Just some thoughts on my noob falco

[valakmtnsmash4]

I am not serious into melee(I play smash 4 in tournies don't kill me), as I just play for fun. However, since I switched to Falco about 2 weeks ago I've been finding the game more interesting. I mostly play friendlies with a marth and try to learn some more techs like CCs against sheik. However, I can't pillar at all. People tell me that it's the most important thing a Falco needs to know. Any tips or pointers on how to do this?

 

[NotAnAdmin]

Practice, practice, practice.
Work on learning all the basic advanced techs on off time to get comfortable with using them.
Specifically, shffling and shine-cancelling is what's important when pillaring, but if you can't do them consistently it won't be very effective.

 

[KムエN]

Fundamentals are actually most important for a Falco to know (i.e. timing, spacing and decision making), along with being able to get strong combos in general. Shine>dair (hit with the bottom of shine and then double jump>dair and remember to fast fall asap) can be good I guess but just to let you know, learning to convert smart lasers into big damage, learning to get decent to long juggles (as in 5-10+ hits, maybe all in one combo at low %), and learning to punish tech rolls will all do much more for you.

(If you're taking this game seriously)
When you shine>dair, assuming you did it onstage and the % was good so you're not getting punished for it (a floaty might punish that at low %), you now have to gamble in a tech chase or start relying on laser just to keep your offense going or start it back. When you juggle, your job becomes much easier. SHFFL Nair, D-tilt, Shine, F-air, Jab, Up Tilt, Up Smash and Up Air hit #2- Falco has all those options, you should study those moves and use them to juggle as hard/often as possible, and try to finish the combos with Fsmash or [shine>]Bair (roll the joystick in a quarter circle starting at the bottom and don't try to jump for B-air until you see you've turned around- so you don't get stuck in shine) when the other weaker moves will start sending too far.


Late edit: My B (for anyone who read this post). Not sure why I thought of something else when OP said "pillar". Still, it's not too important. You just dair (preferably SHFFL'd and as late/close to the ground as possible) and then shine (and try to follow it up, of course- usually I see people use FHFFL Dair, into up tilt or the Shine>Dair as I described above).
In my opinion though, it's the sign of a nooby falco when they don't or can't follow up the initial dair with anything besides Shine. He has plenty of options and can combo much harder if you don't use shine. Only use it if you screwed up and you just have to have that quick hitbox (but know you're abusing a get-out-of-jail-free card and that's kind of a fraudulent habit), or if you want that hitstun on a fast faller, or if your other moves will get Roy-zoned [point blank attack that should've/appears to have hit, but the hitboxes themselves missed], or because your other moves might send your opponent too far for you to follow up. To reiterate, use it when you need it, but generally try to combo without Shine.

 

[valakmtnsmash4]

Fundamentals are actually most important for a Falco to know (i.e. timing, spacing and decision making), along with being able to get strong combos in general. Shine>dair (hit with the bottom of shine and then double jump>dair and remember to fast fall asap) can be good I guess but just to let you know, learning to convert smart lasers into big damage, learning to get decent to long juggles (as in 5-10+ hits, maybe all in one combo at low %), and learning to punish tech rolls will all do much more for you.

(If you're taking this game seriously)
When you shine>dair, assuming you did it onstage and the % was good so you're not getting punished for it (a floaty might punish that at low %), you now have to gamble in a tech chase or start relying on laser just to keep your offense going or start it back. When you juggle, your job becomes much easier. SHFFL Nair, D-tilt, Shine, F-air, Jab, Up Tilt, Up Smash and Up Air hit #2- Falco has all those options, you should study those moves and use them to juggle as hard/often as possible, and try to finish the combos with Fsmash or [shine>]Bair (roll the joystick in a quarter circle starting at the bottom and don't try to jump for B-air until you see you've turned around- so you don't get stuck in shine) when the other weaker moves will start sending too far.

Thanks for all the tips. A side question that I have is that how do you do a shine dair combo near the edge for a spike? I've always wanted to do those

 

[Uchihadark7]

Proper utilizing of attacks. Watch westballz to see how he uses the shine and dair. Also make sure not to use too many smash attacks. They're really tempting with Falco.

 

[FE_Hector]

Thanks for all the tips. A side question that I have is that how do you do a shine dair combo near the edge for a spike? I've always wanted to do those

It depends on the character you're punishing and the % they're at. Remember that the hitstun on shine is ridiculously long. If your first jump puts you right below them, don't really try just DJ dair. I prefer to try to fade back a little bit, FF for a second, and then just do an immediate DJ dair for the spike. Like I said though, there are a lot of factors though.