Mortal Kombat 11: Frame Data Without the Spreadsheet

A move gets blocked, both players stand there for a moment, and then one of them presses a button and loses. Nothing visible happened in that moment, which is why frame data feels like homework: the entire exchange took place in numbers the game never shows you.

Think of every blocked move as a receipt. Someone leaves with time and someone owes time. Mortal Kombat 11 runs at sixty frames per second, so one frame is a sixtieth of a second, and the receipt is written in those units.

The three numbers that matter

Startup is how long the move takes to become active, and it decides whether it can punish something. Active is how long the hitbox exists, which matters mostly for anti-airs. Recovery is the tail after the active frames, and recovery is where punishable moves live.

The number to actually read is on-block advantage, shown as a plus or minus. Minus seven means the defender recovers seven frames before you do, so if both players press at the same moment, the defender's move comes out first. That is the whole concept. Everything else in the menu is a detail hanging off it.

Three situations, three decisions

A shortcut that saves a weekend of reading: for now, ignore startup numbers entirely on anything slower than twenty frames, and check only the on-block column of the moves you actually block. The game's training mode will display every number live, which is faster than a wiki and impossible to misremember.

You do not need the full table for the cast. You need to recognise roughly where a move sits, because the response changes at each band. If a term like kounter is unfamiliar, the shorter pieces in this section define the vocabulary first.

On block	What it means	What you can do
0 to -3	Effectively even; their turn, barely	Block, or take your turn back with a fast poke if they hesitate
-4 to -7	Their turn, and you cannot steal it	Keep blocking; punish only if they commit to something slow
-8 to -13	Punishable by most characters' fast starters	Take your turn with your fastest mid or high
-14 and worse	Fully punishable	Full combo, and often a Krushing Blow condition

Situation one: you block a string that ends at minus seven. Pressing anything is a guess that loses to their next button, so the correct play is to keep blocking and wait for a move that ends worse. Situation two: you block a move at minus twelve. That is not a guess, that is a free starter, and the players who climb fastest are the ones who convert these without thinking. Situation three: you are plus two after a blocked normal. Their jab and your jab are not equal any more; yours wins, which is why some characters can loop pressure that looks unfair until you notice the frame cost.

The counterexample

The spreadsheet player knows every number and still loses, because he learned the data without learning the range. A move that is minus twelve is only punishable if your punish reaches it, and a punish that whiffs is worse than blocking. Frame data tells you who owes time; it does not tell you whether you can collect. Test the punish in training with the actual spacing you see in matches, not from point-blank.

Where the numbers hide Krushing Blows

Many Krushing Blow requirements are conditional in ways the move list states plainly: punish, kounter, or a specific string as the final hit. A punish requirement means you have to know what is punishable, which is frame data by another name. Each Krushing Blow can only trigger once per match, so the player who knows the punish window gets a free thirty percent that the other player never sees.

This is also why labbing a character's punish list pays better than labbing their combos. A combo you cannot start is worth nothing; a punish window you recognise turns every blocked string into a chance at a Krushing Blow.

Breakaway is the other half of the receipt

Breakaway costs two bars of defensive meter and lets you escape a juggle, which sounds like a free reset until you meet someone who stops the combo early and punishes the animation. The habit worth building is to ask whether the combo is worth breaking: eat a short juggle and keep your meter for a round-ending moment instead.

The numbers you can ignore

Active frames on projectiles, hit advantage on a normal you never hit-confirm, and cancel advantage on strings you do not use. Flawless block windows are worth learning only after you can already block a string on reaction. Injustice 2 runs on the same engine with a clash wager instead of breakaway, so the plus and minus logic transfers directly while the defensive maths does not.

One habit beats all of this reading: pick the string you block most, lab the punish once, and write the number where you can see it. A single memorised punish window is worth more than the rest of the table.

Soalan lazim

What does minus 7 on block mean in MK11?

It means the defender recovers seven frames before the attacker does. If both players press at the same moment, the defender's move lands first, so pressing as the attacker is a losing bet. Seven frames at sixty per second is a little over a tenth of a second, which is why it feels instant but is not.

Which moves are safe on block in Mortal Kombat 11?

Roughly, anything at minus three or better is safe enough to keep your turn, and minus seven is where stealing your turn becomes a guess. Minus eight to thirteen is punishable by fast starters, and anything worse is a full combo. Safety also depends on range, so test the punish at the spacing you actually play at.

How do Krushing Blows work in MK11?

Each Krushing Blow has a condition listed in the move list, such as landing it as a punish, as a kounter, or as the final hit of a specific string. They hit much harder than the normal version and can only trigger once per match per move. Many conditions are punish-based, which makes frame data the key to unlocking them.