Mortal Kombat 11 Sonya Guide Featuring MK_Azerbaijan

For every single professional Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate player, the number one priority is to understand their selected characters to the best of their ability. Second to that is understanding their opponent's character. You might not be looking to top the bracket at Evo, but the building blocks are here for you to start grasping the concepts behind a fantastic competitive title.

As part of a series of guides at DashFight, we want to see you succeed and explore the vastness of characters the game has to offer to you. You might not end up with all in your rotation, but there are sure to be a handful that sparks your imagination and challenge you just enough to keep getting and better. Thanks to Hamid "MK_Azerbaijan" Mustafayev, you can now add Sonya Blade to that list of characters.

MK_Azerbaijan's Sonya Guide

Sonya's Best Buttons

The Best Buttons are the key moves for the character. Either as players or opponents, you are likely to want to use or see these in play since they offer the best neutral, anti-air, and pressure value.

• 1 - Fastest High, geat Anti-Air and punisher while also leading to a good set of strings.
• 3 - Fastest mid available to you, and a good stagger. The main value comes from its strings.
• D1 - Even as a poke, it is a great Anti-Air too.
• D3 - Best poke and a very important tool to check opponents.
• F2 - Rarely used a single button, but it opens the possibility for a full string
• F3 - Armor break and plus on block, but it is easy for your opponent to punish you.
• F4 - A good check that prevents enemy mashing.
• B1 - A great Footies tool and you will use it a lot, get comfy with it.

Sonya's Best Variations

Since players can now use their custom Variations in tournament settings, there is no excuse not to learn what goes well together. So here is Azer's Sonya variation specials ranking:

1. Energy Rings Charge (Hold R1)
2. (Air) Marching Orders (D4)
3. (Air) Ops Drop (DL1)
4. Krushing Kounters (DB3)
5. (Air) Downward Energy Rings (DR1)
6. K.A.T. Orbital Drop (DB4)

Sonya's Gameplan

Gone are the days of smashing buttons and spamming that one combo we learned five years ago. Instead, if you want to compete or impress your mates, you have to go into each match with a Gameplan to carry through to victory. Here are your key principles:

• Sonya lacks a lot of tools that are safe, meaning that much of her gameplay is centered around high-risk high reward moves. You have to play with confidence.
• A common barrier you will have as a Sonya player is that many of your attacks start from a High attack. Which can lead to opponents mashing out of your offense. To counter this you will need to be mindful of checking too much and your opponents will read it, too little and they will simply block your highs.

Sonya's Best Strings

No one wins on the back of single punches. Having a memorized list of the Best Strings you can use and change throughout the match will vastly improve your chances of coming out ahead.

• 1, 1, 2
• 1, 3
• 1, 3, 4
• B1, 2, 3
• B1, 4

Sonya's Bread and Butter Combos

Knowing how to adapt to the changing landscape of a fight is important. That is why Combos play a crucial role in letting you shape it and extract the most out of your inputs. Here are the combos you should be looking to pull off:

• B1, 2, 3, FJ2, BF1, AMP KB
• B1, 2, 3, DASH, F4, 1, 3, 4, BF2 AMP
• B1, 2, 3, S3, 3, 3, 1, 3, 4, DB2 AMP

Sonya's Guide Conclusion

Although not the most technically difficult character in the Mortal Kombat roster, Sonya poses unique challenges to those who dare run it at a competitive level. A lot of your offensive efforts will be unsafe, and almost a gamble, you need to make them a calculated risk. On top of that, you also have to manage your opponent's expectations and your own to make sure you don't fall victim to a rhythm of play just to be shut down on an unfortunate punish, poke, or mashing out from the other side.