| Games | Midway • MK9-11 |
|---|---|
| Movies | Legends • 2021 |
| “ | Cease, Liu Kang. Before you doom us all. | „ |
| ~ Shang Tsung's warning to Fire God Liu Kang in the opening of Aftermath |
| “ | You participate in the most important Mortal Kombat in history! This tournament, the tenth after nine Outworld victories, will determine Earthrealm's fate. If you defeat all of your opponents, you will face one final challenge... me. | „ |
| ~ Shang Tsung |
| “ | Your New Era? You underestimate my prowess, Chosen One. I have the Crown. I have absorbed Kronika's power. You may have attained godhood, but I am the Keeper of Time. You are no match for me. | „ |
| ~ Shang Tsung confronting Fire God Liu Kang in their final battle |
| “ | Your soul is mine! | „ |
| ~ Shang Tsung's famous quote |
Summary
Soul sorcerer and historical host of Mortal Kombat. Born in Earthrealm, Shang Tsung’s relentless pursuit of powerful magic led him to Outworld, where Shao Kahn offered him a dark power that no sorcerer on Earthrealm could. Shang Tsung pledged his eternal loyalty to Shao Kahn in exchange for this evil magic, but he is no faithful servant. He dreams of the day his sorcery will overtake Shao Kahn’s, and he’ll pay any price to get there.
Powers and Stats
Tier: 9-A | At least 8-A, likely far higher
Key: Base | Keeper of Time
Name: Shang Tsung
Origin: Mortal Kombat
Gender: Male
Age: Over 1000 years old
Classification: Human, Sorcerer, Host of the Mortal Kombat tournament (former)
Powers and Abilities:
Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Martial Arts (Has a composite fighting style made from his skills and that of others, including the Five Animals, Hung Gar, Aikido, etc.), Stealth Mastery (Quietly flew towards Johnny Cage. After defeating Fire God Liu Kang, he was nowhere to be seen until reappearing behind him. Frequently uses stealth in combination with his deceptive shapeshifting, catching his enemies off guard), Extrasensory Perception (Can sense the presence of souls several meters away from him), Acrobatics, Magic (Arguably one of the most skilled sorcerers in MK), Flight (True flight), Longevity (His long life comes from the life force that he steals), Social Influencing (Shang Tsung is well known for his trickery and deceit towards others), Soul Manipulation (His soul magic is his most versatile ability, as most of his abilities come from or are a side effect of soul magic. By itself however, he uses it to steal and consume souls, usually against a vulnerable opponent. Stealing souls increases his overall power, restores his health, absorbs its memories [thus absorbing their knowledge], and absorbs their "attributes" and powers, allowing him to mimic their abilities and appearance. When he fully consumes someone's soul, he can absorb their powers to his own. Can weaponize souls in various ways), Shapeshifting (Usually linked to his soul stealing, but he can shapeshift into almost anyone without stealing a soul beforehand. Can also turn into a giant, fire serpent), Energy Manipulation (Linked to his soul magic. He can fire projectiles made of pure soul energy and conjure energy constructs, including shields and chains), Fire Manipulation (While not as versatile as his soul magic, it is one of his more prominent magic and his main element. His fire is hot enough to melt through a Lin Kuei cyborg's armor. Stated to use hellfire as well), Magma Manipulation (Can manipulate scalding lava as an attack), Explosion Manipulation (Can detonate his summoned corpses with a blast of fire. His Scatter Souls attack involves him crushing a soul urn, causing it to explode), Summoning (Can summon a variety of familiars, including a massive fire serpent, undead Shaolin monks, and bloated corpses from the Flesh Pits), Teleportation (Can teleport by himself and swap his position with others. Can create a fiery portal that allows him to travel between realms and banish opponents, and a lava portal that scorches those who pass through it before teleporting them), Telekinesis (Likely a side effect of him gaining so much souls, Shang Tsung has the ability to manipulate opponents and objects from a short distance), Curse Manipulation (Can use his scrolls to apply a curse on his opponent, one that decreases their attack damage and another that increases the damage they take from him), Sealing (Sometimes, the