When I test tech chase ideas in the lab, I look for qualifications that would make them possible by a human standard. This generally means that you must have around 15 frames to react to the stimuli needed, and there can't be any "extraordinary" executional requirements.
An example of an extraordinary requirement would be trying to do pivot ledge grabs. This technique is so difficult that being frame perfect isn't good enough, you also need to be perfectly spaced in relation to the ledge, on top of using a consistent dash speed. Because of this, I just don't think mastering this is possible.
However, almost any sequence of button presses I will believe to be possible, even when it's required to be close to perfect. I think people overplay how hard "frame perfect" is. Knee only has three frames of a strong hitbox, so unless I'm missing something, just jumping and hitting it alone is a three frame link in many cases. Anyways, I'm starting to ramble, these are my actual findings:
I think tech chase regrabs are not the future. That's some sheik **** and we don't need to play like her.
I think falcon has 4 major and distinct tech chases, and this is how they are set up.
1. PURELY MECHANICAL TECH CHASE can be set up by using aerials to cover tech in place, and then using dash JC grab to cover the rolls. You will only be able to cover tech roll away if it's cut off by the ledge in this scenario. In order to make it airtight, you have to aim to hit the first frame of tech vulnerability as you're landing with the knee/bair/uair. I think that this is very difficult to do with knee, but it is still very worth going for, because frame perfect evasion from your opponent is also rare. The way that I practice tightening up my timing is by doing my setup and trying to pause (in debug mode) either on the frame the character lands, or on their first frame of vulnerability. You can also just try to do the knee and pause to see how well you timed it. If you can get it consistently timed, I don't think that the l cancel and grab input should be that hard.
The second tech chase is the PURE REACTION TECH CHASE.. This will commonly be set up by just using wavedash or DASH WAVEDASH*** after your throw. You want to position, especially vs spacies, to be outside their shine range and still within your grab range. This means you are trying to react to their trajectory and predict where they will land. Once you do this, you are in a very repetitive scenario.
This is the breakdown of a reaction based tech chase.
Frame 1: the character has done nothing to distinguish it's action, unless it has missed the tech. Therefore, the miss tech actually has a slightly larger reaction window than miss tech.
Frame 2: The spacies begin to distinguish which option they have chosen. For tech in place, the character appears to be doing a split, and in real time it almost looks like he has three legs. You can register that they are opposite of each other and swinging towards each other. When doing a tech roll, the spacie appears to be gathering momentum for a roll, and his legs are clenched together instead of spread.
Frame 3-16: these frames need to be spent positioning yourself in the spot I previously outlined. It you got close early via a wavedash you can use a walk or a dash pivot to make the spacing perfect, but you MUST be aware of how time is progressing, and you must be watching the space animal carefully.
Frame 17: this is the last frame that you can still jab miss tech on a space animal. The good news is that if you jab later and miss, you will probably be able to cover their miss tech option anyhow. When tech chasing a miss tech, you just pay attention to which direction the spacies feet are facing. They will always swing towards their feet first, and then behind them. If you are in front of their feet, you can react to ANY NEUTRAL MOVEMENT with a shield. This is actually the hardest reaction in this whole thread, and yet somehow, this is the one I'm best at. Anyways, after shielding you can simply option select a grab for neutral stand (if you press a at the right time the shield stun of get up attack will swallow your input, while the same input will grab the neutral stand.) The three options that I find valuable out of powershield are knee, raptor boost, and kill moves like dsmash or fsmash (they're all the same basically.) It is quite hard to be able to do this while still being able to grab the miss tech rolls, but I think that it is possible, and I am able to do it pretty often. Now, if you get a jab reset you're going to turn their feet away from you no matter what. If you are feeling scared or bad then you can just wait in front of them and react, because the second hit of get up attack can only be shield grabbed or powershield gentleman/tilted. If you're feeling like a baller squirrel with all them winter nuts, you can pivot behind the spacie so your powershield options are unlocked again. Since you know the time he has to act by after getting jab resetted, I would rank this tech chase, even with the pivot, as VERY EZ. Anyways, I wanted to outline the miss tech options, but we're moving on to the important stuff.
Frame 18: in general I think this is the frame you should choose to act by, but you don't technically have to. However, in order to grab tech in place you need to grab by this time. You should be spacing a standing grab at max range already, so make sure you're simplifying it down to only pressing "z." If you jump cancel, you're making it more difficult to hit the right timing. Grabbing tech in place is, in my opinion, the second most difficult part of my entire tech chase (8/10) but I have seen many people do it, so I guess I suck.
