Q&A FALCON ASK !! Q&A and FAQ

[XPyromanicX]

@KentaKurodani

The reason for this is that the game promotes defensive play a little (not as much as Brawl, fortunately). So a player who is smart and shields/counters your approaches because you're attacking ALL THE TIME is going to have it easy. Force them to approach, and then counter. Punish them HARD. Melee it on them.

How do I force them to approach? Falcon doesn't have needles like Sheik or anything to force them to approach you.(At least, not anything I know of.)

 

[KeketheBasedCat]

How do I force them to approach? Falcon doesn't have needles like Sheik or anything to force them to approach you.(At least, not anything I know of.)

Youre not really forcing them to approach as you are giving apprehensive and safe pressure. So instead of going balls to the walls insanity-shield-pressure (which will likely get you shieldgrabbed or outcamped), you instead put them under more psychological pressure than physical pressure, if that makes sense. You should remain a threat in the sense that you're up in their face or on your way to be up in their face, but once there, you should be playing a reactive-aggressive falcon. That is, doing empty shorthops to just see what they do, dashdancing to see if they throw anything out, or any other bait-and-punish technique you can think of. So, in essence, you're going to be doing the approaching either way, it's just your actions right before you open them up into a combo that will lead to your success as falcon.

 

[XPyromanicX]

Youre not really forcing them to approach as you are giving apprehensive and safe pressure. So instead of going balls to the walls insanity-shield-pressure (which will likely get you shieldgrabbed or outcamped), you instead put them under more psychological pressure than physical pressure, if that makes sense. You should remain a threat in the sense that you're up in their face or on your way to be up in their face, but once there, you should be playing a reactive-aggressive falcon. That is, doing empty shorthops to just see what they do, dashdancing to see if they throw anything out, or any other bait-and-punish technique you can think of. So, in essence, you're going to be doing the approaching either way, it's just your actions right before you open them up into a combo that will lead to your success as falcon.

I see. Now it makes sense.

 

[-Fatality-]

(Ab)using your speed to scare them into overcommitting to something should be the foundation that all Falcon players base their gameplay on, our options for punishing basically anything are absolutely amazing, as is our speed, so it's only natural that we should try to abuse those strengths as much as possible.

 

[Masonomace]

I used it twice so far. Once to edgeguard a Link who pulled out a bomb, went really far down then up B at the last moment to have the bomb blow up on him and up B again. Needless to say he stopped abusing this technique after that.
The other time was offstage too, I did runoff Bair to someone who was recovering, it stagespiked him and put him just under my feet for a free footstool. It's interesting to note that even if you hit your Bair with the front hitbox it'll send your opponent behind you.

Other than that I think you could setup a footstool on the ground with the first hit of Nair, but I don't see that happening often since people won't let you approach that easily.

Nice, conditioning Link to not use Bomb recovery is quite a shut-down. I was also not aware of B-air's front-facing hit-box sending them backwards regardless, that's educational.

I remembered some of Brawl Falcon's setups that lead into footstool such as the first hit of N-air upon landing or SH > U-air, but both of them feel a lot more strict, not to mention most of the time inputting SH > U-air, I'm not able to DoubleJump before landing, unless I input it much quicker but late enough to avoid jump-canceling into U-smash. I've attempted buffering SH > U-air > footstool & I felt so close getting the setup but I'm not quiiiite there yet. The only other opportunities I could think of footstooling would be after a D-air Meteor to the floor praying they don't tech it, & an empty hop mix-up involving them running towards me as I time the footstool on top of them.

I think @ Masonomace is specially thinking about using the Lightning Falcon Kick -> Footstool combo, amirite?

I'm thinking about more than that. Captain Falcon footstooling > regular Falcon Kick is great on it's own, if you get it connecting. I'm learning that footstooling is challenging to be utilized with Falcon, disregarding LFK entirely.

 

[Pendletron]

I see a lot of advice suggesting the use of dash dancing and fox trotting. My questions revolve mostly around those. I'm new to Smash, so I don't have any past-game experience to apply here.

1. What does dash dancing with Falcon look like? I see a lot of other players/characters not going much of anywhere, but mine seems to cover a lot of ground so I feel like I'm doing it wrong. I've just started practicing it, so I'm sure that's the case, but it'd be nice to see a Falcon doing it in action to make sure mine looks similar.
2. What does fox trotting give you over just running?
3. How do you drop to grabbing the edge from the stage? I've read that doing a half circle back toward the stage immediately after running off-stage, but I can't seem to pull it off.

Thanks!

