Weekly Character Discussion: Falco

He's a cool character that plays by his own rules.

Falco is made of pure awesome and just the simple fact that I can dthrow CG to dair most of the chars in the game makes it even more worthwile using him in tourney. His Bair is awesome to camp w/ and his lasers (SHDL ftw?) make him even more annoying to fight. His dair is great for gimping...great for comboing into uair/bairs at high percents.

His drillbeak(fair) looks like it can be a good gimping tool if the chars upB sucks and you hit 'em outta their second jump. If you get the last hit in the combo it knocks a person back far enough for you to grab the edge before they even get to UpB back (DRILLBEAK FTW!)

His nair is good for comboing chars that he can't CG outta his dthrow.

His dtilt still launches and on block its pretty safe since it pushes the opponent back. His jab combos is decent but he can get punished if the opponent DIs out...but smart Falco's usually shine afterward to thwart any retaliations.

utilt is pretty decent as well kills around 160? As ppl already know his usmash and uair are great finishers.

His Dsmash is my least fave outta his smashes...why? Mainly b/c of the range...when I use Fox in Brawl when I dsmash I always catch the opponent at the tip of his foot since I usually try to space myself...w/ Falco I'm always thinkin his dsmash range is as good which it isn't...its still fast though...so thats a plus.

I <3 the hell outta his fsmash it starts a lil from behind his head and makes an arc to the front of Falco's body. The knockback is GREAT it can even hit ppl hangin on the edge.

Forward Bs awesome as hell and fast...but I wouldn't spam it as much as ppl say...if you're playing a smart opponent that knows which moves go through it (for example: DDDs bair) you'll get punished for spamming it. PLus most ppl just go to the middle of the stage when you recover w/ f.B and just smash you off the stage. Whenever I play Bum he'd just stand at the edge when I try to forward B towards his DK he'd roll backwards and dsmash near where I landed. Best thing to do is to either sweetspot it...or do it after shooting a laser. Maybe to punish an opponent whiffing a move perhaps as well?

Anyway, I really think he ***** the hell outta Snake regardless of what anyone else says. Lasers force crawl...all you can expect him to do outta crawl is dash attack/snake dashed upsmash/or boost grab. Laser spam already limits his options, he also gets dthrow CG to daired so easily and also gets gimped easily off stage whie recovering by the dair...any smart Snake would probably prevail if they know what they're doing...but one slip up and that could mean their stock.

I need more insight on Falco v. MetaKnight...all I know is lasers go through Whorenado...and he can get CGed to dair...but MK can recover from it...so there's no point in even trying to gimp his recovery cuz the UpB sends you flying behind him and away from the edge (where Falco doesn't want to be).

For the most part...even w/o all the crazy dair shine combos...Falco's still pretty solid. IMO he looks pretty versatile. Even w/o the dthrow CG he can still do other combos. Dthrow to dash attack->insta usmash. Dthrow->usmash Dthrow->utilt Dthrow->nair.

His dashattack is still really good. Mad range.

Its like Fox v. Marth in Melee...one mistake...and Marth grabs you...just say bye to that stock. LMAO (especially if you're near the edge.

falco is pretty awesome, i wouldn't be surprised if he turned up in the top 3 or so

shame about the new shine, yeah it has its uses, but fox's would make him even better

D1 said:

Forward Bs awesome as hell and fast...but I wouldn't spam it as much as ppl say...if you're playing a smart opponent that knows which moves go through it (for example: DDDs bair) you'll get punished for spamming it. PLus most ppl just go to the middle of the stage when you recover w/ f.B and just smash you off the stage. Whenever I play Bum he'd just stand at the edge when I try to forward B towards his DK he'd roll backwards and dsmash near where I landed. Best thing to do is to either sweetspot it...or do it after shooting a laser. Maybe to punish an opponent whiffing a move perhaps as well?

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Do the forward B right after jumping (think roll-canceling from CvS2, and if you don't get the reference think jump-wavedash out of shine from Melee) and that'll cut the lag drastically.


Does anyone have any links to some excellent laser camping? I think I am doing it wrong.

