will be jump and walking back and forth the whole time. You have access to all three upward missiles (above, in front, and behind) with shortcut commands linked to each of the missiles. Use the In Front and Behind versions depending on what Cyrax is doing. When he dashes or jumps he usually does another dash or jump right after. So see what direction he’s going and react accordingly.
  59. Sheer Madness - Opponent: Mileena - The title says all. Both character’s damage are reduced, Mileena has attack protection (not sure what that does), blocking is disabled and every attack landed gives a small damage boost to the character who attacked, the boosts stack and after a couple of seconds the damage boost will go away. This can get kind of frustrating, especially with the AI as they’ll do large combos all the time, racking up the damage boost. Spam 1,1 then do the best combo you know once you get 4 reps of that in. Xray does ridiculous damage if you do this.

As always, ask a question about certain challenges if you want. I’m on challenge 165 at the moment.

2
  1. Rain of Ice - Opponent: Reptile - These kinds of battles are just to show the different conditions you can have through kombat kodes or test your luck. The titles of these kinds of missions are **usually **also the names of the conditions. In this ice balls fall from the sky and freeze whoever they hit. They fall slowly so you can block one incoming or try to hit Reptile into one to extend a combo.
  2. Psychosis! - Opponent: Cyrax - Another showcase, this one being psychosis. In this the screen is flipped horizontally and vertically leading to confusion, as your controls are the same, down still crouches and up still jumps. It’ll take a while to get used to but when you do it shouldn’t be a problem to defeat Cyrax as his AI isn’t tough, and you should be used to fighting the CPU by now. Teleport if you see him drop a bomb or net.
  3. Frankenstein - Teammate: Cyrax (Disabled until a certain condition is met) - Opponents: Kabal/Smoke - In this battle Sektor does little damage to the opponent, but after doing enough (1-2%) the opponent will drop parts of Cyrax. Spam 1,1 as the computer has little response to this. Save up your Xray. Collect 5 of them to have a greatly powered up version of Cyrax enter the batte. He’s been rebuilt to be faster, stronger, and - yeah enough joking. He has more health, does more damage, and has his speed increased. At the end of the battle you are to do his fatality. But, just for you guys, I’ll just mention now that you don’t need to do his fatality here. You can do his babality instead, which is down, forward, back, 2. Make sure you are at least jumping distance away from them first (may need to avoid blocking to do it).
  4. Test Your Luck #2 - You have 2 condition reels to go through this time. Once again, try to get more buffs than the opponent and be sure they don’t get “overpowered” or blocking disabled (overpowered makes their attacks go through blocks).
  5. Your Time To Shine - Character: Sub-Zero (until mission 60) - Here you have to kill 6 zombies, but this time you don’t lose when they touch you, they attack instead. Normal attacks don’t do much damage, and you only have 30 seconds to win. Fortunately special attacks kill zombies in one hit. Don’t bother using ice clone though, the zombies will stop in their tracks. Just slide or ice ball as soon as you see one standing.
  6. Mess You Up - Opponent: Scorpion - Another mission similar to “In-terror-gation.” Head and Chest hits: 12, stomach and leg hits: 2. Sub-Zero’s version of this mission is extremely easy as his jump kick hits the head, chest, and stomach, AND Scorpion doesn’t use wakeup teleports to stop them. Once you finish the first 3 parts of the body, sweep, block the wakeup teleport or Xray, and sweep again for the win.
  7. The Burning Man - Opponent: Tarkatan Leader - You have 30 seconds to push the opponent to the corner before he explodes, and touching him will cause damage to you. Use 2,2,2 combos to make quick work of this mission. You cannot use special moves in this mission.
  8. Out on a Limb - Opponent: Kitana - Dark humor abound in this mission. You can only attack by throwing limbs at your opponent. 1 throws your head, 2 throws your arms, and 4 throws one of your legs. They all do a lot of damage and the limbs regrow after a couple of seconds. You cannot do air attacks. You can pres block when you throw a limb to enhance it for more damage. Just go through all the attacks, no real thought needed for this one.
