Falco Combos

[Jackson]

Hey guys. I'm relatively new to PM and I've chosen Falco as my main. I've gotten decent at movement in general, but I was really looking for some go-to combos to use in my matches. What are some of Falco's best/longest combos? Thanks.

 

[Blazing Ambition]

Down-Air, l-cancel, shine.
RINSE AND REPEAT.
Maybe throw in some up-tilts or back airs if you're feeling exceptionally SAUCY.

 

[Kankato]

Down-Air, l-cancel, shine.
RINSE AND REPEAT.
Maybe throw in some up-tilts or back airs if you're feeling exceptionally SAUCY.

Disclaimer: I am an absolute Falco noob & this is my personal experience with this combo. Don't interpret my writings as authoritative.

This works on floatier characters quite well but requires a little bit of nuance to pull off.
1st: You have to match the height they fly upward with both of your jumps. Try to be a little bit above them.
2nd: You must dair & fast fall with a timing that has you hit the ground first & leaves them in hitstun long enough to get shined again.
3rd: You must hit the ground where they're going to land so you can immediately shine them. Otherwise prepare for a tech chase.
4th: Waveshines help your positioning on a shine followup
5th: This combo is very %age dependent.

More advice from one noob to another:

If you cannot finish the combo, use the time to position yourself rather than go for a followup. This practice will REALLY help you out. If you shine someone while you're both underneath a platform, waveland to the above platform & go for another shine. It takes practice but is totally worth it. Execution should be the least of your worries, so practice it until it becomes subconscious.

 

[Comet7]

Down-Air, l-cancel, shine.
RINSE AND REPEAT.
Maybe throw in some up-tilts or back airs if you're feeling exceptionally SAUCY.

mostly this. pillaring is amazing. don't be afraid to use u-tilt instead of shine for the weird times when shine won't work.

stuff i can think of right now:

Spoiler

u-tilt > anything in the air
down tilt > anything in the air
down throw > tech chase read with laser > f smash
up throw > anything, though it can be di'd so it doesn't always work iirc
jab > dair also works at really high %

lasers also help with chaining other stuff together, like dair > ledge cancel, then laser > whatever.

question for anybody else: does forward throw > BDACUS / DACUS work on anybody? i'm specifically concerned about jigglypuff with this.

 

[Jackson]

question for anybody else: does forward throw > BDACUS / DACUS work on anybody? i'm specifically concerned about jigglypuff with this.

I'm assuming you came from PM like me. DACUS and BDACUS originate from Brawl so Falco cant perform them in Melee.

 

[Comet7]

I'm assuming you came from PM like me. DACUS and BDACUS originate from Brawl so Falco cant perform them in Melee.

this is the PM falco board. falco can BDACUS and DACUS in PM, since they haven't been removed from the brawl engine. the same is true for momentum reversals and reverse aerial rush.

 

[Jackson]

this is the PM falco board. falco can BDACUS and DACUS in PM, since they haven't been removed from the brawl engine. the same is true for momentum reversals and reverse aerial rush.

Ohhh, haha my fault I came from here but I've only been on the melee boards recently, so I assumed this was Melee. Sorry.

 

[children's_novel]

Disclaimer: I am an absolute Falco noob & this is my personal experience with this combo. Don't interpret my writings as authoritative.

1st: You have to match the height they fly upward with both of your jumps. Try to be a little bit above them.
2nd: You must dair & fast fall with a timing that has you hit the ground first & leaves them in hitstun long enough to get shined again.
3rd: You must hit the ground where they're going to land so you can immediately shine them. Otherwise prepare for a tech chase.
4th: Waveshines help your positioning on a shine followup
5th: This combo is very %age dependent.

More advice from one noob to another:

If you cannot finish the combo, use the time to position yourself rather than go for a followup. This practice will REALLY help you out. If you shine someone while you're both underneath a platform, waveland to the above platform & go for another shine. It takes practice but is totally worth it. Execution should be the least of your worries, so practice it until it becomes subconscious.

Kankato has good advice.

Depending on what character you face, you either have to shine>full-hop>fast-fall Dair (this works well against characters such as Marth, Mario, etc.) in order to keep effectively pillaring or you have to shine>waveshine>short-hop>Dair (assume the Dair is L-Cancelled) against Fox, Wolf, Falcon, and so-on and so forth. You can WS lighter characters, but it depends on the situation.

You can also use your up-tilt instead of using your shine while pillaring. Heck, you can use practically any move that sends your opponent up to start or lengthen your combos since Falco is primarily a character with vertical combos.