souls he takes are contained in his urn rather than immediately consuming them), Healing (Low-Mid. Healed Kabal from third degree burns all over his body. Also healed himself after sustaining a puncture wound in his chest from Baraka's arm blade), Resurrection (Can resurrect others from their souls, allowing them to regain a pristine physical form. This usually puts them under Shang Tsung's control), Intangibility (Can phase his hands into someone to rip their soul out Can also turn into a wisp of green energy), Resistance to Soul Manipulation and Mind Manipulation (Trapped inside him are the many souls that he has consumed, likely numbering in the hundreds or thousands. Ermac, who likely has a larger/equivalent amount of souls in him, was able to resist Takeda's attempts to read his mind due to the latter being unable to telepathically read all of them at once, so Shang should scale to this feat)
Attack Potency: Small Building level (While he is frequently defeated in the story mode of MK9, he returns to the story of Aftermath with more victories outside of gameplay based matches: defeating Present Jax and nearly killing him, initially defeating Geras, casually destroying a bunch of Lin Kuei cyborgs, etc.), ignores durability with dark sorcery (Can steal and consume souls, cause a disembodied spirit to manifest its physical form inside someone to burst from within, phase his hands through the body, etc.) | At least Multi-City Block level, likely far higher (After donning the Soul Crown, which empowered Kronika to an unknown degree, he partially absorbed the souls of Fujin and Raiden, later fully absorbed the souls of Shao Kahn and Sindel before finally defeating Kronika, who had absorbed Cetrion's soul to empower herself, and Fire God Liu Kang [in his ending], absorbing their souls as well), ignores durability with dark sorcery and the Hourglass
Speed: Peak Human (Normally runs this fast) with Hypersonic reactions and combat speed (Should be comparable to Kabal who can slice bullets) | Hypersonic+ movement speed (Should be superior to the likes of Raiden who can fly this fast) with Massively Hypersonic+ reactions and combat speed (Should be superior to Shinnok who can react to and block Raiden's lightning)
Lifting Strength: Class 5 | At least Class K, likely far higher (In his ending, he is shown to be as large as a small sized building, which might increase the weight that he is able to lift)
Striking Strength: Small Building level (Staggered Geras with his attacks in close range) | At least Multi-City Block level, likely far higher
Durability: Small Building level (Can take hits from people on this level) | At least Multi-City Block level, likely far higher
Stamina: Superhuman (He can restore his stamina during battle by consuming souls)
Range: Standard melee range with hand-to-hand combat. Tens of meters with magic and projectiles His portals allow him to access and travel between realms.
Standard Equipment: Ancient scrolls, soul phylacteries, | Kronika's Krown, The Hourglass
- Optional Equipment: None notable
- Can Create/Summon: Magical chains, giant flaming serpent, corpses, undead Shaolin monks, forcefields, portals, lava pools, soulnado, and his own items.
Intelligence: Gifted (Expert schemer and skilled combatant; possesses knowledge of genetics, having created such biological abominations as Mileena and Meat in his Flesh Pits. Was revealed to be the creator of the Krown, which allowed Kronika to absorb souls and harness the innate power within them to operate the Hourglass)
Weaknesses: His shapeshifting ability may not allow him to fully copy several aspects of a target, like their strength and speed (Fully consuming their soul allows him to do that though)
Notable Attacks/Techniques:
Shapeshifting: Technically, this ability should fall under his soul magics, but it is such an iconic trait of MK's deadliest sorcerer, so it does deserve its own section. That aside, Shang Tsung is well known by his allies and enemies for his ability to shapeshift into anyone he knows. In a burst of soul energy, he quickly morphs into his desired form (usually a person) to gain access to their powers and any weapon that they're currently wielding. This power synergizes well with his sneakiness and treachery, since he can morph into someone's ally to slip through their guard if they're not careful.
