Personally, I prefer the ground: Info on Falco's standard moves (Outdated; only contains 1.0.3 info)

[Captain Rage Quit 69]

Okay, so I feel like it would be good to get this out here so people aren't confused when they realize Falco isn't what Falco used to be. Or something like that.

Whatever, I like the bird and he's cool so let's look into Falco's best friend, the A button(or whatever you have set to Attack)! Specifically, the stats on his standard moves, which were painstakingly organized by me! I wrote down base damage and noted sweetspots, so let me know if you want more.

The format will be the following:

Attack Name - Button input
Specific part of attack (ex. moment of earliest possible damage or "first hit") - Damage dealt (Base, so apply fresh/stale multiplier to this) - KO %

KO %'s are based on what percent the opponent has before being hit, at the center of Battlefield Ω with Mario. It is the percent at which the opponent will reach the blast zone, and does not take into consideration an opponent's inability to reach the ledge when recovering. Rage may or may not be a factor, as this was done in training mode, and VI is not taken into account for similar reasons. Attacks are not stale, but do not have the fresh multiplier. Take this as a kind of median, a base to go off of, and not the guaranteed KO % for everybody.

Oh, and I've taken the liberty of color-coding the attack types, to make things easier to read and differentiate. Jab, Dash Attack and Pummel are green, tilts are blue, Smash attacks are red, and aerials are orange.

Spoiler: Standard Ground Attacks

Jab - A, A, A(can be held), A(released, only if A was previously held)

• First hit - 3% - Never KO's
  
• Second hit - 2% - Never KO's
  
• Third hit - 2% [shortest duration] - Never KO's
  
• Fourth hit - 4% - KO's at 378%

One hit followed by a second hit, and if you choose to press A again, Falco morphs into the Falcopter! He then finishes off with a swipe to push his opponents away!

Dash Attack - While running, press A.

• One hit - 9% - KO's at 200%

Falco kicks with the momentum from running. It's a good approach, but be wary of shielding opponents as they can shieldgrab you if you're not careful with this move. Play it safe with this one. A good tactic that works on many characters is to grab, down throw and follow up with a dash attack.

Pummel - Grab the opponent by pressing shield + attack [L by default], then press A to knee them senseless.

• Individual hit - 2% - they're not getting KO'd until you throw them, silly!

Falco knees the poor sucker caught in your grasp. I put this here for completion's sake, it's an A button move, sue me!

Forward Tilt - Tilt the stick/slide the pad forward slowly, then press A. It can be angled upward or downward.

• One hit - 9% - KO's at 231%

A simple kick. The range is about as far as Falco's toe (birds don't have toes, though...)

Up Tilt - Tilt the stick/slide the pad upward slowly, then press A.

• First hit - 4% - Never KO, set knockback to lead into second hit
  
• Second hit - 5% - KO's at 168%

Falco swings at the air with his wings. The hitbox extends slightly in front of and behind Falco, so there's some range to it.

Down Tilt - Tilt the stick/slide the pad downward slowly, then press A.

• One hit - 9-12% - KO's at 136% with strongest hit

Falco swipes at the ground with his tail. The closer you are to your opponent when it hits, the stronger it is. Range extends to the edge of his tail.

A note about Smash attacks: They can be charged, so I will only list the percents from an uncharged hit and a fully charged hit.

Forward Smash - Move the stick/pad to the left/right quickly, and press A at the same time.

• One hit - 15-21% - KO's at 72% fully charged, 113% uncharged

Falco brings down his fists with a headbutt to reinforce them. The range is faithful to the animation, the purple cutting effect being the maximum.

Up Smash - Move the stick/pad upward quickly, and press A at the same time.

• First hit - 4-5% - Never KO's uncharged, must be at least half charged
  
• Second hit - 12-17% - KO's at 88% fully charged, 130% uncharged

Falco kicks his opponent upward with one leg, and rapidly follows up with a second kick to launch the opponent. The second hit might whiff, so be cautious. The second hit can also hit behind Falco.

Down Smash - Move the stick/pad downward quickly, and press A at the same time.

• One hit (applies to both sides of attack) - 15-21% - KO's at 104% fully charged, 152% uncharged

Falco does a sort of split where he attacks both sides. From what I've seen, he has more range attacking back than forward, but I need to test this more.

Falco isn't entirely grounded this go-around, however! He's got a whopping TWO great aerials, and three situational ones that aren't as good as the other two! Let's check them out!

Spoiler: Standard Aerial Attacks

Neutral Aerial [Nair]- Press A in midair. Wow.

• Four hits - each does 3% for a total of 12% - KO's at 230% if you can land the final hit.

Falco twirls around in the air, the final hit being the one with all the knockback. Frankly, this move would be alright if it weren't for the fact that you'll be whiffing the final hit more often than not, and it's unsafe if you miss that final hit. Which you likely will. Falco has better options if you want to launch enemies away, so use those instead. It does work as a damage dealer though if you can move past your opponent with it or perhaps you can approach by the short hop fast fall method.

Forward Aerial [Fair] - Press A in midair while holding the stick/pad forward.

• First four hits - 1% each - Never KO's
• Final hit - 4% (3% if you hit it upon landing) - KO's at 205%

Now, that KO % might not seem impressive at first glance, but keep in mind this was from the middle of Battlefield. Most of the time you use this move to KO, you're using it off-stage. The fair keeps the opponent locked in after the first move thanks to the removal of Smash DI as it was in previous games, making it a very good aerial. Go ahead and move around, even fast fall! They won't go anywhere until you send them flying! At high percents, a fresh fair will send your opponent flying quite far, so even if it doesn't KO the first time, there's always a second chance, or you could switch to the strongest aerial in Falco's arsenal.

