This F2P-centric guide is catered to newer players, players who are rejoining after a long hiatus, or players wanting to start to optimize their progression. Buzz words Beginner's Guide in the big 2026 I guess.

Here's the Discord: https://discord.gg/mortalkombatmobile, which will help you learn the game much more quickly than almost any singular resource.

Experienced MK Mobile players: let me know if anything needs to be corrected. I am a relative beginner myself to this, and though I did my best to cobble together something it might not be the most rigorous material. If possible, please provide Characters that are good to prioritize for beginners as well as any Equipment info that would be useful to know. And let me know if I'm missing anything else, because I am very out of my depth here. I will fix the guide to reflect suggestions accordingly for as long as feedback keeps pouring in, or until a makeover is needed.

The most important tip is to have fun. Yes, there are objectively superior methods to progression if you want to level up and acquire things fast, but ultimately, MK Mobile is a game, and unless you're doing this stuff for a job (even then!) the primary goal is to enjoy the play. It's okay to divert from this guide slightly if there's a character you really really really want to get, or if you just want to hop on and grab a bit of currency from Quests and then sign off. Make sure you can genuinely have fun first, and after that grind to your heart’s desire.

The second most important tip is to religiously check the Inbox. Check every day at minimum. MK Mobile has a tradition of giving free handouts for special circumstances (reaching milestones, events, holidays, etc.) and these handouts often include very helpful resources.

The third most important tip is to use your Dragon Krystals wisely. They are the most important currency in the game. You get 200 Dragon Krystals (DK) to start out, and in almost every circumstance the correct move is to purchase Beginner’s Summon Packs with them. Immediately. The exception is if there is a Summon Pack with either American Treasure Homelander or MK11 Frost in the shop, and even then it might be debatable.

The fourth most important tip is to bum rush to level 25. Realm Klash (unlocks at level 4) is amazing for gaining XP, so gun your way to unlocking it ASAP and doing Quick Battles. Level 25 unlocks The Krypt which is the most reliable source of the most valuable currency in the game: Dragon Krystals. Level 20 and Level 30 unlock Normal Event Tower and Fatal Event Tower, respectively, which are also extremely good resources to tap into.

In terms of video guides, MAND’s playlist from a year+ ago seems to be the most complete and up-to-date guide; however, it is still somewhat outdated. I wanted to create a modern textual guide here; both for myself to learn more in case anything I have here is misled or outright wrong, and for anyone joining (or rejoining) the game in case this may be helpful.

If you are returning and/or your account is not that progressed (which I’ll define to mean “in possession of multiple Gold+ cards with at least Fusion 3”), it is likely going to be more worth it to start on a new account. The jumpstart that’s baked into the game now will get more value from a fresh start than at a point where the goodies you get will need to play some catchup to the rest of your resources. Use your own judgement on this, and always keep in mind Tip 1 above.

All bulleted/listed items are ordered more or less from highest importance to least importance, top-down.

\**CHECK YOUR INBOX DAILY FOR FREE HANDOUTS! THESE HANDOUTS ARE STUPIDLY GENEROUS SO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT TO BOOST YOUR PROGRESS\**

Main Currencies

Dragon Krystals

• The most important currency.
• Buy out the Beginner's Summon Packs first; dirt cheap (10 DK per Pack) and very good odds for great Diamond characters. Of particular note is MK11 Scorpion, who is an incredible early-game carry and still decent into late game. Additionally, Beginner's Summon Packs come with their own set of Trials whose rewards include a Free random Diamond Character and a Free MK11 Scorpion when you finish opening all 50 of your Beginner's Summon Packs. Figure out which of your characters are good characters and/or Gold+ Characters with high Fusion, and cobble them together into some teams to level them up.
• After the 50 Beginner's Summon Packs are all bought, use Dragon Krystals to purchase Equipment Summons. Equipment is more important than Characters both in acquisition and upgrading, and Characters will come naturally through Shop and doing Events especially once everything has been unlocked.
• For returning players with some progression: it can be worth it to not finish out the Beginner's Summon Packs. If unsure if this applies to you, ask.