There is one more option that just be completed by this time frame to succeed, but I personally recommend very strongly against this because it is the hardest option and not rewarding enough to justify. Anyways, the option is to dash back, instantly jump, and instant stomp. If executed perfectly, it will work. But again, just don't.
Frame 19: This is the frame that you would have to act to do dash FORWARD, instant jump, instant stomp. In doing so, you would hit the spacies tech roll away. This is actually relatively forgiving despite the tight execution and timing, because the stomp hitbox will hit them no matter how low their profile is (until the last two frames of a tech roll the spacies have not stood up, extremely low profile.) I would rank this tech chase option as 6/10 difficulty.
Frame 20: This is the frame that you would need to start a jump in order to cover tech roll back. If you are disciplined In your spacing, a pull back stomp will hit the roll. Due to the fact that the only execution required is to hold back and hit the timing of stomp, I would rate this tech chase as 4/10, very ez.
You could do a harder option at this time, but if you want to do it I would only recommend doing vs falco, and if you're standing on top of him. You can dash backwards into a jump knee, but this knee is really high so would likely not hit fox, but falcos tech roll and height are extremely susceptible to knee. This is definitely one of the harder options, but worth expanding into once you've mastered the stomp
Frame 21: this is your important frame for covering tech roll away. Assuming you spaced at grab range vs fox, if you dash and instant knee you'll make him regret **** talking falcon. Vs falco you can stand on top of tech in place and still hit this, but the spacing is very strict for fox, because he is short and closer to you.
The second option that also rocks tech away is fsmash, but this of course only works if they are near the ledge. This is of course the easiest of them all due to the lack if execution, I would rate 1/10 ur mom easy.
Frame 22: you messed up or you didn't have time because you stomped a tech roll and they teched again. Your only remaining option is to grab tech rolls, but that ain't so bad I guess.
Things to note: if I list an option after frame 18 that means you have that much more leniency for your inputs (ie knee on tech roll away let's you mess up for a total of three frames, inherently making it better.)
Of course any time you're able to save by reacting faster also makes this easier, and you can go for harder options. Moving on...
HYBRID TECH CHASE
If you hit the early frames of a miss tech, you get to cover that option for free. Think about it, you can just pick up where I started listing frame 18 as long as you are free to act and properly positioned at that point. Your knee is 9 frames of l cancel, so if you hit frame 1-9 of miss tech you can still grab tech in place and auto knee tech rolls. This is strong because it's very easy to tell what option they chose if knee doesn't hit, especially tech in place (wtf my knee hit but he's not screaming wat, must be tech in place.)
Stomp is 12 frames of lag so you would need to adjust by hitting earlier of course. Similarly, jab essentially has 12 frames of "lag," because it hits on 3 and can be dash or jumped out of on 15. That means you can also jab miss tech for free from 1-6, and still knee the rolls grab the tech etc. if you want to do fsmash you'll have to dash pivot fsmash, but I recommend simply kneeing or stomping instead.
Alright, next chapter
ULTIMATE GOD LEVEL REACTION TECH CHASE
Now this tech chase I think will only be implemented by a falcon god, but it's only difficult because you have to have perfect positioning. In reality, the positioning allows your reactions to be slower. This also would only work in confined spaces (near edge or on platform.)
All you have to do is time your jump so that if the character techs in place, you can fast fall uair them. I think this is actually better than normal because they are likely to miss the tech lol scrubs. Of course you would need to react to miss tech with the same uair, but if you're late you can apply easy miss tech punishes to their roll or get up options, because uair l cancel is very short.
Once you're good at that positioning and reaction, then it should be natural to replace fast fall and uair with drifting towards them with knee or stomp. This will cover a platform tech roll easily, because aerial mobility is so good.
This is obviously cutting a lot of frames (knee on tech roll away becomes a 14 frame option instead of a 19 frame, uair is 1 frame faster than grab, etc) and simplifying your execution, and it also has near maxed out power so this is the omega tech chase.
I am very uncertain as to whether you can space this against the ledge, I haven't used real science, but it is definitely real on platforms. Also, if it works near ledge it's going to be easier vs fox, which is pretty cool.
So in summary, this is how I believe a human falcon should tech chase (if I was tas I would just raptor boost always.) I'm going to push to be the first to master this, of course, but here's to hoping someone does.