  9. Resurrection! - Opponent(s): Sheeva (And Goro if you do not do a fatality) - In this battle you face Sheeva straight out. Be careful as she has a few unblockable attacks, such as the stomp and ground stomp. It is very important that you do the fatality on her, or the mission will get A LOT harder. If you fail the fatality her health will fully regenerate AND she will get a partner, Goro. One of their damage outputs gets increased as well. If you want, record yourself beating this mission after not doing a fatality on Sheeva. I haven’t done it yet.
  10. Shaolin Monk: Act 2 - Opponents: Kitana/Jade - In this match you have to be sure to do a fatality on Jade, if you do it on Kitana you will fail the mission. If you do end up defeating Kitana second, don’t hit retry. Just hit her instead and Jade will switch places with her with a little bit of health regained. Kitana will not get back into the fight again.
  11. Carnage Carnival - Character: Cyrax (until mission 67) - In this minigame you have to throw Cyrax’s medium range bomb into a bucket, and every time you do so it you get koins. I think it was 50 per bomb in the bucket. After a bomb goes into the bucket it’ll move back and forth faster or slower than before. Try throwing it before the bucket reaches the beginning of the decorative foreground object on the opposite side of the lantern. The timing will change slightly when the bucket’s speed changes.
  12. What Is Your Major Malfunction? - Opponent: Kung Lao - These next few mission with Cyrax he has a bunch of different malfunctions going on, so with that out of the way… You cannot use your net, bombs, or buzz-saw specials in this mission. Your time limit is 40 seconds. It’s still plenty of time to land some basic combos. Just don’t try jumping attack as Kung Lao will usually spin if you try.
  13. Fire And Forget… Literally - Opponent: Sonya - In this mission you can only use each of Cyrax’s specials once. Use them wisely, during combos or setting up traps. Do not waste your net.
  14. Glitch In The System - Opponent: Liu Kang - In this mission you have access to all of your specials again normally, but every attack that you do reduces the damage you do by 2%. Stick with uppercuts on this one, as doing combos will make the end of this fight a pain.
  15. Power Down - Opponent: Raiden - In this mission your speed is decreased by 1% every second. This includes jumping speed, movement speed, attacking speed, and hitstun/launched speed. You’ll want to end this fight as quickly as you can because if it drags on it’ll be practically impossible to do combos and you’ll get punished easily.
  16. Test Your Might #3 - Material: Oak - The minimum requirement barely increased at all. Should be a cake walk after the last 2.
  17. Friendly Sparring - Character: Kung Lao (until Mission 73) - Opponent: Liu Kang - In this mission you cannot use any specials or attacks that use his hat. Doing so will forfeit the mission. Stick to his 1,1,2,1 and 2,1,2,1 combo. Be sure that you don’t end the 2,1,2,1 combo with the 2 as it’ll use his hat in the end instead of his fist.
  18. Not-So-Friendly Sparring - Opponent: Liu Kang - In this mission you must land 5 specials before Liu Kang can. This mission is stacked against you as Liu Kang’s parry and bicycle kick count as 2 specials, so be sure that those don’t land. Do not use the hat, as Liu Kang will use his low fireball to trade/beat out your hat. Stick with the spin, and try to land it 3 times in a combo.
  19. Hats Off! - Opponent: Raiden - Another showcase, this time of Headless Kombat. The additional information shows that during headless kombat, not only are head-based attacks disabled, but Xrays are disabled as well. Fortunately, you still have the insanely fast spin. Unfortunately, your opponent Raiden still has access to the Electric Fly, the only move in the game that is faster than Spin. Still, he doesn’t throw it out that often, and if you are good with spin combos this should be cake. If you have trouble with them, check out the guide in Test Your Might that I linked in the beginning and practice in this mission.
  20. United Again - Teammate: Liu Kang - Another SWAT minigame, this time you have to kill 20 zombies and can only use your projectiles 3 times before swapping out.
  21. The Great Kung Lao - Opponent: Nightwolf - In this mission all special attacks do more damage. Be on the look out for his, and watch for wakeup attacks. 1,1,2 xx spin combos do wonders here. Important note: A naked Xray by Kung Lao will do 82% damage in this mission.
  22. Test Your Sight #3 - 7 heads will a small amount of shuffling that goes slowly. If you pay attention at all you should get this one.