 

[BigLord]

I have a question for everyone, has anyone else ever got Falconcide, aka Aerial Raptor Boost Spike? It's so hard to get but SO satisfying. I was also wondering if if you do a short hop and RB just before you hit the ground does the RB hitbox extend far enough that you could spike people just off the ledge and fall onto it?

That's not a Falconcide because Falcon can easily recover after using it

I've gotten it, but it's really hard to do now. Your opponent must be BELOW you when you do it, not in front of you (not sure about the exact positions).
And about your idea, you're better off jumping backwards off-stage and then RBing back to the stage, hoping to hit your opponent on the way back.

I see a lot of advice suggesting the use of dash dancing and fox trotting. My questions revolve mostly around those. I'm new to Smash, so I don't have any past-game experience to apply here.

1. What does dash dancing with Falcon look like? I see a lot of other players/characters not going much of anywhere, but mine seems to cover a lot of ground so I feel like I'm doing it wrong. I've just started practicing it, so I'm sure that's the case, but it'd be nice to see a Falcon doing it in action to make sure mine looks similar.
2. What does fox trotting give you over just running?
3. How do you drop to grabbing the edge from the stage? I've read that doing a half circle back toward the stage immediately after running off-stage, but I can't seem to pull it off.

Thanks!

1. He looks like he's having a standing seizure, heh. The point of it is that your opponent has NO IDEA about where you're going to go next, because you're effectively free to stop dash-dancing at any time.
2. More control, pretty much. I honestly don't use it anyway, I feel like I can control Falcon just fine, even without Fox-trotting.
3. I'm not sure I understand that question. You mean going from standing onstage to grabbing the ledge in a flash? That technique worked in Brawl, not sure about Sm4sh. There's probably a different way, I think @ -Fatality- knew about something like that

 

[KeketheBasedCat]

^ yeah the insta-ledgegrab still works. Timing is similar to snake's in brawl, for anyone who had experience with that. You just wrap the control stick around making a "U" with the joystick. It seems to be that characters with bad horizontal mobility require more of a 'U' direction when trying to instasnap to the ledge. Characters with good horizontal mobility can afford more of a '<-- -->' motion. I dunno, just spitballing. It's tough, but once you get it you'll know what I mean. Of course, it's much less useful than it was in Brawl, but still good to know I guess.
Edit: When I say the "U" motion, I'm talking about starting with whichever 'forward' happens to be the side you're running. So if it's the left side of the stage, you're starting left, going down, then ending right. Vice versa for the right side of the stage.

 

[Pendletron]

3. I'm not sure I understand that question. You mean going from standing onstage to grabbing the ledge in a flash? That technique worked in Brawl, not sure about Sm4sh. There's probably a different way, I think @ -Fatality- knew about something like that

Yes, that's what I mean. Thank you for your answers, much appreciated.

 

[Dinotard]

I think I'm starting to get a firm grasp on playing Falcon, my only issue is that After I knock my opponent over the edge, I get a little bit too nervous about following through for the kill. I always hesitate and think i'll just get punished if I even bother trying.
Any tips to improve my Aerial game without killing myself in the process?

*Also, How to master the Falcon Spike??

 

[KeketheBasedCat]

I think I'm starting to get a firm grasp on playing Falcon, my only issue is that After I knock my opponent over the edge, I get a little bit too nervous about following through for the kill. I always hesitate and think i'll just get punished if I even bother trying.
Any tips to improve my Aerial game without killing myself in the process?

*Also, How to master the Falcon Spike??

Just practice it, and you'll stop dying as much when you contest people off the edge. That's what friend(lie)s are for. Tips though: practice intercepting their second jump with an aerial. People will almost always use their second jump before their upB, assuming they didn't use their second jump earlier before getting knocked off stage. That's another good thing to keep track of, is knowing when their second jump has been used earlier in the combo. And of course, know your opponent's upB. Know which angles are preferrable for its maximum use (like how falcon likes to be below the stage when he uses his upB). And know which aerials are best for intercepting their upB (falcon's bair is usually good), and know if their recovery is worth intercepting in the first place. Some characters have recoveries that will always trade with your intercepting aerial, but then again a trade when you're edge guarding and they're off the stage will almost always be in your favor. But, be careful not to get stagespiked by whatever trade (Ness and Diddy's recoveries can do this more often than others) you're embarking on.
Edit: forgot to address the falcon spike question. His spike is best used offstage (obviously), and should only be used to hit a grounded opponent if youre using it on stage. If you're using it to hit a grounded opponent, be sure to land behind them, because his dair is mega-punishable on shield if you land in front of them. It's even punishable on hit at early %s, so keep that in mind. But yeah, off stage, just dthrow and read their airdodge and punish it with dair. Some recoveries like Olimar's, Sonic's, or Jigglypuff's (haha) can be dair'd.

