technomancer
Smash Champion
- Joined
- May 17, 2006
- Messages
- 2,053
All done... enjoy!
Contents
Prologue
[GAY] Lasers
[C-C-C] Combos
Style
[$] The Money Spot / Taking Up Space
[REC] Recovery and Edgeguarding
[D] Defense
[FOX] Fox
[CHEAP] Peach
[HUGS] Samus
[MARK] Marth
[PAWNCH] Falcon
Prologue
At some point a few weeks ago I was browsing youtube, and I saw so many recent Falco videos where the Falco loses. Good looking Falcos, with some combos and experience, but watching made me sad because Falco is #2 on the tier list, and should by rights manhandle almost the entire cast without a problem. But mid level falcos just don't seem to understand the game. I think this is a byproduct of the type of person that picks up Falco; they pick the best character in the game and expect everything to be easy mode for them, and just don't figure out what other players are doing to them with other characters.
Video: A Scrubby Falco
So this is my Falco guide. It's better than my Roy guide already, and is dedicated to making your Falco understand what is actually going on in this game, because odds are if you're posting here, it doesn't. Good Falco players that frequent these boards are encouraged to contribute, and bad as well because we will correct you and you will improve.
Lasers
[GAY]
Video: Forward-Style Lasering
Video: B-Will with some effective lasering vs. Taj
Lasers are considered the quintessential Falco technique. This is a misnomer, lasers don't win games, they're just a great setup, and you should be pushing for solid laser setups before you do really anything with Falco. Here's the three benefits of lasering:
1) Damage
2) Space control
3) Difficult to escape Grab/Combo setups
Section four is dedicated to common lasering mistakes and myths.
1) Damage. From 0-50%, you have several great ways to build damage on every character, generally starting from a grab, neutral air, or down air. I like to laser for damage from around 50-70%, so I can more easily setup for a forward or downsmash KO.
2) SHL (Short Hop Lasers), control the ground level horizontal space between you and your opponent, and are great for stuffing them up, getting people to shield or jump, and for clearing yourself a path to move.
3) Grab/Combo setups. SHL-Approach to a fast attack (shine, jab, grab) is very solid, because you have several ways to get a hit.
4) Bad lasering leaves you open. Alot of newer players complain because Lasers don't have lag. That's true, one laser doesn't have lag, but there is about a half a second between even the best spammer's lasers that leaves you open. Most characters can smash you out of this if you get the spacing wrong and whiff a laser, because few smashes take longer than 30 frames to activate.
The basics of lasering are spacing and laser height. Spacing means that when you land from your approach laser you need to land within range of a jab or shine so that you will be able to immediately follow up, otherwise your opponent will be able to quickly jump out of shield, wavedash away, or whip out an aerial and you will be in a disadvantaged position. Laser height is also important because lower lasers reduce the amount of additional frames you spend falling to the ground, allowing you to attack faster. Basically, just get your lasers as low as possible and fastfall. You can even vary the laser/fastfall timing to adjust height and distance if you like.
Remember: Lasers have lag. Always shoot your target, laser low, and space safely when using them, and in general lasers are best in moderation.
Combos
[C-C-C]
Video: Dope Combos vs. Drephen
Video:Happy Feet (combo video by Zhu) - marth combos, chasing DI and Techs against Fox
Video: Bombsoldier vs. Kaito - check out the entire set for creative Japanese combos!
The purpose of the combo is twofold. Combos should build damage and leave you with a positional and timing advantage, or end a stock. All of your combos should do this.
Shine Notes: Always wavedash out of your shine, every time against every character. I learned this from Husband. This is essential against fastfallers and still fantastic against every character, because it allows you to use Falco's dash jump (faster than his run) to chase DI.
There are three ways that Falco generally combos. Vertical, Horizontal, and Juggles. Diagrams coming soon.
Vertical: Generally referred to as "Pillar" style combos, of course not to be confused with Pillaring a shield. At low percents these start with a shine, followed by a downair, followed by another shine, but starting at medium percents you should switch to up-tilts. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND ENDING VERTICAL COMBOS AS SOON AS YOU CAN WITH A BACK AIR, TECH-FOLLOWING MOVE OR SMASH COMBO. A 90% damage combo is never as good as a thirty percent damage combo with good potential to kill, and you will never be able to effectively tech-chase or smash any character at a very high percent with Falco off of a vertical combo or juggle (barring terrible DI) because you have to start using your full jump. A good rule for vertical combos is to keep it low and switch to horizontal.
