Challenge Mode

*For Challenge requirements, see: Challenge Mode/Requirements*

A **Challenge** or **Challenge Mode** is a regularly held event that usually starts on Thursday and lasts around one week, in which players must beat 63 (repeatable for one further time at hard difficulty for 126 total) battles within that time for various prizes, but they are most well-known for unlocking challenge Gold characters, which are the main source of new and more powerful characters for every player's roster. Raiden/Thunder God is the first known challenge character while Mileena/Vampiress was the last challenge character to be added. Challenges may be repeated.

Each challenge has five challenge towers; challenge tower 1 to 4 has 12 fights and 5 has 15, including a boss fight against the challenge's unique character. Challenge battles can be done alongside Battle Mode without resetting progress. They can be done in any order, you don't need to complete a tower to work on another, although you still need to beat the matches in order. They can be completed in three difficulties: Normal, Hard and Elder.

It is possible to simply pay Koins and Souls to skip battles. This has a high price however, so try to avoid unnecessarily spending Koins and Souls during the challenge, as players may be forced to skip some battles they are unable to beat. It is also possible for up to three challenges to run at the same time.

## Mechanics

Completing towers 1 & 2 will reward players with Koins, completing towers 3 & 5 will reward players with Souls, completing tower 4 rewards the player with a free Silver Pack and completing all towers reward players with the challenge character. Additionally, after completing the Normal difficulty, you can do the more challenging Hard difficulty for the same rewards plus the character-specific equipment for completing it. If you manage to beat Hard difficulty, you will have the opportunity to prove yourself into the Elder difficulty.

With the introduction of Update 2.2, there is now a third difficulty known as Elder, which is unlocked after completing the Hard difficulty. MK11 characters such as Jade/MK11 and Kabal/MK11 were available in challenges which starts out immediately at Elder difficulty.

### Normal difficulty

The Normal difficulty is the first and easiest mode to beat a challenge. The reward from completing all the towers is one card copy of the Challenge Character depicted in the challenge itself. Anyone with a team that can deal with three FI 30 Gold Characters can beat the challenge in this mode. The individual rewards from each one of the towers are the following:

1. 10,000 coins.
2. 20,000 coins.
3. 35 souls
4. Silver Pack
5. 50 souls.

### Hard difficulty

The hard difficulty is second and a bit harder mode than Normal, it is unlocked upon completing a challenge in the latter difficulty. It features a card copy of the corresponding Challenge Character and one copy of its corresponding Equipment piece. Anyone with a team that can deal with three FIII 40 Gold Characters can beat the challenge in this mode. The individual rewards from each one of the towers are the following:

1. 16,000 coins.
2. 32,000 coins.
3. 46 souls.
4. Silver Pack.
5. 65 souls.

### Elder difficulty

Elder is the third and hardest mode of a challenge. It is unlocked upon completing a challenge in Hard difficulty. It is pretty different from the previous modes: the battles are 25 battles in the first two towers and 30 battles in all the remaining ones; the fusion and level of the opponents found here are way higher than in Hard, not to mention that the requirements are much more specific. All battles are timed and with each five battles, the time to complete a fight is reduced, being the shorter time equal to 60 seconds in the three last battles of the last tower. Anyone with a team that can deal with FVIII 50 Gold or Diamond characters can beat the challenge in this difficulty. The reward for completing the Elder challenge is only a copy of the corresponding Challenge Character, due to the individual rewards of the towers being better according to their difficulty. Those are the following:

1. Equipment Pack.
2. 40 souls.
3. Gold Pack.
4. 60 souls.
5. 100 souls.

## Strategy

The challenges are the most important game events because they're the main source of character cards, equipment and currencies. Characters obtained through challenges are completely free, so this is the way to fuse them completely if not opting for buying packs. Note that challenge golds are better and more expensive than regular golds!