Oh my god his fsmash range is godly. It hits behind him and three miles ahead of him. His bair comes out so fast and has so much power behind it. Also, I haven't played too many good Falco so this question bothers me: would it be smarter to go to the ledge and ledge-hop to double laser spam, or just double laser spam while on solid ground?

I'll toss in what i know about falco vs game and watch.

GW gets chaingrabbed until i believe 40% at which time he could be spiked off the stage however i think his vertical recovery would be good enough to ensure that he would come back.

Falco's lasers are of course bucketable, however they are among the weaker projectiles that can be caught meaning falco will need to be at least 50% or so to ensure a kill. I would imagine that this would dampen the camping game a little bit, even if baiting a bucket means a free hit for the falco player (dash attack or anything that would close the distance quickly since they would probably be caught at a distance.

GW can intercept the forward b with a back air and i think a dtilt although the timing is a bit stricter.

Overall i would say that falco's lack of range would make it hard for him to compete against gw and since his big advantage, laser camping, gets ruined a bit, he's left with just chaingrabbing which is not enough to turn the tides.

~Omegablackmage

No, really. Can someone please explain or show the best method of laser camping with Falco?

I hear a lot of complaining about it, but the way I do it doesn't seem bad at all.

The way Sethlon (best Falco in TX) uses lasers is just a single shot before landing. Though he doesn't really laser camp much, just approaches with lasers into grabs into chainthrows off the stage into spikes.

Really can't see laser camping being all that effective since only a few characters will get hit by both lasers if he fires 2. Everyone else can just perfect shield and approach given how easy it is to do in Brawl. Plus lasers don't go all that far anymore.

Besides, why should Falco camp when he gets a free 40-50 damage with a grab on most every character? At higher percents he gets free nairs or dairs still after grabs. He doesn't have really guaranteed kill moves from grabs but neither does most anyone else anymore. Definitely a top tier character for now at least. Plus he seems to be one of the best picks against Snake and Meta Knight which helps him even more in tournaments.

I also discovered when I was screwing around if you do a laser on or at least near the last possible frame of a jump while the laser still comes out it won't make any sound but still appears and has a hitbox. Probably not real important but I thought it was neat.

Falco's entire existence is strange to me. I see some of the best players around saying that he's incredible, top tier no doubt, yet I rarely hear of a Falco winning tournaments. My friends pick him up and tell me how incredible he is, how good his cg is, how unbelievably cheap he can be. But then I never see them play him. It seems universally agreed that Falco is awesome, but Falco players are few and far in between. I expect he'll become more popular in the coming months, though, and I'm not looking forward to that, because he is ridiculously good. And ridiculously annoying to play against :/

Falco reminds me of Wolf in how he isn't really broken, just super ultra annoying to play against. I hate playing against Falco with Snake. My MK and G&W do really well against Falcos. Sethlon's Falco wrecked my Snake one round, but my G&W did great. ROB does really really well against Falco. You can't get gayed by lasers, you can edgeguard him, and down smash rules his ***. DK also does really well. You can space yourself easily with bair, ftilt, etc and go in for the kill.

Falco's chaingrab is by far the most broken one in the game because it's so insanely easy and its a free 30-50% with a free dair off the edge. Good thing fatass characters like Snake and DK can tank 50% like it's NOTHING, especially against a weak character like Falco. I love playing Falcos with my DK because it's one of the only characters that I don't mind getting chaingrabbed to 50% because it takes forever to kill me.

i won a tourney recently using falco as my secondary. id say he is extremely good vs all chars he can CG, not as good vs chars with really good recoveries but still pretty dominant. there are a couple chars that get out of the CG very early (i'm not sure exactly who, i know lucario is one) and these chars stand a very good chance vs falco. of the characters that can get CG'd, only a few seem to be able to put up a fight (snake and MK come to mind).

other than the cg, he is still pretty solid. i get the laserlock surprisingly often, i'd say maybe once every 2-3 matches w/ falco, if not more. certain matchups are soooo easy for him, such as ike and wolf, due to cg to spikes. falco dittos might be even stupider than DDD dittos, lol. but yeah falco is def top 5 characters in the game, possibly even top 3?

you can't base how good characters are just off how many people play them, just because a character is more popular than another doesn't mean he's a better character. Also, some people copy off other people's styles or slowly learn and build up from other people, advancing the metagame of certain characters more than others. After Snake and MK, it feels to me like it's close between DK/DDD/Falco/GW. Rob is good but doesn't kill well, Fox is good but not as good as the others, and even though no one really uses toon link yet he still seems like a good character regardless based off his stats.