Horizontal: Falco is a very poor horizontal combo character considering his reputation. Your best bet is your neutral air, which launches characters at a reasonable angle forward and away. One of Falco's sexiest and best combos is N-air, laser, F-Smash. At low percents against fastfallers or players with good DI, the downair is an effective horizontal combo move as well, as well as things like Shine->WD->Upair. Horizontal combos, though they are rougher with Falco than with many other characters, are generally the best combos because they set up for smashes and spikes at low percents.
Juggles: Repeated up-launching moves without using the down-air spike. Falco can do this with his shine, up-air, and up-tilt, as well as kind of with his up-smash. Use these as the opportunity arises, as a mixup to normal horizontal combos.
Grab Combos: At very low percents, most characters will fall for upthrow to shine. Against Roy and faster fallers, upthrow to down air spike is effective near the edge. Generally, however, I recommend mixing up fthrow to laser and backthrow to laser traps. If they miss a DI on a backthrow at the wrong percent you can just forward smash them. Forward does this all the time, and it's beyond gay and yes, this does work on everyone.
Generally the thing to pay attention to is percentage. Most of Falcos combos work best between 10-30%, and are best when the end with your opponent off the stage.
Style
Having style with Falco is important. Mathos spams lasers. Forward is patient and mindgamey. PC pressures and is perfect. Bombsolider reads minds. You always need to be going for something that you know you have in your back pocket with Falco. So pick whatever you're best at now, be it low percent grab combos, edgeguarding, shine-combos, pivot smashing, whatever you like, and emphasize it and build your style around it so you can do it more in game. This will dramatically improve your game, because you will have a style that emphasizes what you do well, and, mainly, because you will stop throwing out random crap and pay attention to where you are on the stage and what you're doing. Which brings me to my next subject...
The Money Spot / Taking Up Space
[$]
The Money Spot in Action: Hugs vs. PC Chris
MS Paint is Money
Diagram 1: The Money Spot.
The Money spot is just inside of the low platform on any of the three platform stages, and Pokemon Stadium's 2-platform setup. The money spot includes the fact that you just came to the spot with a laser to prevent people from already being on your spot. This is a good spot. It's not the only spot, but it's a **** good spot and I'm teaching you something.
After you're there, your opponent isn't going to want to travel into these spaces, because you will just eat him with a supersafe down-air and a side of **** combo.
So where the !@%^$ am I supposed to stand?
Mr. Yellow can jump down above you, but the top platform blocks a direct approach. You can also just back off from him with plenty of time or go under him.
Mr. White can approach directly into the **** zone, or full hop into la-la-land. I call it la-la-land because he either has to do something stupid, like try to fall on you (in which case you will run under the platform or run past him and **** him), or just go to any of the other spots. He does have to choose though, or eat laser.
Mr. Teal, I dunno what Mr. Teal is doing back there. He can go up or forward, or just kill himself because he obviously sucks.
Mr. Bright Green thinks he's the shizzle, but the fact is that he's too far away from you to do anything without jumping through your **** zone. He can land in front of you (in the **** zone), exchange positions with any of the other peoples, execute a weird double jump thinger which you will see coming and ****, try to do some crafty waveland stuff which you will see coming and ****, or just stand there like a knob and maybe spam turnips or needles or something. We deal with Mr. Bright green by following the recycling arrows in dark blue. Up to the top platform with a well-aimed laser, dropping back down through the platform (if you want with a laser), and then heading back to the money spot, with another money laser. Mr. Green will react, obviously, and we can do many more things from here and we should, but basically Mr. Green has to pass through the ****, somehow, to get to you, and he has to be really slick about it.
The concept I'm trying to demonstrate here is not the fact that Falco doesn't have to take people's crap because he's FAST and has PRIORITY, and people HAVE to react to the lasers (even though that is a good concept), but that where you are influences how people move and think, and that how most characters move is LIMITED by game physics, and your ability to react to them. It's mindgames and strategy, and it's what makes smash such a good game.
In my opinion, Mr. White in the above diagrams is a solid spot if he can deal with that laser and encroach on your **** zone before you can bust out the ****. Mr. Yellow can probably pull something off from on high. But any way you look at it, Falco and that one laser controls well over HALF of the stage, and that puts Mr. ? at a disadvantage.
Recovery/Edgeguarding
Video: MLG NYC 2006 PC Chris vs. Ken
[REC]
The most important part of Falco's game: this is where you take your stocks, and it's one of Falco's strongest points. Backthrow->Fsmash->Edgehog. Lasering people's out of recovery moves and jumps. Rolling onto the stage to fsmash Sheik and Marth back off. Lightshield Edgehog. Down air on the stage and then reacting if they tech. Downsmash. Forward Smash. Suicide Down airs well off the stage if you have a strong lead or it's the last stock. This stuff wins matches.
For recovery, your job is to avoid being gay'd. There are a number of ways to edgeguard Falco.
