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Falco is stupid and I need help
- Thread starter FEOwain
- Start date
Proper SDI + DI allows one to escape generic pillaring fairly easily in many instances, although you will be comboed hard on occasion it's not nearly as bad as it appears without solid defense.
Fixing your entire mindset towards lasers is a good start. Simply telling you what to do isn't enough but just know you can CC low lasers and dash out of them and nair over them as well.
Think about lasers, what are the properties of lasers? Slow start up, force him to be airborne, essentially lagless, can't just go through them, 7 frames of stun if you CC them etc. Detach yourself from your Falcon and think about it from a different perspective. What is Falco afraid of? Think about it from an outsider's perspective. What does an observer see and think about what is happening? What is the root of your problem? What variables exist that are not coming into play? What is actually happening? Do not accept what is readily obvious or is told to you as fact. Open your mind and try silly, out of the box things. Play as Falco and have a friend play Falcon for a day or two. If no friends are around, just pick Falco and shadowbox a Falcon CPU and think about situations. I've been trying to compile a resource of what technically works in my frame data thread, but without proper understanding of the game around the frames it is significantly less useful.
Free your mind from the idea that there is a single "solution" to things and Smash will likely begin to make much more sense.
Fixing your entire mindset towards lasers is a good start. Simply telling you what to do isn't enough but just know you can CC low lasers and dash out of them and nair over them as well.
Think about lasers, what are the properties of lasers? Slow start up, force him to be airborne, essentially lagless, can't just go through them, 7 frames of stun if you CC them etc. Detach yourself from your Falcon and think about it from a different perspective. What is Falco afraid of? Think about it from an outsider's perspective. What does an observer see and think about what is happening? What is the root of your problem? What variables exist that are not coming into play? What is actually happening? Do not accept what is readily obvious or is told to you as fact. Open your mind and try silly, out of the box things. Play as Falco and have a friend play Falcon for a day or two. If no friends are around, just pick Falco and shadowbox a Falcon CPU and think about situations. I've been trying to compile a resource of what technically works in my frame data thread, but without proper understanding of the game around the frames it is significantly less useful.
Free your mind from the idea that there is a single "solution" to things and Smash will likely begin to make much more sense.
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タオー
Smash Journeyman
I've always enjoyed the intensity of this matchup, and have also struggled to overcome many of its obstacles. As furta mentioned, SDI + DI is a great response to pillar combos (and combos in general). Remember that Falcon can feasibly take upwards of 80% (or more) and still have the edge over Falco, as at higher percents Falco has less combo followups on our hero and dies much earlier than Falcon.
One thing I cannot stress enough is to implement Power Shielding. Getting the 2 frame window to reflect easily turns their approach into your own, enabling you to use Falco's own lasers to pin them down; however, do not fret if you miss the 2 frame reflect window, as simply getting a PS (4 frame window) allows you to act out of shield stun immediately, which is often enough to allow you to reset to neutral or turn the tide in your favor. Another benefit of PS is that it doesn't degrade your normal shield. Furthermore, there is some new tech that was discovered a few months ago where you can PS with your light shield, expanding your PS size allowing you to more easily reflect low lasers.
One final note, remember that you are a serious threat to Falco, and that it only takes one opportunity to open him up with a nasty combo, effectively robbing him of his stocks. Don't let percents get you down, Falcon can take a hit and then some before he's through, and Falco can easily die to Falcon at much lower percents.
EDIT:
I just looked over that post from Kadano again, and Z-PS does not increase your frame window it is still the same as normal PS (1-2 reflects projectiles, 1-4 PS attacks)
One thing I cannot stress enough is to implement Power Shielding. Getting the 2 frame window to reflect easily turns their approach into your own, enabling you to use Falco's own lasers to pin them down; however, do not fret if you miss the 2 frame reflect window, as simply getting a PS (4 frame window) allows you to act out of shield stun immediately, which is often enough to allow you to reset to neutral or turn the tide in your favor. Another benefit of PS is that it doesn't degrade your normal shield. Furthermore, there is some new tech that was discovered a few months ago where you can PS with your light shield, expanding your PS size allowing you to more easily reflect low lasers.
One final note, remember that you are a serious threat to Falco, and that it only takes one opportunity to open him up with a nasty combo, effectively robbing him of his stocks. Don't let percents get you down, Falcon can take a hit and then some before he's through, and Falco can easily die to Falcon at much lower percents.
EDIT:
I just looked over that post from Kadano again, and Z-PS does not increase your frame window it is still the same as normal PS (1-2 reflects projectiles, 1-4 PS attacks)
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Coyle
Smash Cadet
I think you're referring to Z-powershielding. Documented by Kadano here. The problem with Z-powershielding is that in order to initiate shield with Z, you need to have already pressed and be holding A. Now, you can press and hold onto A during frames when your character is "busy" (during landing lag, attacks, hitlag, etc.) so while the A button doesn't show on screen, it still registers, which is a beautiful thing since you could initiate the process in the middle of a wavedash. I find that the difficulty comes from the unfamiliar hand positioning. This of course could be overcome with practice. I think that as long as you can set-up hand positioning for shield-dropping options quickly in game, Z-powershielding could be a definite option in your play.