  23. Prove Your Worth - Character: Baraka (until mission 79) - Opponents: 3 tarkatan soldiers - In this mission you must defeat 3 tarkatan soldiers who all have 50% health. As they are generics with no specials, this will be a good time to practice specials and combos.
  24. But I’m His Favorite! - Opponent: Mileena - In this mission you have to beat Mileena all the while avoiding her Pounce, as her landing it will increase her damage output by 25%. Fortunately it is slow and you can punish it will full combos. As always be wary of random teleports.
  25. Assault on the Palace - Teammate: Mileena Opponents: 2 Tarkatan soldiers - In this battle both of your characters have 50% health. The only attacks that do damage are the weapon based attack, such as Baraka’s back+2, uppercut, most of his specials, and all of Mileena’s Sai attacks. In addition to doing damage, it causes the opponent to bleed, making their health fall rapidly for 4 seconds. If necessary, combo into their specials. From one attack their health drains about 30%. Do not use Xrays as they do not count as weapon attacks.
  26. Protect The Fallen - Teammate: Mileena (after a certain period of time passes) Opponents: 10 tarkatans with 10% health each - One uppercut will kill any of the tarkatans. When one is defeated, another jumps on screen, invincible until it lands, and gets a boost in damage. By the tenth tarkatan the damage increase is well over 150%. Just be careful, use your block, and uppercut when you get the chance.
  27. Now You Are Just Showing Off… - Opponents: Reptile, Ermac, Goro - In this mission you face some pretty tough odds, with 2 normal fighters and a boss to fight… but! if you do a combo that does 5+ hits, you will get a buff added, though buffs will not stack. Baraka’s Chop Chop does 7 hits, so landing that will give you a buff. Annoyingly, Reptile really doesn’t want to get hit by that, so you’ll need to do 2 xx Chop Chop to get it to hit easily. Once you get that down keep doing it until you get the buff for unlimited Xray/Super Meter. Once you get that you can spam Xray and the opponent will be too busy dying to block it. This seems to break Goro’s Super Armor so take advantage of it!
  28. Test Your Strike #3 - Material: Human Heads - The minimum bar has raised a bit and the area you need to keep it in has gotten smaller, so you may need to restrain yourself once you get the bar up to that spot.
  29. Horse - Character: Kitana (until mission 85) - Opponent: Jade - In this mission you and the computer will take turns attacking one another, the computer going first. For a few seconds they’ll attack, you cannot block. Once they finish, the combo bar will come up and show how much damage they did. You need to beat that amount. You have the same time to do whatever you need to. As a frame of reference, every uppercut does 12% damage, so if she has done 23% or less damage in a short period of time, do two uppercuts, if she did 35% in a slightly longer period of time, do 3 uppercuts. If she did more than that, refer to the combo thread on TYM or here at SRK to find one stronger than the one she did.
  30. Projected Anger - Opponent: Mileena - In this mission you have to land 10 projectiles before Mileena can. You can’t move, but you can duck, so bait out Mileena’s Sai the counter with a fan toss. Don’t jump, her sais are much faster than your fans. Also watch the weird combo counter, it goes kind of crazy in this one.
  31. When Brigands Attack! - Opponents: 5 Tarkatan soldiers - In this mission you have 5 generics to kill and your damage has skyrocketed. Consequently, they like to block, and duck block. Take care of that with a throw, which does 48% damage. Do 2 throws then chip them out.
  32. Frost Bitten - Opponent: Sub-Zero - Here Sub-Zero has an innate ability, a burst of ice. If you are caught in it, you will be frozen, as it is unblockable. There is a warning to it though, as you’ll see more and more frost around Sub-Zero the closer the burst is to coming. Once you see the frost turning light blue, keep away from Sub-Zero, jumping back and throwing fans. If he has you in the corner, use Square Boost to get out of there then keep him away with air fans. One last thing, Xrays are disabled.
  33. Sibling Rivalry - Teammate: Jade - Opponent: Mileena - You have the poison condition, and losing 2% health each second. Don’t let this get to you. Fight Mileena as you would normally. Once your health gets down below 15% use your one tag to get Jade in there. Don’t bother trying to attack Mileena with Jade, as once Jade is out neither fighter takes any damage. Instead you’ll see a button on screen, repeatedly tap it as fast as you can to recover health with Kitana. If you tap fast fast enough you might get your health back to max. Eventually Kitana will return to the fight, and will start losing health again. But with your health back up, and her’s still down from before the tag out, you should have little trouble ending the fight.