1) Avoid having your candle blown out. The most common way to edgeguard Falco is just to hit him out of his FireFox thinger and watch him die. Marth, Sheik, and Falco players often "blow out the candle" (see recent M2K videos, Tope's sheik videos) by repeatedly hitting Falco with weak attacks, like Marth's red side-b and forward air, and Sheik's needles, and watching him fall. To avoid this you should mostly illusion and get back to the stage quickly (where appropriate). Going to the stage is fine; it beats the hell out of being deaded. If you have to FireFox, master sweetspotting from above, riding the stage, going over and falling to the ledge, magnet grabbing, shortened illusioning and wallteching. Also, in general don't jump to close; there's not much point, your recoveries are very fast when they are moving, but have no hitboxes and stand still when they are aren't, so jumping too close is narrowing your options and making it easier for them. Remember - you have tons of options as Falco off the side, so just make them guess wrong and don't get too close. Other characters with fixed up-B's can become very predicable with their timings and routines, particularly characters like Link, Marth, and Sheik.
2) Learn to Tech. You can practice against the bumpers in Break the Targets to get the timing, or with motion-sensor bombs in training mode or with a buddy who yellow sticks.
3) Learn what to do after you tech; you can immediately illusion and grab the ledge, walljump and illusion through your oppoent, walljump, reverse laser and then firefox back as a mindgame, or do any number of things.
4) Watch your opponent after you grab the edge. Many falcos will either jump up and try to laser double laser an opponent that's right next to them (a mistake, they'll either jump over or just sheild grab you), or jump up with an aerial (one of the worst options Falco has unless you KNOW it will work). Good options are generally illusioning back onto the stage, Firefox stalling and WATCHING YOUR OPPONENT, wavelanding into a jab, grab, dash-jumped down air or mindgamez fsmash, and occasionally using your ledge attack (A) wakeup. Falco doesn't have much use for his roll wakeup or jump wakeup but you can fake some people out with them I suppose. Remember, they're expecting you to jump up with an attack because that is your best option when it hits, and good players will just go around the attack and punish your lag, which is FATAL to you at the edge with Falco.
Defense
[D]
Getting out of your shield is tough with Falco. If your opponent is right on you, you can jump out of your shield and immediately shine (JC Shine out of Shield). This is effective for clearing off bad spacers. Rolling and spotdodging are two great and often overlooked options. Against projectile approaches that are not from John Q. Falco, you can generally just absorb the projectile on your shield, and either absorb another hit and wavedash away, or just full-jump away to a platform immediately. I don't recommend rolling because that just sets you up for roll-chasing, and spot-dodges are generally silly too. Down air out of shield is solid if their approach is timed poorly, as is a fast back air if you are facing correctly and they are coming from above. Knowing how to move out of your shield is very important to Falco.
I'd like to take a moment to note that the most important point of Falco's defense is to never, ever get grabbed. That means don't mess up your offense, and don't do silly things on defense. Every character can destroy you from a grab with tech-chasing because you are a fastfaller, and almost every character has a 50%+ chainthrow or juggle to kill you with if you do get grabbed. So don't get grabbed. Don't get hit with hits that lead to grab. Don't get knocked down, because they will tech chase you with grabs. Don't. Get. Grabbed.
Fox
[FOX]
Video: Forward vs. LuninSpectra @ San Jose State (entire set is good)
One of Falco's worst matchups, Fox is a triple threat to Falco.
1) Shine - Fox's shine knocks you down, which sets up for a grab, thunders combo, or something else that's nasty. It also kills you off the edge hard. It's also fast and combos from everything.
2) Chainthrow - Uthrow chains to 60% or better, and continues from there to chain into uptilt, nair, and numerous nasty combos. Uthrow usmash is also brutal against Falco.
3) Edgeguarding. Fox can shinespike you out of your firefox thinger easily, and constant Backairs make it very difficult for Falco to recover. Some Foxes have also taken to following Falcos off the stage with a flying N-air, preventing Falco from jumping back up to illusion, and then shinespiking, or just watching you die. In my opinion, only Marth has it easier at the edge against Falco.
Your style against Fox should be both patient and brutal. Take the Money Spot as often as you can, and try to match lasers to when Fox is landing from a jump. When you get him with something, just kill him as effeciently as you can, and that's all there is to it.
Dealing with "The Falco Stopper" - Fox's Full-hop fastfall neutral air is called "The Falco Stopper". Mew2King, I think, pioneered it's use, and it's pretty gay, but the main thing is to be aware of it and use movement platforms to prevent it. If you call it, you can also run under it or even upsmash him out of it. It can combo into a grab, more neutral airs, or just knock you off the side and kill you, which is why it's so good.
