How to deal with Falco?

[Sam'sAwakening]

Whenever I play Falco. I always get stuffed with lasers. I either get stuck in shield, punished because I tried to just tank the laser, or I just end up on a platform while he's on the other side of the stage camping me out. What do I do?

 

[Tezushi]

Is the Falco playing 'In your face', so to say - more so then campy? I'd describe 'In your face' more to say as the Falco that charges at his opponent with lasers. Supplementary throwing out techskill as he is approaching. 'In your face' might be more difficult to counteract. Against a campy Falco though that stays on the other side of FD:

1.) Try utilizing your reflector more consistently, or 'your side' of the stage - or wherever you are positioned to ricochet his lasers. (Purely recommended.)
2.) Go to the edge and camp grabbing the edge with edge-guarded hopping. (Analogy from the right or left side of the edge.) Grab the edge - drop down and re-jump again to grab the edge, but not high enough to get intercepted by his lasers. Do this consistently and see how he reacts to this. Do the edge-guarded hopping at angles at different heights and diagonally.
3.) You could also try jumping onto the stage from edge-guarded hopping with a reflector initialized to bait him out. Play the wait game, since he is playing the waiting game himself.

I wouldn't try to approach against a flurry of lasers from Falco. Especially if he can consistently short hop fast fall the lasers and jump at different heights projecting lasers from his side of the stage, or wherever quite frankly. If he jumps out of his reflector with lasers, then that's a different story. You'll have to get more timing with hitting him with lasers and read him when he is not anticipating to use his reflector as he might be approaching against you with lasers. Basically, it's a 'laser and reflector' game.

Here are some serious questions against Falco I usually ask myself:

1.) How technical is the Falco and can he do chain combos confidently like pillaring. (Down-Air, Shine, Down-Air, Shine, ect...)
2.) Is laser camping all he does? Quite an evasive player then - I would play more defensively until he is forced to switch it up.
3.) Is he more defensive offense, or offense offense? Remember to try to counteract this by always playing more methodically and having a myriad play styles - always adding more movements and tech to your arsenal. Never ever lose your composure, that's what costs you the match.

Once you cut his stocks down to 1 - 2, he will probably realize after awhile, what he is trying is futile against you.

 

[Steelo Rivers]

Is the Falco playing 'In your face', so to say - more so then campy? I'd describe 'In your face' more to say as the Falco that charges at his opponent with lasers. Supplementary throwing out techskill as he is approaching. 'In your face' might be more difficult to counteract. Against a campy Falco though that stays on the other side of FD:

1.) Try utilizing your reflector more consistently, or 'your side' of the stage - or wherever you are positioned to ricochet his lasers. (Purely recommended.)
2.) Go to the edge and camp grabbing the edge with edge-guarded hopping. (Analogy from the right or left side of the edge.) Grab the edge - drop down and re-jump again to grab the edge, but not high enough to get intercepted by his lasers. Do this consistently and see how he reacts to this. Do the edge-guarded hopping at angles at different heights and diagonally.
3.) You could also try jumping onto the stage from edge-guarded hopping with a reflector initialized to bait him out. Play the wait game, since he is playing the waiting game himself.

I wouldn't try to approach against a flurry of lasers from Falco. Especially if he can consistently short hop fast fall the lasers and jump at different heights projecting lasers from his side of the stage, or wherever quite frankly. If he jumps out of his reflector with lasers, then that's a different story. You'll have to get more timing with hitting him with lasers and read him when he is not anticipating to use his reflector as he might be approaching against you with lasers. Basically, it's a 'laser and reflector' game.

Here are some serious questions against Falco I usually ask myself:

1.) How technical is the Falco and can he do chain combos confidently like pillaring. (Down-Air, Shine, Down-Air, Shine, ect...)
2.) Is laser camping all he does? Quite an evasive player then - I would play more defensively until he is forced to switch it up.
3.) Is he more defensive offense, or offense offense? Remember to try to counteract this by always playing more methodically and having a myriad play styles - always adding more movements and tech to your arsenal. Never ever lose your composure, that's what costs you the match.

Once you cut his stocks down to 1 - 2, he will probably realize after awhile, what he is trying is futile against you.

wat in tarnation. do you even play melee my guy? you don't shine lasers, unless you're playing someone really bad. you either power shield, or do full hop approaches. you can also just eat the lasers and see how the falco reacts to your forward movement.

 

[Lucky13the2nd]

Take laser: A "tech" SSBM tutorials semi-recently did a vid on. Look it up and practice.
I'm too lazy to link the video.

 

[Sam'sAwakening]

What's the best way to learn to power shield?

 

[Uzzi]

What's the best way to learn to power shield?

This is a really good video

 

[iAmMatt]

Take a look at my thread detailing a controller tip that improves powershielding without mods here. If you're playing on stages with platforms, camping and dropping down with shines and backairs can help build percent and make it hard for the falco to approach.

wat in tarnation. do you even play melee my guy? you don't shine lasers, unless you're playing someone really bad. you either power shield, or do full hop approaches. you can also just eat the lasers and see how the falco reacts to your forward movement.

