MK11 Guide: How To Play Against Jade Featuring Hamou

Jade is a fun character to play in Mortal Kombat 11. Is it the same fun to play against her?

Like with any opponent, you need to know Jade in general to understand how to deal with her strong sides. Also, you should be aware of her weaknesses — to know what to exploit in fights.

All such info (and more) is revealed in this awesome MK11 guide by Hamou. Absorb the wisdom and surprise every Jade player you’ll meet online or even in competitive matchmaking.

Mortal Kombat 11 | How to Play Against Jade | Guide by Hamou

Jade In Mortal Kombat

She is a life-long friend of princess Kitana, and her first appearance in the Mortal Kombat series was in the game MKII as a hidden opponent. Jade became a playable character in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.

In MK11, Jade is one of the best spacing characters, who excels from the mid to close range. She effectively annoys her airborne opponents. 

Also, Jade is one of the best counter-zoners. Still, she struggles here due to the startup of her projectiles — they are slow and reactable.

The playstyle of Jade is identified by the player. Some prefer to play full-screen, and some would like to play up-close. Mixing these approaches is also possible. 

Variations

Hamou highlights a few possible variations for Jade.

Zoning Variation

• Edenian Spark (Low Projectile)
• Razor-Rang (Air)
• Delia's Dance (Low)

This variation allows Jade to play comfortably full-screen against those opponents who can’t enforce any pressure. When she activates her glow and starts her game, no one can threaten her from long and mid range.

Loadout

• Pole Vault 
• Razor-Rang (Air)
• Delia's Dance (Low)

It is Hamou’s personal favorite variation, mainly thanks to Pole Vault, which is a safe Special. Pole Vault allows her to get in, and then she can enforce her Delia's Dance gameplay. Razor-Rang helps Jade space her opponents and get some plus frames. Loadout is the most versatile variation. 

Loadout (Most Common)

• Razor-Rang
• Delia's Dance
• Deadly Assassin (Extended Strings)

Extended strings allow Jade to deal slightly more damage and put her opponents in the corner. She even can cancel into Delia's Dance and mix her opponent. 

4th Variation (Pure Rushdown / Version A)

• Pole Vault
• Pole Vault Cancel
• Delia's Dance

This variation is good up-close, but you have to sacrifice Air Razor and get Pole Vault Cancel instead. Thus, Jade is able to push her opponents slightly more to the corner and mix them up.

5th Variation (Pure Rushdown / Version B)

• Pole Vault
• Blazing Nitro Kick
• Delia's Dance

We have Blazing Nitro Kick instead of Pole Vault Cancel here. Nitro Kick is a very fast special. You can cancel into it from Pole Vault. With this move, Jade can carry her opponent to the corner on hit and on block. 

Best Buttons

In this part of the guide, Hamou explains the main buttons Jade players usually use.

• D2, Rising Staff is the most important one. It has great range both grounded and in the air. 
• B3, Side Kick is Jade’s main Mid button. 
• B2, Wiggle Stick is one of the best spacing tools in the game. 
• B1, Pole Strike is a Mid hit. It works really well with B2.
• 1, Quick Slap allows Jade to enhance her stagger game. It’s +2 on block, so you can do 1 into throw or 1 into pokes.
• 2, Palm Bash has good strings.
• F3, Knee Breaker is a Low attack. It can be a decent stagger, and it has a continuation.
• 4, Stiletto Strike is +3 on block. It’s not the greatest button as the recovery is not too good, and it’s a high hit. Still, it could work as a good anti-air and a decent spacing tool.

Tips Against Jade

Jade is a strong character, and thanks to Kustom Variations, she was able to cover some of her major weaknesses, like being extremely unsafe on everything. Still, there are some of her aspects to exploit and some strings to interrupt or flawless-block.

• B12 Punish — you can choose to flawless-block B12 and do a full-combo punish. 
• B3434 Punish — use a fast button or flawless-block it.
• F21 Punish — this double overhead is very unsafe, and you can punish it with a good reversal. Also, you can choose to flawless-block the second hit and then do a full-combo punish.
• F34 Punish — this attack is flawless-blockable on the second hit.
• B3434 Pressure — if you duck-block, it becomes plus on block, so you can't interrupt. But if you stand-block, you can space it out.
• Pole Vault Interruption — this attack becomes less safe if you see it coming. 
• Extended Strings Interruption — all of them have a gap at some point, so you can interrupt after 1st, 2nd, or 3rd hit.
• Blazed Nitro Kick Pressure — if you stand-block it, you can escape all the pressure and plus frames. And you can punish Jade for trying to take her turn with a poke.
• Dealing with Zoning — Jade’s full-screen presence isn’t as strong as you think. You can see all of her projectiles and react to them. Try to escape the chip damage. 
• Fake 50-50s — always block low first and then stand-block. 

DON'T JUMP against Jade! Her D2 will not miss.

Try to read B2 and react to F2. 

Matchups

Jade does pretty well against top-tier characters in MK11, but some matchups are still difficult for her. Hard opponents can out-damage and out-space Jade. They also have a very good full-screen control. Some tough opponents can stop her best tool, glow.

Hamou names these matchups as hard for Jade:

Hamou says that Jade is a very good character despite her low damage. Jade players should identify whether they want to play up-close or prefer a zoning game.

To learn the weaknesses of other Mortal Kombat 11 characters, check out other guides of this series — such as this one on how to play against Skarlet by MakoraN.

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