- Even if he's still morphed as someone else, he can use his own powers while retaining his disguise. This was first seen in the story expansion MK11: Aftermath where he knocks Kronika down with an energy beam while still disguised as Kung Lao's revenant, who lacks any kind of ability to shoot an energy beam.
- Besides morphing into other people, Shang Tsung has some of his own forms to morph into. He can turn into a giant fiery serpent and turn into a flying wisp of green energy.
Composite Martial Arts: Shang Tsung's fighting style is a culmination of martial arts and techniques he has trained himself in, as well as many other styles that he has copied and stolen from other warriors. His main fighting style is Snake Kung Fu alongside several other animal styles in Chinese kung fu, but Shang has also demonstrated his skill in many other styles:
- Hung Gar
- 7 Style Praying Mantis
- Aikido
Ancient Scroll: A scroll containing what appears to be written symbols that glow with an orange hue.
- Curse Manipulation: Holding out a scroll, he places a curse that acts as a debuff which weakens their opponent's attack or defense.
- Energy Projection: He can also fire a close range blast of purple colored magic from his scroll.
Soul Phylactery: A small, engraved container that Shang Tsung uses to store souls that he steals in battle.
- Sealing: As seen in his Toward Throw in MK11, Shang Tsung rips out his opponent's soul to keep it in his urn. His Soul Well move can also store portions of the enemy's soul that he drains from them with each attack that he successfully lands.
Fire Magic: Shang Tsung can manipulate the element of fire to incinerate his enemies. It makes up almost a half of his magic as it is seen even in abilities not related to fire such as portal creation, making it an element he's most associated with. His fire is hot enough to quickly melt through metal.
- Basic uses include instantly combusting foes with a hand wave, shooting fire balls and fire skulls from different angles, creating fire whirls with his scrolls, unleashing a concentrated stream of fire, boosting his melee attacks with fire, making explosions, conjuring rising sparks of hellfire, etc.
Lava: As a callback to his MK vs DCU days, Shang Tsung has the ability to manipulate lava. With a single hand gesture, he scorches the earth with streams of viscous lava that he launches towards the opponent, burning them in its torrid embrace.
- Combined with his portal creation, he can make a portal made out of a pool of lava. Once he creates the portal, he can bury his enemy into the portal to submerge them in lava before they are spat out of another one.
Soul Magic: This magic can be said to be his most deadliest one yet. Considered to be more powerful than the diabolical blood magic due to its ability to manipulate a great source of power, this magic is made even deadlier in the hands of someone who is so skilled at it. Shang Tsung can drain the souls of others to obtain more strength, heal himself from near-death, siphon others' powers, etc. A testament to his great skill in the art of soul magic is his versatility with the usage of souls.
- Energy Constructs: Using his green magic, Shang Tsung can create a variety of constructs suited for battle. He can make a set of chains that manifest directly on the target to restrain them as well as an energy shield that he can use to bash them with or detonate it to release an explosion.
- Telekinesis: This power might be an ability he possessed long ago or a side effect of the vast amount of souls that he consumes which gives him immense telekinetic power. Either way, it's still an excellent addition to his arsenal. With it, he can restrain and suspend his foes to make them oblivious to his own deadly magic.
- Resurrection: Usually viewed as the power that gives new life or undeath, Shang Tsung's usage of this magic is as ironic as it gets. Back in MK: Deadly Alliance, he transplanted many souls of fallen warriors into mummified corpses of the Onaga's army, bringing them back to life. He takes this to the next level by doing it on live victims, causing the soul to slowly regain their physical form that shreds them apart from within. An excellent example of Shang Tsung's dark humor and situational irony.
- Healing: When Shang Tsung consumes souls, he replenishes his own life force and gains much more strength. This healing is strong enough to heal wounds such as being impaled through the chest from Baraka's blade, having his face burnt to the bone by hot lightning from Nightwolf's revenant, etc.
Snake Familiar: A powerful technique that dates back to days of MK: Deception that allows him to summon his most powerful familiar yet, this creature's body is entirely composed of physical fire and can span at least ? meters long. He can summon this snake in front of him or directly below the opponent starting with its tail. The snake is often summoned to finish his enemies, especially against more powerful characters. Still, Shang does not discriminate his victims.