  34. Test Your Luck #3 - It’s the same as Test Your Luck #2
  35. Arm-ageddon - Character: Jade (until mission 90) - Opponent: Sindel - Showcase of armless kombat. Arm-based attacks are disabled, making Shadow kick and flash the only special you can do, blocking, throws, and Xrays are disabled. With blocking disabled you can scrub this one out with jump kicks. Watch out for the wake up cartwheel though.
  36. It’s Not Easy - Opponent: Reptile - Like “One Hand Tied Behind Your Back” you can only do specials, BUT your damage has not been increased to rectify this. No matter, use the Staff Overhead, and combo into two normal shadow kicks (input the second one just before the first one hits). If the staff is blocked, be sure to block right after.
  37. Portality! - Opponents: 10 Tarkatan soldiers - Your damage is doubled (?) and the AI is around Easy difficulty. Use the same combo mentioned in “It’s Not Easy” to get your meter up quickly, as your Xray does 70%. The Staff Overhead, shadow kick, shadow kick combo does 31%. Alternatively you can zone them out with her boomerangs.
  38. Watch the Face - Opponent: Johnny Cage - In this mission you have to land 20 head shots on Johnny. The AI is Medium, maybe hard difficulty for this one, so you may want to avoid using jump kicks. As Johnny has no teleport you can pretty much safely use boomerangs for this one, as he’ll usually throw his high force ball which will whiff most of the time.
  39. Specials Are My Thing - Opponents: Scorpion/Stryker - you have access to all of your moves, but only specials will do any damage. Unlike “It’s Not Easy” however, you again have your damage increased, by a lot more than in “Portality.” Staff Overhead, Shadow kick, Shadow kick saves the day again. As always against scorpion, be on the lookout for those teleports.
  40. Shaolin Monk: Act 3 - Opponents: Baraka/Reptile - Nothing really special to this one. As with all the Shaolin Monk missions, as stated in the first one, you end with a fatality. As always, be on the look out for wake up attacks.
  41. Fury of the Ancestors - Character: Nightwolf (until mission 97) - Opponent: Sektor - This is probably the shortest mission in the Tower. You have to absorb one missile with the Enh. reflect, and then use the lightning attack to win. You can move around freely but there’s really no point.
  42. Storm Front - Opponent: Kabal - This battle is kind of like a Test Your Luck condition but isn’t. Throughout the battle lightning clouds will come followed by a lightning strike. Jump to avoid them. The AI barely does anything in this one.
  43. Clarity - Opponent: RUUTUU - Another generic, but this time the AI is actually a little difficult. They’ll uppercut all jump-ins and will almost always do 3 hit combos. Still, they don’t know how to deal with lightning on wakeup so take advantage of that.
  44. Ancestral Weapons - Opponent: Baraka - This mission only attacks that use Nightwolf’s weapons do damage, including his Hatchet, Arrow, Xray, some normals, but not his throw. Use his 1,2,2,1 combo in conjunction with his Hatchet to do a decent amount of damage. Be sure to use your Xray wisely. Use your block button!
  45. Soul Glow - Opponents: Kano/Kabal/Ermac/Scorpion - A 4 man endurance match. After every opponent, your health is refilled and you get a buff added in this order: Damage increase, health increase, and infinite Super Meter + your costume changes into his alternate. Fight the first 3 matches the way you normally would, being careful of Kano’s cannon balls, Kabal’s Nomad Dash, and Ermac’s everything. Once you beat these 3 defeating Scorpion is simple, as you have infinite Enhanced moves, and you have access to a 52% Xray (because of the damage boost) at any time.
  46. Test Your Might #4 - Material: Bamboo - The minimum power needed is moved up a bit. Make sure to mash all 4 buttons.
  47. Kats’ Klaws - Character: Mileena (until mission 103) - Opponent: Kitana - You can only use Sais, Kitana seems to only use air fans. Seems easy enough, don’t jump, use sais.
