Captain Falcon Trials - For Newer and Expert Falcons

[thespymachine]

As seen on The Melee Library - a comprehensive guide to learning and practicing Melee - and initially part of the Community-Generated Trials initiative.

Update - June 27, 2020: Reorganizing and revamping this post in the light of rollback Melee with Slippi.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Many players when starting out with Melee - or any game or activity - can feel either overwhelmed or lost when it comes to how to improve.
The primary goal of this is to provide aspiring and veteran Falcon players an established set of trials they can use to improve and maintain their play.
The philosophy behind this is heavily influenced by my more general guide, Practical Practice.

These trials assume you have, in the very least, an understanding of most advanced techniques in Melee.
For an overview, please refer to Wak's classic and ever useful videos, found at the beginning of this YouTube playlist: Melee Improvement.

If you have any recommendations or critiques, feel free to share.
Otherwise, I hope you enjoy this and it helps you.

- Cameron​

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Going through this guide:
1) When a character and % are stated, this means a plugged in controller set to that character (unless otherwise noted)
2) "Training Pack" refers to Uncle Punch's Training Pack mod, found here: Project Training Mode.
Attempt each trial

* = trial with a Training Pack addition/option​

** = trial that requires the Training Pack​

​

3) Roughly ordered by difficulty, least to most difficult. You'll have an easier or harder time with some of these than other people will. Help those who have difficultly, and ask for help if you need it.
4) Implement what's easiest/quickest for you into your warm-up routine. Add whatever is most difficult into your practice regimen.
5) Remove distractions, take breaks, and, after you're done, go watch a Falcon combo video because this character is awesome and fun.

0. Basics*

Spoiler

This section is just a set of things you should be implementing into your warm-up/practice routine already, and require very little explanation.

Aerial Drift Practice
- As easy as simply SH nair with full drift, forward and backward
- From a standing position, jump and see how far you can land; put a computer/opponent in that spot to hit them
- Full jump, fade back on the way up, drift forward on the way down
- ^mixing it up: short hop; fade forward then back; directional aerial right after you jump (then try with nair); directional aerial as you land (then try with nair)

L-Cancelling Practice
- Set up a match verse a team of 3 Ice Climbers, all Level 3, Team Attack Off
- Practice movement around and aerial the ICs
- The amount of bodies (and shields) you'll be hitting will force you to be cognizant of your L-Cancel timing - the more bodies, the more potential for longer wait until you hit L/R/Z

Wavedashing
- Facing forward the whole time, across the stage (left and right)
- Facing backward the whole time, across the stage (left and right)
- Back and forth (then when only facing left, then facing right)
- Now, all the above but Out of Shield (don't worry about how you face, as you can't change orientation when in shield)

Dashdancing
- Dashdash while trying to get the full length in the center portion of Yoshi's
- Gradually speed it up until you're to your fastest possible dashdance
- Now mix up distances and timings while staying confined within the center portion
- Do a full dash forward, short dash back, repeat across the stage
- PewPewU covers this nicely in the first 7 minutes of his "How I Train Myself" video

**Powershielding
- Frustrate yourself with the Powershield Training event in the Training Pack

1. Stomp Knee

Spoiler

Ganon @ 80%
http://www.gfycat.com/FatalLightheartedBarbet

Ganon @ 50%
http://www.gfycat.com/ColdEvilHowlermonkey

Fox @ 80%
http://www.gfycat.com/ImpureWetDassie

Fox @ 50%
http://www.gfycat.com/ComfortablePolishedHookersealion

2. Throw to Knee

Spoiler

Easy: Jigglypuff, 90%, Dthrow-knee
Medium: Ganon, 80%, Upthrow-knee
Tough: Ganon, 95%, Dthrow-knee

3. Pop-up Stomp

Spoiler

Easy: Fox - Dair until knockdown, repeat dair so Fox pops up each time, knee at ~90%
Medium: ^ end with reverse knee

After a missed tech, there's a moment before the character can get-up (attack) where Falcon can stomp and pop them up in the air.
[gif shows the pop-up after the ftilt]

4. Instant Uair

Spoiler

Easy: Stand in front of Marth, jump and instantly up-air to hit him
Medium: ^ vs Fox
Impossible?: ^ vs Pichu

Starting off, don't stand right in front of Fox, since the starting hitbox will appear behind the character. Stand at about grab's-length away. Practice that until you can do it standing right in front of Fox, and then you'll be ready for Pichu.