Anyway, when people are camping the ledge vs falco (falco on the edge), and all they are expecting is for you to forward B back on, using Falco's shine here is good cuz it hits them on the ground and easily gives you time to get back on the stage as well as do a bit of damage to them (and undo a bit of attack power deterioration).

Also, I like to CG into running up smashes, and then turn around and double jump Bair them if I think they will double jump. I played velocity yesterday, i CGed him to 30% (I think only 20 or so is possible vs GW tho at most but I got 30 I didn't really test it much) then did running up smash, turned around and double jump baired him 3 times, then predicted where he would go and dair spiked him (that part doesn't work unless I know where he will go though). If you think they are going to air dodge toward the stage you can either grab them or down smash (as down smash lasts for a few frames). Other smash moves might work too, haven't tried it. Landing lag from air dodges in this game is only 2 frames (in melee it was 10 frames, but landing lag from no aerial attack was 4 frames, to give you some comparison differences).

Another thing, if you know they are going to air dodge, it makes a Dair spike really easy to get off.

Falco's main problem is killing people, but the best way to do that is to make your kill moves strong by spamming other moves like asers. Also Falco's rapid A has immense priority and range in front of it, and if you keep spamming A and they get out of range, it automatically starts another rapid A. I also sometimes do jab -> grab for people that are expecting rapid A, it throws them off sometimes and gets me low % CGs sometimes.

AlphaZealot said:

Can anyone else confirm that there are no more spikes in Brawl, everything can meteor recovered?

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I have never meteor canceled in Brawl. Are you sure you can still do that?

I can't confirm that all "spikes" are meteor cancellable, but I can support AZ's claim for at least some meteors, I believe I meteor cancelled Falco's or Ganon's, it's been a while, but I know for a fact that I've done it at least once. But it seems harder to do though....

Last I heard everyone agreed that it was just a fast recovery from moves in general...

That's what I've gathered from my experiences.

Meleeruler said:

Also, I haven't played too many good Falco so this question bothers me: would it be smarter to go to the ledge and ledge-hop to double laser spam, or just double laser spam while on solid ground?

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If you want to laser camp the best way is just to standing laser spam (as nooby as it looks ). The frequency at which the lasers come out is a lot faster than jumping around and spamming them.

Yeah I don't think there is meteor cancelling anymore, it seems to be you only recover quickly enough if you were spiked at lower percents!!!

There is wall teching though!!!

I've meteor canceled Toon Link's dair instantly at very high %s before...

but I don't think I've ever done it vs Falco's dair

Mew2King said:

you can't base how good characters are just off how many people play them, just because a character is more popular than another doesn't mean he's a better character.

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I disagree, at least concerning the best characters the game offers. On the basis that players want to win, tiers in a way form themselves. Melee was a great example:

http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=63399

As you can see, the top 3 most used characters are, in order, Marth, Falco and Fox. This is also the order of the top 3 characters for winning MLG in the years that they carried smash.

If you need another example, Pokemon actually bases their tiers on usage rather than tournament results, but you still get a similar effect.

Back to coversation, I have never seen anyone meteor cancel Ike's downtilt spike. I've killed with it from 0% on players as good as myself (about average).

On the subject of any Falcos winning or placing high in tourney...I've consistently placed top 3 and recently nabbing a 1st place spot maining Falco for a couple months already in tourneys where PC, Bum, Jman (nabbed high placing in Pound 3), Hax (nabbed high placing in Pound 3 as well), and other NYC greats play. I believe Falco's really **** OD beast just alotta ppl are to attached to their Dreamland and Konami chars : P. Ppl already b*tch at me for laser camping too much...even when I fire like 3-5 shots per match >_>.

