How to Play Against Mileena Guide With Tweedy

Mileena joined the MK11 cast pretty late as she was added as a DLC character in November 2020. After the initial buzz following her addition, she hasn't been the most used character so far. That said, Mileena can be really difficult to deal with, and her match-up might be one that not too many people are familiar with. To help us figure out how you can deal with some of the annoying Mileenas you might come up against; we have the always excellent Tweedy. Tweedy has had some great tournament placements, including coming 5th at Evo in 2019 and 3rd at Combo Breaker 2019.  Before that, he had two Evo medals for Injustice, and in recent times, he has been really dominant in the Kolosseum tournaments winning Season two and coming 3rd in Season 3. 

Now we'll look at how to play against Mileena in Mortal Kombat 11.

Mileena's Playstyle

In terms of Mileena's playstyle, there isn't too much to say besides the fact that she is really well-balanced. She has a swift walk speed and some great dashes, her jump-ins are also really good, and of course, she has great pressure which can put the opponent into a bit of a bind. 

As for variation moves, most Mileena players will use her Stabyscotch move which is a great command grab that can't be teched. It works really well with her B1, 1 string, and is a decent combo ender. The other move most Mileena players will use is her Rolling Thunder. This is a move that causes Mileena to bounce in the air and can be extended by holding down 4. 

Weaknesses

Mileena sure has a couple of weaknesses that you could exploit and in this section, we'll be looking at some of them

Poor Anti-air game

Good anti-airs are pivotal for every professional player and when anti-airing is missing from someone's game, they are way more likely to lose. In MK11 it is quite important for a character to have good anti-air buttons, but unfortunately, Mileena doesn't have good buttons for anti-airing. Therefore, Mileena has to rely on good movement to get away from jump-ins. She isn't without any anti-air buttons, but they either have really bad hitboxes or with her D2, the start-up takes forever meaning that it will most likely whiff. 

Slow Buttons

A lot of Mileena's buttons are slow, especially when compared to other characters in the game. For instance, her jab, which is one of the faster moves in the game, is 8f. This means if you are doing a combo on her which ends with a button or move that is -8 on block, you can safely complete it with Mileena knowing full well that she has no response 

Inability to Establish Mind Games

For many characters, the ability to pull off an armor breaking move immediately after scoring a hit is a huge plus. This is because the opponent always has to guess if they will use the armor breaking move, or do something else. This causes the opponent to panic as they might not be able to use breakaway. Unfortunately, Mileena doesn't have this with her move, Ball Roll. When Mileena does Ball Roll, the opponent can breakaway immediately and get out of harm's way. If she tries her armor breaking command grab, it won't activate in time. Hence, Mileena's unbreakable damage without utilizing Fatal Blow is quite low. 

What to Avoid With Mileena

Breakaways on Air Conversions

So, as we've established, Mileena's ground conversion damage off her unbreakable is low to nonexistent. However, she can get a command grab off an air conversion. Therefore, if she hits you out of the air and you try to break away, she can catch you doing it and use her command grab, which could lead to a KB and deal some massive damage. So, you can break away from a grounded combo, and you should be safe, but don't try it against an air conversion. 

Don't Take Too Many Throws.

Typically, the advice for fighting games is 'just take the throw' as this normally does less damage. But you have to be wary of Mileena because of how her throws work. For one, both her forward throw and command grab leave her really close to you, meaning she can pile on the pressure when she throws you. But second and most important is that she has a KB attached to her forward throw, which can delete about 30% of your health. That's a considerable chunk to contend with. The KB condition for her throw is that she must not go airborne or take damage for 10 seconds. Luckily, a lot of her strings make her go airborne, and if you see that, then the throw should be relatively safe, but if she starts backing off and zoning before coming in for a forward throw, beware, you might be losing a third of your life. In such a case, do a breakaway since her unbreakable combos don't do that much damage.

Consider Your Distances

When you consider the distance in which you want to fight Mileena, you have a couple of options. The first is to zone her. This is a viable tactic, but you must be careful as she has a decent projectile of her own which does 7% damage, which is higher than most other fireballs in the game. Also, she has Telekick, which is a move in which she teleports and kicks the opponent. But you can counter this by simply blocking and punishing her immediately to ensure the player thinks long and hard before using it again. 

The other option is to get in her face and pressure her. This is perhaps the better option as while Mileena deals a lot of damage, generally, she is also vulnerable to pressure. 

Techs

In this section, we'll consider some things that Mileena players do and how you can counter them.

• Many players will do Sais on block as it is a good block string. It is also a good combo ender, so many use it, but the 2, 3, 3, and B1, 1 strings are very punishable. Especially the B1, 1, which does a high on the third move. You can duck and punish this with any jab or even a classic U2. 
• Mileena players will try to add a mix-up to their 1, 1 string, ending with a grab or a mid. You can practice blocking this move by setting your mind towards blocking the mid. This could cover both moves as a grab will whiff while the mid will be punishable. It will take some practice, but is very possible.
• Mileena's sweep and B2 is another route that a lot of players go. The sweep is a low, while B2 is an overhead. If you condition yourself to block both, you can defend against the move knowing that they will most likely come after one another. 
• F4, 3, or F4, Low Sais is a mix-up that several players implement. You can deal with this by practicing guarding against this string. Watch for the overhead and once it hits, block low to avoid taking much damage from the Low Sais. 

Worst Match Ups

In terms of Match ups, Mileena really struggles with the following characters:

Kabal

Mileena doesn't like facing Kabal mostly because of her terrible anti-air game. As Kabal Is the character with the best jump-ins, he can take advantage of her inability to handle airborne characters effectively.

Kotal Kahn

Mileena does not fare very well against Kotal. This is because he is a better version of her in some ways. He can out-zone her, has more health, and more damage.

Cetrion

Cetrion is a bad match-up for many people, but she's especially effective against Mileena as she can out-zone her and force Mileena to try and come in. This plays right into Cetrion's hands and she can easily dispatch any Mileena player. 

Conclusion

There you have it. Mileena is a balanced character that while not used much, is still a force to be reckoned with. We hope that with this information you can do a lot better with fighting Mileena online (or offline). If you are so inclined, you can check out our Mileena guide with DREAMMXY on the website.