5. Ledge Aerials

Spoiler

Easy: Drop from ledge, instantly bair/uair, up-B to survive.
Medium: Drop from ledge, quick second-jump, bair/uair asap, grab ledge (without using upB)

Easy

Medium
(doesn't connect, but still shows what you should do)

6. Weak Knee to Uair Offstage

Spoiler

Get any character offstage, hit them with a weak knee then uair immediately, recover

7. Aerials onto Stage from Ledge

Spoiler

Easy: Fox near edge - ledge drop, second-jump to stage, Knee/uair Fox
Medium: ^ nair Fox
Tough: ^ Stomp Fox

(reverse) knee

uair (with combo)

8. Gentleman

Spoiler

Easy: Gentleman Bowser
Medium: Bowser, ~55% - Gentleman > Knee (The Classy Combo?)
Tough: Fox, 40% - Gentleman > Knee
[I should note that these aren't actual combos, and are meant to help the player act out of the Gentelman faster.]

9. Aerial to Knee Followup

Spoiler

Easy: Knee > dash > knee
Medium: Bair > backward dash > knee
Tough: Reverse Knee > backward dash > Knee

10. Dropzone

Spoiler

Easy: Fox at edge, 50% - Dthrow > Knee, recover
Medium: Fox at edge, 75% - Dthrow - > uair, recover

11. The Peekaboo: Platform Fall-through Aerial

Spoiler

Easy: On BF, Fox under the top platform, you on top of the platform - jump, fall through, hit Fox with aerial
Medium: Fox under side plat., you under same plat. - jump, fall through plat., uair Fox
Tough: Fox under a side plat., you on top of opposite plat. - dash toward Fox, jump, fall through plat. above Fox, uair Fox (I call this the S2J)
[Peekaboo can be done with uair on BF, PS, DL, sometimes FoD, and on the outer edges of YS's platforms]

Medium:

12. Wavelands from Ledge

Spoiler

Easy: ledgedrop, second-jump, waveland onto stage
Medium: ^ waveland backward to ledgegrab
Tough: ^ waveland off stage, second-jump, waveland onto/off platform (BF & DL)
Touger: ^waveland off stage, second-jump, [1] waveland across platform (toward the edge you didn't just come from), jump, [2] waveland across top platform in same direction, drop, [3] waveland the side platform (now in the opposite direction), jump, [4] waveland top platform (continuing direction), drop, [5] waveland side platform (changing direction), repeat

(me draw REAL good, lol)

13. Moonwalk

Spoiler

A video explaining moonwalking

Easy: roll to edge of stage, Moonwalk toward the edge so you grab the edge or fall off backwards [ex. vid]
Medium: waveland from edge, moonwalk toward other edge, jump and grab ledge
Tough: Moonwalk FD from edge to edge
Cool: Moon-dance - moonwalk one direction then moonwalk opposite direction, repeat

[Advisory] Moonwalking isn't necessarily pertinent to Falcon gameplay. It just provides specific positionings and movement deception. Examples include: doing a quick MW at one side of the stage to a short-hop and then grab the opposite ledge (can be quicker than alternatives, while giving you the option of bair for EGs); MW to jumping off-stage to ensure a deep EG with bair; MWing at/away opponent to bait or see opponent's reaction; etc.
However, with all that said, moonwalking looks really cool.

14. Pivots

Spoiler

Easy: Stand in front of Marth, dash behind him, pivot grab
Medium: ^ pivot nair
Tough: ^ pivot fair (vs Fox)
Tougher: Stomp Fox at 45%, pivot fair
Toughest: vs handicapped character - gentleman, dash through character, pivot jab to gentleman, repeat

15. Shield Stops

Spoiler

They work with the same idea in mind as pivot aerials - stop momentum - without the added turn-around effect but able to do at anytime during dash or run.
Basically, at any time during your dash/run: press shield, then set the control stick to neutral + press jump. You'll stop and jump in place where you pressed shield.

