Q&A Captain Falcon FAQ and Training Guide

[Yobolight]

Which has less startup Falcon Kick or Raptor boost?

 

[captianpuff]

Captain Falcon FAQs: Coming Soon

This section will address questions that always come up, most importantly, "How do I gentleman?"

I am having a lot of trouble with instant uair is there anything you can tell me on the timing

 

[Tehbankzor]

I'm also having trouble with the instant uair. Am I supposed to use the bottom part of my thumb to hit the c-stick up, or is there some trick to get the uair to come out as fast as possible? Thanks in advance.

 

[Nicco]

Yo for instant uairs there are a few ways. The BEST way is propably learning how to claw, as this will allow you to do full DI while getting the moves out asap, both in full jump and short jump situations. But claw is hard as phuck.

Another great way, that I know MikeHaggar uses, is to jump with Y, then use the part of your hand just below the thumb for the c-stick.

A way that alot of people seem to use, is to jump with the control stick, then uair with the c-stick.

I used to do it by jumping with X then doing the uair with A. It was tricky at first but I just grabbed fox in lightning mode, and practiced short hop uair with A for days. However, this has messed with my combo game abit, since I'm always switching between A and C-stick, so now I just do it the hard way: Jump with X, then slide your thumb super saiyan fast to c-stick and upair. I'm able to hit a standing fox 2/10 like this so far, but I will keep practicing until it's 100/100!

P.S.
SHIELD DROP IS TOO GOOD
(It seems impossibru at first, but you gotta BELIEVE!)

 

[xJin678]

I'm also having trouble with the instant uair. Am I supposed to use the bottom part of my thumb to hit the c-stick up, or is there some trick to get the uair to come out as fast as possible? Thanks in advance.

I personally use X to jump and Z to Uair for immediate Uairs. I find it pretty comfortable since my index finger is already on Z instead of using my thumb to switch from X to A.

 

[Nicco]

I personally use X to jump and Z to Uair for immediate Uairs. I find it pretty comfortable since my index finger is already on Z instead of using my thumb to switch from X to A.

Do you do your nairs with Z as well then?

 

[xJin678]

Do you do your nairs with Z as well then?

Yep. The only problem with Z is that you may get JC grabs instead of nairs, but with practice you should be able to nair with Z without JC grabbing.

 

[T-R3X]

I use x and a for instant up air. How did using A mess up your combo game? I use a and c-stick pretty intermittently all the time so I'm just wondering if it's something I should worry about

 

[Nicco]

I use x and a for instant up air. How did using A mess up your combo game? I use a and c-stick pretty intermittently all the time so I'm just wondering if it's something I should worry about

Just that I wasn't too good at switching em up. But I'm back to doing instant uairs with A again, C-stick is just way too hard yo xD

However, when I play by myself I'm working on the claw. I really encourage every Falcon to claw.

 

[Nicco]

Which has less startup Falcon Kick or Raptor boost?

Falcon kick comes out 1 frame faster

There is a stickied thread called "Falcon hitboxes amd frame data"

 

[Tehbankzor]

Thank you for this information. Could you please explain the claw? I'm sitting in my home laughing at the thought of clawing my controller.

 

[Ziodyne]

Thank you for this information. Could you please explain the claw? I'm sitting in my home laughing at the thought of clawing my controller.

Use right thumb for A/B/C-stick
Use right index finger for X/Y jumps
Use right middle finger for Z-button and R-trigger

Pretty sure this is the claw they are talking about

 

[gravy]

Everyone loves that ****.

 

[Engo]

As a fox main, and falcon enthusiast, I just wanna say keep the falcon alive guys. This character is hard as hell but he's a good character.

 

[Sleepy]

I'd recommend claw, but it requires some patience to learn. Also if you're used to doing things a certain way, you have to be willing to play people without retreating to your regular grip.

If you claw and learn the proper inputs, you can do things that normally weren't possible. I've converted because of Nicco.

A good practice for testing your instant uair ability would be to simply jump on a ledge, uair, and if you catch the ledge without using up-b you're probably doing it quick.

another thing to practice would be doing the same thing with ledgehop except with bair, and seeing if you catch the ledge.