  48. Only A Matter Of Time - Opponent: Jade - At the beginning of the mission your blocking, throwing, normals, and specials are disabled. Over time you will regain the ability to use them, in the same order that they were disabled. In the beginning, just walk away from Jade, jump over her if she gets close, and dodge her boomerangs. Once you get block back, keep away from Jade as you were, and don’t forget you have block. Once you have your normals back, start attacking. Once you get your specials back start doing those Mileena combos. Be wary when she gets Xray, as that comes out very quickly.
  49. Fire Walls - Opponent: Nightwolf - The battlefield area is greatly reduced, and touching the walls will drain your health. Do what you must to get Nightwolf to those corners, and once you have him there, duck to be sure he doesn’t catch you with a wakeup Shoulder. Push him back to the wall and forward throw him into it, as he’ll take damage during the throw and while in hitstun.
  50. Meteor Kombat - Opponent: Sindel - Another showcase, this time of meteor kombat. If you get hit by a meteor you will burn for 5 seconds. Be sure to block if one if coming towards you. What’s out for Sindel’s wakeup cartwheel.
  51. Back To Back - This minigame is pretty frustrating if you don’t know the trick to it. You control both Baraka and Mileena, and both can do 2 attacks, an anti-ground attack, and an anti-air. Your characters will be centered on the screen while tarkatans are coming in from left and right, some walking towards you, some jumping. The trick is knowing which one is which. The jumping tarkatans are the ones with black shirts, the walking tarkatans have yellow/brown shirts. Once a tarkatan appears on screen pause the game, check out what shirt it has, and react accordingly. With Mileena you’ll have to do the anti-air attack before the tarkatan jumps.
  52. Test Your Sight #4 - 3 cups holding a disk, they shuffle quickly, but for a short amount of time. Pay attention to this.
  53. Air Cannon - Character: Smoke (until mission 109) - Opponent: Liu Kang - In this mission Liu can’t be damaged anywhere (it says on the ground but he simply cannot be damaged). To win you must do an air throw. There are a few ways to set this up: Jump kick xx Air throw; 3, 2 xx air throw; or even smoke bomb, air throw. As long as an air throw is done you’ll win.
  54. Barriers - Opponent: Reptile - In this mission the playfield is much smaller, restricting movement, but also allowing you to get your opponent to the corner very quickly. Take advantage of this to land damaging combos, but be careful as it may be difficult to react to Reptile’s elbow dash in time, and block on his wakeup.
  55. Now You See Me - Opponent: Kung Lao - In this challenge Smoke turns invisible at random intervals, either partly invisible or fully. As the AI are cheaters, they know where you’ll be regardless so this is really only a hindrance to you. Still, as long as you are paying attention to both characters you shouldn’t lose track of Smoke. Watch out for Spins, and dive kicks (DAVE KICKS). Keep him in check on Wakeup with Smoke Bombs.
  56. Tireless Assault - Opponent: Raiden - The last person hit cleanly with start burning. Try to stay on the offensive because you can’t really run from Raiden and wait for the burn to kill him. Be wary on his wakeup as Electric fly will get you if you aren’t already blocking and are close up. Don’t throw Smoke Bombs haphazardly as he will teleport when you throw one. Block and punish is the name of the game.
  57. The Lair of the Beast - Opponent: Sheeva - Another mission in which you perform a fatality in the end. Unlike #59 no real penalties for not performing the fatality besides her rising again with a little health. If you see her go off screen or jump, then jump forward or backwards then teleport-punch when you see her. Don’t try jumping at her while she’s on the ground or you’ll probably get anti-air grabbed.
  58. Test Your Strike #4 - Material: Soul Box - First thing’s first, lose this one because it’s pretty cool to see. Anyway, bar raised a tiny bit, max power to minimum power gap is the same (and will be from now on). Just keep doing what you’re doing and be sure to slow down while in the range.
  59. Rainbow Kombat: Character: Quan Chi (until mission 115) - Opponent: Kitana - Another showcase, but with the added conditions of Armless and Headless combat. Most of Quan Chi’s specials are affected by this, but not to worry, his teleport is not, and with this being armless combat, Kitana can’t block, so you can lock her out of the win by just using the teleport stomp over and over again.
  60. It’s Alive! - Opponent: Scorpion - Hit Scorpion 4 times with your Trance special to win. Use it as an anti air, as Scorpion likes to jump a lot. In between trances, block in case he decides he wants to teleport, then punish with trance.