Easy: Run at any character, shield stop right in front of them, stomp.
Medium: Dash through any character twice, after second time shield stop to bair

S2J does a lot of shield stops, especially against spacies. Watch his matches vs SFAT and Westballz to get a look.

16. Marth Grab Combo

Spoiler

Easy: Lvl. 1 Marth on FD - Dthrow > Dthrow > Upthrow > Uair > Upthrow > Uair > Upthrow > Knee
Tough: ^ start combo with pivot grab, pivot grab out of second dthrow, and reverse knee at end

17. Upthrow Nair Knee

Spoiler

On FD
Easy: Training Mode Ganon, 50% - Upthrow > Nair > Knee
Medium: Ganon, 30-35% - Upthrow > Nair x 3 > Knee
Tough: Link, 25% - Upthrow > Nair x 3 > Knee
Tougher: Y Link, 30% - Upthrow > Nair x 3 > Knee

[Description]
This one is TOUGH overall.
You want to fastfall, but not immediately. The whole string has very strict timing, but it's possible.

Quick, small examples I found:
@4:31

@5:46

It's essentially right as your second hit of nair is coming out or about to hit that you do the fastfall.

18. Shield Drop

Spoiler

Due to Falcon's not-so-good out-of-shield options, Shield Dropping is becoming an important tool for Falcon mains.
When shielding on a platform, can fall through the platform by tapping down at a slower/shorter input than sidestep.
You can tilt your shield right/left all the way and simply press down like you normally would.
Mess with different speed and input lengths with down to figure out shield drop with a neutral (non-tilted) shield.

Easy: Shield drop through a platform
Medium: With any character next to you on a platfrom, shield drop and uair immediately to hit them.
Tough: With any character below you, shield drop and bair them
Tougher: With any character below you, shield drop and hit them with Knee.

[Against a computer or with a friend you can work on shield dropping with shield pressure, which will be a little different timing.]

19. Running Shield Drop

Spoiler

You can drop through the platfrom while in your dash. It essentially works like a shield-tilted shield drop:
Dash, while still holding that direction press shield, right as you do the shield input roll the stick from your dash direction to down. Done quick enough and you'll drop through the platform (and the shield may not even show).

Easy: Run shield drop through any platform
Medium: With any character under you, RSD through the platform and hit them with bair/uair/nair/fair
Tough: With any character next to you, RSD through the platform and immediately uair to hit them

20. Hax Dash

Spoiler

[Have #12 done before attempting this]
Goal: ledgedashstall and keep invincibility

Ver. 1

Ledgedrop, second-jump and go somewhat into the stage, waveland back, fastfall.
To catch ledge again without falling through, either 1) release stick so it set a neutral, or 2) quarter-circle from down to the direction of the stage.
[Hax calls the latter method the "180 degree ledghop waveland"]

Ver. 2

Ledgedrop, second-jump and go hardly over the stage, waveland back, and wait for Falcon to grab ledge.
[He will grab ledge as soon as invincibility runs out]


Easy: Practice #13 then this one without anything testing the invincibility.
Medium: FD - Lvl 7-9 Mr.Game and Watch. Go to ledge and he will try to hit you with dtilt or whatever. Attempt Hax dash
Hard: Go to Brinstar and stay invincible through the lava

∞. Releasing the Falcon

Spoiler

Only mastery will allow you to become the Falcon player you're meant to be.
Keep practicing to become great at:

Mindgames

Epicness

Being Totally Awesome

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

References and thoughts:

Spoiler

A few months ago Scar posted a draft of list of Falcon trials - like in SF - and it sparked JKJ to start the Community-Generated Trials tread, and make a couple of videos: Marth - Falco. I really think a trials list could be good for all players, as a sort of practice regimen but definitely a quick way to find out what you should be able to do with the character.


