What’s included in the Mortal Kombat 11 free update on May 26?

Mortal Kombat 11 is getting a major paid DLC called Aftermath on May 26, which includes a new story mode and three new characters. If you’re not ready to shell out any money for the DLC, even to play as Robocop, you’re not going to be completely left out of the fun.

Along with the paid DLC, Warner Bros. Interactive is also releasing an update free for all Mortal Kombat 11 players that sounds almost as exciting as the content in Aftermath. Here’s what’s coming for free when the update releases.

New Stages and Stage Fatalities

Since Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath continues the story from the original game, it also takes place on some new stages. Fortunately, those new stages will also be available for free to all players, just without the story missions associated with them.

Dead Pool and Soul Chamber are two stages that showed up early in Mortal Kombat’s history and have reappeared throughout the series. They’re coming back in Mortal Kombat 11’s free update, complete with unique Stage Fatalities, a feature also returning in the update.

Related: Everything we know about Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath

Developer NetherRealm hasn’t revealed which stages will have Stage Fatalities, but it sounds like they’re being added to older stages as a secret for dedicated players to uncover.

Along with the two classic stages, two brand-new stages are coming in the update. One takes place outside of Kronika’s Keep, and the other, RetroKade might be the most interesting of all. According to NetherRealm Studio story director Dominic Cianciolo, the RetroKade takes old school stages from the history of Mortal Kombat and remixes them with a more modern look.

Friendships

The free Mortal Kombat 11 update will include one more feature aimed squarely at old-school fans: Friendships. Friendships are the warm and fuzzy twin of Fatalities, allowing players to kill their opponents with kindness rather than just plain killing them. They were introduced to Mortal Kombat 2 to mock the controversy around the game’s gruesome Fatalities but have been missing from the series for decades.

NetherRealm hasn’t shown off all of the Friendships available yet, but there’s at least one that features Scorpion saying “get over here” to a giant teddy bear in the Aftermath trailer.

Players will be able to try all the free content coming to the game on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC on May 26, the same day that the paid DLC Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath is released.