Liu Kang is a another one of those lower end of the mid tier characters, who can be a pain in the right hands. He has a number of options to play around with, wake up Bike Kicks, Dragon Kicks, Air Dragon Fire, High/Low Fireball mix ups and the roundhouse of God. Mix up run jabs with his 4 hit kick combo, and when mid screen always do his 7 hit combo rather than his pop up when it is available for free, or off a jump punch starter. The 7 hit with a jump punch does 39%, and his pop up combo to JK, AFB, Dragon Kick does 32%, not worth the effort. In the corner it is possible to link a sweep, standing LK or HK after his 7 hitter, and sometimes it is a good idea to throw a low Fireball out after the 7 hitter, and mix that up with a high one once in a while to keep them guessing.

The only time you will want to use his pop up combo is in the corner to set up multiple AFB juggles, as it is relatively easily to compensate for the lost damage, but not by much. He has a very nice punisher that requires a bit of timing, aaHPHP, JK, AFB, Dragon Kick in this case, without the double damage protection of his pop up combo, does 56%. It is a very useful tool to counter Human Smoke and Ermac’s damage if you catch a blocked teleport, make sure you take a running step before you do the HPs, and cancel the second HP with the run button to allow yourself more time to get the JK high in the air. Abuse his roundhouse as much as you can, and try to link Dragon Kicks off it mid screen for some psychological advantages, as it is very easy to know when you will connect a Liu Kang roundhouse. Every now and then throw out a wake up Bike Kick from close range, similar to Kano’s Cannonball.

Basic moves:

Liu Kang is the only character in the game to use his rear fist first to punch, subsequently, this has no affect on his juggling ability. His jabs in general are pretty normal. His sweep has normal range, but a bit of recovery to it. His uppercut is pretty good, and can hit Shang while just ducking, but his HK hits noticeably lower than some. His JP and JK are very high, similar to Kung Lao’s in MKII and has an easy time beating out others because his forward and back jumps are a bit higher than everyone else’s. His ducking LK is not as good as say Sonya’s, or Kung Lao’s, but it gets the job done, as well as his ducking LP for run jab escape. The straight up JK is a little short on range. His roundhouse is amazing. It has ridiculous range and is almost impossible to not connect it. Use it often, and use it well. It is possible to juggle a Dragon Kick off it if you happen to hit it close enough.

The Dragon Kick is a fast, horizontal air attack with some strange properties. If you are too close to an opponent, the Dragon Kick will go over them and land instantly on the other side, this might actually be something you will want to use because it will create some temporary confusion but as long as you know what the situation is you can take the upper hand. If the Dragon Kick is blocked, Liu Kang will land, and then go into a double animation where he is vulnerable to ground combos for an instant, timed to coincide with the recovery of the other character. You basically want to use it to extend combos, and occasionally as a wake up or a sudden attack. Like any move, it becomes easily scoutable with overuse. It is however extremely good at countering virtually all moves. The damage adds up, and try to also use it to escape run jabs, or mix ups in close run jabs to go over your opponent to the other side.

The Bike Kick is used similarly to the Dragon Kick, except it can possibly lead to further damage in the corner, and occasionally you can combo a standing LK off it mid screen if you get it out right on time. If you get it in the corner and are overlapping your opponent when you land, it is easily possible to get his 7 hit combo off it with a sweep for 47%. From there you can run jab and mix up. The Bike Kick is a very good wake up attack because its collision starts up quickly. Do not over abuse this or people will bait it, and Liu Kang will go into punishment mode when it is blocked. You can use it to extend corner combos as well.

Bike Kick also acts as containment and applies the “Sitting Duck” routine when used to counter or whiff punish non-cancelable moves, which disables opponent’s Block, granting a free hit after, and possible to infinite into itself as it retains the unblockable property each hit. Mid screen you can hit a Dragon Kick after a counter Bike Kick. Remember that if you counter Jabs with it, your opponent can still block, so this only works are moves like kicks, Specials, etc.

The Low, High Dragon Fires and Air Fireballs (we’ll call them Fireballs and AFBs for the sake of this) still have some use, but limited to generally full screen tactics and zoning. You can throw out a low or high Fireball after his 7 hit combo to keep them pinned down, and AFB are good as well for pinning down, but try and keep them very low. AFB can also be used to extend corner combos, by doing JKs as early and high as possible, then doing the AFB as low as possible, enabling you to re-jump and repeat a few times. Unfortunately since all his attacks are double damage protected after the pop up, his corner combo damage is very low for the effort it takes to do them.

