How to use nair?

[FlamingForce]

Yeah prolly a silly question but I can't really seem to figure this move out, what kind of purpose does nair exactly fulfill that makes it a better option then say, fair? When do you use it instead of other options?

 

[Massive]

Nair has a long duration hitbox, it will stay out for substantially longer than any other aerial.
Here's a few things nair is good for:

• Use nair to remove aerial vulnerability and prevent unpleasant approach scenarios. You can perform a string of other aerials and then perform a nair at the right height to autocancel on the ground (watch any Hbox video ever for an example). This prevents people from rushing you in midair and is pretty nice.
  
  
• Nair will go through turnips (if you're playing the least fun match in the game) and move past peach's approach.
  
  
• Use it to stuff spacie illusion recoveries (this is the easiest one to start with). If you think they're going to recover using illusion, just jump and nair near or off the ledge. The animation is so long they'll just zoom into it, and you get a free ledgeguard.
  
  
• Short-hop Nair autocancels if done before the apex of the jump, you can use this for approach pressure or basically whatever you want. It shield pokes pretty well and can lead to rest/fsmash/grab/etc.
  
  
• If you're ever offstage and not sure which aerial to do (you're either above and to the side or directly above someone) nair is a safe choice. It will trade/beat nearly anything and leave you in an advantageous postion.

There are definitely other uses for it, but these are the main ones (that I can think of anyway).

 

[FlamingForce]

Does Nair help vs Falcons aerial approaches?

 

[Massive]

Does Nair help vs Falcons aerial approaches?

Puff's Nair will not trump falcon's nair, you can use it to add shield pressure for sure, but it will not beat it.

One thing that works reasonably well on falcons is wavedashing towards while they're doing aerial approaches. Puff is so short you end up on the other side of them without getting hit. From this position you are at an advantage.

You can bait this behavior by sitting in shield and wavedashing out. Eventually they start shorting their jumps. That's when you don't wavedash and just shieldgrab them instead.

 

[FlamingForce]

Many cheers for this, Massive.