Q&A Captain Falcon FAQ and Training Guide

[Windrose]

let's start with the easiest person to edge guard in the game.

Falcon/Ganon:

Knee him when he recovers using up-b / falcon kick.

Marth:

if he's too far to dj grab the ledge, light shield edge guard. if he up b's back on to the stage, ledge hop reverse knee. repeat if needed

If he's able to dj grab the ledge, you can try to back air marth, or time the ledge grab so that he's forced to up-b. marths might try to fair at you to prevent you from hitting him in which case just grab the ledge or up tilt him if you expect him to dj fair at you.

Sheik:

Grab the ledge as late as possible or refresh your invincibility on the ledge correctly. Time getting up from the ledge with her poof. If she goes above the ledge to try to fall on to it, wave dash back onto the ledge and let her fall to her death.

If she goes onto the stage, reverse knee or stomp-->reverse knee.

 

[Juggleguy]

Detailed training guide-> Small trick against sheik:

When she is on the ledge charge downsmash just out of her fair range.
Works well for me.
When you mess up a bit and Sheik can get her shield up in time on the stage, she will get pushed back alot and end up hanging on the ledge again.
Cons: Dont do it on yoshis. Platform.


Mess with your opponent his head by charing it reversed sometimes.

When I do this, my opponents just getup attack and **** my dsmash, lol. And I think some property of getup attacks makes it so you can't crouch cancel them and stay standing, for some stupid reason...

 

[S l o X]

Crouch cancelling is one of the more important things I don't do enough.

 

[Jeapie]

When I do this, my opponents just getup attack and **** my dsmash, lol. And I think some property of getup attacks makes it so you can't crouch cancel them and stay standing, for some stupid reason...

Its a win against the Spacies get up attack from ledge if you time it right.
Not sure if thats possible against sheiks getup attack, since its so low/yeah getup attack from the ledge is underrated fo sure

Im curious about what Hax thinks in certain situations against Sheik.
He`s definently the best Falcon against Sheik

 

[Yazz]

okay, ive looked everywhere, me and my gfs brother were playing falcon dittos all day wondering how to gentleman. can someone please help me? i dont understand. wut do

 

[Deleted member]

based on how long you hold down A in each 3 input

hitting them with each hit makes it easier

buffering an action after 3rd hit makes it easier

fast/concise presses are usually the best

my old noob way is:

a+a+ (a+hold down) until you duck

 

[Yazz]

so the way you do the first 2 jabs doesnt matter? as long as you time the knee right itll work?

 

[Wenbobular]

No it's not based on timing
It's based on the amount of time the A button is pressed

If you hold A for little enough time you don't start the rapid jabs
The reason why holding A until you do another action is good is because it just takes off the frames held for the 3rd press

I'm not really sure how it's exactly calculated but just do A A A(hold) *input another action here* (release A) and that's the optimal way to gentleman (another action ideally being running or jumping, I'm not sure if trying to do other moves will work)

 

[Couch]

Not sure if this is a strong option, but i usually do a a z (hold). a gentleman ending in a light shield, works every time for me. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think I've seen Hax use this method quite a bit

 

[Wenbobular]

Lightshielding sucks, you almost always want to be running out of it ... either away (if you're punching someone's shield) or toward (mixup when you're punching someone's shield or when you actually hit them and want to combo)

So yeah lightshielding is like strictly worse

SS lightshielded every time too and every time he probably could've gotten a Uair out of it so you can't always look to top players to be an example of optimal play

 

[Windrose]

Everything you need to know about gentlemen is in 0room's thread. Here is one of the most useful links that'll help you wiht gentlemen in 0room's thread.

http://www.smashboards.com/showpost.php?p=9899943&postcount=9396

 

[Wenbobular]

What happened to 0room did he retire?

 

[Windrose]

there was 0 room for smash in his life.

 

[Deleted member]

i rage at him too much

 

[Pyn]

Ive been told a a z is pretty solid, you don't have to light shield either, theres a reason for shielding too, im just too nooby to remember why lol

 

[Wenbobular]

How do you not lightshield if you're holding Z?

 

[Windrose]

if you release it fast enough.

Sometimes you might want to light shield if you see your opponent crouch canceling your gentlemen and you don't want to go into rapid jabs.

 

[Wenbobular]

How do you both hold Z and release it fast enough <_<

Rapid jabs -> randomly rolling at some point after they start is probably the best answer to CC punishes because they'll just interrupt most attempted punishes (mainly the attempted grab if it's slow)

 

[Scar]

afaik aaz will always light shield, unless you hit an extremely specific timing window

shielding afterwards isn't terrible, SS usually gentlemans into shield cancel into sh no fast fall late knee

 

[Wolfy!]

Sometimes I accidentally AAZ cancel my gentlemans when I'm trying to do a JC grab (it's just how I grab, lol) after the second jab. It usually doesn't light shield for me after I do that.

Otherwise, I just use the AA(A+Hold) Method. Way better, IMO.

 

[Windrose]

Sometimes, I wish we play PAL.

But NTSC is for MEN.

 

[It's me Q]

Sometimes, I wish we play PAL.

But NTSC is for MEN.

Lol **** that it sounds hellish for falcon!