Here's Scar's draft (from Melee It On Me):

Spoiler

1. Stomp Knee
   Unplugged human controller, Ganon, 80%
2. Fast stomp knee
   Unplugged human controller, Fox, 80%
3. Dthrow > Knee
   Jigglypuff @ 90%
   Combo counter 2
4. Upthrow > Knee
   Ganondorf @ 80%
   Combo counter 2
5. Dthrow > Knee
   Ganondorf @ 95%
   Combo counter 2
6. Marth Grab Combo
   Level 1 Marth on FD
   Dthrow > Dthrow > Uthrow > Uair > GRAB BEFORE HE HITS THE GROUND > uthrow > Uair > GRAB BEFORE HE HITS THE GROUND > uthrow > knee
7. Vs Fox
   Dair at 0% until knockdown (should be 1-2 dairs
   Dair repeatedly and pop Fox up on each dair until 90+% and finish with a Knee
8. Bair > dash backwards > knee
9. Reverse Knee > dash > knee
10. Uthrow > Nair > Knee (4 hit)
    Ganon training mode 50%
11. Uthrow > Nair x4 > Knee
    Ganon at 25%
12. Uthrow > Nair x4 > Knee
    Upthrow Link at 15% on FD and nair him 4x into knee
13. Uthrow > Nair x4 > KneeUpthrow YL at 10%

I think this is a GREAT starting list. Provides a great mental and technical foundation to basic Falcon combos.
But I'm sure we can all think of somethings to add to it.

First, I want to reference Hax's "Falcon Compendium"

Spoiler

discrete stuff that i think is either critical to playing falcon at top level right now or will be in the future. will be updated occasionally

instant uair
solves falcon's biggest problem which is the lack of an aerial that comes out instantaneously (while he is rising during his jump) while having decent knockback. good for poking against falco, sheik, marth, peach, falcon, and fox (very difficult to land on fox, though). good for extending combos. good for denying certain aerials (beats spacies nairs if you hit at a very specific angle/frame!)

doublejump nair
your best option for when they miss a tech on a platform and you aren't in position for a stomp (or, you aren't in position to follow up with anything after you stomp them). goes into a knee at mid-high % in this case

also really good to use after a shffl'd nair if they DI/SDI up. doublejump so that you're exactly horizontal to them and nair them again. this is better than uairing them, which most people think is falcon's only option if they're at that height that isn't as close to the ground as falcon's shorthop while still being slightly lower than his fullhop.

pivot grab
the best way to abuse falcon's ridiculously fast foxtrot (the initial burst a character makes upon dashing -- falcon's is the fastest in the game). great for dancing around them when you think they're going to whiff something that only hits in front of them. don't use this against fox or falco because shine is broken and will hit in back of them even when you correctly read that they're trying to hit what's in front of them. similarly, watch out for nairs/other aerials that have hitboxes on the character's back. i.e., pivot grabbing is better vs a sheik that tends to fair when she's suspended in the air rather than one who nairs.

kneegrabbing
a while ago M2K informed me that if you knee someone's shield as low to the ground as possible, Falcon has +2 frame advantage (with the L-cancel lag factored in). this means that your grab beats theirs if they try to shieldgrab you (which they will do a LOT given how shieldgrabable this looks). i haven't tested this much yet but i definitely will in the future

180 degree ledgehop wavelands/180 degree wavelands onto platforms
most characters safely ledgehop so that they're elevated a bit higher than the stage, then airdodge diagonally down to waveland. because of falcon's ball-shaped 2nd jump, its really easy to get the best waveland possible by airdodging 180 degrees horizontally. same goes for wavelanding onto platforms

spaced nairs/uairs vs crouchcancellers
CC'ing ***** falcon harder than any character because he has no fast moves that also have enough hitstun to give you frame advantage vs the CC'er. unless you hit them with a stomp or knee, they can hit you before you can combo them into anything. grabbing obviously beats CC'ing, but in falcon's case it is extremely obvious that he's going to grab if he dashes up to them because he has no other options to choose from. for these reasons i try to beat CC'ers by poking them with spaced nairs/uairs to make them leave their CC. stomp and knee are usually reacted to and punished in today's metagame which makes falcon's anti-CC game really weak. you shouldn't try to beat someone who's crouching; you should be giving them reasons to leave their crouch

juggling
with falcon you should seek to carry your opponent as [horizontally] far across the stage as you can during a combo. the reason a lot of people end their falcon combos prematurely is because they don't properly give themselves the frame advantage necessary to continue. what i mean is, you should be hitting them with your aerials (usually uairs) as close to the ground as possible as to give yourself as much time as possible to hit them with another aerial. take landing uair -> uair -> knee on a fox at ~60% for example (assume he DI's in because this combo is impossible if he DI's out). after the first uair, you shorthop towards fox as fast as possible to land the second uair. the mistakes lots of falcons make at this point are A. uairing fox before they reach the peak of their jump and/or B. not fastfalling