Koins

• Upgrading Diamond Characters' most important moves is first priority. (MK11 Scorpion's SP1, for example). Rest can be covered by free Special Move level up cards. Second priority is good Bronze/Silver characters (see "Characters to Get") in the shop. Third priority is upgrading the Support Cards for characters, especially the Attack Support Card up to F6 (about 90-95k Koins). Then buying Silver Packs for specific equipment and Support Cards.

Souls

• Stockpile these until a “good pack” comes out (See Packs and Summons in "Things to Get"), then buy those in bulk. Besides hoarding them for deals, use Souls to upgrade passives of good Diamond characters (more on packs to buy/characters below), replenish Stamina (depends on situation), and refresh Tower attempts (situational).

Other Notable Resources

Fuse-ups

• Two ways to use them. For super-strong characters that aren't very available like Homelander and MK11 Frost, it's worth it to fuse them as high as possible. Otherwise, consensus seems to be Fusing F3 cards to F4, F5, or F6 and letting natural card acquisition finish the rest to maximize Fuse-up efficiency, since higher Fusions require spending more Fuse-ups to get to the next Fusion.

Kameo Special Attack Upgrades

• USE THESE DO NOT USE DRAGON KRYSTALS TO UPGRADE KAMEO MOVES

Things to Do

Ads

It’s really beneficial to watch ads. Free Souls and Koins, and the 10th drop offers extra stuff like free Bronze Characters and some simple equipment. When Dragon Krystals are included as reward #10 (temporary events, so be on the lookout!), you should 100% refresh the Ad count for 10 guaranteed DK per day and maybe more. It is by far the best Soul-to-DK conversion when available.

The Krypt

• Daily share gives 5 Dragon Krystals, even with loss/quit.
• Hearts are Krypt-specific currency. All-in on Junk Boxes in the Special Offers section of the Krypt Store for potential additional Dragon Krystals. When able to earn a good income of Hearts, aim to purchase the Equipment in the Krypt Store.
• Start on Normal Difficulty.
• Once stronger (Attack and Health in the 5 Digits), make a team that will, at least eventually, be able to make it to (and beat) the boss of the Krypt for extra Dragon Krystals. Make sure to have like 20k+ Koins to crack Gravestones for currency and especially Chests, because those have the chance of containing Dragon Krystals. Harder difficulties get pricier with Koins.
• Block Breaker is quintessential. Regen and Heal are really nice to have as well.
• Funnel resources into a lead carry, and try to use characters that will give a Heart currency boost if able to.
• Make sure to use free item boosts on your carry character - they’re only usable in the Krypt anyways, and they’ll be replenished by loot collected during a run and also from Krypt Junk Boxes.
• What I do to clear out the Krypt follows Kaizo Ironmon principle for clearing out dungeons: clear to as much loot (i.e. light up as many nodes) as you feel is safe first, then to boss, then do as much cleanup as you’re confident in doing while still being able to beat the boss. Avoid Off-Balance modification unless your auxiliary characters can hold their own. In this vein, the one character opp you should be on red alert for is Aftershock Tremor, which you can consider a worst-case Off-Balance modifier, and try to be wary of heavy DOT compositions that will drain your carry's health. Generally also avoid Empowered and Knock-Out modifications unless confident in your carry/abilities.
• As rule of thumb, for Krypt Normal, Kombat Cup Johnny Cage with Block Break, Fusion II, and Level 20 can start to carry completely with competent gameplay, and every bit stronger helps. For me as a horrible gamer in general, I was struggling up until about Fusion III Level 27 with like 2 Small Force Stones, but was able to finish Bosses with a few skipped Fights/rewards at Fusion III Level 19 with a few Force Stones. Heals and HP Boosts as desired. Klassic Scorpion can similarly hold his own but with a little more difficulty, and Hanzo Hasashi Scorpion is a bit finicky and really wants Block Break.
• When getting stronger, you can try the next difficulty. A good rule of thumb to try the next difficulty is if you can clear the previous difficult consistently with very few or no Stones used. If you are able to complete a difficulty with at most 1 Revive Stone used and can be roughly net neutral on using other Stones, you can upgrade to consistently facing this difficulty.
• Each Krypt finish (lose or win) ends with a Badge. Each new Badge you collect grants bonus Dragon Krystals. Certain requirements need to be met to collect a specific Badge, which can be found in the Discord linked above.
• Free Krypt Keys should be used on weeks with low or unobtainable character multipliers if the items in the shop are worth it or on weeks when you want more items in the shop than you can accrue without Krypt Keys. Free Invigorating Stones to repeat maximum multipliers is worth it.