  61. Don’t Take Too Long - Opponent: Sonya - You start off the battle weakened, and supposedly Sonya gets more difficult after certain time intervals, but I’m not sure what that exactly entails. She doesn’t seem to take less and less damage or do more as time goes on. Maybe her difficulty level increases. Either way, just try to beat her quickly with strong combos, and any time you can, use Skeletal Boost.
  62. Win Quickly - Opponent: Mileena - Over the course of this mission you will lose access to abilities after certain periods of time, making it harder to win the longer you take, so use that Skeletal boost and beat Mileena quickly (combos, jump kicks, etc). Abilities you lose (in order): Throws, Specials, Blocking, Ducking, Jumping, +Others that I haven’t lived to see.
  63. Dance Magic Dance - Opponent: Shang Tsung - in this mission you don’t directly do damage to your opponent. Instead whenever you hit the opponent, everything tilts slightly, same if he hits you, just in another direction, and centers itself if there are any lulls in the fight. The more the arena is tilted to the left, the more health is drained from Shang Tsung, and the more health you regain. They go easy on you here and disable blocking, so you can spam that tele-stomp to win.
  64. Test Your Luck #4 - 3 condition slots
  65. High Noon (AKA free money) - Character: Stryker (until mission 120) - Opponent: Sonya - For no reason Stryker decides to kill Sonya, but she doesn’t want to fight him, so she’s just going to jump around in this mission while you don’t move and use only the gun. Gun does twice as much damage. Just hold the gun out and wait for her to be on the ground and shoot.
  66. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - Teammate: Sonya - Kill 30 cyborgs “SWAT” mission style. This time, both characters shoot twice, so you can only get 2 full volleys, and 1 normal 1. I’d stick with doing 2 volleys, each when two cyborgs are on the screen, then switching and repeating.
  67. Power Up! - Opponent: Jax - Showcase of both Gift of Super and Gift of Health. Icons of + and Xrays will drop at random, + giving you 25% health back, Xray icons giving you 1 bar. Kick back and abuse the guns to win this one. AI can’t handle it.
3
  1. Make Your Move - Opponent: Reptile - You start off with a bunch of things disabled, and over time they get reenabled. Things disabled: dashing, jumping, ducking, blocking, normals, and specials. Needless to say, you are going to get hit when this match starts, unless you are really lucky. Thankfully, the first few conditions only last a few seconds, so just back up and keep away from him so that if he does forceball he won’t be able to combo easily. Once you get jumping re-enabled, dodging should be easier. From there, it’s just about 10-15 seconds before you get to attack. Use whatever BnB you know until you get specials back on and use those guns.
  2. I’ve Fallen and Can’t Get Up - Opponent: Kano - You have 30 seconds to beat Kano, while you’re overall speed has been increased. This of course means your guns are a lot more dangerous, and more easily spammed. DO IT.
  3. Shaolin Monk: Act 4 - Opponents: Scoprion/Sub-Zero - Block button is great, don’t forget it. Punish those teleports and slides with maximum damage. Don’t stay still for too long either, for the hellfire might get you.
  4. Slow Mo Kombat - Character: Raiden (until mission 127)- Opponent: Nightwolf - Showcase of a kombat kode that doesn’t exist (possibly). Everything moves half as fast as usual. As you are Raiden, this makes it easier to punish, or even cut off your opponent’s attack. Don’t try to punish a shoulder though. Arrows should be jumped as soon as you see them then use fly when you are at his head-level.
  5. Listen To Your Elders - Opponent: Sub-Zero - You can only use specials, but you can keep using enhanced specials, and your specials do more damage. Spam enh. Bolt for an easy win.
  6. Life Swap - Opponent: Johnny Cage - Every 15 seconds health from both players will switch, so you’ll want to take as much damage as you can before the health swap, then if it’s less than 30%, use 1 of Raiden’s BnB combos. If you don’t think you can kill him in time, play defensive and switch health again and lose some health, and then after one more switch you should be able to finish him.
  7. Have To Share - Opponent: Kung Lao - Kung Lao starts off with a health boost, but eventually that buff goes from him to you. It takes such a long time usually that you probably won’t see it change though. Prepare to block those spins and dive kicks. Punish them with as much damage as possible.
4