these are both counterproductive to juggling because:
-if you don't fastfall, you have about 10 frames before falcon reaches the floor. this is far too long and the knee afterwards won't connect
-you cannot fastfall before the peak of your jump

the lesson to be learned is that you must uair during the 2nd half of your jump, and you must fastfall it/go into your next attack as fast as possible. falcon has TIGHT links that you can't otherwise land because of how fast people wiggle out these days. when i uair during combos, you hardly see falcon's legs come out sometimes because of how close to the ground i use them.

fall off the ledge -> bair/uair
falcon can fall off the ledge, bair or uair to edgeguard, then 2nd jump -> up-b and make it back to the ledge. good for edgeguarding people at certain positions below you, but you risk your stock in attempting it

example:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHkT8T-jJjo#t=01m43s

fulljumping -> wavelanding down to immediately stand on platforms
this opens your techchasing options up by a lot; it's a lot better than stomping/uairing a platform in a lot of situations. you can chain so many techchase grabs when you learn to do this to maneuver platforms fast enough. it's not just for regrabbing, either; you can mindgame people into even better stuff after you land on the same platform as them (you'll almost always have a mental advantage going into it because of how much it makes people flinch)

more to come

- Instant Uair would be quite easy to put into the list, and would work great as a foundation to #6 (Marth Grab Combo): Standing right in front of Marth, jump and hit Marth with an up-air (then try on Fox).​

​

- Pivots could be easy to: Stand in front of Marth, dash through him, and pivot grab from behind (could be put as a starter of #6). And the very necessary Pivot Nair: Stand in front of Marth, dash through hims, and pivot nair from behind (character could be changed to Fox, and could change aerial to Knee for further difficulty).​

​

- Wavelands from ledge:​

1) ledgedrop, second-jump, and waveland onto stage (toward center stage)​

2) ^as above^ but waveland back to the ledge and grab it​

3) ^as #2^ but waveland off stage, second-jump, and waveland onto/off platform (useful on BF, Dreamland, and YS, possible on FoD and PS too)​

​

- Aerials from ledge: ledgedrop, second-jump, bair/uair, and grab ledge (without using up-b)​

Second, there's some basic/cool stuff that could be added, like:

- Weak Knee to uair offstage for a gimp/KO​

- Moonwalking: 1) Moonwalk to ledgegrab 2) ??? 3) Moonwalk all of FD​

- Incorporating reverse-Knee in some of the trails, or having some that are completely focused on it​

- Gentleman (and additional things like gentleman to knee)​

- Drop-zones​

Overall, I think we can make a list of 20 trials, with some having multiple difficulty levels/challenges. Eventually, we could make an 'official' list, make it into a video, and would be incorporating all/most of these fundamentals into our training and warmups. Profit, it seems, would be inevitable.

Falcon Threads
Hitboxes and Frame Data
2014 Falcon Video Thread
Captain Falcon Index (Posts about match-ups and other general metagame stuff)

 

[Da Shuffla]

This is a good list. I actually have some free time, so I'll practice these.

Also, I recommend some defensive trials as well, like teching, SDI, and definitely shield drops.

 

[thespymachine]

This is a good list. I actually have some free time, so I'll practice these.

Also, I recommend some defensive trials as well, like teching, SDI, and definitely shield drops.

I do think those things are very important, but aren't really Falcon specific. I think there should be a Trials list for Melee in general, that would include DI, teching, and other various techniques.

 

[TerryJ]

Looks like fun, I'll get right to it.

[Still trying to figure out how to know if you're keeping invincibility, best suggestion so far was to play on Brinstar and practice in the acid.]

If you have access to the Debug menu either through Action Replay or a hacked ISO you can turn on hitboxes and see when you're invincible. I can not yet do the Haxdash while keeping invincibility, **** is HAAARD.