 

[iRobinhoood]

I'm not good at l-canceling yet but I can hold my own and avoid getting shield grabbed so far. As for uairs and comboing with l-cancels, not so much yet. But I had one of my best combos today on Sheik on Pokemon. Carried her across stage with rising uairs and falling uairs to grabs and knee finish but through all the excitement I didn't up-B after the run off stage to knee and died for my last stock. I got the kill though = D

And it was such a confidence booster. I want to beat Sheiks but man that MU is a pure endurance game.


I also had trouble connecting knees with a new Samus tonight. I couldn't find whether to dthrow or uthrow and how to follow to knee.

 

[Wenbobular]

That's because you can't combo Samus out of throw if she DIs well

 

[iRobinhoood]

That's because you can't combo Samus out of throw if she DIs well

Yea I was forced to uair and really just knock her away.

 

[Juggleguy]

dthrow knee doesn't work on Samus unless she DIs very poorly

dthrow uair works but is far from guaranteed, you have to time the fastfall well to not get countered by her fair or uair

uthrow uair is guaranteed at low to mid percents, best option for racking up damage overall imo

 

[Pyn]

Am i missing something here, gentlemen is really one of the things ive never really worked on, but i cant even get it to lightshield, using aaz or aa hold a

 

[Windrose]

are you holding the z??

 

[Wizzrobe]

What tips do you guys have against the Falco matchup? I struggle with this matchup so I would appreciate some tips.

 

[Wenbobular]

When he's standing don't run into Bair and Uptilt, if you bait one you can grab it but you have to time it mad good

Nair his laser attempts - a lot of this matchup is being able to neutralize Falco's laser game
Bair spaces pretty well vs actual attacks (obviously bad vs lasers)
Techchase him as hard as he combos you

You can space knees on his shield and it'll actually be pretty hard for him to get out of it, if you land a late knee on shield look for rolls and spotdodges

Mix up out of shield options - roll both ways, full jump, wavedash, Nair, shieldgrab

 

[Sixth-Sense]

Right i have a basic grasp of C. falcon's speed but sometimes i still have a hard time controlling him. What tips or what do you guys do to learn how to completely controll him? i mean i miss tons of knee's and stuff and i really still haven't got complete controll of it. basically, question is, what do you guys do to be so fluid? thanks in advance

 

[Wenbobular]

Haha, practice ... Falcon really isn't all that fast compared to space animals

Learning the timings to do things optimally is a challenge for any character though

Also having a feel for what your opponent is doing helps your hit confirms a lot

 

[Wizzrobe]

When he's standing don't run into Bair and Uptilt, if you bait one you can grab it but you have to time it mad good

Nair his laser attempts - a lot of this matchup is being able to neutralize Falco's laser game
Bair spaces pretty well vs actual attacks (obviously bad vs lasers)
Techchase him as hard as he combos you

You can space knees on his shield and it'll actually be pretty hard for him to get out of it, if you land a late knee on shield look for rolls and spotdodges

Mix up out of shield options - roll both ways, full jump, wavedash, Nair, shieldgrab

Thanks, This information sounds pretty full proof, I'll make sure I use it from now on.

 

[Wenbobular]

It's a pretty basic matchup summary, actually playing Falcos is a different story :|

 

[JonnyW]

What tips do you guys have against the Falco matchup? I struggle with this matchup so I would appreciate some tips.

I try to tech chase Falcos to oblivion. If my grabs dont lead to re-grabs they at least lead to knees whether they tech in place or not.

If they try to full hop above you chase them RIGHT AWAY with a full hop U-air, you should be able to pull out your u-air before they pull out their dair. Full hopping to late will result in getting daired (probably pillared if the falcos good). Nairing over lasers is a good approach imo. Don't be afraid to full hop aerials and land on them (Dont get shield grabbed though) Gimping Falcos with weak knees or u-airs is pretty easy so get good at those.

 

[Wizzrobe]

I try to tech chase Falcos to oblivion. If my grabs dont lead to re-grabs they at least lead to knees whether they tech in place or not.

If they try to full hop above you chase them RIGHT AWAY with a full hop U-air, you should be able to pull out your u-air before they pull out their dair. Full hopping to late will result in getting daired (probably pillared if the falcos good). Nairing over lasers is a good approach imo. Don't be afraid to full hop aerials and land on them (Dont get shield grabbed though) Gimping Falcos with weak knees or u-airs is pretty easy so get good at those.

Alright, thanks to you as well.

 

[McNinja]

Hey can someone give me a list of all the tech skill I would need to learn if I was to start playing Falcon? I want to make a check-list. I already know how to shffl and wavedash and stuff, I'm looking for more Falcon-specific tech skills (I.e. gentelmen). I don't need an explanation on how to do them, I just need to know what they are called so I can look them up myself. Thanks!

 

[_Rocky_]

Learning to knee -> grab on shield is nice.
Instant Uair/Bair are awesome

If you feel like it throw in pivots, wavelands and ledge cancels as well.
...I'm probably forgetting a lot of things here but I also don't want to write out obvious things like DASH DANCING

since you main samus jc grabbing might also be something you want to learn for falcon?

 

[McNinja]

Yeah I do need to learn to jc grab... thanks for the advice! It all helped.

 

[Wizzrobe]

You should look up also how to moonwalk. Its not that useful but its just a really cool tech skill to know.