Btw Chillin any good laser lock setups? I thought of a few, but never got to pull 'em out in tourney yet.

Cort said:

If you want to laser camp the best way is just to standing laser spam (as nooby as it looks ). The frequency at which the lasers come out is a lot faster than jumping around and spamming them.

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The problem with the standing laser camp is the recovery. Not a problem if you're across the stage but even if they're moderately close to you it'll put you at at least a disadvantage when they get past/around it.

falco is really good.

*nods head*
i really have nothing to contribute here.

falco ***** a lot of the cast really hard, he's got a ton going for him....

So... does anyone want to write the synopsis? AZ or Lee perhaps? Or Gimpy. You know you want to Gimpy =D

not this time

when we do bowser

or maybe sheik ;P

Synopsis:

Falco is a strange character. Many of the top smashers believe he belongs in the top tier, but many others fail to see his potential. His strengths lie in his lasers, his attacks, and his amazing chaingrab.

Lasers can be used to supplement attack strategies or they can be spammed to bring the opponent to you. Although you can fire lasers from a jump, the rate of fire is greatly increased by simply firing while standing still.

Falco has a large range of power and quick attacks to choose from. His forward smash hits slightly behind and far in front, his dash cancels into an up smash, his bair is an amazing kill move, and his dair is a spike that can easily gimp other players. Utilizing these attacks along with his amazingly quick side B and lasers can make for a great offense or defense.

Falco's chaingrab is simply amazing. 30-50% on nearly every character followed by a free running up smash or dair. This chaingrab can bring even Snake and Metaknight to their knees.

Falco's mediocre range and recovery keep him from reaching the top. Characters such as Donkey Kong and G&W can out-space Falco while characters such as ROB and Pit have no troubles with Falco's laser spam or gimpy dair.

Though he has his weaknesses, a smart Falco player can overcome them easily. Falco is one of the few characters with a strong offensive and defensive game and the ability to adjust according to your opponent's style. Although his placings are only a blip on the tournament scene radar right now, he definitely has the potential to take the position as a top tier character.

Sorry, it's 5 am

Falco is one of my personal favorite characters to play, and currently probably my best character. He has a huge array of options in battle in order to suit his style, and very few opponents can actually overwhelm him.

His lasers make his ground game and aerial game one of the best. It allows for accumulation of percent, it baits the opponent, it allows for a safe approach on any character not carrying a reflector or mirror shield, it helps for recover back onto the stage on tight spots... There are so many uses. Falco can even laser lock a player if they do not pay attention or miss a tech on certain moves. He can camp effectively this way, and force many players to make rash decisions. His lasers also help him to combo into his Standard A, Tilts, Smashes... Anything you need to get the job done. If it were not for Pit Arrows being able to move in any direction and for the near zero lag from using them, along with Zeldas Din's Fire having huge radius/kill potential and going through platforms/stage barriers, I would vote Falco's lasers as the best projectile in the game character wise, and even then it's a very close call.

Falcos Chain Grab is ridiculous. The only character Falco cannot reliably Chain Grab at least twice is Jigglypuff, and that is only due to Rest, which isn't a reliable method of escaping, and Ice Climbers when Popo and Nana are present. Only a handful of characters can escape before hitting 40%, and even when they do, it leaves them vulnerable to whatever the Falco player wishes to follow it up with.
His CG can lead a player to the edge of a stage for a quick kill, or to simply control the match. It also has a lot of follow ups, such as the Dash Attack Canceled Up Smash, a quick Dair, Lasers, Nair > anything... Not to mention Falco also has the new Reverse Pivot Wave Grab (Boost Smashing minus the Smash and using a Pivot Grab) to alternate which direction the Falco is going if they so choose to avoid ending the grab when near the edge. Next to Dedede and Ice Climbers, Falco has the best Chain Grab game period.

