Q&A Falco, King of the Birds: Game Play Discussion

[Alexander Duprey]

am i the only one who combos with side B? i usually follow up a combo with an aerial side B which puts me in a position where i can freely B-air/N-air/U-tilt/U-smash or whatever the heck i want.
falcos run speed isn't fast enough for him to chase opponents but a spaced aerial side B allows him to follow up on certain strings.

I've done some messing around with it, it's pretty good for tech chasing and I have gotten U-tilt out of it. It works really well when they get popped up and you wait out their air dodge and just Fsmash.

 

[mustbepbs]

What are we supposed to do against Kirby? Our moves come out too slow against him and he's so small he can duck under our lasers. I fought a really annoying Kirby today that did an utilt string till I was at 40% and then combo'd it into fair. It was so bad, he could even tip toe slightly under me as I'm trying to DI out of it to continue the string. I felt like my only savior was dtilt as a punish because Kirby is so light and quick my punishes came out too slow and he shielded. Such a frustrating match up.

 

[mustbepbs]

I've go two good matches (for me anyway) against a spot dodge spamming Falcon. He was also Mario and DDD which he also spammed spot dodges. It's hard to deal with that online and to time the punishes.

http://youtu.be/w_V3hAPIWak

http://youtu.be/a3eI8nuJyxg

 

[BltzZ]

I've go two good matches (for me anyway) against a spot dodge spamming Falcon. He was also Mario and DDD which he also spammed spot dodges. It's hard to deal with that online and to time the punishes.

http://youtu.be/w_V3hAPIWak

http://youtu.be/a3eI8nuJyxg

Just some things I noticed are that you should grab more, d throw to dash attack and follow with an up smash. Depending on your opponent most people will jump after they got hit with dash attack. This is where you full hop fair for some damage and condition them to playing different. Check my channel out I uploaded lots of falco videos and have way more coming. Here's a match against a captain falcon. Remember to grab. D throw at early percents Can be followed with dash attack and at higher percentage do up throws to follow with a full jump up air then fast fall to chase Opponents Landing. You never wanna raw dash attack unless your punishing a roll or Landing or air dodge Into the ground which you did a fair amount. Good luck hopefully I helped other than that good job following off stage with fairs that's how we have to do the falcon matchup

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U - Falco(BltzZ) VS Cap…: http://youtu.be/OIAZOL9u7MI

 

[mustbepbs]

Thanks for the tips! I've been looking for any and all Falco videos to help me with my game. That guy basically shielded everything I threw at him and spot dodged all the time. He was so quick about it too that I often missed grabs. What am I supposed to do against a shield heavy player? I have a hard time with that as I panic and don't know what to do. I have a hard time approaching.

 

[BltzZ]

Thanks for the tips! I've been looking for any and all Falco videos to help me with my game. That guy basically shielded everything I threw at him and spot dodged all the time. He was so quick about it too that I often missed grabs. What am I supposed to do against a shield heavy player? I have a hard time with that as I panic and don't know what to do. I have a hard time approaching.

With the delay on for glory it's tough to play as you do offline. My falco is way more mobile short hopping around offline I do that to bait attacks and punish. But against shield heavy players the best thing to do is grabs and reading their roll patterns. Another tip falco off a short hop can slide a little on landing when you do a dash grab. Practice short hopping dash grabs he get a little more range. Also play more patient online it sucks but button delays are even gayer so shield and use shield grab to punish people dash attacking your shield. Here in this video I do a lot of short shops and empty hops to this lucario. Check 1:14 and 1:43

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U - Falco(BltzZ) VS Luc…: http://youtu.be/P0CpZrVaEtg

 

[Tides]

Hey guys! A few days ago I went out on a whim and decided to try Falco out. I instantly fell in love with him, and decided to make him my main in this version of smash.

I still got a long ways to go, but I made a short Falco montage from online For Glory matches. Go check it out!

 

[Float SSB]

am i the only one who combos with side B? i usually follow up a combo with an aerial side B which puts me in a position where i can freely B-air/N-air/U-tilt/U-smash or whatever the heck i want.
falcos run speed isn't fast enough for him to chase opponents but a spaced aerial side B allows him to follow up on certain strings.

nah I do this plenty. Doing a jump into instant sideB (just above the ground) is one of his best option for punishing in the midrange and you can put them into so really bad situations in the air afterward.