 

[-Fatality-]

Yah, instant ledge grab is a thing in this game, though the timing's harder than in brawl due to a smaller ledge grab sweetspot, and slight faster fall speeds for characters overall. It's only real use is to steal and trump the ledge from someone, but that one's more than powerful enough to make learning instant ledge grabs worth your time.

 

[Shadó Chimera / シャドーキメラ]

I've had a real easy time using side B to grab the ledge. It can even work while rising in double jump giving falcon a way of sweet spotting that.

 

[Maître Luigi]

Has anyone gotten D-Throw -> Knee to register as a two-hit combo on Bowser or Luigi, and at what percent(s)?

I'm not asking about any other combo and/or on any other character, I already know that, just this one. I'm having extreme difficulty landing it on them. I have successfully performed this combo on literally every other character.

 

[abit_rusty]

Have we confirmed that falcon has a dash-attack cancelled grab? I mean I'm putting the inputs in but I'm not sure if it's just grab that is registering or if it's really extending it as a DAC grab should

 

[teluoborg]

Yes he has. It doesn't extend his grab range by that much though, since his dash grab range is already huge af.

 

[Maître Luigi]

So far as I am aware, Captain Falcon's two cancels are and have been his extended dash grab and extended dash U-Smash.

 

[Masonomace]

I'm aware that Falcon can buffer a SH & RB to slide across slopes / angled terrain, but my questions are:

• What do you guys do with this quirky technique during game-play? Stage examples: Kongo Jungle 64, Castle Siege etc.
  
  
• I haven't used Falcon's Side-B Customs with this, but can they do the same tactic across slopes / angled terrain?
  
  
• Does this tactic consistently work anywhere on Mario Galaxy stage's & Windy Hill Zone's curved surface?

Thanks to the maximum in advance!

 

[BigLord]

I used it a LOT in Yoshi's Island to move around. If the opponent was expecting me to magnet to the ledge, then it's a very effective surprising tool.

Other than that, I can't help you there :\ sorry.

 

[ArchmageMC]

So I found my controller was the reason I couldn't combo very well, it had some very bad phantom lag which really messed up a lot of things. (Ex, down on C stick = Nair?) It was that classic controller that looks like a gcn controller.

So what do you guys think, Wii u pro controller and get used to that controller layout, or wait for nintendo to restock the GCN adapters?

 

[BigLord]

I told you that controller has some bad lag

You should do both, honestly. Both the Wii U Pro Controller and the GCN controllers are fine picks for Smash. Heck, even the Gamepad is, IMO. Some people think it's too big for their hands, though.

 

[ArchmageMC]

I told you that controller has some bad lag

You should do both, honestly. Both the Wii U Pro Controller and the GCN controllers are fine picks for Smash. Heck, even the Gamepad is, IMO. Some people think it's too big for their hands, though.

lol. I thought it had pretty bad lag, but once my c stick did Nairs instaed of uairs/dairs, I just said F it xD.

Now getting used to the wii u pro controller for smash is going to suuuuuck.

 

[BigLord]

Change the inputs so it feels as much as possible as a gamecube controller! I did that to a CC Pro for Brawl, once in a no-gamecube-controllers tournament, and I did fine.

 

[KACHOW!!!]

I can't seem to land the knee, does anyone have any tips for it? Every time I get close to someone I just hit them with a flub knee, or the block or airdodge it.

 

[Masonomace]

I used it a LOT in Yoshi's Island to move around. If the opponent was expecting me to magnet to the ledge, then it's a very effective surprising tool.

Other than that, I can't help you there :\ sorry.

Iwas generally bummed that YI(Brawl) didn't carry-over to the WiiU version. At least Smash 3DS has the stage, but man. . .what a bummer I loved that stage with Falcon.

 

[BigLord]

Same here best stage for Falcon ever, IMO.

 

[rahsosprout]

I told you that controller has some bad lag

You should do both, honestly. Both the Wii U Pro Controller and the GCN controllers are fine picks for Smash. Heck, even the Gamepad is, IMO. Some people think it's too big for their hands, though.

i use wiimote nunchuck haha. (dpad for cstick)

my own question: what do you guys do against short characters? all my standard options are simply not as reliable (ff nair, jab, ff uair, rar bair, etc). in general, i jab a LOT and they have to be much closer for this to work. just spacing dtilt works for a bit until they catch on and just never approach.

 

[KeketheBasedCat]

^ practice landing grounded uairs on small characters. Practice it a bunch.

