In gaming journalism it’s an odd situation when you cover a particular topic, only to have it immediately develop futher – particularly for the better.
In this case, the promised changes for Mortal Kombat 11’s nonsensical mega-grind have been applied to major platforms alongside a delightful stimulus of in-game kurrencies, basically fixing the whole malarkey:
Big Mortal Kombat 11 update/patch now available for PS4 (Xbox, PC, Switch soon). Addresses many of the player concerns & issues plus includes a big Community Gift for your trouble. Check out the details here…https://t.co/OSorcmSIPz
— Ed Boon (@noobde) April 29, 2019
The patch worked to fix a number of bugs with the game, particularly odd interactions within some of the Tower of Time modifiers, but the real shining star was an across-the-board buff to the rate at which players are rewarded the games various kurrencies:
This, coupled with the free injection of these same kurrencies for all players has done a lot to get people back in the mood to play – finally free of the oppressive nature of the games previous grind. Seriously, look at the amount of stuff that was awarded:
Making it ‘Rain’ (This is a Mortal Kombat reference to a character named Rain)
The patch notes did not go into specifics as to how much the Kurrency gain had been increased, but after playing for myself for a couple hours I can happily report:
- Dragon Challenges (mid-fight bonus objectives) have been increased tenfold
- Smashing Pots in The Krypt went from awarding 1 Koin to awarding up to 30 at a time
- Fatalities now rewards a number of hearts, rather than just 1 – with Brutalities rewarding up to 8 (!!!)
- AI Challenges shower Koins upon you, in the tens of thousands
…In short, you get tons more stuff.
An original developer quote mentioned that their intention was that it would now take ‘Hours to unlock your desired items, rather than days’ and all evidence seems to suggest this is more than true.
Sure, the grind to gain Kurrency is still there – but the increased rate of reward means you can just enjoy playing the game and bathe in your incidental cash gain, rather than bogging down into hours of repetitive ‘kash focused’ gameplay, trying to manipulate the game into giving you as much as possible.
I wish this change had been present in the release product, as it would have definitely affected my review of Mortal Kombat 11 – but I can now happily say that I retract my “Can’t Recommend” caveat, as the actions of the team at NetherRealm have absolutely restored my faith in MK11 as a product.
Fight on, my bloodthirsty friends.