Also, I spent more time in the lab as Falco recently. I can tell that there really isn't a character I enjoy MORE than Falco this game so I am going to keep at it with him.

I think if I get another crack at that ZSS that was giving me trouble I have some new ideas to take her down. I was really close to overcoming them last time and I think I will do even better now. Still trying to get all the melee out of my system, afterall. I often forget that you don't have to play so quickly and keep your movement up so much in this game. Sometimes it is okay to stand still for a bit to watch and react.

I can pretty consistently perfect pivot now so I am hoping to work some really fine spaced punishes into my play.

Also, it sounds weird, but if you guys yearn for an older Falco experience, play Pit. His dair is fast, has a great hitbox, is low lag and can spike. His arrows are great projectiles that can be done efficiently in the air and he lives and dies by his down throw. I have been jamming some Pit lately and the character is actually astonishingly good.

 

[Zionaze]

nah I do this plenty. Doing a jump into instant sideB (just above the ground) is one of his best option for punishing in the midrange and you can put them into so really bad situations in the air afterward.

Also, I spent more time in the lab as Falco recently. I can tell that there really isn't a character I enjoy MORE than Falco this game so I am going to keep at it with him.

I think if I get another crack at that ZSS that was giving me trouble I have some new ideas to take her down. I was really close to overcoming them last time and I think I will do even better now. Still trying to get all the melee out of my system, afterall. I often forget that you don't have to play so quickly and keep your movement up so much in this game. Sometimes it is okay to stand still for a bit to watch and react.

I can pretty consistently perfect pivot now so I am hoping to work some really fine spaced punishes into my play.

perfect pivots are the bane of my existence haha. probably need to get used to it soon. :V

I also agree that there isn't a character that i enjoy playing more than Falco, he's my burdman alright

 

[Float SSB]

perfect pivots are the bane of my existence haha. probably need to get used to it soon. :V

I also agree that there isn't a character that i enjoy playing more than Falco, he's my burdman alright

Fortunately for us they aren't a constant thing Falco needs in a lot of different situations. Main use I find for them is pivoting back and fsmashing the direction you came from and pivoting forward to d-tilt.

 

[NotAnAdmin]

I'm starting to use SH phantasm to get across stage faster when I manage to land a strong hit and my opponent is off stage.
I don't like the hitboxes on it anymore on an approach. The last bit of the phantasm is nothing, giving a huge opening to punish.
Maybe if I can get a visual on where it ends I would be more comfortable with using it.

 

[PHDPlayZ]

I love Falco with a passion

 

[LightLV]

I'm also having alot of trouble accepting Falco how he is. I've pretty much completely moved to using Megaman.

As others have said, he's missing the tools that not only allow him to "keep up" with "Better" characters, but that make him, well, Falco. No dair, no lasers, can barely Side B, weird Usmash, ect. I don't know, I understand how he's supposed to play, and he's just too different for me now. When I fight characters like Shiek who can fair me out of my nair, I just can't handle it.

I want to stick with Falco, I really do, but I can't. He's just too much work without enough payoff. I think Ill have to put him on the bench until I'm completely comfortable with Megaman, or he catches a much needed patch.

I started playing falco because his new moveset has tooled him into a character that has alot of different approaches to playing him. Where his strength used to lie in overwhelming pressure with projectiles/throws/spike setups, it's now in conditioning your opponent around your options. You can be aggressive up close, actually participate in projectile wars with his laser+reflector, and he has a decent edge/aerial kill setup game going on as well.

People complain about Falco's lasers, but they're an integral part of my gameplay when it comes to opening people up. You just aren't allowed to spam or approach with them anymore. It feels like it's hard to slip his lasers into gameplay, but if you do it right, they can become a massive source of frustration for most characters, because despite how slow they are, they still force an approach.

The ability for Falco to force an approach and bait punish attempts feels like it's at the core of his gameplay, because it feels like he's really good at it now. His normals and tilts have great range, he has the most easymode reflector in the game (that DEALS DAMAGE) and once he actually gets the hit in, he's able to actually confirm it into damage.


