Despite countless rumours and speculation suggesting that Mortal Kombat 1 has a secret 24th character, the final launch roster actually only has 23.
As is always the case with fighting games, one of the things that Mortal Kombat fans have talked about the most since MK1's initial reveal earlier this year is which fighters are going to make it onto the roster and how many of them there are going to be. We've had countless roster leaks over the last few months (most of which turned out to be incorrect), but now that the game is finally out we can finally confirm how many fighters there are.
Thanks to the launch trailer that was released earlier this week, we knew about 23 of the playable characters on the roster. Sadly, despite some fans suggesting that there was a 24th character that might be unlocked from completing the Story or Invasions modes, I can confirm that isn't the case and that there are 23 playable fighters in the final version of the game.
That means that, in an unusual move for the studio, NetherRealm has chosen to reveal all of the playable characters in the launch version of Mortal Kombat 1. This is especially interesting considering Mortal Kombat 11 had a secret character in the form of Frost, who was unlocked after beating the story and wasn't revealed until after the game launched, as did Mortal Kombat 9 with Cyber Sub-Zero.
Mortal Kombat 1 does reward you with a fighter for beating the main story, but it's one that we already knew was in the game - Havik. It's not clear why he's locked behind the campaign over the other fighters, but if you want to play as the Chaosrealm creep then you're going to have to beat the game first.
It's the same story for the Kameo fighters, as NetherRealm has revealed all of them too. A few of them, like Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Shujinko are unlocked by progressing through the game and levelling up your profile, but there aren't any that are going to be a surprise to anyone that's kept up with Mortal Kombat 1's marketing.
A lot of the confusion around a potential 24th character seems to stem from leaked images of the roster selection screen that have appeared over the last few weeks. Those leaked images showed a greyed-out slot for a 24th character, which many hoped would be filled in if you either completed the story mode or downloaded the day-one patch.
That isn't the case, however, as this greyed-out slot is actually where the DLC characters are going to start being added, something that is made obvious by the big plus sign featured in the image.