Detailed Guide for a Tournament-Level Falcon

[Exor]

Great thread homie. Definitely gonna be incorporating some of these tips into my playstyle.

 

[Haptic]

How do I play against a Sheik? I played against a player who was quite good with her earlier, and I could not figure out how to get an upper hand. She just combos you like mad. Also, when she would n-air my shield and I went for a grab as she hit the ground, she was already jabbing me. Seems like n-air has no ending lag and jab has no start-up frames.

 

[Gawain]

How do I play against a Sheik? I played against a player who was quite good with her earlier, and I could not figure out how to get an upper hand. She just combos you like mad. Also, when she would n-air my shield and I went for a grab as she hit the ground, she was already jabbing me. Seems like n-air has no ending lag and jab has no start-up frames.

Good Sheiks are tough for Falcon. It was tough for him in Melee too. The source of the issue is that Sheik has a much better ground game than Falcon does. Good smashes that can be used proactively (Falcon lacks this), great ranged game (same deal), more utilitarian tilts for the most part (though Falcon's dtilt and utilt have good uses), and an equally good dash attack (Falcon was buffed here). The only area that Falcon really beats her on the ground is his grab game, which is extremely good.

The only way I've found so far for handling Sheik is to stay inside her "zone" where she can safely use projectiles. Falcon has a much better chance if you can constantly stay close enough to avoid the needles and bombs. The most favorable position to have is underneath Sheik. This means that once you store a grab or a landing uair, you need to press that advantage very hard and try to keep sheik above you. Your uair beats anything Sheik can use below her, so try to use this to your advantage as often as possible. Sheik is also not overly hard to combo into the knee, so learn the percentages that are ideal to do this at and get really good those links.

Overall I feel this is actually one of the few unfavorable matchups for Falcon in this game. You're gonna have to outplay Sheik as far as I know.

 

[Rad]

Hey I'm wondering how to approach racking up damage at low percentages? Are there any short combos or specific moves I should be fishing for? At 30%+ this character makes sense to me but before then I feel like I'm attacking aimlessly and punishing with a lot of inefficiency.

Thanks!

 

[Revolution6 aka alterego]

Hey I'm wondering how to approach racking up damage at low percentages? Are there any short combos or specific moves I should be fishing for? At 30%+ this character makes sense to me but before then I feel like I'm attacking aimlessly and punishing with a lot of inefficiency.

Thanks!

From my experience with the game i'd say n-air to gentleman, or just poke w/ tilts, n-airs, back airs and jabs (gentleman or rapid take your pick)

 

[victra♥]

Any tips on how to land back on stage safely? I've noticed Falcon, despite being a great juggler, has problems with getting juggled himself, it gets really hard to land back o nthe stage safely against the likes of Shiek or even Ness, since his Dair is hard to land and easy toi punish.

Save you second jump. Remember that you're a fast faller so find that opportunity and fast fall asap the ground.

Being in the air is a huge game of chicken. You can stuff them if they jump out to get you (even weak knee can get you out of sticky situations).

 

[Blazing Ambition]

That feel when no more D-Air tech chases. Also, who decided that that move should be unsafe ON HIT?! I read a roll with a short hop D-Air and the moment they bounce off of the ground, I'M the one getting punished.

 

[Shouxiao]

I am glad Captain Falcon is back to his former glory. He sucked in X/Brawl

 

[DooshMcDoosh]

the gentleman is easier to do in this game as u only need to press and hold the attack button once and the game will spam first jab, once it connects u only keep holding attack and it will do the gentleman combo.

down b being quick enough can be used to get to the ground faster. i sometimes jump on top of my opponent when he is trying to juggle me and then down b quickly which even if the dodge most of the time the landing shockwave will hit them and send them flying letting u recover safely. be careful the knockback at low percentages is not that much so they can punish u or also punish if they read you so dont use it as ur go to move for getting to the ground fast.

u can edgeguard with ur side b as the move doesnt make u fall off stage past a tiny distance away from the ledge and it stays active for a while. so if u see them doing the ledge attack animation go meet them with a side b ull most likely hit them upward for a kill or more juggling.

dont use side b to spike, its sweetspot got tweaked to the ending animation and if u hit someone with it u r pushed backwards( not something u wanna do when recovering to the ledge)

 

[Gawain]

That feel when no more D-Air tech chases. Also, who decided that that move should be unsafe ON HIT?! I read a roll with a short hop D-Air and the moment they bounce off of the ground, I'M the one getting punished.