- Soul Stealing: This snake also shares its master's ability to drain souls, usually summoned to do this as a finishing move. Before doing so, it coils around the opponent and constricts them with its burning grasp before it opens it mouth to siphon their soul and life force.
- BFR: Another finishing move that the snake can do is banish its master's opponents. This snake then chomps down and swallows them whole with one bite, then dives into a fiery portal to transport them somewhere else.
Demons: Near the climax of the Aftermath story, Shang Tsung was able to assist Fujin and Raiden in forcing Kronika to retreat. He conjured several fiery portals that unleashed flying demonic creatures that lacked lower torsos. These mysterious beings were able to harm Kronika and they appear to be dragging her down, but their identities and origins are not yet known.
- Unlike his other summons, their eyes do not glow green. Green glowing eyes indicates that Shang Tsung's magic is used to control something. This could mean that he is merely calling upon them from their domain.
Necromancy: Just like his fellow evil sorcerer, Shang Tsung can perform the forbidden darkest magics of necromancy. He can summon and reanimate the dead Shaolin monks that once followed in his steps and roamed his island. Even after death, they still retain their strength and agility as a warrior monk as well as their skills in martial arts.
Shang Tsung feeds D'Vorah to his zombie monks as they enjoy a lava bath.
Teleportation: A common ability among supernatural characters in MK is the power of teleportation. In the sorcerer's case, he can teleport himself alongside others (and even objects) in a burst of flame. He can also use this ability to swap positions with his target.
- Portal Creation: Shang Tsung is one of the few kombatants who's capable of interrealm travel. He can conjure a burning portal that can lead to almost any location in all of the six current realms. In combat, he can banish an opponent to a distant realm where they have low chances of returning, provided that they don't have any powers to counter it.
- Spiritual Eruption: Shang emits a powerful vortex of soul energy around himself.
- Death Trap: He then extracts a soul from the vortex as a projectile that he throws at the opponent, which flings them around with its force.
- Dragon's Claw Gouge: While crouched, Shang performs a sharp swipe of his arm that creates a streak of lava on the floor.
- Dark Arts: The third attack has Shang thrusts his fire coated palms at the opponent.
- Bad Omen: After the two initial strikes, he kicks the opponent away.
- Playtime: This combo ends with a spinning side kick.
- Burning Vigor: After Restored Youth, he summons a blast of flame from below that launches the opponent and shoots a crashing fire skull at the airborne opponent, knocking them down.
- Tipping The Scales: Shang ends the attack with a jump kick to the face.
- Burning Evil: This adds a third attack where he slides on the floor and scrapes it, creating a streak of lava that he launches at the opponent as he rises up.
- Inferno Skull: Fire Skull can now be amplified twice, causing you to shoot three skulls.
- The attack can be delayed, causing Shang to hold the projectile in his hand until he chooses to fire it.
- It can also be cancelled during the startup, tricking opponents who anticipate this attack.
- Shang can also fire it through his scroll, turning it into a beam that zigzags towards the opponent.
- He can add a third attack where he simultaneously shoots two fireballs at their shins, burning and knocking them down.
- A third hellfire bolt can be added after summoning two of them.
- Explosive Corpses: Shang can now send the opponent high into the air by blowing up the corpse.
- While holding the urn, Shang can delay or cancel the attack. The longer the attack is delayed, the more damage it will deal.
- He can also choose to throw the exploding urn at the opponent, stunning them on contact.
- After briefly launching the opponent, Shang can follow up with a drop kick to the opponent's back.
Gallery
Notable Matchups
Victories:
Losses:
Tricky the Clown (Madness Combat) Tricky's Profile (Speed was equalized, starting distance was 15 meters, Tricky the Clown and Base Shang Tsung used)
Inconclusive:
Discussions
| Discussion threads involving Shang Tsung (Second Timeline) |