Any go to way to escape combos as falcon?

[WaffleDinosaur]

I can never seem to get out of combos that involve falcon getting popped up, every time I try to tech roll out of a juggle I always seem to still get hit and rack up ~40-50 damage, is there any way to prevent this?

 

[Thor]

DI, SDI, teching platforms/ground, dying before you actually take the ~40% (not recommended).

Also the easiest would be (in the words of Isai): Don't get hit.

I don't think Falcon has specific combo-breaking techniques, but these are the general ways to escape combos.

 

[WaffleDinosaur]

DI, SDI, teching platforms/ground, dying before you actually take the ~40% (not recommended).

Also the easiest would be (in the words of Isai): Don't get hit.

I don't think Falcon has specific combo-breaking techniques, but these are the general ways to escape combos.

I think I just suck at using DI
you do just hold the control stick in the direction you want to fly right?

 

[Thor]

I think I just suck at using DI ._.you do just hold the control stick in the direction you want to fly right?

It's not quite holding in the direction you want to fly. Basically if you're DIing for survival (so Fox Usmash doesn't KO in this example), you would NOT hold down, but hold right or left while being hit. Then you'd be sent upward at a diagonal angle (Watch some Mango vs Hbox match - you'll see usmash rarely sends Hbox straight up (though usmash is so strong it often KOs anyway)). Fox usmash is good for seeing the effects of DIing left or right to survive vertical blows.

For DIing a horizontal KO move (Falco Fsmash, Falcon knee), you'd hold upward - then you'd go up and diagonal, instead of straight horizontally. If you test it with Jigglypuff as Falco, you can really see how holding up makes Jigglypuff fly higher than if you just had the control stick in neutral.

Combo DI, you generally want to DI to make it hard for your opponent to follow you, and if they get an option no matter where you DI, your goal is to change your DI for the situation or to mix it up so that they guess the wrong option. So for Falco shine, you want to hold left or right so that you go flying sideways and he has a harder time following up.

You can also DI horizontal moves down if you think you'll be able to hit the stage and tech it, or if you're looking to Amsa-tech it (I think it's called an Amsa-tech where you tech the ground after being hit to survive otherwise lethal blows). That's somewhat more advanced and risky though, requiring quick reflexes because a missed tech more means a KO.

DI doesn't change the distance you fly, just the direction - for surviving , your goal is to go toward corners of the screen. Example with made-up numbers: if each blastline is 100 units (of any distance) away from you and a move has 130 units of knockback, no DI would KO you, but DIing to the very corner will actually give you (by Pythagorean theorem) 100*100 + 100 *100 = square root of 20,000 = ~141 units of space before reaching a blastzone, so you'd survive.

There should be a forum already dedicated to explaining DI - this is a quick breakdown, and you should probably look for that forum/set of posts instead.

 

[WaffleDinosaur]

It's not quite holding in the direction you want to fly. Basically if you're DIing for survival (so Fox Usmash doesn't KO in this example), you would NOT hold down, but hold right or left while being hit. Then you'd be sent upward at a diagonal angle (Watch some Mango vs Hbox match - you'll see usmash rarely sends Hbox straight up (though usmash is so strong it often KOs anyway)). Fox usmash is good for seeing the effects of DIing left or right to survive vertical blows.

For DIing a horizontal KO move (Falco Fsmash, Falcon knee), you'd hold upward - then you'd go up and diagonal, instead of straight horizontally. If you test it with Jigglypuff as Falco, you can really see how holding up makes Jigglypuff fly higher than if you just had the control stick in neutral.

Combo DI, you generally want to DI to make it hard for your opponent to follow you, and if they get an option no matter where you DI, your goal is to change your DI for the situation or to mix it up so that they guess the wrong option. So for Falco shine, you want to hold left or right so that you go flying sideways and he has a harder time following up.

You can also DI horizontal moves down if you think you'll be able to hit the stage and tech it, or if you're looking to Amsa-tech it (I think it's called an Amsa-tech where you tech the ground after being hit to survive otherwise lethal blows). That's somewhat more advanced and risky though, requiring quick reflexes because a missed tech more means a KO.

DI doesn't change the distance you fly, just the direction - for surviving , your goal is to go toward corners of the screen. Example with made-up numbers: if each blastline is 100 units (of any distance) away from you and a move has 130 units of knockback, no DI would KO you, but DIing to the very corner will actually give you (by Pythagorean theorem) 100*100 + 100 *100 = square root of 20,000 = ~141 units of space before reaching a blastzone, so you'd survive.

There should be a forum already dedicated to explaining DI - this is a quick breakdown, and you should probably look for that forum/set of posts instead.

Very nice information, thank you

 

[ThreeSided]

Nothing specific to contribute, but I'd just like to point out that this is in fact meant to be one of falcon's weaknesses. He is very bare-bones as far as escaping combos is concerned, so he doesn't really have anything outside of what every character can do, and because of his ****ty tech rolls and fast falling he still does all of those things worse. He will never be good at getting out of combos, though iirc one or two PMBRers mentioned something about possibly improving his tech rolls in the future at some point.

This isn't to say this shouldn't be discussed. What little ability to escape combos falcon has is very important considering how easily bodied he is by them. It's a trait used to balance him since his offensive game is so damned good. If he weren't combo bait he'd be a relatively easy character with few flaws. Just want to make sure we don't have people coming in complaining about Falcon needing to be buffed to escape combos, lol.

 

[Drigonaut]

buffs4falcon. forreal though, it's a shame to see someone of falcon's mobility, flexibility and acrobatics to have such a piss poor tech roll X_X

 

[Deepest Waters]

I've taken to spamming down b when I start to get juggled. Usually it cuts the combo in half and sometimes I hit with it and throw out some damage of my own

 

[TheKmanOfSmash]

Sometimes spamming up air can work at interrupting certain badly executed follow-ups. Ganon players do this a lot and the same logic can work for Falcon at times.