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Any tips for someone who wants to main falco?
- Thread starter Gringaer
- Start date
FE_Hector
Smash Lord
I suppose it comes down to just learning the basics. Know how to Dash Dance, Wavedash, SHFFL, and place your Short Hop Lasers well. Look at to players to try and understand the goals overall of about every move and just do your best to understand. A fair warning, though: Falco takes a LOT of effort to learn, so be prepared to stay in it for the long haul.
For things outside of tech (which definatly should be ur first focus), I recommend just reading through the boards to start. Read through the discussions started by Dr.Peepee and Mogwai, it will answer most of ur questions and many more u didn't even consider.
Remember that it is a mine field though. There is a ton of stuff posted in the falco threads that are just wrong or terrible mentality. Just take the time to check who is writing the information before u take it to heart. That's why I particularly recommend those two threads, good players have regularly checked them throughout their existence to correct misinformation.
Remember that it is a mine field though. There is a ton of stuff posted in the falco threads that are just wrong or terrible mentality. Just take the time to check who is writing the information before u take it to heart. That's why I particularly recommend those two threads, good players have regularly checked them throughout their existence to correct misinformation.
Hey, welcome to the Falco community. I'm pretty new to melee too, (been playing for a month) but this guide has been amazing. (especially vol 1 for me because I love zoning w/lasers). I actually went to a tournament and won 2 sets (out of 9). Sure not amazing, but for 1 month its decent.
http://smashboards.com/threads/falco-trials-by-hell.348188/
I'd find a couple hours to get these down consistently.
http://smashboards.com/threads/falco-trials-by-hell.348188/
I'd find a couple hours to get these down consistently.
FE_Hector
Smash Lord
Scruffy_Scoundrel
Smash Apprentice
Welcome to Falco and welcome to Melee.
My advice to you would be to not be afraid of playing patiently.
Falco is very good at establishing pressure from a distance, better than anyone else in the game at it.
My advice to you would be to not be afraid of playing patiently.
Falco is very good at establishing pressure from a distance, better than anyone else in the game at it.
Spoice
Smash Journeyman
I'm assuming you know the basic techs of Melee (SHFFL, Wavedash, Dash Dance, Short hop + it's applications) so I'll get right into it.
Get used to Falco's shine, it's trajectory it sends characters, the follow ups you can use with it, and moving out of the actual shine (wavedash, waveland, straight up jumping out) His shine is so important. At low level, I just see Falco's lasering then trying to f smash, which honestly makes me cringe, if you learn to combo with his shine, you'll become much more confident when it comes to close quarters.
Learn to pressure with Falco's lasers, he has arguably the best neutral thanks to these, and they can be really hard to overcome by the opponent.
Once you've got his laser pressure down (this means your neutral game should have some presence but always experiment with Falco's lasers and his neutral) learn to start punishing how players react to them. If they jump in the air, throw a dair at them, they take the shot, go in for a grab.
Falco's lasers alone are amazing, they autocancel so your options are unlimited, but I've personally found rushing in with short hop laser to grab works wonders, as does down smash if the opponent is paying attention.
Also learn how to make the best of this bair and uptilt, these can work wonders in walling an opponent out, and can be pretty swag when pulling off combos.
Get used to Falco's shine, it's trajectory it sends characters, the follow ups you can use with it, and moving out of the actual shine (wavedash, waveland, straight up jumping out) His shine is so important. At low level, I just see Falco's lasering then trying to f smash, which honestly makes me cringe, if you learn to combo with his shine, you'll become much more confident when it comes to close quarters.
Learn to pressure with Falco's lasers, he has arguably the best neutral thanks to these, and they can be really hard to overcome by the opponent.
Once you've got his laser pressure down (this means your neutral game should have some presence but always experiment with Falco's lasers and his neutral) learn to start punishing how players react to them. If they jump in the air, throw a dair at them, they take the shot, go in for a grab.
Falco's lasers alone are amazing, they autocancel so your options are unlimited, but I've personally found rushing in with short hop laser to grab works wonders, as does down smash if the opponent is paying attention.
Also learn how to make the best of this bair and uptilt, these can work wonders in walling an opponent out, and can be pretty swag when pulling off combos.