Back Aerial [Bair] - Press A in midair while holding the stick/pad back.

• One hit - 13% - KO's at 125%

Yeah, that's right. This thing has the killing power of a half-charged smash attack. Falco does a simple kick back, and its average range might not impress at first. But this move easily has the greatest knockout potential of all of Falco's aerials. Perfect for edgeguarding, keep this move fresh. You won't regret it.

Up Aerial [Uair] - Press A in midair while holding the stick/pad upward.

• One hit - 11% - KO's at 144% if you hit with feet

This move isn't that great either, at least in comparison to Falco's other aerials. Sure it's strong, but try to actually hit someone with the sweetspot. Go on, try it. Tricky work, huh? Fair and Bair are more reliable killing moves in the air, but if you think you can land this one then by all means go for it. Just remember that if you hit with Falco's legs and not his feet, you're not going to kill until high percents.

Down Aerial [Dair] - Press A in midair while holding the stick/pad downward.

• One hit - 8% sourspot, 13% sweetspot - Spikes if you sweetspot it, KO's at 249% from ground.

Falco's down aerial has the ability to "spike" the opponent, which means if it hits the opponent will be sent into a downward trajectory with high knockback. This only applies when the move is sweetspotted, however. If you fail to hit the move just right, the opponent will be sent flying upward to one side, defeating the purpose of the move. Falco's dair has a slight startup that takes some getting used to, so be conscious of it when trying to land it on your recovering enemy.

Wow, I can't believe Falco can do things other than shoot people and say "Hands off my prey!" Of course he can! This thread is simply a rundown of all of Falco's standard attacks that aren't his specials, so I hope you got something out of reading this! Mix things up out there, you're fighting on the ground now!

I personally chose to cap things off at Falco's A button moves so as not to overwhelm new Falco players, but I can catalog his throws and B moves too if people want. I appreciate any criticism that goes toward improving this, and I hope this is appreciated! (but if not then I understand if people want this gone that's okay too ;__; )

Let me know what else to include, and discuss the utilities of Falco's standard attacks!

 

[CommanderVimes]

Thanks for all the data! So why would you say Falco prefers a ground game this time around? Is it weaker aerials, better ground moves, or just the mechanics of the game owing to everyone's ground game?

 

[Captain Rage Quit 69]

Thanks for all the data! So why would you say Falco prefers a ground game this time around? Is it weaker aerials, better ground moves, or just the mechanics of the game owing to everyone's ground game?

I'm no expert on the history of Falco, I just thought it would be a witty title. But well, unless I've got my opponent off the stage I'd rather rack up the damage with Falco's normal attacks. His good aerials are meant to send opponents away, so keeping them fresh is important, and believe it or not but I find his reflector very good in the neutral game.

As well, I'd say Smash 4 just places more of an emphasis on the ground this time around thanks to better jabs and tilts, and everyone being able to recover from a mile away. Even Falco. Also, the game's slight campiness takes place on the ground, so there's that. Joking, I'm not the best Falco but at least I'm passionate.

 

[rustybomb12]

Thanks for all the data! So why would you say Falco prefers a ground game this time around? Is it weaker aerials, better ground moves, or just the mechanics of the game owing to everyone's ground game?

All I know is that in melee, Falco involved a lot of short hop dair's, shines, and lasers. So I would say he is more ground based now.

 

[Snipnigth]

Falco in the ground....how should i say this....he sucks, his walking speed is almost as fast as his running speed, because of this sometimes he struggels to get punishes, he does have good ground tools buy most of his combos and kill moves will pop on the air. ill say he still benefits more from SH and Aerial game than in the ground.

 

[KayJay]

You are totally wrong with Falco's up air. People underestimating Falco's up air is one of the reason that he's considered low tier.

Examples why his up air actually is one of his best abusive bait move:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C20PsKNvGbY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdTNsSKEBjQ

 

[Captain Rage Quit 69]

You are totally wrong with Falco's up air. People underestimating Falco's up air is one of the reason that he's considered low tier.

Examples why his up air actually is one of his best abusive bait move:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C20PsKNvGbY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdTNsSKEBjQ

Haha, I wrote this up back when we were still on 3DS 1.0.3. I expect to be wrong as I haven't corrected it since then, and I actually agree with you on Falco's up air being pretty good. I have gotten some kills with it myself, and it's got some nice juggling potential. Seems to catch people off-guard more often than not, too.

I plan to update this eventually for those people who don't want to go through a whole guide, but I feel like this thread's purpose is better served as a data collection for Falco's moveset now. I want frame data, but more importantly I plan to collect base damage, "fresh" damage and "max stale" damage for consistency, and I hope to find a new standard to base KO %'s on.

EDIT: I've been gone for so long, I didn't realize we already had that covered too! I guess there really isn't a need for this thread anymore except for archive's sake.

 

[Ffamran]

Yeah, I started the frame data thread to spark some juice in the Falco boards and I did see this thread, but it's been a while and this thread could still serve as a move guide. I was thinking of making my thread more data and description based rather than how a move should be used, when it should be used, and other talk based on the move.

 

[Captain Rage Quit 69]

Yeah, I started the frame data thread to spark some juice in the Falco boards and I did see this thread, but it's been a while and this thread could still serve as a move guide. I was thinking of making my thread more data and description based rather than how a move should be used, when it should be used, and other talk based on the move.

Haha, I'm not the greatest Falco player but I'll do my best to fulfill that! I suppose it helps to have an idea of the most appropriate contexts for a move.