Falcos Melee is also very good. What he lacks for in range he makes up for in combo ability, speed of attacks, a good spike, and the range can be made up for with lasers and his reflector. His UTilt is a great damage racker, and can be used multiple times at low %, or to set up for a Uair/Bair. It also seems to come out of anything. His Dtilt has lost its major killing potential, but it still comes out fairly quick, and can set up for some laser play or another aerial if needed. His FTilt, aside from his reflector, is probably one of his best spacing tools in terms of his melee. It's quick, extends a good amount in front of him, and can even hit characters trying to recover if tilted downwards. His Standard A is very easy to take advantage of, and can get good damage in if the opponent doesn't bother to Smash DI. It's quick, and can combo out of his lasers, Nair, and Dair.

His Up Smash is as great as ever, and kill opponents quite reliably, especially out of a Nair, laser, or shield. He can also Boost Smash his Up Smash, which surprises a lot of people when done at the right moment (I'm personally surprised I don't see more players other than Snake users use this technique). His Forward Smash has massive range and is likely his strongest move (not entirely sure, don't quote me on that). His Down Smash is definitely his quickest and easiest to pull of if you're reading your opponents moves appropriately, and sends them at a lovely angle off the edge which sets up for an edge hog or spike.

Falcos Forward B is a good defense and offense move that racks up damage very well when combined with his lasers. It can be used for very fast edge hogs if the player knows the stage distance well, and when it is canceled, sends the player a very long distance away. It also spikes too, which isn't something that happens often, but is still a nice treat when it does. His reflector is likely his most unorthodox move, and likely his most misused one too. It provides great spacing, it can set up for a good approach if it trips the player, and of course it reflects projectiles in front of him, and behind him if it pulls back in time. It's also pretty good at edge guarding. Reflect + Edge Hog is awesome.

His aerial game I find is where he is somewhat lacking, but is definitely good and not something that can't be made up for. His Dair is not only good for spiking and leading out of a CG, but it is one of his best damage dealers and at lower %, a player can actually Dair repeatedly and then follow the tech. It's also one of the easiest spikes in the game to hit with. His Fair does not have major uses, and unfortunately doesn't have good priority or KO potential for an attack that moves in front of him. Although despite this, it does reasonable damage, and if the player dives off the stage and hits a recovering opponent, it will drag them down with the attack and send them farther (why you wouldn't Dair is beyond me, but it may have its uses). His Bair is simply amazing, and is one of his most reliable KO options. It has good priority, good knock back, and comes out quite quick. His Uair is different from Melee, and the hitbox has change quite a bit. It also doesn't KO as easily, but it is still good for KOing on the top. His Nair is ridiculous, and sets up for anything. Standard A, USmash, FSmash, DSmash, Tilts, Grabs... It does good damage, keeps the opponent close, and traps while in use. One of Falcos staples.


One character I have found that gives Falco problems is Wolf. Falco can't be too laser happy with Wolf, as he has a projectile that is better than Falcos. Wolf also out prioritizes, out ranges and out powers Falco in almost every aspect of Melee. His FSmash gives Falco a lot of issues due to it's huge range. Wolfs Standard A also passes through shields, so Falco cannot always go for a CG. Wolfs reflector also has invincibility frames which allows him to escape some of the moves Falco may attempt to string together, which happens to set up for FTilts, FSmashes, and Standard As, which are all strong and two of them have good KO potential. When push comes to shove in the air, Wolf wins when lasers are not involved. His Bair comes out faster than Falcos, and has even great KO potential, so a Falco is in a dangerous spot in most aerial confrontations.

Another character I think would give Falco problems would be Jiggs. She is too light to be Chain Grabbed extesively, and she escapes almost any combo attempts with her floaty DI. She's small, so hitting her with laser requires more accuracy than on most characters. Her priority in the air also beats Falco pretty badly. Fair out prioritizes a lot, and kills. Pound out prioritizes everything Falco has minus the lasers and reflector. There is also the issue of her Rollout, which is much more powerful and easier/faster to charge this time around. Falcos recovery is better than it was in Melee, but is still not the best and is very predictable, which sets up for Roll Out a little too easily if the Falco player doesn't recover smart. I've also had instances where Jiggs has been Spiked at reasonable percents and has come back from the dead via multiple jumps and rising pound.