Good idea…

5

good idea, im at 47 or so, Anyone know how many missions there are?

6
  1. Someone mentioned even if you cleared all 300 challenges (without skipping), you don’t get rewarded with anything. Apparently.
7

What do you mean? As opposed to doing the tower while skipping some?

8

I just finished End Game (Mission 300), but I didn’t notice getting anything different besides Mileena’s Flesh Pit costume.

By the way, does anyone remember when Lead Software Engineer Jay Biondo said he wanted to see someone get through End Game with a full health bar? I don’t see this happening anytime soon, but if anyone already has, please let me know.

9

getting past Goro & Kintaro without taking a hit is possible, maybe even Shao Khan, but not Mileena…that shit is impossible, random rolls, random dives, sai spam…nope, not gonna happen

10

First 2 posts updated. Guide updated to challenge #102

11

You can probably pass challenge 101 faster if you have someone else take control of baraka and you control mileena, thats what me and my brother did. Its very nice only worrying about ‘your side’, plus there’s someone to blame if you die lol

12

Nice, great idea for a thread.

13

Yeah, that’d probably work well if you have someone else to help. I just wanted to give tips on how to do that one in particular in one shot so you don’t have to hear Mileena’s incredibly long annoying shriek all the time when losing.

Thanks.

14

I tilted my controller like this:
X Y
A B

it’s easy that way.

15

You can seemingly get unlimited money in the Challenge Tower.

In all the free ones where you simply beat up your opponent for koins (…) just before time runs out PAUSE then select RETRY.

Any money you’ve earned is retained and thus you can rinse and repeat.

However, if you’ve already completed that challenge you’ll only get 1 or no koins per hit on a COMPLETED RETRY. This tip obviously won’t apply to those who’ve beaten the Tower…

16

Yes. I actually mentioned that in the first post under mission 37 (it’s in bold starting at the word BONUS).

17

Well, in a slight twist, I’m gonna need some help. Mission 167. Already frustrated with this one. Noob and freaking Cyber Sub.

EDIT: Nevermind, found the easy way to beat them. I was trying to fight them like I would against a person, then I remembered that they are MK AI and read your inputs and stuff. Holding block against Noob works as he’ll blow his Xray pretty much right away, and will teleport a lot. Cyber Sub never seems to use lows so blocking low worked and I just punished slides and dive kicks. I stuck with doing the command throw - bomb trap against him since the bombs do more damage against him in this mission.

More edits: Thanks anyway KentaroFA

18

I’ll check it out tomorrow if no one has helped you by then. I just finished the tower. Goro + Kintaro + Mileena + Shao Khan took me a good 40 or so tries… I hate Mileena…

19

Oop, update to the Out on a Limb missions, when you press a button to throw a part of you, you can enhance it the same way you do enh. specials for more damage.

20

I’m stuck on Challenge #160. The description says land an 8-hit combo to win. I did land an 8-hit combo and even landed a 9-hit combo and it still didn’t give it to me. Does anyone have any idea why this would be? It was a juggle combo, if it matters.
Thanks!