Basically...Ironically, I play falco now because when i'm beaten by someone, I feel like it's more a lack of adaptation to their playstyle than a failure of his moveset, because his moveset is just really versatile now.

 

[NovemberMan]

i personally have trouble with Yoshi, Diddy, Rosalina, Mii fighter, Jigglypuff, Ness and Sonic

I also struggle with Yoshi, Diddy Kong, and Rosalina. But there's also Captain Falcon, Ganondorf, Zelda, and both Links.

I noticed Ganondorf can Side-B > D-Tilt Falco very easily and can KO at high percentages.

 

[Zionaze]

I also struggle with Yoshi, Diddy Kong, and Rosalina. But there's also Captain Falcon, Ganondorf, Zelda, and both Links.

I noticed Ganondorf can Side-B > D-Tilt Falco very easily and can KO at high percentages.

but thats ganondorfs goto combo when he gets a side-B

 

[NotAnAdmin]

I also struggle with Yoshi, Diddy Kong, and Rosalina. But there's also Captain Falcon, Ganondorf, Zelda, and both Links.

I noticed Ganondorf can Side-B > D-Tilt Falco very easily and can KO at high percentages.

You can tech that so you don't have to take the dtilt. The timing on it is funny, so I don't get it all the time, but it is possible.

 

[KlefkiHolder]

You can tech roll the side b to avoid a D Tilt

Edit: Bah.... Didn't see the above when I loaded the page. 'd. :]

 

[BltzZ]

I also struggle with Yoshi, Diddy Kong, and Rosalina. But there's also Captain Falcon, Ganondorf, Zelda, and both Links.

I noticed Ganondorf can Side-B > D-Tilt Falco very easily and can KO at high percentages.

I feel like the key to the captain falcon matchup is harassing him off stage with fair. Dair is too risky because he can grab us with Up B. Ganon is annoying but same tactic I use with falcon is applied to him.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U - Falco(BltzZ) VS Cap…: http://youtu.be/OIAZOL9u7MI

 

[NovemberMan]

I feel like the key to the captain falcon matchup is harassing him off stage with fair. Dair is too risky because he can grab us with Up B. Ganon is annoying but same tactic I use with falcon is applied to him.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U - Falco(BltzZ) VS Cap…: http://youtu.be/OIAZOL9u7MI

Wow! I'm surprised you didn't need to roll that much, and you don't miss a lot either. But then again, it's not For Glory. Still impressed with how you used Falco though.

 

[BltzZ]

Wow! I'm surprised you didn't need to roll that much, and you don't miss a lot either. But then again, it's not For Glory. Still impressed with how you used Falco though.

Thanks man really appreciate that for glory is a different story because of how much delay. Falco is a different bird online I remain consistent using him really hard to punish rolls people do on for glory lol

 

[Zionaze]

Here's a clip of me using phantasm to chase and punish rolls near the end

 

[Jabzilla]

I am really getting used to Falco now. I don't know if this has been said before, apologies if it has, but I would like to throw some tips out.

Falco's ground game is decent but he really does kick ass in the air.

Bair off the ledge when they try to recover is so great to use. It works amazing against Shiek or anyone trying to go vertically towards the ledge. But it can be teched when they bounce off the wall though it is pretty hard. I sometimes mix it up and do reverse fair at low percents since you can gimp them with a footstool once they hit the wall and rebound.

Fair is great at edgeguarding. Don't use dair when trying to edgeguard. With fair you can kill/gimp them at low percents and if you miss you can use your second jump to recover and bair them. Though I have found a use for dair. If you miss your fair and they make the ledge. Do a dair slightly above them from the ledge. If they jump to recover from the ledge you should sweetspot them with the dair.

Nair is decent for approaches since you can go into grabs/tilts. I normally go for grabs since nair has really weak/weird knockback and if they are shielding it is a free grab. If you have someone like Link/Toon Link who make it hard approaching with arrows/bombs. Use down b to get closer.

Uair is good for combos and a decent kill move. Once the opponent reaches over 100% in damage start using up throws then full hop double jump and uair. It should do the trick.