I know what you mean man. I never use dair on stage unless they're in the 60-70 range. You can follow up with uairs reliably at those, but I don't use it when they're low or you'll get punished.

 

[mmkzer0]

2nd Jump + Wall Jump + Falcon Dive and you will most likely get back on the Stage ^^

 

[Dorizzle]

I'm pretty sure, this has been said quite a few times but are there any other ways beside dash attack and dash grab? Whenever I go against my friends for multiples sets at time I try to mix those options up and it works for a while but they slowly start adapting to it. I try to approach with SH nairs but it just never seems to work.

 

[Gawain]

I'm pretty sure, this has been said quite a few times but are there any other ways beside dash attack and dash grab? Whenever I go against my friends for multiples sets at time I try to mix those options up and it works for a while but they slowly start adapting to it. I try to approach with SH nairs but it just never seems to work.

Depends on character height. If you're fast enough you can do nairs effectively on characters as short as Lucina while standing. I've started using dash dancing to bait things out and punishing with falling uairs as my approach now though. That and weak hit nairs into the gentleman. Shielding out of dash is a good idea to score easy grabs and mix up your grab game unless they have a tether grab.

 

[DooshMcDoosh]

you can also approach with a dash into a roll behind them, but u need to know ur roll distance.
you also can dash then stop near them and down tilt, this move has alot of range this game it can be used to safely edgeguard if they miss the ledge with their up b. or edgeguard their ledge attacks to cuz of its disjointed hitbox. on top of that it seems to be a safe shield poke.
u can also dash into a SH then do nothing and when u r falling about to hit the groun second jump and attack. this if done right will fake ur opponent into grabbing in front of them while u just second jumped behind them, so go to town on them for being grab spammers!

 

[victra♥]

I just beat Blunted Object (Best Melee Player in BC and one of the best in Canada. Ranked in MIOM's Top 100 Melee Players) and knocked him out of the first major WC Canada Smash 4 tournament.

Falcon baby.

 

[Weeman]

Falcon is already a major threat, now all we need are those GC controllers to make him top tier

 

[victra♥]

I'll put Falcon on the map up here in Canada. I hope you guys do the same in your respective regions. Falcon forever baby.

 

[Weeman]

I'll put Falcon on the map up here in Canada. I hope you guys do the same in your respective regions. Falcon forever baby.

Well i went to my very first Smash 3ds tournament here on México and obviously used Falcon, and i ended in the best 32 (it was a 128 people tournament), but i ultimately lost to a really good Rossylums who counterpicked me in FD, and surprisingly the guy who won was using R.O.B

 

[SevenYearItch]

I'll put Falcon on the map up here in Canada. I hope you guys do the same in your respective regions. Falcon forever baby.

Now my goal is to become the top Falcon over here in Toronto/East Coast so that one day we may meet in the ultimate Canada Falcon Ditto. Love having stuff to strive for haha

 

[iVoltage]

Aimin' for the top here in us east.

 

[victra♥]

frame trapping with single hit nair before you hit the ground is so good, especially since it converts into gentleman. mmm.

 

[SevenYearItch]

frame trapping with single hit nair before you hit the ground is so good, especially since it converts into gentleman. mmm.

Works so well off a short uair too. Gets you just enough to get the single hit nair, land into Gentleman. Beautiful opening combo off the dash

 

[DooshMcDoosh]

That feel when no more D-Air tech chases. Also, who decided that that move should be unsafe ON HIT?! I read a roll with a short hop D-Air and the moment they bounce off of the ground, I'M the one getting punished.

this happens to ganondorf's Dair too. it is borderline useless now.

 

[victra♥]

yeah its actually pretty bad lmaoo

 

[Lionman]

People in the Spanish community are starting to say that Falcon is so broken because i won 4 daily tournament in a row.

Im going to play WiiU Smash in Barcelona (Salon Manga) ill post my thoughs about Falcon with Gamecube controller

 

[iVoltage]

People in the Spanish community are starting to say that Falcon is so broken because i won 4 daily tournament in a row.