Peach
[CHEAP]
Video: Dashizwiz vs. XIF
Rule 1) Take any good spike opportunity you see.
Rule 2) Laser the Float so she has to start falling, no matter how high she is, just put a laser out there and you're better off.
Rule 3) Persistance pays off.
So generally I laser if she's far to eat her jumps and float as best I can, then try to keep knocking her back off, and build as much damage as I can. It's a mindgame, and that's all it is, but these rules tend to make it much easier.
Gameplay wise, Falco has some trouble here because his combos against Peach are not as good as Peach's combos against him. Peach has gaurenteed chainthrows and grab setups, which very often lead to you being dead, and will generally score a few good grabs a match. Generally, manipulate your DI and techs so that she won't be able to follow your tech with a neutral air or downsmash pushing you off the side, because off the side you're in trouble.
Don't underestimate Peach. She's faster than she looks, and the best Peaches are some of the smartest players in the game today, many of which have very good track records against Falcos (Wife is a consistant winner vs. PC Chris, and most other Falcos in the MD/VA region know to switch to an alternate vs. Wife). Your approach and on-stage game IS BETTER than hers, and you can match her aerial priority with your down-air, and you have the better projectile. So just play simple, patient old school smash; build damage, land smash, get KO, repeat. You have to play good defense, and patient offense.
Samus
[HUGS]
Mindgamez. I don't know how to play against Samus at all, sorry. Watch out for that up-B? Stay tuned for Hugs vs. Bombsoldier at OC?
Marth
[MARK]
Video: PC Chris vs. Ken - MLG 2006 (check out the entire set, it's epic)
Oh ****z son1111! he has teh range and teh priority and teh power and teh combozordz.
DON'T PANIC
Well the reason you lose against Marth is because you didn't know what the hell you were doing when you started flying at him. Marth is faster than you, with one of the best wavedashes in the game, and his job is to pressure you into making mistakes and then just destroy you hardcore with the **** combos he does on Falco.
Alot of Falcos like to ban FD in this matchup. I like to ban dreamland. Chainthrow combos are pretty brutal, but really good Falcos never get grabbed. Marth can also just substitute quality tech-chasing in for a chainthrow, and his platform game is lightyears beyond yours.
Alot of Falcos like to stay low and just laser all day against Marth. That doesn't work too well against good Marths because they just Shield-WD forward and pank you with a tilt or something gay and then you have to run and Marth gets to chase you around for awhile, which is what you want to avoid. My rule for Marthing is one laser at a time. I'll just shoot one, see what he does, and shoot another one if I feel like it. This keeps me from making the mistake of missing my lasers, and still establishes my breathing space. 1 laser, maybe WD forward or back, then I can RSHL and continue, repeat a few more times.
Another spot I like to take is on the platforms. This makes Marth's approach against me alot more taxing timing wise and technically. It's kind of the anti-Marth (and Ganon) money spot, because he can't shield in the airspace between us, so he has to go underneath where my down air rules the day.
All in all Marth is probably Falco's worst matchup, just because he's so well-equipped (super shield WD) to deal with your crap and ***** you really hard when he gets you. "So techno the trick is to never let him get close rite amirite?" No you're wrong, you generally want to be up close and personal with Marth because otherwise he's going to assume his money spot (about a fsmash away from you) and you're not going to be able to do **** about the spaced aerial barrage that's coming your way. Get your Pillar down, it's important in this matchup not to get grabbed, and once you establish the pillar, your own grab and tech-chase game comes into play.
For edgeguarding, generally use the lightshield edgehog trick (Roll towards edge, hold Z, DI off the stage), so that you can get invulnerability and set up for a number of neat things, most notably just ledgestanding, walking past him real quick and dowsmashing him back off. Don't forget to laser for damage as well at mid percents, it might cause him to get overaggressive and set him up the bomb. One last time for the quick: Don't miss with your lasers, and don't get grabbed.
Falcon
[PAWNCH]
Video: PC Chris vs. Darkrain
Falcon is one of Falco's most interesting matchups... see, the thing is, Falcon is bad against Falco. Really bad. Like, he has trouble edgeguarding you, landing hits, can't do much without a grab, his combos don't start until like 40%... whereas Falco just ***** up everything, if the Falcon fails to DI or DI's poorly, 0-death or 0-80% damage combos are not uncommon and lasers are good here too.
but the thing is Falcon doesn't care because he's fast as **** and his knee ***** Falco. Stomp->knee a level 1 cpu at 30% on YS to see what I mean.
So anyway, if you're having trouble against Falcon, it's time to get basic Falco mindgames relating to shield pressure. Practice this tech: D-air shield, shine, wavedash through Falcon, shine, wavedash, and then chase his roll (Falcons will often roll somewhere in there) with a d-air. Pressure strings like this allow you to see exactly how Falcon reacts to your approaches and then punish him hard for holding his shield too long or using his crappy spotdodge and roll.
