Raiden/Klassic

Rarity	Type	Base Stats	Price	Unlock
Diamond	Elder God/Spec Ops	Attack: 1248 Health: 1365 Toughness: 1417 Recovery: 1105 Power Gen: 130%	N/A	Klassic Diamond Pack, Elite Netherrealm Elder God Pack, Elite Outworld Pack, Elite Martial Artist Pack, Elite Spec Ops Pack, Shaolin Heroes Pack

Strategy

Klassic Raiden's status as an all around great diamond kard is undisputed. While his stats are not the highest among his tier, his prowess lies in his niche abilities to gimmick and defeat highly fused opponents, securing his status as a giant killer. Knowing when and how to use him is crucial to his gameplay, and can help ease down a fight with a much stronger opponent with higher fusions.

General Strategy:

Klassic Raiden possesses 2 niche strengths:

-His passive: Divine Wrath. Dealing 40% damage to the opponent's current health and a 66% power drain on tag-in, this is the ability that will help a F0 team kill an FX opponent. However, one thing that a lot of newer players do not know about Divine Wrath is that it used to be subject to the opponent's toughness, meaning an opponent with a very high toughness stat will receive significantly less damage on Raiden's tag-in. However after some patch after 2020, this is no longer the case. Klassic Raiden's tag in attack now deals 40% damage to opponent's current health. It is still a good strategy for Klassic Raiden players, to team Raiden up with Sonya Blade/Klassic, who grants Raiden the ability to ignore the opponent's toughness.

-His typing(s). Raiden counts as 4 types (Elder God, Spec Ops, Outworld and Martial Artist) which is second only to Erron Black/Black Dragon's status as a Nomad, which can count for all 5 types. This makes him an extremely versatile kard, capable of dodging type (excluding Netherrealm) requirements in certain battles. He is also capable of benefiting from multiple type-specific buffs such teammate passives (ex.: +1 bar of power for Outworld teammates, +30% health for Martial Artist teammates, etc.), battle modifiers (ex.: Exhaustion! Only insert type are safe!.) and even type bonuses in the new Survival Mode of Faction Wars (x1.6 points will apply 4 out of 5 seasons to his kard). Raiden has a lot more options than most kards in the game, and can benefit from a lot of situations in a way that normal kards cannot.

The more cheap or cheesy you feel when playing with Klassic Raiden, then most likely the better you are doing with him.

Equipment:

If you could interview Klassic Raiden in real life and ask him "What's the thing you hate most about MK Mobile?", he would say "TAG-IN COOLDOWNS", since you want to tag him in as often as possible. If Raiden dies, no more zippity zaps are going to happen, and you might just lose the battle.

Prioritize equipment that increases his chances of survival:

-Equipment that grants additional HP.

-Equipment that can potentially save him from a death hit.

-Any equipment that grants amazing, but type-specific buffs. Like previously mentioned, he will benefit from all non-Netherrealm type-specific buffs.

-Unpopular opinion: equipment that resist DOTs. If you just got your new F0 Klassic Raiden, chances are you may not be a veteran player and do not have stacks over stacks of crazy equipment in your collection. Giving him anti-DOT equipment can help him live longer against DOT-reliant opponents like the Mileena/Ravenous, Reptile/Klassic and D'Vorah/Wretch team, Scorpion/Hanzo Hasashi and bleed characters, etc.

-His new brutality equipment is a inherently a good choice on all Raiden variations, but especially great on Klassic Raiden thanks to Divine Wrath. If the enemy is around 40% health, you can tag-in Raiden. Divine Wrath will bring their health down to around 25%, where you can hit 1-3 attack strings and finish them off with a brutality.

-Since Klassic Raiden's mojo should not rely on his basic attack and combo ender game, block breaker equipment is, in my opinion, not ideal on him. Since Raiden's basic attacks are insanely fast and push back the opponent, the chances of your attack strings getting interrupted is rather low if you spam your basic attacks correctly, just before the opponent closes the distance between them and Raiden. However, a block breaking equipment can occasionally help Raiden survive longer by allowing him to do his combo enders, which can shave off some of his tag-in cooldown time, letting him tag out before taking too much damage. Also, if you have his brutality equipment equipped, then block breaking equipment can be a good choice since it might let you hit some unblocked basic attacks and perform that brutality.

Talent Tree recommendations:

-Revenant, maxed out. (Defense Tree) Potentially avoid a death hit with 5 seconds of invulnerability, which can give you a chance to survive and tag-out, letting you use another Divine Wrath when you tag back in.

-Bone Shield, maxed out. (Defense Tree) Same reason as Revenant.

-All non-Netherrealm type specific talents, since Raiden will benefit from all of them.