The one thing I would change though for Falco is his fire bird. The default is good but not really needed since his recovery is pretty ace already. I would change it to fast fire bird. It really makes him much more combo heavy and a bigger threat on the ground. For example, you can dthrow>ffb>upsmash/utilt. It also comes out faster than the phantasm. If you have the chance to use ffb as a custom give it a shot. The only downside is the distance it travels compared to default is around 15% less.

Overall, Falco is now really tricky to use but once you know how to handle him he becomes quite fun to play as. Don't be afraid to take him off stage because that is where he really shines. Finally don't compare him to Melee/Brawl self cos he is pretty different. He has his weaknesses but so do all the other characters. I plan to use him in a local tournament next week so lets see how that goes.

 

[Zionaze]

I am really getting used to Falco now. I don't know if this has been said before, apologies if it has, but I would like to throw some tips out.

Falco's ground game is decent but he really does kick *** in the air.

Bair off the ledge when they try to recover is so great to use. It works amazing against Shiek or anyone trying to go vertically towards the ledge. But it can be teched when they bounce off the wall though it is pretty hard. I sometimes mix it up and do reverse fair at low percents since you can gimp them with a footstool once they hit the wall and rebound.

Fair is great at edgeguarding. Don't use dair when trying to edgeguard. With fair you can kill/gimp them at low percents and if you miss you can use your second jump to recover and bair them. Though I have found a use for dair. If you miss your fair and they make the ledge. Do a dair slightly above them from the ledge. If they jump to recover from the ledge you should sweetspot them with the dair.

Nair is decent for approaches since you can go into grabs/tilts. I normally go for grabs since nair has really weak/weird knockback and if they are shielding it is a free grab. If you have someone like Link/Toon Link who make it hard approaching with arrows/bombs. Use down b to get closer.

Uair is good for combos and a decent kill move. Once the opponent reaches over 100% in damage start using up throws then full hop double jump and uair. It should do the trick.

The one thing I would change though for Falco is his fire bird. The default is good but not really needed since his recovery is pretty ace already. I would change it to fast fire bird. It really makes him much more combo heavy and a bigger threat on the ground. For example, you can dthrow>ffb>upsmash/utilt. It also comes out faster than the phantasm. If you have the chance to use ffb as a custom give it a shot. The only downside is the distance it travels compared to default is around 15% less.

Overall, Falco is now really tricky to use but once you know how to handle him he becomes quite fun to play as. Don't be afraid to take him off stage because that is where he really shines. Finally don't compare him to Melee/Brawl self cos he is pretty different. He has his weaknesses but so do all the other characters. I plan to use him in a local tournament next week so lets see how that goes.

fast fire bird seems to have its combo potential but i myself like to go deep for offstage battles so i prefer the distant firebird.
its up to preference and playstyle i guess

 

[Jabzilla]

fast fire bird seems to have its combo potential but i myself like to go deep for offstage battles so i prefer the distant firebird.
its up to preference and playstyle i guess

Yeah, I forgot to mention that distant firebird is good for those long flights. I used to use it a lot before patch 1.04 came when I could fast fall fair.

 

[NotAnAdmin]

Hey guys! A few days ago I went out on a whim and decided to try Falco out. I instantly fell in love with him, and decided to make him my main in this version of smash.

I still got a long ways to go, but I made a short Falco montage from online For Glory matches. Go check it out!

100/10
That was great

 

[LightLV]

I never bother with customs since i like to stay tournament capable.

Once i was trying a vertical recovery directly below the ledge on battlefield. Someone jumped down to stage spike me, but my Firebird won the trade....and the final hit managed to stage spike him to his death and i won the match. We were both dumbfounded.

I've go two good matches (for me anyway) against a spot dodge spamming Falcon. He was also Mario and DDD which he also spammed spot dodges. It's hard to deal with that online and to time the punishes.

http://youtu.be/w_V3hAPIWak

http://youtu.be/a3eI8nuJyxg

Some criticism :

-Your laser usage was very unsafe, anything remotely close to melee range is punish on-hit with Falco's laser, luckly the Cfalcon didn't know this. I saw alot of landed Dtilts, but you could have stuffed falcon out in alot of situations with a jab or Ftilt. You aren't nearly as aggressive with your followups as you could be, dash attack at low percent is an easy Nair/Fair followup, and Dthrow combos into dash attack at modest percents, which I dont think I saw much of. Finally, you rarely ever pursue in the air, and all of Falco's aerials are to be respected. Great matches though, it's clear the falcon got a tad desperate in the second match.

