Mortal Kombat might be most famous for its gory, over-the-top fatalities... but the new game adds something else, too: Mercy moves.

Mercy moves actually debuted way back in Mortal Kombat 3, and they've been brought back now, some 8 (!) games later to change things up in 2019's most gruesome fighter.

What they do, basically, is let your opponent come back for one last go if you decide not to kill them as once the FINISH HIM/HER screen appears.

For those of you that want to see what this looks like in action, you can see a tweet shared by the NetherRealm crew embedded below.

Well, you simply need to hold a shoulder button down (LT on Xbox, L2 on PS4, LZ on Switch) and hit the DOWN directional input three times in a row when you're mid-distance away from an enemy in the game.

This effectively equates to your being about two or three dashes away from your opponent once they're dazed in the FINISH HIM/HER state.

Once inputted correctly, they'll recover about 10% health and you'll get chance to continue the fight once again.

Video Loading

Why would you use a mechanic that brings your enemy back to life?

Well, maybe they put up a pretty good fight and you want to keep it going. Maybe your connection lagged out and you want to have a more fair end to your fight.

Or maybe you came very close to nailing that Brutality you wanted to see and whiffed the input at the last minute. Granting Mercy, only to get get it right this time, seems like a pretty satisfying turnout in the end then, right?

Now that Mortal Kombat 11 is up to scratch and has released its kurrency pack as a thank you to players that have been grinding out the game since launch, players may be interested to know more about Mercy moves in the game.

Performing Mercy can be used to extended the life of an opponent in order to get more points in Towers - this is handy if you want to get as many points as possible in order to rank better in the Race Against Time weekly leaderboards, or simply boost points so you get more kurrency per Tower you complete.

Showing Mercy will also enable certain brutalities in matches - handy if you want to get even more points, or earn more Hearts or simply just showboat in matches.