Im going to play WiiU Smash in Barcelona (Salon Manga) ill post my thoughs about Falcon with Gamecube controller

Please do, I pretty much had to stop playing smash 3ds since I really hate the controls and how frail they feel.

 

[BigLord]

I've won two tournaments, one of them with

Hey I'm wondering how to approach racking up damage at low percentages? Are there any short combos or specific moves I should be fishing for? At 30%+ this character makes sense to me but before then I feel like I'm attacking aimlessly and punishing with a lot of inefficiency.

Thanks!

I really REALLY like dash grab -> f-throw -> dash attack -> uair combos. It builds up damage so fast that I'm usually up against a 50% opponent in a flash. Also, Falcon's multi-jab should NOT be underestimated, it's so much better now, specially with mach punch at the end (which, by the way, has longer distance than the multi-jab, some opponents are caught unaware of this).

 

[Rad]

I've been doing similar stuff with dthrow. is fthrow better then? or guaranteed even?

I've noticed fsmash does a nice 20%. Which can be a good punisher when percents are low and there aren't better follow ups. It might be punishable on hit though.

 

[rugioh]

Once the opponent is higher than knee percents what do you guys go to for throw options? Just throw towards the ledge and edgeguard? Also I need some tips on edgeguarding with falcon, seems like diving off the stage for a air to air ends up with me getting outprioritized more often than anything. I think I'm just not doing it right..

 

[Soshii]

Once the opponent is higher than knee percents what do you guys go to for throw options? Just throw towards the ledge and edgeguard? Also I need some tips on edgeguarding with falcon, seems like diving off the stage for a air to air ends up with me getting outprioritized more often than anything. I think I'm just not doing it right..

I always go for d-throws and u-airs until I get see an opening for a knee. Otherwise I like to do hard reads and use fsmash or dsmash after a fast fall. Side-b is also good if you can punish. To ledgeguard, utilize his back airs or up airs. I personally get a high from the spike so I go for that often lol.

 

[victra♥]

yeah i have noticed that you can connect fthrow with dash attack at low percents, and uair after for really fast and early %

 

[BigLord]

I've been doing similar stuff with dthrow. is fthrow better then? or guaranteed even?

I've noticed fsmash does a nice 20%. Which can be a good punisher when percents are low and there aren't better follow ups. It might be punishable on hit though.

At 0%, I consider f-throw better for building damage. I think f-throw -> dash attack -> Uair is a true combo, but I really can't confirm... It always works for me, though.
At higher percents, you should use d-throw, though, because easy peasy combos. Knees included!

F-smash is very situational, for me. It has a deceptively long range, however, so you can easily use it to punish rolls. But the lag if you whiff it... :/

 

[victra♥]

yeah i am still apprehensive about using his smashes for similar reasons to the previous smash games.

 

[BigLord]

I usually think like that, yeah, and prefer killing with his other moves, but d-smash is very legit and if you can read a roll, they're toast. I call it a "goal!!" when I get a KO with the front kick, haha.

Also, dashing up-smash is usually so unexpected that I love using it. Feels so good when you get the kill.

 

[Rad]

up smash will be a lot better with a gamecube controller. It's just easier to execute oos and while moving.

Do we know what frame each smash comes out? They're a bazillion times faster than raptor boost and about as punishable. But raptor boost still feels good somehow.

 

[BigLord]

Raptor Boost is just a very VERY useful roll punisher. Or just punisher in general, if someone whiffs a smash and you're around, you can KO him/her instantly.

I just wish we knew the exact details of his aerial raptor boost as in, what are the requirements for its sweetspot (meteor)? I think it only activates when Falcon gets the opponent at the very end of the boost, but I'm really not sure... Oh well.

 

[-Fatality-]

Aimin' for the top here in us east.

You'll have to go through me first! I look forward to our inevitable clash of wills!

 

[victra♥]

tested fthrow dash attack, seems like it's not a true combo, at least at 0%. Should be able to catch kids, i've had success with it.

 

[Rad]

well what are the outs? second jump? can we punish that.

 

[iVoltage]

You'll have to go through me first! I look forward to our inevitable clash of wills!

Once the wii-u version comes out I look forward to it! What state if i may ask.