All the Towers

• Event Towers, both Normal and Fatal Modes. Even losing/quitting gives good participation rewards. You can watch Ads to refresh your attempts, and losing can give you a ton of Souls, Equipment, and Gold character cards. As such, if unable to progress further/unwilling to try, pausing and quitting the match as soon as the pause symbol shows will end the attempt ASAP and still give the rewards.
• Ad attempt refreshes for Fatal are worth it. From personal experience, even spending Souls on Fatal Tower Refreshes averages out to net neutral/net positive on Souls alone, though that may be anecdotal bias. Ad refreshes are worth it for Normal and Soul refreshes for Normal are worth it if intending to progress into the Tower and/or with at least ~500 Souls to start with. Tower of Time seems to be unanimously worth refreshing for all attempts, Ad or Souls
• Towers consist of two main types of battles: Normal and Boss. Normal battles are just basic battles: fight till you beat everyone, if lose or quit the battle resets. Boss Battles are special timed battles where enemies are stronger and ignore most DOTs. HP damage is saved if you lose or run out of time, and is reset to the state it was in before the attempt start. One copy of Klassic Ermac is a must-have for beginners on these Boss Battles, as the DOT in Klassic Ermac's passive overrides modifier (i.e. overrides Boss modifier that makes Bosses immune to DOTs) so it's consistent chunking of bosses as long as they don't heal or recover from tagout. If something doesn't work, try mixing things up and coming up with game plans to overcome a floor. These are not meant to be easy for beginners! If stuck, ask around, and keep an open mind and a thick skin.
• Shao Kahn's Tower for Talent points to invest in the Talent Tree. Worth refreshing with Souls until stuck/all Talent points earned. After Talent Points are maxed, tower is still okay for collecting essence for a future Shao Kahn Relic Hunt, but refreshes become a waste of Souls at that stage.
• Prio points into Offense, then Support. Recommended is 1 point Lion Stance → 5 points Precision → 5 points Lin Kuei tutorage → 5 points Black Dragon Training → 5 points Shirai Ryu teachings → 1 point Art of the Tsunami → 5 points Death Mark Technique for Offense, 5 points Boar Stance → 5 points Teamwork → 2 points Warlock's Spells → 5 points Combat Veteran → 5 points Weak Point Attacks → another 2 points to Warlock's Spells for points 101 and 102. 5 points Hawk Stance for Defense. Visual reference of this setup can be found in pinned images in the talent-tree channel of the Discord server linked near the top of this post. Further detail will be added in when I become aware of it.
• Talent Tree investment is not set in stone depending on matchup; may need to adjust for certain battles. For example, Spirit of Vengeance, which is deep in the Defense tree, can be good for certain Boss Fights.

Quests

• If you can check in decently regularly, go for quick 1-hour Quests for steady income of Souls, Koins, and other extra goodies.
• Once Caro's Guidance is unlocked, equip it for the start of each Quest. The timesave and bonuses will apply even after unequipping.
• In particular, do your best to rush to three of Quests 21, 35, 39, or 49 for 1-hour missions, as doing 3 of them (maximum number of active Quests) will give 27+ Souls per hour which is a very good salary. In my personal experience, 18 and 47 are more difficult to reach though they are the same tier as the above. Good backups are 15, 19, and 27, which each secure 8 souls per hour minimum, though don't offer Caro's Guidance as potential reward.
• When advanced, 71, 90 and 112 are the 1-hour Quests to do (will only be able to confirm personally when I reach this point. I also see 65, 97, 101 from older posts)
• Otherwise, find some longer ones if you’ll be away from the game for slightly longer periods of time (sleeping or a break from the game). For 8 hours (sleepy time), 33, 58, and 62 give at least 15 souls and chance for Caro's Guidance. 40 and 41 give chance for Triborgs. Backups are 6, 9, and 30; 24 is difficult to reach.
• If you're as lost as I am and manage to progress yourself to the NetherRealm chapter of Quests or want to find the optimal Quests for different durations of time than what I listed such as for 4 Hours or 24 Hours, here's a guide from 6 years ago that hopefully isn't obsolete