There may be other characters that are bad match ups, but those ones stick out like a sore thumb to me at least. Overall, Falco is a top contender in this game. He has a wide variety of play styles to choose from, and can go between each with ease. He has a lot of good match ups, and can give any character with no reflector/projectile a problem. His Chain Grab and his laser play are amazing, and his Melee only compliments him more. At the very least, Falco will be High Tier in Brawl.


On a side note, if you want to watch an amazing Falco, check out Sethlon.

I expect he'll become more popular in the coming months, though,

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Please no ^^ I fear that a lot

I hope that he won't be too much popular in Europe

You have already said all about Falco, i could just add that he's the perfect example of the character that seems at the first sight have a problem to kill, but who really hasn't when played smart. ^^

I think another hard matchup for Falco is Lucario. He nullifies most of Falco's strengths. Laser spam can be defeated by using Reverse Double Team as an approach or simply jumping over it. All of Lucario's air attacks beat out Falco's both is range and priority, and Lucario's amazing dair out prioritizes Falco's up-smash. Lucario is too floaty to be chain-grabbed effectively and he can use wall-clinging to come back from spikes on some stages. Lucario also out-ranges Falco on the ground. The only thing that keeps this from being un-winnable for Falco is his reflector, which effectively stops all of Lucario's horizontal approach options and reduces the usefulness of Aura Sphere, It can even lead into a free forward-smash if it makes Lucario trip.

Overall, I think that Lucario has a good change at winning in this matchup, but falco is by no means easy.

Star Falco is pretty cool guy.

He wants his bread and doesn't afraid of anything.


But seriously, Falco is plain badass. I'm glad Falco isn't popular or hasn't won many tournaments (as of right now) because that proves several things

1) He is hard to master

2) Means he wont be mained by n00bs just because he is Good.

3) The rest of us who use him seriously can gloat when we pwn Snake and MK players with our awesomeness.

I have a question/ observation. I know that several options exist to end the CG: d-air if at the edge, running up-smash.

What is the general opinion on ending it with just n-air? I remember when the game just came out, and a friend of mine would just CG-> n-air to finish if he couldn't spike. It definately racks up damage, without giving them as much of a chance to recover (which up-smash would, right?)

Another huge plus to falco is the lack of fast falling--he can't really be comboed back, which makes previously more even matches (DK, where if he grabbed you you were dead), much more one sided.

Personally, I think people are being too pessimistic about Falco's recovery. Phantasm can be canceled at varying lengths, aimed exactly onto the ledge, or aimed onto the stage. That's at least 6 options with one move right there. Not to mention only a few characters can combat his onto-stage phantasm properly. Since there's a large disjointed hit box right under and above falco's body in the air, characters with equally disjointed hit boxes are really the only ones who can counter it. I suppose a simple spot dodge would be as effective (or even rolling away), but it's hard to predict exactly what the falco will do.

Anybody else wish Falco had a different fair, though? It's so useless, especially when compared with his superior nair. Ah well. I find it to be a good tactic to approach with a SH nair, it's hard to shield grab because of its range and lack of lag. SH dairs are only really failsafe if you SH over them and dair into behind their potential shield.

Also, I noticed somebody said down smash is useless. WTF? Falco's downsmash is SO useful! Spot dodge into down smash? Roll into downsmash? Its incredible speed, priority, and knockback makes it one of his most helpful edge guarding moves. Sure, it doesn't have the range it used to have, but if you know when and where to use it, it will never fail you.

Speaking of downsmash, I heard a lot of Falco players are having trouble against Game and Watch. I did too in the beginning. Your best technique against him is purposely missing laser shots close to him (so he down+bs and gives you a chance to attack), SH phantasming to toss him up, and not surprisingly, spot dodging and downsmashing all of his attacks (except for fsmash. ROLL AWAY FROM THAT, WHATEVER YOU DO).

Since all of G&W's moves have relatively low lag (downsmash, his most popular smash attack, has only a few frames pre- and post- attack), your spot dodge will outlast the blow, and your dsmash will follow up nicely. G&W may choose to spam dsmash, which works. In that case, just roll away. Don't confront a spam G&W dsmash, because there will be a surprise usmash or fsmash. His dair is something you DO want to spot dodge-->dsmash on. It is always effective.