I focused on spacies mostly but you can do this to any character technically, just learn how their tech roll lengths forces you to adapt your options. Vs sheik knee is ez breezy because her tech Is long and she's tall.
An example of an extraordinary requirement would be trying to do pivot ledge grabs. This technique is so difficult that being frame perfect isn't good enough, you also need to be perfectly spaced in relation to the ledge, on top of using a consistent dash speed. Because of this, I just don't think mastering this is possible.
However, almost any sequence of button presses I will believe to be possible, even when it's required to be close to perfect. I think people overplay how hard "frame perfect" is. Knee only has three frames of a strong hitbox, so unless I'm missing something, just jumping and hitting it alone is a three frame link in many cases. Anyways, I'm starting to ramble, these are my actual findings:
I think tech chase regrabs are not the future. That's some sheik **** and we don't need to play like her.
I think falcon has 4 major and distinct tech chases, and this is how they are set up.
1. PURELY MECHANICAL TECH CHASE can be set up by using aerials to cover tech in place, and then using dash JC grab to cover the rolls. You will only be able to cover tech roll away if it's cut off by the ledge in this scenario. In order to make it airtight, you have to aim to hit the first frame of tech vulnerability as you're landing with the knee/bair/uair. I think that this is very difficult to do with knee, but it is still very worth going for, because frame perfect evasion from your opponent is also rare. The way that I practice tightening up my timing is by doing my setup and trying to pause (in debug mode) either on the frame the character lands, or on their first frame of vulnerability. You can also just try to do the knee and pause to see how well you timed it. If you can get it consistently timed, I don't think that the l cancel and grab input should be that hard.
The second tech chase is the PURE REACTION TECH CHASE.. This will commonly be set up by just using wavedash or DASH WAVEDASH*** after your throw. You want to position, especially vs spacies, to be outside their shine range and still within your grab range. This means you are trying to react to their trajectory and predict where they will land. Once you do this, you are in a very repetitive scenario.
This is the breakdown of a reaction based tech chase.
Frame 1: the character has done nothing to distinguish it's action, unless it has missed the tech. Therefore, the miss tech actually has a slightly larger reaction window than miss tech.
Frame 2: The spacies begin to distinguish which option they have chosen. For tech in place, the character appears to be doing a split, and in real time it almost looks like he has three legs. You can register that they are opposite of each other and swinging towards each other. When doing a tech roll, the spacie appears to be gathering momentum for a roll, and his legs are clenched together instead of spread.
Frame 3-16: these frames need to be spent positioning yourself in the spot I previously outlined. It you got close early via a wavedash you can use a walk or a dash pivot to make the spacing perfect, but you MUST be aware of how time is progressing, and you must be watching the space animal carefully.
Frame 17: this is the last frame that you can still jab miss tech on a space animal. The good news is that if you jab later and miss, you will probably be able to cover their miss tech option anyhow. When tech chasing a miss tech, you just pay attention to which direction the spacies feet are facing. They will always swing towards their feet first, and then behind them. If you are in front of their feet, you can react to ANY NEUTRAL MOVEMENT with a shield. This is actually the hardest reaction in this whole thread, and yet somehow, this is the one I'm best at. Anyways, after shielding you can simply option select a grab for neutral stand (if you press a at the right time the shield stun of get up attack will swallow your input, while the same input will grab the neutral stand.) The three options that I find valuable out of powershield are knee, raptor boost, and kill moves like dsmash or fsmash (they're all the same basically.) It is quite hard to be able to do this while still being able to grab the miss tech rolls, but I think that it is possible, and I am able to do it pretty often. Now, if you get a jab reset you're going to turn their feet away from you no matter what. If you are feeling scared or bad then you can just wait in front of them and react, because the second hit of get up attack can only be shield grabbed or powershield gentleman/tilted. If you're feeling like a baller squirrel with all them winter nuts, you can pivot behind the spacie so your powershield options are unlocked again. Since you know the time he has to act by after getting jab resetted, I would rank this tech chase, even with the pivot, as VERY EZ. Anyways, I wanted to outline the miss tech options, but we're moving on to the important stuff.
Frame 18: in general I think this is the frame you should choose to act by, but you don't technically have to. However, in order to grab tech in place you need to grab by this time. You should be spacing a standing grab at max range already, so make sure you're simplifying it down to only pressing "z." If you jump cancel, you're making it more difficult to hit the right timing. Grabbing tech in place is, in my opinion, the second most difficult part of my entire tech chase (8/10) but I have seen many people do it, so I guess I suck.