 

[thespymachine]

If you have access to the Debug menu either through Action Replay or a hacked ISO you can turn on hitboxes and see when you're invincible. I can not yet do the Haxdash while keeping invincibility, **** is HAAARD.

It is hard.
I usually just try it against a computer, because they tend to attack you at the edge. So I just keep going until they throw out a move - and I still can't do it. lol

 

[thespymachine]

@JPeGImage
You had something to say?

 

[CountOlaf]

These trials are great for combos. Any chance we could also make some for movement? Kind of lake with the moonwalk, but instead focused on wavedashing and wavelanding around platforms and stuff, so that we can improve our movement.

 

[thespymachine]

These trials are great for combos. Any chance we could also make some for movement? Kind of lake with the moonwalk, but instead focused on wavedashing and wavelanding around platforms and stuff, so that we can improve our movement.

I don't really using wavelanding exclusively (it's always incorporated with moonwalking), so I'm having a difficult time figuring out what you could do.
I did update the Waveland from edge section though:

13. Wavelands from Ledge
Easy: ledgedrop, second-jump, waveland onto stage
Medium: ^ waveland backward to ledgegrab
Tough: ^ waveland off stage, second-jump, waveland onto/off platform (BF & DL)
Touger: ^waveland off stage, second-jump, [1] waveland across platform (toward the edge you didn't just come from), jump, [2] waveland across top platform in same direction, drop, [3] waveland the side platform (now in the opposite direction), jump, [4] waveland top platform (continuing direction), drop, [5] waveland side platform (changing direction), repeat

(me draw REAL good, lol)

 

[thespymachine]

@ HK_Spadez Let me know what other ones you need examples of.

 

[HK_Spadez]

Hey man, this helps a lot but I'm actually having a lot of trouble with the #16's.

Am I suppose to fast fall the nair's? It seems I cant get the second hit if I do

 

[thespymachine]

Hey man, this helps a lot but I'm actually having a lot of trouble with the #16's.

Am I suppose to fast fall the nair's? It seems I cant get the second hit if I do

16 is TOUGH overall.
Yeah, you want to fastfall, but not immediately. It has very strict timing, but it's possible.

Quick, small examples I found:
@4:31

@5:46

It's essentially right as your second hit is coming out or about to hit that you do the fastfall.

 

[HK_Spadez]

Thats kind of weird. Would I be L canceling before I press FF or same time? Cause I feel like if I L cancel after I wont be L canceling at all.

 

[thespymachine]

Thats kind of weird. Would I be L canceling before I press FF or same time? Cause I feel like if I L cancel after I wont be L canceling at all.

You would input you l-cancel after you input the nair and FF.
L-cancelling works within the 6 frames before landing while doing an aerial - and it only works when you land the aerial on the ground. So, you'll want to press L/R/Z right before you hit the ground.

 

[Equal]

I'm starting to believe that it's impossible to stomp from ledge and land back on ledge without an Up+B lol

 

[thespymachine]

Yeah, I would say that's impossible.

 

[thespymachine]

So I've been working on my Falcon tech as of late. Just now I realized something about Hax-dashing: when your character is leaving the stage, as soon as they get into their off-stage animation, press down and release it quickly (otherwise you'll fall through grabbing the ledge). This allows you to get to the ledge faster and has sped up my Hax-dashing attempts drastically.

This could be old news, but I think it's great. lol

 

["YOLO"]

5. Instant Uair
Easy: Stand right in front of Marth, jump and instantly up-air to hit him
Medium: ^ vs Fox
Impossible?: ^ vs Pichu

vs Pichu is possible, I've done it.

 

[Madra Rua]

How do you guys do instant uairs? I've tried jumping with x/y and using c-stick for uair, but that's not really fast enough. I can hit Fox if I use the control stick to short hop and c-stick to aerial, but it's not very fluid for me.

Methods? Is it just a matter of practice?