The Prince: SDJ
Smash Apprentice
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2014
- Messages
- 175
L cancelling
Uber Duck
Smash Rookie
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2015
- Messages
- 11
Note that all of this is from my own experience. If it's wrong, then sorry, I'll fix it.
I agree with what others said. But also keep in mind the mindset required when playing spacies, and try not to get discouraged if you get bopped, especially early on. Sometimes you just get gimped on FD at like 2%. Sometimes you'll pull a sick 0-death and take a stock in 4 seconds. Just keep on trucking, focus on the present moment (in matches and outside), iron out rough techskill, work on consistency, and the payoff will be fantastic.
I would learn how to control the bird first. It's the basis for everything else you will learn about neutral and punishment, so it's best to start now so you'll feel nice and cozy, since Falco has such a different rhythm compared to other characters. Most of the people in my fledgling scene have never even bothered learning techskill or advanced techniques, and because of that I can consistently beat them just because I feel more comfortable with my character than they do.
Don't forget about your tilts. U-tilt is an amazing tool for starting and continuing combos, and creating a defensive wall along with b-air, d-tilt can kill at high percents and can sometimes be used when trying to wall out aggressors, and f-tilt can be used for edgeguarding with it's multiple angles. A lot of Falco's forget about U-air it seems, which is a shame since I find it is excellent at extending combos, and from my own experience works extremely well at killing floaties when it sweetspots. But also keep in mind to get creative with his moves, they have a lot of uses that you can use to surprise your opponent with.
Lasers are good. They can pin opponents down, force them into bad positions where you can go in with a shine/grab/laser-grab/etc. and start a combo, condition them into patterns you can exploit (by mixing up rhythm of DD/movement with lasers, approaches, laser timings, etc.) edgeguard, extend combos, safely move around (when spaced well) with the fantastic options they provide for movement, etc. They rock, but make sure you don't over rely on them like I did (and still do lol).
I like to make absolutely sure I have won the neutral before I go in. Falco gets punished insanely hard, and playing over-aggressively in the stupid way is a great way to get punished.
Read about Falco. There is plenty of information on the discussion threads to be found. Here is an excellent Falco doc i keep bookmarked: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wDdb-kNgCaZ-zTBFL33rrs3bcPjRWpEnXHegYCIaO5o/preview
Have fun playing the (imo) funnest character in the game!
I agree with what others said. But also keep in mind the mindset required when playing spacies, and try not to get discouraged if you get bopped, especially early on. Sometimes you just get gimped on FD at like 2%. Sometimes you'll pull a sick 0-death and take a stock in 4 seconds. Just keep on trucking, focus on the present moment (in matches and outside), iron out rough techskill, work on consistency, and the payoff will be fantastic.
I would learn how to control the bird first. It's the basis for everything else you will learn about neutral and punishment, so it's best to start now so you'll feel nice and cozy, since Falco has such a different rhythm compared to other characters. Most of the people in my fledgling scene have never even bothered learning techskill or advanced techniques, and because of that I can consistently beat them just because I feel more comfortable with my character than they do.
Don't forget about your tilts. U-tilt is an amazing tool for starting and continuing combos, and creating a defensive wall along with b-air, d-tilt can kill at high percents and can sometimes be used when trying to wall out aggressors, and f-tilt can be used for edgeguarding with it's multiple angles. A lot of Falco's forget about U-air it seems, which is a shame since I find it is excellent at extending combos, and from my own experience works extremely well at killing floaties when it sweetspots. But also keep in mind to get creative with his moves, they have a lot of uses that you can use to surprise your opponent with.
Lasers are good. They can pin opponents down, force them into bad positions where you can go in with a shine/grab/laser-grab/etc. and start a combo, condition them into patterns you can exploit (by mixing up rhythm of DD/movement with lasers, approaches, laser timings, etc.) edgeguard, extend combos, safely move around (when spaced well) with the fantastic options they provide for movement, etc. They rock, but make sure you don't over rely on them like I did (and still do lol).
I like to make absolutely sure I have won the neutral before I go in. Falco gets punished insanely hard, and playing over-aggressively in the stupid way is a great way to get punished.
Read about Falco. There is plenty of information on the discussion threads to be found. Here is an excellent Falco doc i keep bookmarked: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wDdb-kNgCaZ-zTBFL33rrs3bcPjRWpEnXHegYCIaO5o/preview
Have fun playing the (imo) funnest character in the game!