Mortal Kombat 1 - Invasions "The Spectre" Living Forest Mesa Guide

Mortal Kombat 1 Invasion mode looks to provide players with season content in an interesting new format for the franchise. Unlike the franchise's previous entry called Krypt, Mortal Kombat 1’s single-player focused content presents a table-top-like game for players to explore, find secrets, and eventually unlock more cosmetics through its Seasonal Koins system and chests.

Throughout these guides, we will be exploring the details of Invasions, how to complete them, tips and tricks, and what rewards you can expect on the season of the Spectre.

The Story

The first season of Invasions provides a very simple story. Hanzo Hasashi, the Scorpion in most other timelines, has been hopping from timeline after timeline, looking for one in which he can be with the love of his life, Harumi.

Eventually, in finding Liu Kang’s timeline and seeing Harumi has found love in Kuai Liang, he becomes enraged, vowing to end this timeline.

Invasions Mesas Guides

If you want to revisit some of the other mesas, here are all our detailed guides on each:

• Fengjian Village
• Sun Do Festival
• Tarkatan Colony
• Shang Tsung's Laboratory
• Living Forest
• Fire Temple

Living Forest

The Living Forest, where outworld souls lay to rest. This intricate forest holds a lot of significance in Mortal Kombat 1 story. For one, this is where the soul of Outworld, Former emperor and Sindel’s husband Jerrod, lies. Or at least it did so until Quan Chi, assisted by Nitara, Sareena, Havik, and Darrius, used the forest and its souls to power the first prototype of their soul-trapping mechanisms.

To access the Living Forest mesa, you must complete Shang Tsung’s Laboratory, defeat the boss there, and go through its portal.

The Living Forest is the largest of the mesas, including a massive netherstone section at its very end. Like all other mesas, you will fight off a small sub-section of the roster throughout the area, so make sure to stock up on the items and stats you’ll need to get through them.

Living Forest Canyon

If you simply want to move forward as quickly as possible, simply head north from the starting point.

There are two chests in this initial area, one to the left and up, and another heading right, fulfilling the first Klue node: “Still Learning” which says “QUACKX10”. To do so, you must duck at least ten times during the fight. You also have a quick first shop if you head down on the right path.

Remember that you can always check what nodes you have or have not cleared by the path's color leading to them. Any shops or forges you go to but have not opened yet will remain uncleared, so make sure to say hi to the Kollector in your travels, even if you are window shopping.

Uncleared paths are marked in green, cleared ones in light blue and paths you can’t move into in red. You can also follow the green arrow for directions as to the quickest route to the end of the mesa.

Living Forest Mesa

This area is full of small twists and turns that can lead to shops, forges, and of course, more klues and treasure. If you just want to advance without stopping by to admire the scenery, then you will want to take either the left or right and then move up the rest of the way, past the scary spider-like entrance.

Over on the right side of the map, you can find the first forge of this area, and loop back to the left you will come across the second Klue node of the mesa. “Counting Time” with the klue “NOMED RENNI”, meaning “Inner Demon”. You should use Sareena’s fatality at the end of the fight.

Speaking of fatalities, the only way to do them is by winning your matches! So with the help of multiple pro players we’ve developed video guides for all characters in the Mortal Kombat 1 roster. While you hack your way through the nodes, why not take the opportunity to practice some of them?

Living Forest Hallowed

The fastest way to head on through this area is to keep heading north, eventually landing on the mesa’s miniboss, “superconductor” featuring Raiden. In your path, you will cross through this mesa’s chest portal, transporting you to a temporary realm where you linearly pass through multiple chest nodes until a final Test Your Might challenge.

Heading left will simply loop you through to a few nodes before the mini-boss, though there is a shop on the way. Meanwhile, the right path one node further brings you to the third and final klue of the mesa as well as the last forge of the mesa.

“Direct Current” with the klue “ERTECA AOSCH” which we can unscramble into “Create Chaos” lets us know that you should use Havik’s fatality to open the path to the chest within.

Living Forest Ruins

If this is your first time through this mesa, the Netherstone path will remain closed to you until you beat the final area of this season’s invasion. If you have already done so, then buckle up, because this is the largest Netherstone area by far.

There are two chests within this place. One is inside the ruined building at the start, while the other is up north near the ponds and to the left.

Remember that Netherstone areas are all mini-boss fights, so some of this will include a second phase. You can check out this table below to see what opponents you will find and what their modifiers are for said fights.

Finally, you will reach the final boss of this mesa, the one and only, well, not only anymore, Johnny Cage. During phase one, he will simply have energy fists. In the second phase, he will flashbang you at the start of the round. Finally, in the last phase of the fight, he will send you to a survival challenge with energy balls and then gain energy armor himself.

After the Living Forest

Once completed, you will gain access to the Fire Temple, the last mesa of this season of Mortal Kombat 1 invasion. By this point, you probably feel quite overpowered during the fights, and amazing an unhealthy amount of talismans, relics, and components.

You can always step into the Wu Shi Temple through the mesa map to sell whatever you don’t need, and the Gateway Portal mesa has a few extra challenges if you want to mix things up before rounding up the final area of this season.