Another game I like to play against Falcon is the "you have no aerial priority" spacing game. Against a lot of characters that can't beat out your D-air and N-air approaches consistantly, you can play laser tricksies on them. Try this string: Forward-dashing SHL, wavedash forward, Reverse-dashing SHL. This sets you up nice and tight for a quick approach, and baits them into trying to close the gap on you with a weak aerial, and you can punish with a quick D-air combo or a pressure string.
Combos on Falcon are lots of fun. On no-platform stages, stick to your space animal combos and juggles. Things like Shine, waveshine, WD and chase DI with an N-air, and continue from there are very solid and put good damage out there. Uptilts are golden on Falcon, you can usually get 2 in and then just chase DI with an Fsmash. If they refuse to DI, you can just walk to one side at medium percents and fsmash - too good. If they DI towards the middle of the stage then you can often land a JC upsmash and continue from there.
So there you have it. I've addressed your most obvious problems that aren't tech related, gave you some combos to practice and goals to work towards, and addressed your three toughest matchups and told you nothing about Samus.
Contents
Prologue
[GAY] Lasers
[C-C-C] Combos
[$] The Money Spot / Taking Up Space
[REC] Recovery and Edgeguarding
[D] Defense
[FOX] Fox
[CHEAP] Peach
[HUGS] Samus
[MARK] Marth
[PAWNCH] Falcon
Prologue
At some point a few weeks ago I was browsing youtube, and I saw so many recent Falco videos where the Falco loses. Good looking Falcos, with some combos and experience, but watching made me sad because Falco is #2 on the tier list, and should by rights manhandle almost the entire cast without a problem. But mid level falcos just don't seem to understand the game. I think this is a byproduct of the type of person that picks up Falco; they pick the best character in the game and expect everything to be easy mode for them, and just don't figure out what other players are doing to them with other characters.
Video: A Scrubby Falco
So this is my Falco guide. It's better than my Roy guide already, and is dedicated to making your Falco understand what is actually going on in this game, because odds are if you're posting here, it doesn't. Good Falco players that frequent these boards are encouraged to contribute, and bad as well because we will correct you and you will improve.
Lasers
[GAY]
Video: Forward-Style Lasering
Video: B-Will with some effective lasering vs. Taj
Lasers are considered the quintessential Falco technique. This is a misnomer, lasers don't win games, they're just a great setup, and you should be pushing for solid laser setups before you do really anything with Falco. Here's the three benefits of lasering:
1) Damage
2) Space control
3) Difficult to escape Grab/Combo setups
Section four is dedicated to common lasering mistakes and myths.
1) Damage. From 0-50%, you have several great ways to build damage on every character, generally starting from a grab, neutral air, or down air. I like to laser for damage from around 50-70%, so I can more easily setup for a forward or downsmash KO.
2) SHL (Short Hop Lasers), control the ground level horizontal space between you and your opponent, and are great for stuffing them up, getting people to shield or jump, and for clearing yourself a path to move.
3) Grab/Combo setups. SHL-Approach to a fast attack (shine, jab, grab) is very solid, because you have several ways to get a hit.
4) Bad lasering leaves you open. Alot of newer players complain because Lasers don't have lag. That's true, one laser doesn't have lag, but there is about a half a second between even the best spammer's lasers that leaves you open. Most characters can smash you out of this if you get the spacing wrong and whiff a laser, because few smashes take longer than 30 frames to activate.
The basics of lasering are spacing and laser height. Spacing means that when you land from your approach laser you need to land within range of a jab or shine so that you will be able to immediately follow up, otherwise your opponent will be able to quickly jump out of shield, wavedash away, or whip out an aerial and you will be in a disadvantaged position. Laser height is also important because lower lasers reduce the amount of additional frames you spend falling to the ground, allowing you to attack faster. Basically, just get your lasers as low as possible and fastfall. You can even vary the laser/fastfall timing to adjust height and distance if you like.
Remember: Lasers have lag. Always shoot your target, laser low, and space safely when using them, and in general lasers are best in moderation.
Combos
[C-C-C]
Video: Dope Combos vs. Drephen
Video:Happy Feet (combo video by Zhu) - marth combos, chasing DI and Techs against Fox
Video: Bombsoldier vs. Kaito - check out the entire set for creative Japanese combos!
The purpose of the combo is twofold. Combos should build damage and leave you with a positional and timing advantage, or end a stock. All of your combos should do this.