Side notes:

-If Raiden is played without Klassic Sonya, his passive will become less useful against higher fused opponents, so be mindful of that. This is especially true for all Jax Briggs variations who possess high built-in toughness and character specific toughness boosting equipment. However, at equal or higher fusion with his opponents (meaning Raiden's attack stat will be equal or higher than opponent toughness), Raiden will no longer need Sonya's anti-toughness passive and he can paired with other teammates and benefit from a better synergy.

-For people that are on the brink of dropping this game because they encounter too many "FX lv. 60 Diamond/Gold + 2 weak kards, either bronze or F0" in their Faction Wars matchups, this strategy might just cure your depression and bring your blood pressure back to normal. You will need this "Giant Killer" team to have a chance of quickly dispatching the strong FX character in the opposing team: Raiden/Klassic + Sonya Blade/Klassic + Shao Kahn/Konqueror (assuming they are all at low fusions). The reason that this strategy works so well is because of Sonya and Shao Kahn's passives elevate Raiden's Divine Wrath to a new level of cheesiness.

Start the match with Sonya.* If the opposing team does not start out with their strong FX character, you can quickly kill them (or both) until the FX character tags in. As soon as the FX opponent is active, tag-in Raiden. Divine Wrath. Opponent health: 100% -> 60%. If Raiden is equipped with starting power bar equipment, you can attempt a SP2 to weaken the opponent. If not, then simply spam your quick basic attacks till the tag-in cooldown is depleted and tag-in Shao Kahn. Use his SP1 to stun opponent, waste the tag-in cooldown time, then tag-in Raiden again. Opponent health: 50-60% -> 30-36% (depending on how much damage Raiden and Shao Kahn did when they were active). From this point on, you want to waste the cooldown time again, then tag-in Shao Kahn. Use his SP2 for an insta-kill, since the opponent's health is under 40%. if the This is one of the few strategies where Snare is not needed, since the other 2 opponents are extremely weak. If at any point in the battle the strong opponent decides to tag-out, any character on your team can quickly dispose of the weak characters, which will bring back the strong opponent and you can resume your strategy right where you left off. Hope this helps refrain some peeps from throwing their phone out the window.

*: The reason why you should start with Sonya and not Shao Kahn is because of Liu Kang/Circle of Shadow. Half of the time, he is the opposing team's FX character. Out of the 3 characters on your team, Sonya is the one you should sacrifice to the FX Liu Kang, since she does need to fight for this strategy to work.

-This strategy has another variation to it: you can choose to not use Shao Kahn if you have Raiden's brutality equipment equipped. Shao Kahn can then be replaced with a character that spams DOT damage (ideally Scorpion/Hanzo Hasashi, since he can also stun on SP1 just like Shao Kahn). The strategy starts out the same: swap Raiden in, out and in with this third character. Hopefully, because of DOTs, your opponent will be at around 25-30% health after Raiden tags in for the 2nd time and lightning zaps them. When the opponent health's is under 25% and the other 2 weak characters have already been disposed of, you can perform a brutality for an easy win. One of the perks of using this strategy is that you can save Shao Kahn and use him instead on a team with Ermac/Master of Souls and Kitana/Mournful, which is a great team because of how cheap it is and how quickly your battles can end. But's that's a story for another time...

Interactions

Please note that battles are highly situational: this section only mentions cards that have mechanics that, for any reason, are particularly effective with/against, or particularly ineffective against Raiden. Having a card that "counters" Raiden does not mean it is always a good choice.

Good With

• Scorpion/Ninjutsu, Kotal Kahn/Sun God, Sonya Blade/Demolition, Sub-Zero/Cryomancer, Reptile/Nimble, & Johnny Cage/A-List: Raiden gains 30% Attack from Scorpion, Kotal Kahn, and Sonya Blade, as well as 30% Health from Sub-Zero, Reptile and Johnny Cage.
• Kung Jin/Shaolin, Scorpion/Hellspawn, Kitana/Mournful, Kenshi/Balanced, Rain/Klassic, Wrath Hammer, Bloody Tomahawk, Kuai Liang’s Scepter, King Jerrod’s Spear & Thunder Lord’s Stormweaver: Raiden can start the match with extra power from these supports.
• Jade/Klassic: Jade makes her Klassic teammates immune to Snare.
• Kenshi/Elder God: Kenshi gives Raiden critical hit chance on basic attacks and immunity to critical hit attacks as well as Bars of Power when knocking out opponents with special attacks.
• Liu Kang/Fire God: Raiden receives basic attack unblockable chance from Liu Kang, as well as assists on special attacks for additional damage.
• Noob Saibot/Klassic: Noob Saibot increases his Klassic teammates' unblockable attack damage.
• Rain/MK11 and Rain/Klassic: Raiden's lightning attacks can damage tagged-out Soaked opponents with Rain. Rain/MK11 also grants 400% Recovery increase to Raiden.
• Sonya Blade/Klassic: As mentioned above.
• Smoke/Klassic: Being a Klassic character, Raiden will gain 20% resistance to debuffs thanks to Smoke.