 

[Nicco]

Another good indicator is if you can jump out of a SH uair/bair
I recommend just trying to hit standing fox tho.

The claw is so good, only drawback is that its so hard to learn.

I'm back to just doing my rising aerials with A and it works out quite ok for me. As soon as I've mastered haxdashing, I'm going back to claw training tho

 

[bertbusdriver]

A good practice for testing your instant uair ability would be to simply jump on a ledge, uair, and if you catch the ledge without using up-b you're probably doing it quick.

another thing to practice would be doing the same thing with ledgehop except with bair, and seeing if you catch the ledge.

problem with this method is that you have no risk of accidental tap jump or fullhop, so it's different from doing an onstage insta-uair.

I'm with nicco on the standing fox method.

 

[ShrieK1295]

You should practice on Ness rather than Fox. Even a standing Ness is a pixel or two taller than dashing Fox, which you want to be able to hit.

edit: meant to say Ness is TALLER. Big difference

 

[bertbusdriver]

holy cow. had no idea you could hit standing ness.

 

[Spaghetti]

does no one else here use y and a for instant uair lol

its hard at first but once u learn it its not too bad idkdkkddkdkd

 

[DJ _ICE]

This is resumed right? Wheres that sweet training regimen?

 

[bertbusdriver]

This is resumed right? Wheres that sweet training regimen?

Scar just got married lol. Haven't seen him at a norcal tournament in a while..

 

[Citizen Snips]

I think we do need to have a discussion on a good training regimen, specifically with regards to tech skill. A lot of players I see will practice the same patterns over and over again, from movement to aerials to dash dancing, and it starts to seep into their gameplay. It would be really great if we could put our heads together and devise some sort of practice plan that ensures variety will still hitting all the basics.So first question with that: What are the basics?
From what I can tell based on my experience and from the few high level Falcons vids I've seen recently (S2J, Jeapie, Nando, Lord, Hax), the following things are pretty essential:
- Dash dances (Various spacings, fox trots, etc.)
- SHFFLed aerials (Various timings; on shield, hit, whiffed)
- Pivots pivots pivots (Seriously, pivots are so important)
- Early aerials (OOS, from DDs of various spacings, and from pivots)
- Pivot wavedash back to ledge (Fastest method of grabbing ledge)
- DJ ledgestall (Perfect invincibility, should be able to do it around a Firefox)
- SH no FF aerials (Various timings; on shield, hit, whiffed)
- Shield drops (Under pressure, unpressured)
- Gentlemen (Varied timings; whiffed, on hit)
- Empty FF SH (Necessary for tomahawks, lack of aerial throws tech skill off)
- Hax dashes (Consistent to at least two in a row with full invincibility)
- FF through platform aerials (Late as possible generally)
(If you think of any other truly essential and effective Falcon techniques, please feel free to add them)

Now, how do you practice all this without letting the repetition sneak its way into your game in the form of bad habits, patterns, etc?The obvious method would be to simply keep it in mind that what you're doing is learning tech skill and that you need to be aware that you should not be allowing patterns to become engrained in your mind from this practice. However, that's much easier said than done. Instead, I'd like to list a few possible patterns that one might not pick up on while training without it being pointed out to them:- Favoring right or left side of stage or favoring facing right or left. To avoid, just force yourself to get the skill down in all possible orientations and positions.
- Keeping the same timings (Always aerial at the same point in the SHFFL, dash dance the same distance every time). Avoid it by being aware of the fact that you're not always going to have the chance to stick to the timings you're comfortable with. Practice early and late uairs, nairs, bairs, and knees. Practice fast falling at different points in the short hop. Practice hitting someone's shield versus hitting someone. Mix up the distances in your dash dance. Keep it varied. It'll make practice less mindless and it's a good habit.

Coming up blank on other ones. Haven't been able to play for about a week so I'm a bit out of it. I'll update more later. If someone could possibly put together a neat routine or challenge or something that incorporates all of these elements that would be really awesome and I think it would be useful for new Falcons.

 

[Mokumo]

I would add wavelands, especially on platforms, and consistent perfect wavedashes.