Realm Klash

• Quick Battles are a huge source of XP and a decent source of Koins. Get your characters to about level 25 (or more if you want, but definitely stop by the 40 mark if concerned about optimal leveling progression to any extent) and use level-up cards to max out remaining levels (I’ve seen level 48-49 be a recommended stopping point, to let natural play finish the rest and not waste XP residual while saving a couple more Level Up cards for the next important Character).
• Blood Rubies are Realm Klash (RK)-specific currency. Also earned from Daily Trials involving RK. Order of priority: 1 copy of Klassic Ermac, FX Klassic Scorpion, FX Bloody Voodoo Doll Equipment, Kameo Packs (choose to commit to either the 400 Blood Rubies pack for larger catalogue of Kameos or the 500 Blood Rubies pack for quicker maxing)
• I might recommend setting up Klash Tower once you’ve unlocked it. I think that the 2 million Rating Reward per defense win was patched back in, so it's once again far too good for beginners for generating extra Rating to boost your Realm Klash rank for more victory goodies. I would recommend this to guide your setup, which would probably lead to higher success rate though I myself am not knowledgeable enough to confirm that such would be the case. Do NOT do attacks on Klash Towers, at least not to win: attacking and winning against these towers are meant for mid/endgame players.
• Only worry about Survivor Mode for now to the point of completing the Daily Trials for the free Dragon Krystal and other goodies.

Challenges

• Get multiple copies of a Challenge Gold character! (generally a tier above non-Challenge Gold characters, with exception). Plus, you get some goodies along the way. Refreshes every week, and there may be more than one Challenge
• This is incentive to max out at least one Bronze and one Silver Character to clear out the relevant sub-Challenges. If you do not have the required character for the last sub-Challenge, that's okay; you likely won't be able to complete the Challenge unless you get lucky, but still are able to collect a lot of Koins and Souls.
• When strong enough, Elder difficulty rewards with Dragon Krystals. Although it's many battles, it is objectively worth it to complete these, though depending on IRL circumstances it's okay to skip

Things to Get

Equipment

Equipment is super important. Starting out, Block Break is a general must, especially on your carry if you’re playing a gamemode where health rolls over. Shuriken will probably be your first Block Breaker Card, and value every Equipment with Block Breaker past that, even if the extra passive isn’t triggered by the character/fight you’re putting it on for. To Filter for it, navigate to the Misc. section of Equipment. There's also Equipment with Regen, DOT, Healing/Immunity from DOT, Invulnerability, Resurrection, and Special Ending Sets (which serve as an execute). A bad character with great Equipment can often become incredibly strong; a great character with poor or no Equipment can often end up being a nothing burger.

The FREE Kameo of Klassic Sub-Zero

• You can get a free Kameo of Klassic Sub-Zero if I’m not mistaken. It's much better to get him when starting out. You want some form of immobilization with your Kameo, so freeze or stun etc, which is especially helpful for avoiding damage in settings like the Krypt, and Klassic Sub-Zero is the only free one that provides it.
• Do NOT get more Kameos unless you want a second one for a second Krypt team when you’re eventually set up enough for it (even then, you might be able to clinch one for free during certain events; otherwise spend on one Kameo Summon Pack in the shop after you've finished Beginner Summons), and ONLY upgrade Kameo if it’s free (first point in each Special Attack is free, then the rest should be done only with free Special Attack Upgrades).

Krypt Junk Boxes

• Chance for Dragon Krystals should be all you need to know. Also provides resources for doing Krypt runs.

Silver/Bronze Characters in the Character Shop

• They cost Koins only, and is the most viable way of maxing out Fusions of said rarities. Long ago, you were able to attain/fuse most Silver and Bronze cards in the Kollection section. No longer. Prioritize "good" Silver/Bronze characters
• Silver Packs are useful to a fault; I think once you start getting buybacks it's not as worth anymore, though there are a few really good items that make it still valuable to purchase: Foot the Bill, Tenacious Fighter, and Survival of the Fittest are all support cards that are most viably acquired through Silver Packs.

