Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Scorpion Strategy Guide

Scorpion - Rank: 14

Scorpion is a mid tier character, ranked around #14 of 23 in the roster. His combo potential on the ground is very low, but juggles are somewhat prosperous. Overall, this guide is going to be very similar to Human Smoke's, except with the differences being combo potential. His air throw makes him slightly dangerous during cross ups, but there's not much he can do after that except rush down with the kick combo. What you should do is run jabs, then the kick combo for 3 hits, leaving off the last hit, and mixing up after that. Male Ninjas can play a nice defensive game and he is one the best to make use of that with because of the available damage he can deal in those situations, similar to Reptile, Human Smoke and Ermac, but to a lesser degree since he has no pop up. He has moder to big damage opportunities on defense, but it is possible to rush down with them as well. There is a common misconception that Human Smoke is just a clone of Scorpion, who is gray and smoking, with no difference in moves. In reality, Human Smoke is much more powerful than Scorpion because he has pop up combos, and he also has a slightly faster walking speed, which makes certain juggle combos easier. His damage range is anywhere from 10 to 35% more at any given time in the same situation as Scorpion. He is still played much like Human Smoke, only with a handicap, meaning it takes more skill and patience to win. Run jabs and safe teleports are your game mixed with the 4 hit kick combo of doom. Off a jump punch start it is sensible to use the 4 hit punches to kicks combo because it does about half a percent (1 pixel) more than the 4 hit kick combo. For example, do 3 jump punch to 4 hit kick combos and it will leave your opponent on danger, if you do this with the punch to kick combo, they will be done. Mix up his run jabs with knees, for example, double run jab, run in, knee, run jab, knee, knee, and keep them guessing. Again, don't forget about his air throw, and try and get them low on cross up attempts. When run jabbing, sometimes an opponent will jump away, watch for a juggled LP and get them with a harpoon afterward. Also pay attention to collision detection. For some reason when male ninjas duck and block, a lot of distance gets between them and the attacker, causing their combos to miss, like Jax and Kabal. When Jax's first punch in his combo, or Kabal's uppercut misses, capitalize on that with a harpoon, or run in and combo. Specifically with Scorpion, it might be a good idea to try and learn the spacing and timing to get his aaHPHP on jump attacks as a counter to set up the 51% damage combo.

Basic Moves

The Male Ninjas have excellent basic moves, good height and range on everything in relation to their sprite proportions, their roundhouse is extra wicked and can connect in almost any situation. The only thing that can be weird about them is their aaHPs. Sometimes they tend to miss in situations where you wouldn't expect them to and this is due to kara canceling with run to speed the last hit up, in this situation, often you can do aaHP, LP and it'll work, with slightly less damage, otherwise, always take an extra small step in before doing aaHPs.

The Harpoon (or Spear, I tend to throw both words around randomly) is an essential move as it is a very quick containment and relatively safe to do from full screen depending on the who the opponent it. It's good on wake ups as it seems to have a hit box in front of him before it even comes out. You can try throwing out a harpoon afterward a combo for mix ups on jumpy players. It can be linked in juggle combos with a normal limit of 4 hits before it, and can be broken to 5. It can counter many simple standing attacks for free. You might want to also get the feel down for players who jump back and snag them on a landing. A situation where you might be able to consistently connect a spear would be when running jabbing, then doing a teleport punch without leaving the screen. At this point a lot of players try to jump in, hit a spear right as they are coming down, into a convenient combo of choice. You can also just throw out a spear as wake up at this point on characters who don't have teleports.

The Teleport Punch is a great move if used for escaping and overall positioning and maneuverability. If you use it too much players will see your patterns and counter by getting in the way of it and blocking. If you are experienced enough with the placement and timing you should be able to teleport almost anytime it is available (it has a small time limit between usages) and not get punished. Essentially think of the screen's width as 1 unit, and then if there is more than half of the entire screen behind you and the opponent combined, you are safe. Use if when you are getting up to escape run jabs, HKs or knee starting combos. It is best to try and get the placement down to land right next to them even if they are blocking, this sets up free throw potential and/or rush down. Watch out for counter sweeps, LKs, HKs or uppercuts if you rush in immediately. Utilize the teleport punch as a combo extender but try not to actually hit them with it as it activates damage protection. Its limit is 4 hits before it is locked, has a small window of time limit recharge. Do not use the teleport punch as a safe guard chip hit when someone is on danger because it only does about 2% chip damage and danger can mean the person has 4% life left. It is common to see people lose matches they should have won because of this. You can also glitch cancel the teleport punch if you want to get fancy.

His Air Throw is very useful on jumpy opponents, remember to tap block in air a few times any time you leave the ground just incase they do as well. Use it on cross attempts, it's not quite as useful in sweep situations as Jax or Kano's, but still possible to do. It's good to link at the end of juggle combos.

Basic Juggles

1. aaHPHP, harpoon, HP, HP, HK, B+HK 7 hits 42%
2. aaHPHP, JK, air throw 3 hits 28% (43% actual)
3. aaHPHP, teleport (miss) aaHPHP, harpoon, HP, HP, HK, B+HK 9 hits 55%

Advanced Juggles

1. aaHPHP, JK, teleport punch, harpoon, HP, HP, HK, B+HK 9 hits 51%
2. aaHPHP, JK, harpoon, HP, HP, HK, B+HK 8 hits 57%
3. aaHPHP, teleport (miss) aaHP, JK, harpoon, HP, HP, HK, B+HK 9 hits 64%

Corner Punishers