Reemphasizing one thing... use G&W's oil spill against him. A G&W player will use every oppurtunity they can against falco to gather up an oil spill. When he's off stage and not more than two characters higher than ground level, spam laser. If he's recovering from up above, spam laser. These points in game and watch's recovery are crucial. If he greedily chooses to add them for oil spill, it will cost him dearly. If not, you get free laser spam. Another thing -- if you try to SHL game and watch and he crouches, that's a good sign. You WANT your opponent to feel cornered, not able to move. Unlike pikachu who can duck under Falco's lasers and approach, Game & Watch cannot crawl.

I had a bit of trouble with DK when I first faced a good opponent, but I quickly realized the easiest way to take care of DK is simply attacking from below and behind. Also, DO NOT ever stand in front of a DK unless you are about chain grab him.

Surprisingly, the character I have the most trouble was not mentioned in the synopsis at all. Metaknight outpaces Falco's air game completely, outspeeds him, outprioritizes, and out grab-ranges. The best approach on a metaknight is no approach. Let him come to you. The key to beating an accomplished metaknight is playing defensively and using sporadic movement decisions. The less predictable you are, the less metaknight will recognize your patterns and punish your lag. If he tries to whorenado from far away, laser spam. If he tries to whorenado from close, jump and dair into the top.

Another problem with metaknight is his amazing edgeguarding. Even if you're edgehogging and the metaknight is coming back, you MUST be careful. Shuttle loop will take even the best of players by surprise. You can, however, surprise the metaknight back. Falco's spiking dair happens to have an equal or higher priority than shuttle loop. : ) Use it wisely.

Well, I'm off to go eat dinner. I'll be participating in Falco discussion later tonight.

Scamp said:

Do the forward B right after jumping (think roll-canceling from CvS2, and if you don't get the reference think jump-wavedash out of shine from Melee) and that'll cut the lag drastically.

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This.

Seriously, if you do this, as long as you space it right, the phantasm is pretty much unpunishable.

Also, since you guys didn't go into it too deep, different ways you can use lasers:
Short hop double laser, both lasers high: If you expect them to jump or just want to scare them into being grounded, although if you're too close you could eat a running attack.

Short hop double laser, one high one low: Stops them if they short hop with the added incentive of hitting them if they try to rush you on the ground. Can also hit with both lasers if they're on a platform.

Short hop single laser: Doing a single laser rather than two has the benefit of giving you a tad more air control...since you can't move while firing a laser mid air anymore, you can move farther left/right before shooting a single. I also think its easier to shoot lower with just one laser, and as drew mentioned the "silent lasers" have pretty good frame advantage...I've silent laser'd right on someone's sheild before and the upsmashed them when they tried to grab me.

Running off the ledge, double jump back on double laser: Pretty much the best way to camp with lasers. As long as the stage is flat, you can easily make it so that both lasers will hit even the smallest opponent. And then, when your opponent rushes you, you have plenty of room to phantasm behind them, run to the other edge, rinse repeat.

Also, on camping with lasers: You can't really camp with lasers like the bird could in melee, people just run too fast and falco just doesn't laser fast enough. What I usually do is empty short hop alot whenever i think my opponent is going to approach...scare them into thinking that I'm going to run into them with a dair, and then instead just short hop backwards and silent laser.

About smashes...
Falco's fsmash is pretty good...great range and good knockback. However, it does have pretty bad start up/cool down lag, so its a bit hard to hit good people with, and if you whiff at all you can expect to get punished. It also has a sweetspot more towards the middle of his arms, so if you do hit at the max range it rarely has killing potential.

Upsmash is amazing. Boost upsmash for a little extra range can sometimes suprise people, especially if they're trying to rush in. Probably falco's best kill move, with its good KO power and speed.

Downsmash is still pretty good. Comes out really fast, so it can be used for tech chasing similarly to melee. Its KO power isn't as good as up or forward smash though, so i tend to use it more for racking up damage than actually getting kills.