If you have a character already maxed out, then you must do the challenges for the free souls. In this guide there is a detailed write-up on how many souls can be earned at challenges, being 130 souls in Normal, 171 souls in Hard and 555 in Elder. If you have no time or no interest to do an Elder Challenge, one can use coins to skip Towers 2 and 3 in exchange of 40 souls and a Gold Pack. However, skipping the first tower using coins results in a loss since an Equipment Pack costs 70,000 coins and skipping that tower costs 185,000 coins in total.

## Challenge Characters

Here is a list of all challenge characters in roughly chronological order (not counting repeats). Note that while the Challenge Pack and Diamond Packs only contain challenge characters (including certain Diamond characters for the latter), new challenge characters are usually added to the Challenge Pack several months after the challenge expired, and not immediately.

### Available

* Raiden/Thunder God
* Liu Kang/Flaming Fists
* Mileena/Piercing
* Jax Briggs/Heavy Weapons
* Erron Black/Gunslinger
* Jason Voorhees/Unstoppable
* Raiden/Dark
* Reptile/Kraken
* Shinnok/Bone Shaper
* Kotal Kahn/Dark Lord
* Kung Jin/Marksman
* Kano/Klassic
* Jacqui Briggs/High Tech
* Triborg/Cyrax (LK-4D4)
* Triborg/Smoke (LK-7T2)
* Triborg/Sektor (LK-9T9)
* Ermac/Pharaoh
* Sonya Blade/Klassic
* Kenshi/Elder God
* Triborg/Sub-Zero (LK-520)
* Baraka/Scourge
* Tanya/Treacherous
* Takeda/Shirai Ryu
* Shinnok/Vengeful
* Goro/Tigrar Fury
* Tremor/Aftershock
* Jacqui Briggs/Kosplay
* Bo' Rai Cho/Dragon Breath
* Scorpion/Hanzo Hasashi
* Kintaro/Shokan Warrior
* Kung Lao/Shaolin Fist
* Johnny Cage/Kombat Cup
* Sonya Blade/Kombat Cup
* Ermac/Klassic
* Mileena/Vampiress
* Mileena/Klassic
* D'Vorah/Venomous
* Kitana/Mournful
* Smoke/Klassic
* Jade/Klassic

### Unavailable

* Sonya Blade/Kold War
* Kenshi/Ronin
* Kung Lao/Revenant
* Kitana/Dark Empress
* Johnny Cage/Undead Hunter
* Scorpion/Kold War
* Kitana/Day of the Dead
* Freddy Krueger/Nightmare
* Sub-Zero/Kold War
* Quan Chi/Tournament
* Jade/Assassin
* Cassie Cage/Punk
* Kitana/Ronin
* Takeda/Ronin
* Leatherface/Pretty Lady
* Erron Black/Day of the Dead
* Jade/Day of the Dead
* Jade/MK11
* Raiden/MK11
* Kabal/MK11

## Trivia

* There are no non-challenge versions of Triborg, Bo' Rai Cho, Baraka, Kintaro and Shinnok.
* Prior to the release of Sonya Blade/Kold War, challenges are not unique with special boss characters and special modifiers and are instead, the challenge character fighting alone with two regular modifiers.
* Challenges from Update 1.10 onwards had bosses with the same modifier, being immune to DoTs and growing stronger as the match progresses.
	+ This was changed back to unique conditions in Update 1.14.
* Before Update 2.0, Sonya Blade/Kold War,Kenshi/Ronin, Kung Lao/Revenant, Kitana/Dark Empress, Johnny Cage/Undead Hunter, Scorpion/Kold War, Kitana/Day of the Dead, Freddy Krueger/Nightmare, Sub-Zero/Kold War, Jade/Assassin, Jade/Day of the Dead, Erron Black/Day of the Dead, Kitana/Ronin, Takeda/Ronin, Leatherface/Nightmare, Kitana/Day of the Dead, Quan Chi/Tournament & Cassie Cage/Punk were all Challenge characters before they became Diamond.
* Erron Black/Gunslinger has not reappeared in challenges ever since Update 2.0, it is presumed that he is no longer available in challenges anymore but that has not yet been confirmed.