The move is called "reflector" because it reflects projectiles. Despite the lag that comes out of reflecting a projectile, it can be practical in a few situations, i.e. being on one side of the stage while the falco double lasers from ledge. Also, you should NEVER eat lasers. A lot of players think they can take lasers all day and then they end up with an additional 30%, which is a massive disadvantage. You'd be best off platform camping to avoid lasers or learning how to powershield

 

[tsmfoxmaster]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VD4nDvvdCWc Great video from SSBM tutorials about beating Falco lasers.

 

[Lucky13the2nd]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VD4nDvvdCWc Great video from SSBM tutorials about beating Falco lasers.

That's the one. The video I was too lazy to link.

 

[Sam'sAwakening]

I keep losing to "in your face" Falcos. I had to play one in winner's then loser's and lost both during my weekly this week. How do you beat/avoid Falco's approach? I try to shield but I just get stuck in shield stun, ori just get laser>grabbed. (This is honestly my worst matchup)

 

[iAmMatt]

I keep losing to "in your face" Falcos. I had to play one in winner's then loser's and lost both during my weekly this week. How do you beat/avoid Falco's approach? I try to shield but I just get stuck in shield stun, ori just get laser>grabbed. (This is honestly my worst matchup)

CC lasers>grab/shine, or practice powershielding

 

[TASQ]

To beat a really aggressive falco you have to focus on how he approaches.Every single aggressive Falco I've ever played has a pattern in their approaches. 2 close lasers to nair is the most used after what I've witnessed. To beat this you can fullhop over their approaches, and land behind or on top with dair/bair. just watch out if they uptilt. you can also just buffer roll/spot dodge from shinegrab if you find yourself always in shield.

 

[flyboy__]

Take a look at my thread detailing a controller tip that improves powershielding without mods here. If you're playing on stages with platforms, camping and dropping down with shines and backairs can help build percent and make it hard for the falco to approach.

The move is called "reflector" because it reflects projectiles. Despite the lag that comes out of reflecting a projectile, it can be practical in a few situations, i.e. being on one side of the stage while the falco double lasers from ledge. Also, you should NEVER eat lasers. A lot of players think they can take lasers all day and then they end up with an additional 30%, which is a massive disadvantage. You'd be best off platform camping to avoid lasers or learning how to powershield

i know this thread is ancient but you should DEFINITELY eat lasers. It's of course better to powershield or whatever, but realistically you're gonna get lasered a ton and getting stuck in shield is exactly what Falco WANTS you to do. Beat Falco by booting up Uncle Punch, going to the Powershield Tutorial, and acting out of laser stun both in shield and out of shield as soon as possible. This is reflected in Mango's play against Falco where he shrugs off lasers like they never even hit him. I was absolutely terrible against Falco but learning defense (how to act out of hitstun and when to full hop/roll/shine OoS etc) has been my key to begin decisively winning this matchup w/o getting flustered.

Also... why would you shine a laser back during Falco's double laser when you could just cc downsmash or shield grab? All low level Falcos do high double lasers that get bodied by these options.

 

[Ted Greene]

i know this thread is ancient but you should DEFINITELY eat lasers. It's of course better to powershield or whatever, but realistically you're gonna get lasered a ton and getting stuck in shield is exactly what Falco WANTS you to do. Beat Falco by booting up Uncle Punch, going to the Powershield Tutorial, and acting out of laser stun both in shield and out of shield as soon as possible. This is reflected in Mango's play against Falco where he shrugs off lasers like they never even hit him. I was absolutely terrible against Falco but learning defense (how to act out of hitstun and when to full hop/roll/shine OoS etc) has been my key to begin decisively winning this matchup w/o getting flustered.

Also... why would you shine a laser back during Falco's double laser when you could just cc downsmash or shield grab? All low level Falcos do high double lasers that get bodied by these options.

Bro brings up a lotta good points the rest of this thread is hella out dated at this point (but does include some good info).
The main thing I’d like to add is that like everything else in melee getting hit with laser leads to a mixup situation. Any good falco is going to be taking note of what options you’re using against laser and therefor it’s super important to mix up youre options after.
I utilize a ton of take laser options, take laser dash back, take laser turn around uptilt, take laser full hop, take laser dash forward. Using all these mixups after getting hit with a laser can really open up the neutral game in the falco matchup.
With that being said shielding lasers can be a great option to add to all of those and of corse power shielding them is a v strong option.
some other options I like to defeat falco laser involve avoiding the laser hit box completely. If you can notice situations where a player likes to laser you can Preemptively full hop ariel over them and hit the bird.
You can move to the platforms and force them to either full hop laser or approach the plats, resetting neutral. My favorite among them though is to immediately dash forward and running shine. If the falcos retreating to shoot lasers they’re often going toward the corner and if you read that they’re gonna do this you can put them inna super bad spot by running shining them. Especially if you catch them in the short hop because they’ll often be offstage after.