Mortal Kombat X Lets You Try DLC Characters Without Buying Them

You won't have consistent access to them, but Mortal Kombat X will from time to time allow you to play as its various DLC characters without actually buying them.

This ability was announced by Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon on Twitter, where he explained that the game's Challenge Towers will allow you to sample characters you don't own. There are three different Towers that rotate out regularly, and one of these--the Premiere Tower--will sometimes feature a DLC character. You won't be locked out of playing the Tower just because you haven't bought the DLC, effectively letting you get to sample that character before choosing to buy him or her.

That's certainly a welcome feature because, even though there is no shortage of characters in the base game, some of the ones coming as DLC--Jason Voorhees, Predator, Tanya, and Tremor have been announced so far--sound especially interesting. If you decide you want all of them (along with some extra skins), you'll be able to pick up the Kombat Pack for $30.

Boon also revealed on Twitter that the way you choose to customize your profile with different icons, frames, and backgrounds will provide you with various buffs. These are things that don't impact actual matches, but things like experience gain.

For instance, the second Premiere Tower is the Mortal Kombat 1 Tower and offers the border, icon, and background pictured above. Each of those pieces offers a different buff, like an extra 100 Koins per fatality (background), 100 XP per match win (icon), and 75 FXP per match win.

Mortal Kombat X launches this coming Tuesday, April 14, on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. Following a delay, the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions are coming this summer.