A common issue with power-shielding the "normal" way (with digital shield press) is that sometimes people linger too long in analog shield, which, by itself, you can't power-shield with, so you miss the frame window. To eliminate this issue from my play I disable the analog portion of my R-trigger (hold digital shield and then either plug your controller in or X+Y+start during play).
Z-powershields are huge
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Drodeka
Smash Journeyman
You can do just about anything you want to avoid lasers aside from staying on the ground and getting hit.
As was said multiple times before, it's a mentality problem, or your reflexes are just too slow.
Personally I prefer to dbl jump over them and then fast fall right behind or waveland, use platforms, and wavedash OoS.
You'll probably hear a similar story from all Falcon's.
As was said multiple times before, it's a mentality problem, or your reflexes are just too slow.
Personally I prefer to dbl jump over them and then fast fall right behind or waveland, use platforms, and wavedash OoS.
You'll probably hear a similar story from all Falcon's.
This is the main reason I prefer to ban FD when playing against Falco. Platforms become such a great tool when it comes to avoiding lasers that you'd be dooming yourself by not utilizing them.
I also like the mentality talk. Smash is almost a sandbox when compared to other fighters as you have so many options and tools when it comes to movement and the neutral game. Don't get frustrated and keep trying new things out.I learned that myself when I spent the first 4 months of the year as a beginner player practicing with a falco that was SIGNIFICANTLY better than me.
I also like the mentality talk. Smash is almost a sandbox when compared to other fighters as you have so many options and tools when it comes to movement and the neutral game. Don't get frustrated and keep trying new things out.I learned that myself when I spent the first 4 months of the year as a beginner player practicing with a falco that was SIGNIFICANTLY better than me.
Captain JOHN
Smash Cadet
Stages can be important, too! Unless you're very confident, don't try to go to Yoshi's. That stage is set up for Falco to f*ck you. FD can go either way, I believe. The tech chases can be ridiculous there, yet you can get r*ped by laz0rx and shine pilar if you're not careful. And you can do really weird stuff to get around falco's lasers, such as simply dashing/raptor boosting (i read it elsewhere, dont crucify me) under high lasers and powershielding/jumping over low lasers. Falcon's dash puts him really low to the ground. You'd have to play around with it for timings. FoD can go either way too. Personally, I like the stage because it has close blast zones to the right and left, making for quick knee kills at %'s that are pretty unexpected. At DL64 u can get camped super hard, so work on the lasers. Or you could work on movement (even s2j says that its one of the most important parts on falcon as a whole) to get above the lasers on the platforms. Pokemon stadium is a terrible idea against spacies, so only go if youre confident. Battlefield is another one of those stages that can go either way. I like battlefield for the MU, idk why. Maybe cause its really neutral. Oh, and last piece of advice. DONT GET HIT
Xtra_Crispy
Smash Cadet
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2015
- Messages
- 54
I personally don't like dealing with lasers so my gameplan for early on is to discourage him to use them. You really have to learn how quickly you can close the gap, as well as when falco likes to shoot lasers (if you see him dash back and SH, 90% of the time he is doing a retreating laser LOL) If you have platforms you can waveland around to punish/ avoid but it is pretty difficult to get a good approach angle unless they are standing near the edge below you. EDIT: near the edge of a platform* that way you can WL off upair or something
What works for me is that you can SH nair over low lasers and kick that mother****er in the face when he tries to run away. If he high lasers, raptor boost under them and remind him why you NEVER shoot a high laser against falcon. If he is too far away for either, that is when I go for powershields, since the punishment for shielding close to falco can be huge (a shield break if this were 20yy).
If you hit him enough when he tries to laser approach/ retreat, odds are the falco will stop lasering for the most part and now you have a much more even matchup. You cannot, however, under any circumstances let the falco develop his laser game for free. He can't get the mindset that you are unable to punish them because then the whole game will be "Pew Pew Pew Pew Pew Pew Pew Pew *ftilt* *dair*" and you'll be a dead falcon.
What works for me is that you can SH nair over low lasers and kick that mother****er in the face when he tries to run away. If he high lasers, raptor boost under them and remind him why you NEVER shoot a high laser against falcon. If he is too far away for either, that is when I go for powershields, since the punishment for shielding close to falco can be huge (a shield break if this were 20yy).
If you hit him enough when he tries to laser approach/ retreat, odds are the falco will stop lasering for the most part and now you have a much more even matchup. You cannot, however, under any circumstances let the falco develop his laser game for free. He can't get the mindset that you are unable to punish them because then the whole game will be "Pew Pew Pew Pew Pew Pew Pew Pew *ftilt* *dair*" and you'll be a dead falcon.
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