 

[thespymachine]

I go back and forth between:
- jump with control stick, c-stick for upair
- jump with x/y, up + a for upair

 

[Jeapie]

Good stuff. practice for beast 4 for me starts today now that i have read this educative post

Add hardcool moonwalk. Moonwalk accros the long lenght of corneria
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFxPk1QKRns&t=1m25s

Edit: We all need to try to catch on to hax dashing. Sheiks will be waiting with fitlts near the ledge. with haxdashing you can punish her for it

 

[dRevan64]

Good stuff. practice for beast 4 for me starts today now that i have read this educative post

Add hardcool moonwalk. Moonwalk accros the long lenght of corneria
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFxPk1QKRns&t=1m25s

Edit: We all need to try to catch on to hax dashing. Sheiks will be waiting with fitlts near the ledge. with haxdashing you can punish her for it

Shoutouts to falco's dunce cap

and yeah falcons should definitely be using haxdashing, it's amazing and you guys have it way easier than marths do
in general anything that makes you just BE INVINCIBLE is really good

 

[Madra Rua]

Cool, thanks. I like jumping with x and using up+a for uair, I just need to make sure I don't burn my second jump in the process.

 

[TobiasXK]

Cool, thanks. I like jumping with x and using up+a for uair, I just need to make sure I don't burn my second jump in the process.

if you get the timing down to tilt up on the control stick during the jumpsquat frames before falcon leaves the ground, it's not so bad. and you can practice just that part with empty short hops until your left thumb gets the speed and timing down to tilt the control stick all the way up during jumpsquat. then it's just a matter of pressing a/z.

 

[ShrieK1295]

I highly recommend learning to claw or palm cstick for instant uair. I did it with up and a for the longest time, and I feel like my control over my character is significantly better now that I changed my method. You really need perfect control over your spacing to hit dat dashing Fox

 

[Madra Rua]

So for example you would jump with x/y and push up on the c stick with your palm for uair? I feel like that would throw my right hand way out of place, though I guess with practice it would be fluid/consistent.

 

[Deleted member]

Really good ****, these trials are really helping me improve.

 

[thespymachine]

I'm glad you guys are liking this.

edit:
I just messaged Jeapie to see if he could give some pointers on improving movement abilities as a Falcon.

 

[thespymachine]

Haven't heard back from Jeapie, but I am working on the format with this, getting gifs instead video links.

If you know of any gifs (or videos I can turn into gifs) for any of these that I don't have yet (or improved ones of what I do have), let me know.

 

[Bizzerk]

I hope jeapie can add something helpful to the thread, his movement with falcon is insane

 

[thespymachine]

Alright. Got in contact with Jeapie and he said he would put his input on here.
After he expresses his ways, I'll try to consolidate it into something(s) we can put in the trials.
Can't wait!

 

[RadVillain]

This is so great i love this.

 

[thespymachine]

Ha ha. Thanks!

 

[thespymachine]

Alright did some editing, added a couple of things, and got some more gifs in there.

Need some help though.

Can you guys help me find (better) examples for the following trials?:
Throw Knee, Pivots, Instant Up-air, Gentleman, Aerial to Knee Followup, Wavelands from Ledge, Marth Grab Combo, Upthrow Nair Knee, Isai Drop, and Shield Stop

 

[Nicco]

Isai drop is when you walk and then simply press down to fall through a platform. I don't think Falcon benefits too much from this, since his walk is so slow. Isai propably used this alot more with sheik.
What you listed as Isai drop is simply a running shield drop, which is great for Falcon.

 

[thespymachine]

Isai drop is when you walk and then simply press down to fall through a platform. I don't think Falcon benefits too much from this, since his walk is so slow. Isai propably used this alot more with sheik.
What you listed as Isai drop is simply a running shield drop, which is great for Falcon.

What sort of edit would you suggest then for the trials? Rename the Isai Drop one, or combine it with the Shield drop one, or what?

 

[Nicco]

Whatever you feel. I don't really care about the structure of the guide or which techniques are in, but what you called Isai drop is a running shield drop.

 

[thespymachine]

Alright, thanks.

 

[ACDC]

This is a great guide, I just got back into melee and need to remember so many techniques. Thankfully now I can just come here and learn the more Falcon-relevant ones. I didn't even know most of them here. Thanks

 

[thespymachine]

No problem, have fun, and visit frequently.

 

[kyaputenfarukon07]

Can some mod sticky this thread?

Also please change the title to include players of all levels

so the beginners and experienced players know and use this as a reference.

Create a sub section named metagame to refer the index thread for people who dont know the character match ups and other

strategies.

1 2 many bumps