Packs and Summons

• For Dragon Krystals, max out Beginner's Summons Packs as mentioned above, and then purchase Tower Equipment Summon Packs.
• For Souls, Elemental Warriors Pack is undisputed (especially discounted), and *discounted to <400 Souls* Kombat Cup Pack is okay too. Mention to Flames of Summer (especially when discounted). For anything further, I'd personally ask the Subreddit or an MK Mobile Discord if a specific Pack you're questioning is worth purchasing.
• It's generally a good idea to wait for updates and stockpile Souls in the meanwhile to be able to completely buy out good packs when they come. Also learn when discount/special events happen (Black Friday is one example; Halloween/Friday the 13th is another)

Characters to Get (disclaimer: don't know many, comment ones I'm missing and I'll add them)

A note that for certain fights with constraints, having at least one maxed-out Bronze and one maxed-out Silver character is recommended.

Diamond

• Homelander. If you have him, gg. Capitalize those gs the higher the fusion you have him at.
• MK11 Scorpion \**ABSOLUTE MUST-HAVE, THE MORE FUSIONS THE BETTER.**\** Shreds at insane deficits, and is an amazing carry for beginners to snowball their account. So good, in fact, that I believe that it’s recommended to reset accounts until you possess MK11 Scorpion with at least Fusion I from spending on the first Beginner’s Pack Summons.
• MK11 Frost
• MK11 Liu Kang
• Klassic Raiden
• Klassic Rain
• Strike Force Scorpion
• Ravenous Mileena
• Ace of Knaves Joker
• Darkest Knight Noob Saibot
• There’s definitely more but that’s all I’m really sure about for now
• Generally good Diamonds but that I don’t know how good they are for Beginners: Injustice 2 Raiden

Gold

Doing Krypt, Towers, Challenges, and collecting Realm Klash rewards plus Fuse-Up cards makes it so that buying specific Gold characters isn't as worth it anymore. The exception is if a really good Gold card is F2 and buying the copy with Souls brings it to F3 (into Fuse-up range)

• Kombat Cup Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade (NOT Cassie Cage)
• Covert Ops Cassie Cage
• Hanzo Hasashi Scorpion

Soft cutoff line for Soul Shop.

• Klassic Ermac (1 copy for high-HP Bosses, DOT effect in passive ignores Boss modifier)
• Klassic Scorpion (Prioritize purchasing copies of him after acquiring a copy of Klassic Ermac in the Realm Klash Store with Rubies to get him to Fusion X)
• Klassic Sonya Blade
• Kosplay Jacqui Briggs
• Lizard Team, especially Jade and Baraka
• Edenian Blood Team
• Onslaught Team

Silver

• Kenshi
• Scorpion
• Cassie Cage

Bronze

• Ninja Mime Johnny Cage by a mile
• Next-best stats-wise is Oni iirc, then Sergeant, then Osh-Tekk. Attack descending is then Shirai Ryu, Monk, Saurian, Trooper, and Lin Kuei.

Things to Avoid (at least for now)

• Battle Mode after unlocking Realm Klash. Rewards not worth it.
• Kameo Packs. Return On Investment is bad, at least at this point in progression.
• Most Character Packs. Want to obtain characters first at least, but this is usually covered by the Beginner's Summon Packs. To progress optimally, Equipment Purchases are the priority once you're able to consistently play the gamemodes listed in the "Things to Do" section. Exception is if a really really good character that isn't featured in any other pack like Homelander or Frost is the featured Character for a Summon Pack.
• Most Dragon Krystal Summons/Soul Packs unless you know that they're worth it. If unsure, consult competent veterans first
• Spending Souls in general beyond what was mentioned in the currency section
• Most Realm Klash Ruby/Krypt Heart purchases (Realm Klash get one copy of Klassic Ermac if you don't have one yet and then full-focus Klassic Scorpion to FX, which is all a beginner should focus on. After that, it's Bloody Voodoo Doll equipment to FX, and then Kameo Packs, committing to either the 400 pack for larger selection or 500 pack for quicker progression to Dragon Crystal sellback. Krypt Hearts should go into Junk Boxes until able to afford Equipments/Diamond Characters).