Ledge canceling is probably worth practicing and getting good at too

 

[rawrimamonster]

*Snip* pun intended

I think the general idea of your post is keeping presence of mind over your gameplay, basically mental discipline for not getting stale which is something I notice as well. like you're suggesting A lot of Falcons DO go into autopilot too easily and it dominates their state of mind and how they approach the match. But, keeping your presence of mind while playing is something that can be done during general gameplay. While practicing everything you mentioned is important as hell, keeping your focus ON THE MATCH and how you play can be just as (if not more important cuz its falcon) important as keeping technical consistency down.

What I do personally to help myself is, while doing friendlies I'll set a goal for myself like "keep focused on staying mentally awake the whole match without drifting off on autopilot" and FORCE MYSELF to catch my staleness, which is as hard as it sounds because you just wanna play the game and git gud...THATS what autopilot is...not having a constant connection with your brain and hands. Eventually it gets ingrained in your play to try new things because you've forced your bad habits out. I think that this is one of the many ways the top players stay so far ahead of us, because they've hammered these inconsistencies out of their playstyle with force.

Sorry if I sound ******** as hell atm, I been playin all day and I'm tired as F.

 

[victra♥]

Tips on the ICs MU?

Would it be better to let them take you to FoD or FD?

 

[bertbusdriver]

Tips on the ICs MU?

Would it be better to let them take you to FoD or FD?

I've lost to 4 ICs in my past 4 tournaments lol. (boback, dizkidboogie, chudat + 1 more i forgot) so take this with a huge grain of SALT (pun intended). So I guess I've thought about why I've been losing LOL.

FoD is better assuming you can move decently on it. You can theoretically camp top platform since ICs can't really approach you when you're there (too much risk for nana) until you have high side platforms and you end up with something pretty similar to yoshi's with high ceiling.

Hard knee is safe on shield if you aren't stale. You can practice comboing nana with a CPU since her DI is the same as it would be for a human player. Think about target switching; many times it's better to keep the climbers separated by hitting popo away as he comes to help nana instead of getting caught up with finishing off nana and then getting hit by popo and dying because you failed to kill nana and they get a chaingrab or something... It's kinda like playing teams in that way except one of the teammates is braindead.

Nair is pretty bad when both climbers are present and grounded imo.

DD grab-> knee on sopo. Grabbing against both climbers is kinda dangerous unless you have them separated. In that case i like to just throw them away from the other climber.

Dsmash is great when they do the sideB recovery.

upair combos are really easy at mid percents against both sopo and nana.

Don't get grabbed LOL. I got wobbled 8 times in my 0-2 vs dizkid (sparknotes: every stock ROFL) and it was snowballed mentally. I got impatient and went for more and more bad approaches. Try not to sweat it when you get grabbed, and definitely try to mash out, especially at low percent: lots of mid-level ICs still drop a lot of chaingrabs.

most of the stuff i listed is common knowledge but I never really internalized it until losing to a bunch of ICs. It's a solid matchup for CF, but the ICs player usually has a big matchup experience advantage since there are so few of them. Unfortunately you might just eat a couple losses until you play against them a couple of times and figure out the quirks.

 

[SSS]

@ Scar finish this guide lol

 

[kyaputenfarukon07]

I've lost to 4 ICs in my past 4 tournaments lol. (boback, dizkidboogie, chudat + 1 more i forgot) so take this with a huge grain of SALT (pun intended). So I guess I've thought about why I've been losing LOL.

FoD is better assuming you can move decently on it. You can theoretically camp top platform since ICs can't really approach you when you're there (too much risk for nana) until you have high side platforms and you end up with something pretty similar to yoshi's with high ceiling.

Hard knee is safe on shield if you aren't stale. You can practice comboing nana with a CPU since her DI is the same as it would be for a human player. Think about target switching; many times it's better to keep the climbers separated by hitting popo away as he comes to help nana instead of getting caught up with finishing off nana and then getting hit by popo and dying because you failed to kill nana and they get a chaingrab or something... It's kinda like playing teams in that way except one of the teammates is braindead.

Nair is pretty bad when both climbers are present and grounded imo.

DD grab-> knee on sopo. Grabbing against both climbers is kinda dangerous unless you have them separated. In that case i like to just throw them away from the other climber.