 

[rahsosprout]

I can't seem to land the knee, does anyone have any tips for it? Every time I get close to someone I just hit them with a flub knee, or the block or airdodge it.

personally i only go for knee to punish laggy moves or when it is absolutely guaranteed (uair to knee, dthrow to knee). i generally avoid trying dthrow to knee at low % since the timing is so strict.

practice timing of full hop ff knee and double jump ff knee on grounded opponents so you can punish when they use a laggy move or want to roll around a lot

 

[ArchmageMC]

I told you that controller has some bad lag

You should do both, honestly. Both the Wii U Pro Controller and the GCN controllers are fine picks for Smash. Heck, even the Gamepad is, IMO. Some people think it's too big for their hands, though.

can't change the position of the "c stick" on a wii u pro controller though. feels weird with it above my buttons isntead of below. lol

 

[BigLord]

can't change the position of the "c stick" on a wii u pro controller though. feels weird with it above my buttons isntead of below. lol

That's just something you have to get used to, I guess. I got used to it

 

[Masonomace]

I'm aware that Falcon can buffer a SH & RB to slide across slopes / angled terrain, but my questions are:

• I haven't used Falcon's Side-B Customs with this, but can they do the same tactic across slopes / angled terrain?

Thanks to the maximum in advance!

So I tried this out with Heavy Raptor Boost, & now know it's distance you slide is horrendous, as you go practically nowhere. Now I'm very curious of what Wind-Up Raptor Boost will do. . .perhaps a massive sliding distance may occur, who knows.

 

[JCav]

Does standard Raptor Boost have a sweetspot? I was playing a ditto today and I died at 98%

 

[Smog Frog]

would falcon be easy to transition to, being a ganon main

 

[Xmark]

So how does side b spike? I've been trying to replicate the meteor effect after doing it once.*I thought side b spike was gone for good because I haven't seen anybody do it* Can somebody try testing how it sweet spots plz an thanks

 

[BigLord]

Does standard Raptor Boost have a sweetspot? I was playing a ditto today and I died at 98%

Not really, though some factors improve its knockback. For example, it's stronger if the target is just above the ground OR if he's charging a smash attack.

would falcon be easy to transition to, being a ganon main

Ganon is my secondary, I just play him like a slower, more powerful Falcon. You probably could play Falcon like a speedy Ganon with more approach options but with less killing blows. No harm in just experimenting, though!

So how does side b spike? I've been trying to replicate the meteor effect after doing it once.*I thought side b spike was gone for good because I haven't seen anybody do it* Can somebody try testing how it sweet spots plz an thanks

You have to be ABOVE your opponent, not in front of him, for RB to spike/send your opponent downwards. Hard to explain from words alone, try doing it in training mode.

 

[HFlash]

would falcon be easy to transition to, being a ganon main

If your a Ganon main, C Falcon is the closest thing you get in this game (as far as moveset). Other wise, other characters with similar play styles (completely different meaning) would be like Bowser, DK, or any of the big target, heavy hitting, heavy weight characters

 

[Dinotard]

How exactly would I be able to achieve a run > up smash perfectly? Would I have to perfect pivot to pull it off?

Also what would be the hardest counter for a C falcon?

 

[Maître Luigi]

How exactly would I be able to achieve a run > up smash perfectly? Would I have to perfect pivot to pull it off?

Extended Dash U-Smash: Dash ~ U + Jump ~ A
Dash U-Smash: Dash ~ U-Smash
No, only if you want to turn around while foxtrotting.

Also what would be the hardest counter for a C falcon?

Do you mean Captain Falcon punishing an attack or character match-up?

Typically SDSH RAR combos are fairly difficult to perform but they do slightly more damage and have more knock-back than U-Air or N-Air.

Captain Falcon typically has a harder time against characters with abusable projectiles and/or reflectors.
Also, Captain Falcon has lesser damaging combos on the following characters (mostly because of floaty hitboxes):

 

[Dinotard]

Dash ~ U + Jump ~ A
No, only if you want to turn around while foxtrotting.


Do you mean Captain Falcon punishing an attack or character match-up?

Typically SDSH RAR combos are fairly difficult to perform but they do slightly more damage and have more knock-back than U-Air or N-Air.

Captain Falcon typically has a harder time against characters with abusable projectiles and/or reflectors.
Also, Captain Falcon has lesser damaging combos on the following characters (mostly because of floaty hitboxes):

I just had a bit of an issue against a palutena. I'm also just not used to playing against her so it caught me by surprised. But they left bbefore I could get a rematch in.

I still have to learn how to properly foxtrot. Still not 100% on how to apply it either

One more thing: what's the one AT or skills that one must have to acquire mastery of this character. I want to be really good with falcon. But I'm just wondering what kind of skill set or mindset one must have to achieve this?