How to beat falco lasers

[Brocolli123]

Played at locals and pretty much everyone played falco and I don't know how to beat lasers. pillar shine is another story but I just get locked in place and can't move, I try shield then I get pressured and they get another shine through my shield and try dash dance but get hit again

 

[KirinKQP]

Falcos love to use laser to approach with grab or dair which usually leads to an f-smash or pillar combo.

I know a couple of useful tips from fighting them:

- When they start lasering, go to the platforms and shield once they start to shoot at your level. If they choose to approach and do a rising aerial, you can shield it then punish because his full hop is pretty high. If they instead shine to air dodge down to the platform, do an immediate aerial or grab.
- When shielding a laser, WD OOS to get close or get away.
- When hit, you can immediately act once hitstun is over. This is great because the Falco will usually approach during the stun, not expecting to get hit or trade.
- SDI the lasers to move around more (close the gap or back away to outpace a poorly spaced Dair.
- Pay attention to how many times they laser before approaching with something. This is usually once or twice then they go for a grab, tilt, etc. WD OOS back to space yourself and go for something like a JC u-smash or grab into a tech chase.
- You could spot dodge the grab and punish if you can read it after the laser approach, or just go for a shine to make them back up.
- You COULD power shield the lasers, but that takes practice. Somewhat helpful if you want the Falco to shut up immediately and get hit or at least shield the reflected laser which gives ample time to run in or fire lasers of your own.
- Shield DI so when in shield stun you move away a bit to avoid getting in shine pressure.

If you are put in his pillar combo:

- Combo DI down and away and SDI each shine and dair to put distance and potentially escape and punish (if possible).
- Shine to get the Falco off of you if his attacks are not timed correctly so you can't escape or act out of hitstun.

Watch this SSBM tutorial, it's very helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGtPF_13AaA

 

[StrayDog]

Falco mostly does two kinds of lasers, low lasers to prevent you from dashing and high lasers to prevent you from jumping. If you are jumping and getting hit in the head by lasers repeatedly it's probably because you're trying to jump too much and Falco wants to keep you on the ground since on the ground you are susceptible to Falco's short hop approaches. You can beat high lasers with running shine. Basically what you want to do is constantly be in the range where you can run under a laser and shine Falco before or as he lands. As for low lasers, most heights you can short hop over and you can easily full hop over any height. Abuse Fox's full hop in this matchup especially on stages with platforms because Fox's full hop cleanly beats Falco's SHFFL.

Other things you can do include going vertical and doing lots of platform movement which makes lasering you much more difficult. Fox is one of the best characters in the game if not the best at abusing platforms. Be aware that many Falcos will try to challenge your platform movement with double jump lasers and full hop lasers or full hop aerials. If they're doing this you can fake going high and then quickly drop back down to stage. If they catch on to this you can fake going low and double jump to a platform instead. Moving ambiguously and making sure that your opponent never knows where you are trying to go is important.

EDIT: also, what you should do when you get hit by lasers varies depending on how close Falco is when he lasers you. From really close range, you should really be attacking before the laser comes out, because Falco having a laser out in close range gives him a huge advantage, but shooting at that range is risky because lasers take a while to come out. From mid to long range you shouldn't really fear lasers.

 

[Mr_towel_Man]

I have an idea and I dont really know if its any good but what if when Falco sets up his laser wall just run to ledge. Then you can wait him out and forces him to come to you. You also have good options from the ledge and can probably stay safe from any move by ledgedashing, ledge stalling, or even tech the wall when he hits you. It's just an option that I thought may have potential.

 

[Crimsonedup]

This Falco main i keep fighting keeps killing me, I play him every school day for like 30 minutes and keeps whooping my ass Every time, I know how to wavedash, shorthop, l-cancel, extended grapple, homing grapple, etc yet he still keeps beating me,
I practice on 20xx training hack. Against lvl 9 20xx cpus, he plays net play