Dsmash is great when they do the sideB recovery.

upair combos are really easy at mid percents against both sopo and nana.

Don't get grabbed LOL. I got wobbled 8 times in my 0-2 vs dizkid (sparknotes: every stock ROFL) and it was snowballed mentally. I got impatient and went for more and more bad approaches. Try not to sweat it when you get grabbed, and definitely try to mash out, especially at low percent: lots of mid-level ICs still drop a lot of chaingrabs.

most of the stuff i listed is common knowledge but I never really internalized it until losing to a bunch of ICs. It's a solid matchup for CF, but the ICs player usually has a big matchup experience advantage since there are so few of them. Unfortunately you might just eat a couple losses until you play against them a couple of times and figure out the quirks.

The problem is that they have too many quirks and tiny tricks that so few know about lol.

I d like to add a few components to that general stuff and might add more stuff from feedback to refine this knowledge

1. the defensive component and awareness of their capability
   
2. when trying to recover to
   
3. resetting the neutral and getting out chaingrabs

1. Defense and awareness


Your best defense vs them is spacing your moves and implementing different spacings of moves such as the knee and stomp. Platform camping is another defensive tool you have with falcons great mobility, dont be ridiculously predictable because they often have to read and intercept your movement. Their up air is amazing at poking platform along with bair if they sense an opportunity to put you in a terrible position. Other than those disjointed hitboxes they dont really have answers to the platform camping.Their side B (if they have both climbers) can be used in the air or ground, it looks punishable but it can be tricky to punish. I dont think I have been able to shield grab that or punish in other ways without getting hit by at least one hitbox(5 frames apart between each hit iirc ).

On the ground you cannot neglected their obviously great movement and tools they have to intercept you with such as the occasional fsmash,utilt and ftilt. If you shield , then jab --> grab is a possible way for to get their punishment or shield poke dsmash. They also have blizzard desynch mixups and other desynchs that they can use to lure or bait pretty well(If you are an incredibly aggressive player). Your ground options other than running around and jump into aerials are pretty bad. The occasional side b is okay but if the ic player is amazing at shield sdi to grab then its a free grab. If they dont approach watch them closely and see what they do based on their positioning , stock count and percentage. Be prepared to react to any circumstance of a reaction from their current state. If they decide to approach, their dash attack is a decent one for them based on your di they can grab or you can jump out. Tech chase opportunities for falcon are available but its just not relevant due to angle of falcons attacks send and their di. Their tech chase game is can be standard or really complex, the standard dsmash into dsmash or react to the roll and grab,etc.. Getting out of tech chase can be a pain, but dont be predictable vs them.Having quick and smart movement is required for this match up just like every other match up.

2. Recovery

As everyone knows falcons recovery isnt the best game or the absolute worst. Recovering high is a good tactic because you gain more options as opposed to having very few. Bair is their best and often cited as one of the most safest methods of edgeguarding. The other edge guard moves are dsmash, fsmash and ftilt, dsmash is often used for low recovery option coverage because it is very fast hitbox (comes out on frame 6 while facing backwards iirc), Fsmash has good power for them and can be used as low percentage edgeguard vs falcon and ftilt can be mixup or legit edgeguard if you have terrible di lol. Ice block edgeguards are hilarious and can setup into some of the stronger moves .

3. Getting out of punishment or minimizing losses

If you get grabbed there are ways to get out, in fact its based on their type of punishment .

wobbling - Become a really fast masher and use a,b,x,y,l,r,z and melee has a threshold for mashing out of grabs. In layman's terms its meter that counts your mashes of the mashable buttons based on percent. In some cases it is impossible when its at higher percent because you need TAS timing to break out but at lower percents its possible. If you are at high percent and the player is generous be prepared to smash di the hit. Otherwise somehow pretend mashing while trying to input the di or give up without getting frustrated.

hand-offs - There are many different hand offs and combinations and timing differences between all the other characters. Since Falcon is heavy and can get out stun quicker than lighter characters, you can smash di the aerial up or away and jump out to be set free from the hand-off.