Shine Notes: Always wavedash out of your shine, every time against every character. I learned this from Husband. This is essential against fastfallers and still fantastic against every character, because it allows you to use Falco's dash jump (faster than his run) to chase DI.
There are three ways that Falco generally combos. Vertical, Horizontal, and Juggles. Diagrams coming soon.
Vertical: Generally referred to as "Pillar" style combos, of course not to be confused with Pillaring a shield. At low percents these start with a shine, followed by a downair, followed by another shine, but starting at medium percents you should switch to up-tilts. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND ENDING VERTICAL COMBOS AS SOON AS YOU CAN WITH A BACK AIR, TECH-FOLLOWING MOVE OR SMASH COMBO. A 90% damage combo is never as good as a thirty percent damage combo with good potential to kill, and you will never be able to effectively tech-chase or smash any character at a very high percent with Falco off of a vertical combo or juggle (barring terrible DI) because you have to start using your full jump. A good rule for vertical combos is to keep it low and switch to horizontal.
Horizontal: Falco is a very poor horizontal combo character considering his reputation. Your best bet is your neutral air, which launches characters at a reasonable angle forward and away. One of Falco's sexiest and best combos is N-air, laser, F-Smash. At low percents against fastfallers or players with good DI, the downair is an effective horizontal combo move as well, as well as things like Shine->WD->Upair. Horizontal combos, though they are rougher with Falco than with many other characters, are generally the best combos because they set up for smashes and spikes at low percents.
Juggles: Repeated up-launching moves without using the down-air spike. Falco can do this with his shine, up-air, and up-tilt, as well as kind of with his up-smash. Use these as the opportunity arises, as a mixup to normal horizontal combos.
Grab Combos: At very low percents, most characters will fall for upthrow to shine. Against Roy and faster fallers, upthrow to down air spike is effective near the edge. Generally, however, I recommend mixing up fthrow to laser and backthrow to laser traps. If they miss a DI on a backthrow at the wrong percent you can just forward smash them. Forward does this all the time, and it's beyond gay and yes, this does work on everyone.
Generally the thing to pay attention to is percentage. Most of Falcos combos work best between 10-30%, and are best when the end with your opponent off the stage.
Style
Having style with Falco is important. Mathos spams lasers. Forward is patient and mindgamey. PC pressures and is perfect. Bombsolider reads minds. You always need to be going for something that you know you have in your back pocket with Falco. So pick whatever you're best at now, be it low percent grab combos, edgeguarding, shine-combos, pivot smashing, whatever you like, and emphasize it and build your style around it so you can do it more in game. This will dramatically improve your game, because you will have a style that emphasizes what you do well, and, mainly, because you will stop throwing out random crap and pay attention to where you are on the stage and what you're doing. Which brings me to my next subject...
The Money Spot / Taking Up Space
[$]
The Money Spot in Action: Hugs vs. PC Chris
MS Paint is Money
Diagram 1: The Money Spot.
The Money spot is just inside of the low platform on any of the three platform stages, and Pokemon Stadium's 2-platform setup. The money spot includes the fact that you just came to the spot with a laser to prevent people from already being on your spot. This is a good spot. It's not the only spot, but it's a **** good spot and I'm teaching you something.
After you're there, your opponent isn't going to want to travel into these spaces, because you will just eat him with a supersafe down-air and a side of **** combo.
So where the !@%^$ am I supposed to stand?
Mr. Yellow can jump down above you, but the top platform blocks a direct approach. You can also just back off from him with plenty of time or go under him.
Mr. White can approach directly into the **** zone, or full hop into la-la-land. I call it la-la-land because he either has to do something stupid, like try to fall on you (in which case you will run under the platform or run past him and **** him), or just go to any of the other spots. He does have to choose though, or eat laser.
Mr. Teal, I dunno what Mr. Teal is doing back there. He can go up or forward, or just kill himself because he obviously sucks.
Mr. Bright Green thinks he's the shizzle, but the fact is that he's too far away from you to do anything without jumping through your **** zone. He can land in front of you (in the **** zone), exchange positions with any of the other peoples, execute a weird double jump thinger which you will see coming and ****, try to do some crafty waveland stuff which you will see coming and ****, or just stand there like a knob and maybe spam turnips or needles or something. We deal with Mr. Bright green by following the recycling arrows in dark blue. Up to the top platform with a well-aimed laser, dropping back down through the platform (if you want with a laser), and then heading back to the money spot, with another money laser. Mr. Green will react, obviously, and we can do many more things from here and we should, but basically Mr. Green has to pass through the ****, somehow, to get to you, and he has to be really slick about it.