Falco's ftilt is also pretty amazing. Good range, good speed, and decent damage/knockback. Silent laser -> ftilt works pretty well...even if they shield both, its rare for them to be able to punish it. Tilting the ftilt down can catch people on the edge/double jumping up to the edge, and tilting it up can slap people out of shorthop approaches.

The bird's air game is pretty good. The first hits of a nair can link to uptilt, even upsmash at higher percents. RAR bair is a pretty safe aerial poke. Dair is a relatively safe approach, as long as you do the dair immediately and pull back.
Upair is a decent finisher...and if you set up for it and your opponent airdodges/double jumps out of it, falco still has time to chase with a bair.


I just have to reiterate how amazing falco's chaingrab is. Seriously, its amazing. And not hard to do.
On characters like snake, its a pretty easy 0-death. He goes almost nowhere, so its easy to get the maximum grabs before the dair. After dair'ing, falco just has to sit on the stage and wait. If snake comes to close, cypher grab/grab him and do nothing, hes dead. If he pulls back, falco can run/jump out and then double jump dair. A quick death like this is especially a very bad thing for snake, who relies on getting to super high percents before even considering dying.

Pokemon trainer gets absolutely manhandled by the CG. You'd think that squirtle wouldn't be able to get CG'd that bad since hes light, but its quite the contrary. I don't think that squirtle can make it back to the edge if you get all the grabs possible, so its just an easy edge hog for a quick kill. Ivysaur gets trashed too...super easy to CG, and then his tether recovery makes it ridiculously easy to edgehog. Charizard can be chaingrabbed for a long time, too, since he's so heavy.

Olimar gets gimped by the chaingrab, but only if you space the first grab right. Olimar goes pretty far after a dthrow, so to get the max grabs in you have to be a ways away from the edge. If done right though, Olimar's toast.

Dedede and Dk have got it kinda rough with falco's CG, the bird can literally chaingrab them all the way across battlefield. Dedede is likely to make it back because of his good recovery, but with Dk falco can just grab the ledge and then ledge hop dair for the finish.

Characters that falco can't chaingrab: Jigglypuff, peach, samus, lucario, kirby, and luigi. (And maybe rob too?)
The bird can still get two regrabs off of a 0% dthrow though...the third grab just has to be a walking grab (not 100% sure about this, but i've gotten it to work on jigglypuff consistantly). And then its a nair/dair for more combos, so even these characters can still get wrecked by being grabbed.

Metaknight and G&W can both be chaingrabbed pretty well, but due to their ridiculous recovery its pretty much impossible to 0-death them.

Also, marth and sonic can both upB out if falco doesn't time the regrabs perfectly. Sonic's upB isn't too bad, but eating a marth's upB right in your face isn't too happy.

And once again, against a lot of characters you can reverse boost grab (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_6i7SEQPWs) to turn your chaingrab around.

Overall: Falco has a solid air game, lasers to back it up, and an amazing chaingrab on almost all of the cast. I think that once people start picking him up and giving him the time he needs, the bird is going to start wrecking all of the snakes and metaknights.

@redgreenblue--it's a bad G&W player that buckets every single laser without marking the distance between him and the shooter ^.^

also, my couple of questions are still out there >_>

Falco is going to be a popular character when everyone finally figures out he does the best against Snake out the whole cast. Considering that his CG and D-air gimps are so easy to do, everyone will pick up Falco as a secondary just for the power of the counter-pick against the game's most powerful and popular character. I like this fact because Snake is a character that I severely hate seeing winning all the time. xD

As a stand alone character, I like Falco. He is seriously taking competing with Marth as my main. He just has so many options and flexibility going for him. The only thing that is making me not instantly pick him up is range -I'm quite the range wh0re- and a lack in running speed.

Falco has a pretty bad time against G&W. One of the best things about Falco is his overall ability. He's good in almost every area of his game.

If anyone doesn't know this. His >B's lag can be cut down if you press the Y button at the same time(I don't know if it works any other way).

^^been mentioned earlier in this thread--it isn't just the y button, but jumping in general

St. Viers said:

^^been mentioned earlier in this thread--it isn't just the y button, but jumping in general

Click to expand...

Ah, I see. Thanks.