What are we supposed to do against Kirby? Our moves come out too slow against him and he's so small he can duck under our lasers. I fought a really annoying Kirby today that did an utilt string till I was at 40% and then combo'd it into fair. It was so bad, he could even tip toe slightly under me as I'm trying to DI out of it to continue the string. I felt like my only savior was dtilt as a punish because Kirby is so light and quick my punishes came out too slow and he shielded. Such a frustrating match up.

Not sure, I haven't played many kirby players, but his Utilt string is pretty nasty, and all his tilts/smashes in general have veerry deceptive range. I'm not positive about tilts, but i know Falco's jab should easily beat Kirby's. He's got an annoying dash attack too. I think Kirby is still worse in the air though, and he's light to boot, so that's your safest bet, just don't get baited into his downB. If you get caught in his Utilt then you're just going to have to take that beating, he's been that way for a while, but be aware that Falco's is more or less the same way.

My guess would be to get him in the air and keep him off the ground. I want to say Falco should still win fist fights with Kirby, but Kirby's smash attacks are way, way more likely to land a KO on the ground before you. Kirby's ability to keep away in the air probably works less on Falco than any other character.

 

[V_x_I_D]

How do I jab cancel into a smash or grab??

 

[BltzZ]

How do I jab cancel into a smash or grab??

you need to hit jab jab then pause and shield grab or grab

 

[V_x_I_D]

Hey guys! A few days ago I went out on a whim and decided to try Falco out. I instantly fell in love with him, and decided to make him my main in this version of smash.

I still got a long ways to go, but I made a short Falco montage from online For Glory matches. Go check it out!

>I still got a long ways to go

Holy cap how long have you been playing as falco??? You're a natural with him, I've been playing him since he came out and I still don't do some of the stuff I saw in that video!

 

[Tides]

>I still got a long ways to go

Holy cap how long have you been playing as falco??? You're a natural with him, I've been playing him since he came out and I still don't do some of the stuff I saw in that video!

Haha thanks! Glad you liked the video!

I haven't been playing Falco for that long. I think I started playing him about 3-5 days before I made that video, so around Christmas. Not entirely sure though, lol. I started reading up on him around then too. Learned a lot of stuff from this forum.

 

[Melonfrog]

I need help with something. So any help would be nice!

I am struggleing to find a follow-up attack after I connect Dair on the ground. Although I hit them, sweetspot and all the recovery is just to long for me to do anything, so I get punished for landing the hit.

What do I do? Should I just not bother with stage Dairs? I would Nair but I can never land that thing.

 

[Ffamran]

I need help with something. So any help would be nice!

I am struggleing to find a follow-up attack after I connect Dair on the ground. Although I hit them, sweetspot and all the recovery is just to long for me to do anything, so I get punished for landing the hit.

What do I do? Should I just not bother with stage Dairs? I would Nair but I can never land that thing.

Yeah, on-stage Dairs are really risky, especially if your opponent's already on the ground. At lower percentages, it won't do much aside from damage, but the landing lag will probably cause Falco to be grabbed or punished. Since it's slow, they're likely going to shield it and the "freeze" isn't like Wolf's Ftilt where there's a second hit. For Falco, it's one hit, landing lag, and not enough damage on shield that it's not really worth it.

Even at 60% when it starts to bounce people, it's not safe since it doesn't bounce them that high and people can tech it. If it does work, then you can follow up with pretty much anything.

In the air, it's a bit safer. With a good read, you can put off pressure by meteoring them back to the ground or if it's at the right angle, then maybe a meteor to the blast zone.

Falco's Dair is much more situational, but it's such a surprise. Don't use it a lot since it's slow enough that it'd be easy to punish. I think Falco has the strongest meteor, but I'm not sure. It seems that way considering the start-up. Ganondorf's Dair is the other meteor that rivals Falco's, but his has less start-up and similar end lag which makes sense since Ganondorf doesn't have much of a jump and having a large start-up would make it outright useless in comparison to Falco's.

