Mortal Kombat 1: Tremor’s Secret Brutality Is a Lot Happier

Mortal Kombat 1 Kameo character Tremor launched this week, and players have already discovered his secret Brutality.

Mortal Kombat 1 spoilers are ahead.

All Mortal Kombat 1 characters have Brutalities — unique moves that end a match in a particularly brutal fashion. They’re triggered by doing an extra input command on top of a specific combo ender or move that wins the final round. Most of the characters in the game have six brutalities, but players have discovered a number of secret brutalities, too.

Recently released DLC character Omni-Man, for example, has a secret brutality that’s in essence an alternate version of one of his existing brutalities. For detailed instructions, head over to IGN’s Mortal Kombat 1 how to do hidden brutalities guide.

Now, players have discovered a secret Brutality for Tremor. As with other secret Brutalities, Tremor’s is a variation of an existing Brutality. The standard version of this Brutality, called Rock Away, sees the earth elemental ninja slam a boulder onto the head of his opponent. The boulder then displays a sad face, with two crosses for eyes and a frown burned into the rock. Tremor’s hapless foe subsequently collapses to the floor. To trigger Rock Away, hold up during a forward throw that’s going to KO your opponent.

The secret Brutality, however, burns a happy face into the boulder. Here’s how to do it: hold Down + 2 (the input command for Mortal Kombat’s famous uppercut) when the Brutality is triggered (just as the boulder lands on the character’s head). Twitter / X user @MK_habit_addict plublished a video showing it off.

I did the Tremor smiley face secret Brutality but i’m not sure how I did it! I just held all the buttons 🐉🤦‍♂️ #MortalKombat1 pic.twitter.com/OQNgTFlrTQ

— 🐉Mortal_Kombat_Addict | Fatalities Daily (@MK_habit_addict) November 22, 2023

Veteran Mortal Kombat fans will recognise this secret Brutality as Tremor’s Rock Head Brutality from 2015’s Mortal Kombat X. That Brutality also displayed a smiley face on a decapitating rock, although it was much smaller and harder to make out.

The hunt is still on to discover more hidden Brutalities in Mortal Kombat 1, perhaps other alternate versions of existing Brutalities, or perhaps completely new Brutalities. Indeed, Mortal Kombat dataminer TheThiny has found evidence that Omni-Man has a true secret fifth Brutality called Mustache that no-one seems to have discovered yet.

I checked, it’s a secret brutality with no input yet. He also has a special mode, down back forward 2, that will turn off your Kameo and turn you into Terminator from MK11 when he dies.

— thethiny 🐰🍉 (@thethiny) November 13, 2023

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.