Mortal Kombat X is the tenth main game in the one-on-one fighting series and a sequel to Mortal Kombat, which was a complete reboot of the series. The plot is set about 20 years after the events of the previous game where Shinnok used the void after Shao Kahn's death to attack Earthrealm with his army of Netherrealm forces. The characters work together to steal Shinnok's amulet and imprison him inside, but eventually Mileena hatches a plan to release Shinnok by bringing the amulet to Quan Chi who escaped when Shinnok was imprisoned. Several new characters are introduced, such as Cassie, the daughter of Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade, Kotal Kahn as the new emperor of the Outworld, and Takeda, the son of Kenshi.
The game stays close to the visual style and mechanics of the 2011 reboot. The main controls are still based on two types of punches and kicks, and blocking, to form combos with uppercuts, teleports, special moves that incorporate weapons and fatalities.
Characters can use the environment to re-position themselves or optionally use parts as weapons. Each character now has three variations with different moves and weapons. There is once again a sprinting gauge, returning from Mortal Kombat 4 .
The trademark fatalities finishing moves are expanded with new types of finishers. Multiplayer games have qualities where a character is immediately killed when a player leaves an online game prematurely and faction kills that are finishers tied to one of the game's five factions.
Brutality finishing moves return from Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 , as powerful versions of moves that can be used at certain moments to link a combo into a finisher right away. The recurring cast includes several characters who also appear in new playable roles.
New playable characters are Cassie Cage, D'Vorah, Erron Black, Ferra/Torr, Jacqui Briggs, Kotal Kahn, Kung Jin and Takeda. There are 24 characters in total. Additional ones such as Goro, Jason Voorhees, Predator, Tanya and Tremor are either offered as DLC, appear as guest characters, or both.
Next to the main Story mode there is King of the Hill, ranked matches, Survivor and Test Your Luck where fights have random round parameters. The Towers return with play conditions that change constantly in the Living Towers. The online game has a persistent game mode called Faction Wars where players choose one of five factions to fight in constant, cross-platform competitions. Competing in the Faction Wars is rewarded with a personal and faction-based leveling system, a currency, and the aforementioned faction kills. Koins are the main currency in the game. They can be used to acquire secondary fatalities, brutalities, concept art, character skins and more. 