Good Against

• Kenshi/Ronin, Noob Saibot/MK11, Kintaro/Shokan Warrior & Jax Briggs/Klassic: Part of these characters' passive relies on blocking special attacks, which Raiden's grapple special attacks can counter that.
• Jason Voorhees/Unstoppable & Jason Voorhees/Slasher: As the Jasons resurrect, if Klassic Raiden is tagged in at the right time, he can make both of them lose bars of power after resurrection.

Countered By

• Boss characters: As noted in his passive, Klassic Raiden's tag-in attack does not work against Boss characters.
• Raiden/Dark, Liu Kang/Klassic & Raiden/MK11: All of these characters are immune to Klassic Raiden's Power draining tag, with MK11 Raiden spreading this immunity to MK11 Teammates.
• Ronin Team, Erron Black/Gunslinger, Cassie Cage/Undercover, Katana, Combat Shotgun, Executioner Axe & Champion's Nunchaku: These characters and equipments deal more damage against classes that include Raiden.
• Jacqui Briggs/Kosplay: 4 of Jacqui's kosplay variations have advantage over Raiden.
• Tanya/Treacherous: Tanya and her teammates reduce the effects of Raiden's Power Drain on Tag.
• Characters with high toughness, such as Jax Briggs/Heavy Weapons, as they will take less damage from Raiden's tag-in attack.

Abilities

Here are Raiden's abilities.

Ability	Classification	Description	Usage
Divine Wrath	Passive	Each time Raiden tags in, lightning strikes the active opponent, removing 20-40% of their current health and 20-66% of their power. Bosses are Immune. Raiden counts as Outworld and Martial Artist.	On Tag-In
Thunder Fly	First Special	Grapple: Medium Damage + Dispel	Swipe
Power Discharge	Second Special	Grapple: High Damage + Weaken	Double Quick Tap
Shock Therapy	X-Ray	Extreme Damage + Power	Tap

Support Cards/Equipment

Here are Raiden's support and equipment cards.

Card	Classification	Description
God of Thunder	Attack	3-33% Bonus Attack
Lightning Teleport	Health	3-33% Bonus Health
Ally: Fujin, God of Wind	Recovery	20-220% Bonus Recovery
Storm Hat	Equipment	25-45% Toughness boost. [Raiden] 10-20% X-Ray/Fatal Blow attack damage boost. [Fusion Level X] 20% Power generation boost.
Thunder Lord's Sigil	Equipment	Deal 5-15% of non-boss opponents' health as additional damage on Stun. 10-20% X-Ray/Fatal Blow attack damage boost. 20-150% Damage boost. Nightmare Tower only. 40-300% Max health boost. Nightmare Tower only. [Raiden] [Set] If this is equipped alongside Thunder Lord's Stormweaver any DIAMOND Raiden gains a 40% chance to perform a Special Combo Ender dealing massive damage. If the last opponent is under 15% health, Brutality is performed instead of the Special Combo Ender, ending the fight immediately. [Fusion Level X] For each debuff removed by Dispel, gain 1 Strengthen buff. Strengthen buffs stack.
Thunder Lord's Stormweaver	Equipment	15-25% Attack boost. 30-100% Chance to gain Dispel after performing a Special Attack. 150-600% Damage boost. Nightmare Tower only. [Raiden] 10-30% Chance lightning will strike the opponent on basic attack, dealing additional Damage. [Raiden] [Set] If this equipped alongside Thunder Lord's Sigil, any DIAMOND Raiden gains a 40% chance to perform a Special Combo Ender dealing massive damage. If the last opponent is under 25% health, a Brutality is performed instead of the Special Combo Ender, ending the fight immediately. [Fusion Level X] 1.5 Bar of starting Power.

Stats

These stats are the final damage, health, toughness and recovery at level 50, per Fusion rank, with ALL support cards, and without any equipment. With Update 1.18, Fusion 8, 9, and 10 have been added. The Fusion 10 stats are for level 60 characters.

Rank	Attack	Health	Toughness	Recovery
Normal	9,627	19,607	8,219	20,509
Fusion I	14,439	29,410	12,328	30,762
Fusion II	19,253	39,213	16,438	41,018
Fusion III	24,066	49,017	20,547	51,270
Fusion IV	28,880	58,821	24,657	61,526
Fusion V	33,693	68,623	28,766	71,779
Fusion VI	38,505	78,427	32,876	50,035
Fusion VII	43,319	88,230	36,985	92,288
Fusion VIII	48,133	98,034	41,095	102,544
Fusion IX	52,946	107,838	45,204	112,797
Fusion X	62,741	139,427	53,563	133,661