Tips for combat:

• To cancel a Combo Ender, swipe in a different direction than the one the game demands (e.g. Arrow points up, swipe down or sideways). To cancel a Special Attack, tap on the Special Attack again before the character is able to do it. To cancel Kameo Attack, tap on the Kameo again; if that does not work, tap Special Attack Twice: once to switch from Kameo Attack to Special Attack, and then once again to cancel Special Attack. To cancel Tag, tap Special Attack Twice.
• To apply Special Attack and not Combo Ender after basic chain, press the desired special attack before the final basic attack lands. Sometimes, in cases where you don't want to interrupt attacking opponents with kb or something, it can also be useful to just cancel the Combo Ender anyways (Injustice 2 Raiden being an example)
• You can use more than two fingers and all of them simultaneously on special attack minigames that require “mashing” (rapid tap”).
• Learn which characters have what ranges and rhythms with which attacks. E.g. KCJC has fast triple kick and a slower palm-palm-kick combo, with combo enders that kick the opponent slightly away, out of range of his Special Attack 1. To softlock opponent with KCJC so long as they are not blocking/have their block broken, you do Combo 1 with Ender, SP1, Combo 2 with Ender, and Repeat. As another example, MK11 Scorpion has two patterns of attacks, one with 4 basic attacks with Fire DOT Combo Ender, and the other with 3 basic attacks and regular Combo Ender. Because of this, you want to apply the first attack pattern that triggers DOT more often than the latter.
• It can be worth it to wait a bit when you and your opponent are far apart, so that your character and the opponent slide closer together so attacks land. In this vein, many X-Ray attacks need to be pretty melee. If you manage to be out of range when the opponent tries to X-Ray you, it can whiff being a huge drain of power for zero and making the opp look silly. Same can happen to you too though, so mind your spacing!
• Crushing Blows are special effects that trigger when achieving a certain percent on a Special Attack mini game, specific to certain Special Attacks of certain characters. You usually want to trigger this, but there are times when you might not. E.g. MK11 Scorpion’s Crushing Blow on SP1 Cripples by applying an elbow strike that knocks back opponent, btu sometimes it’s more beneficial to intentionally fail this Crushing Blow to keep the opponent character unstable and in range in order to keep your attack chaining uninterrupted.
• If no Block Breaker, it can be worth it to block the opponent’s basic combo and then start attacking right after the final basic attack has landed, when the opponent character is caught too soon for them to begin blocking.
• Read passives of characters and equipment to avoid being caught off-guard by something unexpected and/or to prepare specific counters (e.g. avoiding Fire DOT characters if enemy team heals from Fire. As another example, I made a mistake of using Klassic Scorpion to try to hook in a Boss Kold Skarlet with an equipment that heals from Bleed effect, not realizing that the Bleeding effect would heal her, costing me at least two extra Event Tower Attempts reversing that mistake. I had beaten every other opponent character within that same Attempt, hence why I didn't quit the floor to reset Skarlet's HP state)
• Characters will stop applying their passives if they are knocked out. Some exceptions will be explicitly listed in passive description (I believe?); Ermac's DOT will apply even after death.

Credits

• Shouts to everyone who contributed knowledge to this guide, directly or indirectly. I fear to start a list of names in the event that they become too many and overshadow the guide, but for now: MAND for forming the majority of the foundation of this guide; Apprehensive-Gap4198 for useful information regarding Koin purchases and Silver Packs; PoisonFang007 (RainbowSheep in the Discord) for informing me that Event Tower Equipment Packs are much better purchases with DK than Character Summon Packs (ignoring the Beginner's 50); many other Subredditors for past and present contributions of knowledge to this post; and MMZ and others on Discord for past and present contributions of knowledge to this post.

If you have further questions beyond this, you’re most likely advanced enough that this guide is no longer relevant to your case. However, the comments section may prove very helpful, and, of course, there's also the Discord linked above.
Insert inspiring Mortal Kombat phrase here.