 

[LightLV]

What do I do? Should I just not bother with stage Dairs? I would Nair but I can never land that thing.

There you go, stop using it over the stage. In fact I recommend to just stop using it period lol its benefits are hardly worth the risks of using it. Nearly everyone who has a similar behaving D-air has an easier time using it than Falco himself. It no longer really defines him as a character.

if you land Nair you should at least be able to confirm it into an A combo, maybe even a grab combo. I'm trying to get that spacing right myself, Nair is a very good move once it becomes more familiar.

 

[ILOVESMASH]

One notable aspect of Falco I really like is his Reflector. In my opinion, Falco has the best reflector in the game as it has little start up time, can trip opponents and has very good range.

 

[Foster J.]

After a long time of messing around with Falco, it's obvious that he's lost almost all of his strong options from Brawl, especially with the added frames to Side Smashes, and the fact Up Smash's first hit can knock them out of the follow up, it seems Sakurai was really experimenting here.

Playing him, you really start to miss DACUS, in fact, you start to miss most of his smashes in the previous versions.
But, it feels as if he's become a "Jabber" the problem arises against other "Jabbers" aka any character with fast jabs like can pretty much negate your "Triple A Spin" by throwing in 1 jab by the time first 2 has launched, makes no sense. However, against slow jabs, or in general sword fighters, he can catch him in jab traps, such as jumping behind them with an Nair and then jabbing to rack up damage - Although a bit risky.

I'll honestly believe Falco had the roughest transaction from Brawl to SSB4, especially considering how UpSmash and SideSmash were butchered.

Alas, he awaits in mid tier awaiting some sort of buff, Keitaro does have some success with him, but it seems more like actual player skill, than the character, I guess that's attachment for ya.

 

[BltzZ]

After a long time of messing around with Falco, it's obvious that he's lost almost all of his strong options from Brawl, especially with the added frames to Side Smashes, and the fact Up Smash's first hit can knock them out of the follow up, it seems Sakurai was really experimenting here.

Playing him, you really start to miss DACUS, in fact, you start to miss most of his smashes in the previous versions.
But, it feels as if he's become a "Jabber" the problem arises against other "Jabbers" aka any character with fast jabs like can pretty much negate your "Triple A Spin" by throwing in 1 jab by the time first 2 has launched, makes no sense. However, against slow jabs, or in general sword fighters, he can catch him in jab traps, such as jumping behind them with an Nair and then jabbing to rack up damage - Although a bit risky.

I'll honestly believe Falco had the roughest transaction from Brawl to SSB4, especially considering how UpSmash and SideSmash were butchered.

Alas, he awaits in mid tier awaiting some sort of buff, Keitaro does have some success with him, but it seems more like actual player skill, than the character, I guess that's attachment for ya.

The timing is a pain but practice jab jab down tilt erase the AAA unless you can trap them or its used against slow jabbers as you said.

 

[Zionaze]

The timing is a pain but practice jab jab down tilt erase the AAA unless you can trap them or its used against slow jabbers as you said.

A A Shield is effective against jab spammers since you can punish with a grab

 

[ILOVESMASH]

One interesting property of lasers is the they can still jab lock someone if you hit the opponent exactly when they fall on the ground. Not extremely useful, but interesting nonetheless.

 

[Zionaze]

One interesting property of lasers is the they can still jab lock someone if you hit the opponent exactly when they fall on the ground. Not extremely useful, but interesting nonetheless.

i like to purposefully do this 2 times to run up and Usmash them

 

[Foster J.]

One interesting property of lasers is the they can still jab lock someone if you hit the opponent exactly when they fall on the ground. Not extremely useful, but interesting nonetheless.

In most cases the lag from the blaster will prevent you from making it in time.


Also, regarding how weak the transition form jab 2 to the finisher, it takes 17 frames for the finisher to appear according to the SSB4 frame thread... You have 17 frames, to throw out a jab, which is generally 2-5 frames unless you're Zelda. This has got to be the slowest finisher out there