There is one more option that just be completed by this time frame to succeed, but I personally recommend very strongly against this because it is the hardest option and not rewarding enough to justify. Anyways, the option is to dash back, instantly jump, and instant stomp. If executed perfectly, it will work. But again, just don't.
Frame 19: This is the frame that you would have to act to do dash FORWARD, instant jump, instant stomp. In doing so, you would hit the spacies tech roll away. This is actually relatively forgiving despite the tight execution and timing, because the stomp hitbox will hit them no matter how low their profile is (until the last two frames of a tech roll the spacies have not stood up, extremely low profile.) I would rank this tech chase option as 6/10 difficulty.
Frame 20: This is the frame that you would need to start a jump in order to cover tech roll back. If you are disciplined In your spacing, a pull back stomp will hit the roll. Due to the fact that the only execution required is to hold back and hit the timing of stomp, I would rate this tech chase as 4/10, very ez.
You could do a harder option at this time, but if you want to do it I would only recommend doing vs falco, and if you're standing on top of him. You can dash backwards into a jump knee, but this knee is really high so would likely not hit fox, but falcos tech roll and height are extremely susceptible to knee. This is definitely one of the harder options, but worth expanding into once you've mastered the stomp
Frame 21: this is your important frame for covering tech roll away. Assuming you spaced at grab range vs fox, if you dash and instant knee you'll make him regret **** talking falcon. Vs falco you can stand on top of tech in place and still hit this, but the spacing is very strict for fox, because he is short and closer to you.
The second option that also rocks tech away is fsmash, but this of course only works if they are near the ledge. This is of course the easiest of them all due to the lack if execution, I would rate 1/10 ur mom easy.
Frame 22: you messed up or you didn't have time because you stomped a tech roll and they teched again. Your only remaining option is to grab tech rolls, but that ain't so bad I guess.
Things to note: if I list an option after frame 18 that means you have that much more leniency for your inputs (ie knee on tech roll away let's you mess up for a total of three frames, inherently making it better.)
Of course any time you're able to save by reacting faster also makes this easier, and you can go for harder options. Moving on...
HYBRID TECH CHASE
If you hit the early frames of a miss tech, you get to cover that option for free. Think about it, you can just pick up where I started listing frame 18 as long as you are free to act and properly positioned at that point. Your knee is 9 frames of l cancel, so if you hit frame 1-9 of miss tech you can still grab tech in place and auto knee tech rolls. This is strong because it's very easy to tell what option they chose if knee doesn't hit, especially tech in place (wtf my knee hit but he's not screaming wat, must be tech in place.)
Stomp is 12 frames of lag so you would need to adjust by hitting earlier of course. Similarly, jab essentially has 12 frames of "lag," because it hits on 3 and can be dash or jumped out of on 15. That means you can also jab miss tech for free from 1-6, and still knee the rolls grab the tech etc. if you want to do fsmash you'll have to dash pivot fsmash, but I recommend simply kneeing or stomping instead.
Alright, next chapter
ULTIMATE GOD LEVEL REACTION TECH CHASE
Now this tech chase I think will only be implemented by a falcon god, but it's only difficult because you have to have perfect positioning. In reality, the positioning allows your reactions to be slower. This also would only work in confined spaces (near edge or on platform.)
All you have to do is time your jump so that if the character techs in place, you can fast fall uair them. I think this is actually better than normal because they are likely to miss the tech lol scrubs. Of course you would need to react to miss tech with the same uair, but if you're late you can apply easy miss tech punishes to their roll or get up options, because uair l cancel is very short.
Once you're good at that positioning and reaction, then it should be natural to replace fast fall and uair with drifting towards them with knee or stomp. This will cover a platform tech roll easily, because aerial mobility is so good.
This is obviously cutting a lot of frames (knee on tech roll away becomes a 14 frame option instead of a 19 frame, uair is 1 frame faster than grab, etc) and simplifying your execution, and it also has near maxed out power so this is the omega tech chase.
I am very uncertain as to whether you can space this against the ledge, I haven't used real science, but it is definitely real on platforms. Also, if it works near ledge it's going to be easier vs fox, which is pretty cool.
So in summary, this is how I believe a human falcon should tech chase (if I was tas I would just raptor boost always.) I'm going to push to be the first to master this, of course, but here's to hoping someone does.
I focused on spacies mostly but you can do this to any character technically, just learn how their tech roll lengths forces you to adapt your options. Vs sheik knee is ez breezy because her tech Is long and she's tall.
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