Redeeming Falco?

[Conn1496]

So after playing Falco in Smash4 on day 1 and instantly declaring he was "The worst thing since sliced Hitler." (Actual quote of rage.), I basically never picked him up again until I needed to for the 3DS "Do X as all characters." challenges a while back. Much to my surprise, when I wasn't getting my [back shield] handed to me, I actually found myself enjoying playing him.

Long story short, Falco is now one of my alts, and I was wondering about just general tips and ways to get out of the "play like its Brawl" mentality. What changes from Brawl affect him the most, are certain tactics now completely out of the question, etc.

All I really know about playing Falco in Smash4 so far is that his floor game is ironically better than his air game 90% of the time and that F-air and D-air have been nerfed so hard there are foam darts actually sticking into the skin. But other than that, I just play like I always have while avoiding the strategies that don't work anymore.

 

[Ffamran]

Hello and welcome to the Falco boards. I'd recommend checking out some of the stickied threads. So, if you want to talk and ask more on gameplay, then check out this thread: Falco, King of the Birds: Game Play Discussion.

For basic questions and answers, head over here: Our Arwing's still under maintenance - Falco GD/Q&A.

If you want video references, then look here: Good Falco videos?.

And here's a guide by @Illuvial: Personally, I Prefer The Air!.

To answer some of your questions, Falco's Bair is a good kill tool and it's basically Brawl Wolf's Bair, Dair is usable, but it's more situational and functions pretty much like everyone's meteors, Nair is more of a combo tool, and Uair is both a juggling tool and a kill tool since Falco's jump height is the highest and he can and will get people high enough that he can Uair them past the blast zone. Fair is more usable than in Brawl, but it can't fast-fall pull people down like in pre-patch 1.04. It's still good for gimping people off-stage and for comboing.

Dtilt is good for kills and launching for combo setups, Ftilt is a good spacing tool like Reflector, and Utilt is good for early comboing by chaining them or for a combo setup by launching them into the air. Jab combo is fairly straightforward.

Side Smash is a good kill move, but it's slow, so use it for reads and punishes. Down Smash is quick and it's a good spacing tool and it can kill. Up Smash is a good combo tool early on and it will kill, but the main issue is that it can whiff the second hit which is where the power comes from or it'll whiff from the back.

Reflector spaces, has a chance to trip, and it's a handy tool against projectiles for obvious reasons. Falco Phantasm can meteor and you can use it to read a person's recovery and meteor them to the blast zone or you could do this as @Bonk! and later @Snipnigth found about short hopping a Phantasm after a F-throw and running off the ledge and Phantasming back to the ledge: Phantasm Spike!. It's like pivoting Phantasm and having a hitbox at the end of it. Also, Falco Phantasm can be used to get around the stage by short hopping and using it to reduce end lag. Oh, and be careful since it doesn't have a hitbox for the last half or quarter of its distance.

You can't shorp hop, double lasers anymore and Fox can't really do short hop, triple lasers efficiently, but that doesn't mean Blaster is useless. It's good for interrupts and you can just shoot it once or twice to harass your opponent. And Fire Bird is mostly there for recovering.

Falco's throws are great to combo off of.U-throw to Uair, Nair, and Fair are an option alongside D-throw to Dash Attack or Up Smash. Check out this thread for more on combos and approaches: Falco: Approaches and Combos/Strings.

And I end this by locking the thread since we have others for this purpose.