 

[13ruce1337]

The combo I'm currently practicing is:

Dash -> Short Hop -> Laser(fast fall) -> Grab(throw down) -> Shine -> Tech Chase Shine/Bair/Dair

Depending on the opponent and percentage you may be able to get a triple shine, which is my favorite.

"Shinnin' on these hoes" -Meek Millz

 

[Kankato]

The combo I'm currently practicing is:

Dash -> Short Hop -> Laser(fast fall) -> Grab(throw down) -> Shine -> Tech Chase Shine/Bair/Dair

Depending on the opponent and percentage you may be able to get a triple shine, which is my favorite.

"Shinnin' on these hoes" -Meek Millz

Can't people tech away from you before you can combo them with dthrow?

 

[Rhumagricole]

-to kankato
This isnt my post, but I believe the FFlaser would give you enough hitstun to get the grab if it is placed while getting close enough to your opponent. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Personally I like to mix-up the standard pillaring combo with Gatling combo approaches (dash attack instantly cancelled into up smash). At low percents the Gatling can combo into itself giving something like:
Run - Gatling - Run back - Gatling. From there it depends on which character you're playing against but if you're fighting fox or Ike you can possibly get a shine to go into pillaring after the first or second gatling, which adds a lot of percents quickly (The gatling does around 23% each time)

I find it really surprising how much falco players rarely or dont do the gatling combo at all in PM, maybe it has something to do with it not being as good as I think or maybe they just don't know its possible since its a feature that only worked in brawl (before PM).

EDIT: I'd be curious though to hear if someone knows what tricks from brawl work and doesn't work in PM for Falco; As far as I understand it things like the gatling combo and DACUS work but BDACUS and SHDL don't? I'm at a loss here, I don't know if they do or don't work since I can't do them.

 

[Comet7]

probably because both the dash attack and up smash aren't outstanding moves. they aren't great on shield, and there are other, better approach options like nair/dair/RAR bair/whatever.

i don't know about how BDACUS works in this game, but i do know that the reason falco can't SHDL is simply because of his fall speed.

 

[Rhumagricole]

Thanks Comet!While we're at it there are others basic combos/approaches that havent been mentionned in this post:

1) the dash attack into up tilt --- This one is really situational, if you can't do the dash attack in such a way that you'd end behind the opponent if he shields then you probably are better off not doing this at all since the dash attack on shield is otherwise easy to punish

2)approaching with Dair - Shine - (jump canceled) Grab --- This is a great tool to any falco imo, as long as you're able to pull off the shine-canceled-grab (which is weird to execute but not that hard) you're pretty much covering all of your opponents options. If he doesn't shield you can just go for pillars or w/e after the shine and if he shield then your grab will come out before his as long as you cancel the shine quickly enough.
I'm well aware this is nothing groundbreaking and its probably well known to any semi-pro falco, but I think its good to mention how crazy useful this is to falco since your approaches become super safe on shield without even mentioning the laser game.

Oh and with the grab you can always try the Dthrow to uptilt (in place). If the opponent doesnt know how to DI it it can open him up to pillars!

 

[yohobojz]

Down-Air, l-cancel, shine.
RINSE AND REPEAT.
Maybe throw in some up-tilts or back airs if you're feeling exceptionally SAUCY.

spoken like a true falcon main

 

[Zero May Cry]

Here's a gfy of a combo I did on an Ike just for inspiration (not actually PPMD, haha) https://gfycat.com/MatureElegantGreatargus

Also, here's something I like to do a lot. Laser > DACUS. It catches a lot of people off guard and if you DACUS immediately when you hit the ground it'll always work if the laser hits. You can use if if they're standing on the ground and get hit by the laser, or if they're falling and get hit by the laser. It's also super stylish!

Shine > firebird is also a really solid combo ender and works on fastfallers and heavy characters. I've killed floaties like Mewtwo at around 77% with it on occasion.

 

[Jackson]

Here's a gfy of a combo I did on an Ike just for inspiration (not actually PPMD, haha) https://gfycat.com/MatureElegantGreatargus

Also, here's something I like to do a lot. Laser > DACUS. It catches a lot of people off guard and if you DACUS immediately when you hit the ground it'll always work if the laser hits. You can use if if they're standing on the ground and get hit by the laser, or if they're falling and get hit by the laser. It's also super stylish!

Shine > firebird is also a really solid combo ender and works on fastfallers and heavy characters. I've killed floaties like Mewtwo at around 77% with it on occasion.

That's a solid combo, pillar combos are Falco's bread and butter. Just remember that when you daired him high (when he got 34% or so), he escaped hitstun. To remedy this, try to dair as late as you possibly can into your foe's hitstun, right as he's about to escape. That's how you pillar combo Marth in Melee so it can carry over. Just some friendly advice!