The concept I'm trying to demonstrate here is not the fact that Falco doesn't have to take people's crap because he's FAST and has PRIORITY, and people HAVE to react to the lasers (even though that is a good concept), but that where you are influences how people move and think, and that how most characters move is LIMITED by game physics, and your ability to react to them. It's mindgames and strategy, and it's what makes smash such a good game.
In my opinion, Mr. White in the above diagrams is a solid spot if he can deal with that laser and encroach on your **** zone before you can bust out the ****. Mr. Yellow can probably pull something off from on high. But any way you look at it, Falco and that one laser controls well over HALF of the stage, and that puts Mr. ? at a disadvantage.
Recovery/Edgeguarding
Video: MLG NYC 2006 PC Chris vs. Ken
[REC]
The most important part of Falco's game: this is where you take your stocks, and it's one of Falco's strongest points. Backthrow->Fsmash->Edgehog. Lasering people's out of recovery moves and jumps. Rolling onto the stage to fsmash Sheik and Marth back off. Lightshield Edgehog. Down air on the stage and then reacting if they tech. Downsmash. Forward Smash. Suicide Down airs well off the stage if you have a strong lead or it's the last stock. This stuff wins matches.
For recovery, your job is to avoid being gay'd. There are a number of ways to edgeguard Falco.
1) Avoid having your candle blown out. The most common way to edgeguard Falco is just to hit him out of his FireFox thinger and watch him die. Marth, Sheik, and Falco players often "blow out the candle" (see recent M2K videos, Tope's sheik videos) by repeatedly hitting Falco with weak attacks, like Marth's red side-b and forward air, and Sheik's needles, and watching him fall. To avoid this you should mostly illusion and get back to the stage quickly (where appropriate). Going to the stage is fine; it beats the hell out of being deaded. If you have to FireFox, master sweetspotting from above, riding the stage, going over and falling to the ledge, magnet grabbing, shortened illusioning and wallteching. Also, in general don't jump to close; there's not much point, your recoveries are very fast when they are moving, but have no hitboxes and stand still when they are aren't, so jumping too close is narrowing your options and making it easier for them. Remember - you have tons of options as Falco off the side, so just make them guess wrong and don't get too close. Other characters with fixed up-B's can become very predicable with their timings and routines, particularly characters like Link, Marth, and Sheik.
2) Learn to Tech. You can practice against the bumpers in Break the Targets to get the timing, or with motion-sensor bombs in training mode or with a buddy who yellow sticks.
3) Learn what to do after you tech; you can immediately illusion and grab the ledge, walljump and illusion through your oppoent, walljump, reverse laser and then firefox back as a mindgame, or do any number of things.
4) Watch your opponent after you grab the edge. Many falcos will either jump up and try to laser double laser an opponent that's right next to them (a mistake, they'll either jump over or just sheild grab you), or jump up with an aerial (one of the worst options Falco has unless you KNOW it will work). Good options are generally illusioning back onto the stage, Firefox stalling and WATCHING YOUR OPPONENT, wavelanding into a jab, grab, dash-jumped down air or mindgamez fsmash, and occasionally using your ledge attack (A) wakeup. Falco doesn't have much use for his roll wakeup or jump wakeup but you can fake some people out with them I suppose. Remember, they're expecting you to jump up with an attack because that is your best option when it hits, and good players will just go around the attack and punish your lag, which is FATAL to you at the edge with Falco.
Defense
[D]
The best defense is often a good offense with Falco. Use the Money Spot to control space effectively, and you shouldn't have a problem with your defense. Still, it is very important that you learn to DI out of chaingrabs, tech on platforms to escape platform juggles, tech-roll on the ground appropriately and make good use of your quality spot-dodge to get out of sticky situations. At low percents, Falco can also CC against some characters into a shine or jab as a combo breaker if the spacing is right.
Getting out of your shield is tough with Falco. If your opponent is right on you, you can jump out of your shield and immediately shine (JC Shine out of Shield). This is effective for clearing off bad spacers. Rolling and spotdodging are two great and often overlooked options. Against projectile approaches that are not from John Q. Falco, you can generally just absorb the projectile on your shield, and either absorb another hit and wavedash away, or just full-jump away to a platform immediately. I don't recommend rolling because that just sets you up for roll-chasing, and spot-dodges are generally silly too. Down air out of shield is solid if their approach is timed poorly, as is a fast back air if you are facing correctly and they are coming from above. Knowing how to move out of your shield is very important to Falco.
I'd like to take a moment to note that the most important point of Falco's defense is to never, ever get grabbed. That means don't mess up your offense, and don't do silly things on defense. Every character can destroy you from a grab with tech-chasing because you are a fastfaller, and almost every character has a 50%+ chainthrow or juggle to kill you with if you do get grabbed. So don't get grabbed. Don't get hit with hits that lead to grab. Don't get knocked down, because they will tech chase you with grabs. Don't. Get. Grabbed.