I havent covered everything lolool

and watch mango or s2j vs ics because I think they have the best at spacing around their movement.

 

[Kim Steinbach-Reif]

Hello Falcon players, I got a couple of newbie questions:

- How important is L-canceling your Knee? Is it crucial to do? (I understand it's good but how important is it)
- How do you SHFFL your N-air? Whenever I try, I never get the second kick. When should I fastfall to make it the perfect timing?
- How do you deal with Falco's lasers? Whenever I try approach I atleast take some % before I get to him and then he always punish me, and tricks or just get better at approaching?
- Are Falcon's tilts ever used, if so when and which?
- Exactly how important is movement? Are wavedash's and wavelanding around platforms a requirement?
- What way is the best to rack up damage before you can kill your enemy? I usually go with N-airs and Gentlemen + a few grabs, but I usually get hit by Falco's shine whenever I do most of my approaches and then get heavily punished.
- What throws are best? Are there any directions you should try avoid throwing your enemy at?

 

[bertbusdriver]

Hello Falcon players, I got a couple of newbie questions:

- How important is L-canceling your Knee? Is it crucial to do? (I understand it's good but how important is it) very. Prioritize l cancelling all of your aerials and being able to move out of them quickly.
- How do you SHFFL your N-air? Whenever I try, I never get the second kick. When should I fastfall to make it the perfect timing? it depends. but you're probably pressing A too slowly after you jump. Also your second kick doesn't come out if you FF as soon as possible. You need to FF a little later.
- How do you deal with Falco's lasers? Whenever I try approach I atleast take some % before I get to him and then he always punish me, and tricks or just get better at approaching? Keep moving after getting hit by lasers. Learn to navigate platforms via wavelanding and stuff. You can bait low level falcos into shooting badly spaced lasers that you can nair over.
- Are Falcon's tilts ever used, if so when and which? Edgecases. Pretty rarely are they a great option. Sometimes for edgeguarding. Utilt in particular can be used the same way samus uses hers.
- Exactly how important is movement? Are wavedash's and wavelanding around platforms a requirement? Very important. Both are pretty necessary.
- What way is the best to rack up damage before you can kill your enemy? I usually go with N-airs and Gentlemen + a few grabs, but I usually get hit by Falco's shine whenever I do most of my approaches and then get heavily punished. Techchase regrabs and general techchase combos. I'm assuming you're playing against a falco mostly. You can kill off stomp->knee at a pretty low percent, especially when their DI sucks.
- What throws are best? Are there any directions you should try avoid throwing your enemy at? Uthrow and Dthrow are best for comboing and techchasing... Fthrow can be sometimes used if it will put them offstage. Backthrow is practically useless.

 

[N8J]

Hey. I'm a fairly new competitive melee player and was wondering what you guys did when you first started to train your falcon. I try to practice a lot of shffling but I'm still not able to combo very well. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Kim Steinbach-Reif]

Hey. I'm a fairly new competitive melee player and was wondering what you guys did when you first started to train your falcon. I try to practice a lot of shffling but I'm still not able to combo very well. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I'm no expert but I'll try to help (if someone more experienced player knows more/better information, feel free to correct me).

Falcon's main abilities is his Stomp and Knee, getting these down and be able to hit them is crucial. If you don't yet have down the basics like L-cancel and stuff like that then practice that first, if you know that just experiment. Captain Falcon is a very "reading-heavy" character, meaning you have to read your opponents techs, ex if you grab him and throw, you need to guess which way he will roll therefor you really need to be on the top of your game to be able and beat many good players. A common tips many may tell you on your way to improvement (other than just practicing and going to tournements and facing better players) is to watch top players and study what way they play and what decisions they go for. The top Falcon's are S2J and somewhat Scar (watch his combo videos "I killed Mufasa") and many others.

If you feel you're getting dominated, then you're not being as fearsome as you should. Stomp and Knee your opponent into submission!

Learn:
- SHFLL (This is a common way to engage your opponent and often the most safe option)
- Stomp -> Knee [Combo] (This is the most common combo for Falcons, you'll do this tons of times)

 

[Bobojack]

Hey. I'm a fairly new competitive melee player and was wondering what you guys did when you first started to train your falcon. I try to practice a lot of shffling but I'm still not able to combo very well. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

This should help you : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bVvaSVsmPQ&list=FLrywgJkZdhAfU0cubtX7-NA&index=4

But seriously, it helped me a lot to understand footsies. It helped me to not get hit as often.