Low Dragon Fire cannot Low Profile some projectiles like Kabal’s Eye Laser, Reptile’s Forceball, Stryker’s Grenades or Kung Lao’s hat at specific distances, and other logical situations.

Approximate frame data for Fireballs:

Low FB has 17 frame start up (point blank), 60f duration on whiff, relatively neutral on hit to +8f full screen, -20f to -14f full screen on block
High FB has 20 frame start up (point blank), 57f duration on whiff, +8 to +20 on hit -8f to almost neutral full screen on block

Low FB becomes an actual projectile 5 frames sooner than High FB

Liu Kang has a hard time relaunching characters because of the height and arch of his jump, but it is still possible to relaunch combo Jax, The Robots, Sheeva, Kung Lao, Nightwolf, Sub-zero, Kabal and Shang Tsung, but it is hardly worth the effort as the added damage for just one relaunch is about 13%.

Special Moves:

Liu Kang:
Dragon Fire High: F, F, HP (13.2%, can be done in air, “instant air” version can be done on the way up for optimal frame data [F, F{hold}+UP+HP or hold Up, F, F, HP, can buffer input with jump, Jab, Sweep, Block etc] limited Juggle potential in corner)
Dragon Fire Low: F, F, LP (13.2%, cannot be ducked by anyone, limited low profile counters)
Dragon Kick: F, F, HK (13.8%, will whiff if done too close, punishes just about anything when Blocking)
Bicycle Kick: Charge LK for 2 seconds, Release (12%, acts as containment and applies “Sitting Duck” routine which disables opponent’s Block if used to counter or whiff punish non-cancelable moves, granting a free hit after, and possible to inf into itself, limited Juggle potential mid screen and in corner)

Auto Combos:

1. HP, HP, B+LP (3 hits, 13%, +54f, Launcher, whiffs ducking opponents except Shang, Kano and Kabal. Activates Double Damage Scaling which lowers mid screen damage potential significantly below his 7 hit combo. Corner combos require maximum optimization to score high damage)
2. HK, LK, HK, LK (4 hits, 22%, +17f, full screen knockdown, can otg in corner with cLK or Sweep on everyone, LK and HK on some)
3. HP, LK, LK, HK, LK (5 hits 25%, +17f, full screen knockdown, whiffs ducking opponents except Shang, Kano and Kabal, can otg in corner with cLK or Sweep on everyone, LK and HK on some)
4. HP, HP, BL, LK, LK, HK, LK 7 hits 29%, +17f, full screen knockdown, whiffs ducking opponents except Shang, Kano and Kabal, can otg in corner with cLK or Sweep on everyone, LK and HK on some)

Basic Juggles:

1. HP, HP, B+LP, aaHP, JK, airfireball 6 hits 21% (does less than his auto combo and a lot more effort)
2. Bike Kick (countering an attack in corner) HP, HP, BL, LK, LK, HK, LK, otgD+LK, Sweep or Standing LK or HK depending on opponent 9 hits 43-48%
3. HP, HP, B+LP, JK, AFB, Dragon Kick 6 hits 22%
4. (punisher) aaHP, JK, AFB, 4 hits 35%

Advanced Juggles:

1. (punisher) aaHPHP, JK, AFB, Dragon Kick 5 hits 56%
2. HP, HP, B+LP, deep JK, aaHP, JK, AFB 8 hits 32%
3. (in pushback range of corner) aaHP, JK, AFB, RH, Dragon Kick 5 hits 66%
4. (in pushback range of corner) aaHP, JK, AFB, aaHP, high Fireball, standing HK 6 hits 69%
5. (Between half screen and Sweep distance from corner as a punisher) aaHPHP, 3X JK AFB (over 100%, and you can leave off the 3rd JK AFB and replace it with roundhouse, Dragon Kick if you don’t have them high enough off the juggle)
6. (Near corner) HP, HP, B+LP, (JK, AFB 3X), LK 10 36% doable on just about everyone (you can also finish it with RH, HK, or RH, Dragon Kick also for 11hits 40%. His damage scaling is very high, so attempting these elaborate combos is often not worth the little bit of extra damage when they easy to drop.

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