 

[Eagleye893]

Is there any way for the FAQ section to start filling up?

I finally got into Melee/PM last year and I feel like I'm starting to get better at movement around the stage, but there are a few things that I have questions on that aren't particularly "frequently asked":

-- I found someplace that a perfect "haxdash" or ledge-dash stall is completely invincible. Does anyone know how many frames of lee-way are allowed in this case?:
ledge-drop as soon as possible after grabbing ledge > immediate jump + hold forward > Wavedash back (close to horizontal) when barely above the stage > hold forward to mitigate drifting too far off stage > regrab ledge

-- Let's say I hit with an aerial (NAir/UAir/FAir/BAir) and the opponent DI's out (this is at mid percent ranges). Against which characters can I follow up with another aerial? In the cases that I can't combo, is there anything I can do to hold the stage and force an edgeguarding situation?

 

[Eonhunter]

Captain Falcon FAQs: Coming Soon

This section will address questions that always come up, most importantly, "How do I gentleman?"

Is this ever going to get completed? Like please? Haha, I'm really trying to pick up Falcon and I need true guides. This one is phenomenal btw, I was just wondering when it's going to be finished, since it's been like 6 years lol.

 

[ShakeDrizzle]

does no one else here use y and a for instant uair lol

its hard at first but once u learn it its not too bad idkdkkddkdkd

Yeah, this. I can't imagine doing it any other way, honestly.

 

[drogoth232]

Is there any way for the FAQ section to start filling up?

I finally got into Melee/PM last year and I feel like I'm starting to get better at movement around the stage, but there are a few things that I have questions on that aren't particularly "frequently asked":

-- I found someplace that a perfect "haxdash" or ledge-dash stall is completely invincible. Does anyone know how many frames of lee-way are allowed in this case?:
ledge-drop as soon as possible after grabbing ledge > immediate jump + hold forward > Wavedash back (close to horizontal) when barely above the stage > hold forward to mitigate drifting too far off stage > regrab ledge

-- Let's say I hit with an aerial (NAir/UAir/FAir/BAir) and the opponent DI's out (this is at mid percent ranges). Against which characters can I follow up with another aerial? In the cases that I can't combo, is there anything I can do to hold the stage and force an edgeguarding situation?

If performed correctly had dash is completely invincible. Don't know the frame data because I'm bad and almost only go on reaction/reads.

In your second situation, again I'm not the best person to answer but of you're fast enough you could get a jump cancel grab (press jump and then press grab almost right after, you'll slide forward while doing your grab animation) and grab them before they even land. Of not you could go for a short hop late uair if they miss tech. It really depends on the situation and character. Again, I almost always go on instinct which only gets you so far.

Yeah, this. I can't imagine doing it any other way, honestly.

I mostly mess up and end up DJ uairing, so I personally either go for running sh late uair or full hop instant uair and fast fall ASAP and try to get to a ledge to Waveland or edge cancel.

 

[ShakeDrizzle]

I mostly mess up and end up DJ uairing, so I personally either go for running sh late uair or full hop instant uair and fast fall ASAP and try to get to a ledge to Waveland or edge cancel.

I dunno, I think it's something worth learning correctly - whatever technique you use. SH late uair is not nearly as fast as an Instant U-air. Just gotta put the time in.

 

[drogoth232]

I dunno, I think it's something worth learning correctly - whatever technique you use. SH late uair is not nearly as fast as an Instant U-air. Just gotta put the time in.

I agree, but short hop instant uair is just not feasible for me with the amount of work I put into Falcon, full hop uairs are perfectly doable (obviously). I put more effort into tech chasing, reads, and punishes now that my tech skill is at a decent point. Might go back to work on pivots and work on sh instant uair.

Also, I usually use SH late uair on people after I up throw them to try and make them miss a tech into maybe another uair or knee to finish. Nothing replaces a sh instant uair, and I don't think anything will.