Fox
[FOX]
Video: Forward vs. LuninSpectra @ San Jose State (entire set is good)
One of Falco's worst matchups, Fox is a triple threat to Falco.
1) Shine - Fox's shine knocks you down, which sets up for a grab, thunders combo, or something else that's nasty. It also kills you off the edge hard. It's also fast and combos from everything.
2) Chainthrow - Uthrow chains to 60% or better, and continues from there to chain into uptilt, nair, and numerous nasty combos. Uthrow usmash is also brutal against Falco.
3) Edgeguarding. Fox can shinespike you out of your firefox thinger easily, and constant Backairs make it very difficult for Falco to recover. Some Foxes have also taken to following Falcos off the stage with a flying N-air, preventing Falco from jumping back up to illusion, and then shinespiking, or just watching you die. In my opinion, only Marth has it easier at the edge against Falco.
Your style against Fox should be both patient and brutal. Take the Money Spot as often as you can, and try to match lasers to when Fox is landing from a jump. When you get him with something, just kill him as effeciently as you can, and that's all there is to it.
Dealing with "The Falco Stopper" - Fox's Full-hop fastfall neutral air is called "The Falco Stopper". Mew2King, I think, pioneered it's use, and it's pretty gay, but the main thing is to be aware of it and use movement platforms to prevent it. If you call it, you can also run under it or even upsmash him out of it. It can combo into a grab, more neutral airs, or just knock you off the side and kill you, which is why it's so good.
Peach
[CHEAP]
Video: Dashizwiz vs. XIF
Downsmash downsmash downsmash... isn't really the problem in this matchup. The problem is, how the hell do you kill Peach? She recovers too high to spike, her airdodge is too quick to react, she sweetspots easily, and she freaking floats. i'm fairly methodical in my Peach killing, I play a pretty good one who specializes in never dieing on a regular basis.
Rule 1) Take any good spike opportunity you see.
Rule 2) Laser the Float so she has to start falling, no matter how high she is, just put a laser out there and you're better off.
Rule 3) Persistance pays off.
So generally I laser if she's far to eat her jumps and float as best I can, then try to keep knocking her back off, and build as much damage as I can. It's a mindgame, and that's all it is, but these rules tend to make it much easier.
Gameplay wise, Falco has some trouble here because his combos against Peach are not as good as Peach's combos against him. Peach has gaurenteed chainthrows and grab setups, which very often lead to you being dead, and will generally score a few good grabs a match. Generally, manipulate your DI and techs so that she won't be able to follow your tech with a neutral air or downsmash pushing you off the side, because off the side you're in trouble.
Don't underestimate Peach. She's faster than she looks, and the best Peaches are some of the smartest players in the game today, many of which have very good track records against Falcos (Wife is a consistant winner vs. PC Chris, and most other Falcos in the MD/VA region know to switch to an alternate vs. Wife). Your approach and on-stage game IS BETTER than hers, and you can match her aerial priority with your down-air, and you have the better projectile. So just play simple, patient old school smash; build damage, land smash, get KO, repeat. You have to play good defense, and patient offense.
Samus
[HUGS]
Mindgamez. I don't know how to play against Samus at all, sorry. Watch out for that up-B? Stay tuned for Hugs vs. Bombsoldier at OC?
Marth
[MARK]
Video: PC Chris vs. Ken - MLG 2006 (check out the entire set, it's epic)
Oh ****z son1111! he has teh range and teh priority and teh power and teh combozordz.
DON'T PANIC
Well the reason you lose against Marth is because you didn't know what the hell you were doing when you started flying at him. Marth is faster than you, with one of the best wavedashes in the game, and his job is to pressure you into making mistakes and then just destroy you hardcore with the **** combos he does on Falco.
Alot of Falcos like to ban FD in this matchup. I like to ban dreamland. Chainthrow combos are pretty brutal, but really good Falcos never get grabbed. Marth can also just substitute quality tech-chasing in for a chainthrow, and his platform game is lightyears beyond yours.
Alot of Falcos like to stay low and just laser all day against Marth. That doesn't work too well against good Marths because they just Shield-WD forward and pank you with a tilt or something gay and then you have to run and Marth gets to chase you around for awhile, which is what you want to avoid. My rule for Marthing is one laser at a time. I'll just shoot one, see what he does, and shoot another one if I feel like it. This keeps me from making the mistake of missing my lasers, and still establishes my breathing space. 1 laser, maybe WD forward or back, then I can RSHL and continue, repeat a few more times.
Another spot I like to take is on the platforms. This makes Marth's approach against me alot more taxing timing wise and technically. It's kind of the anti-Marth (and Ganon) money spot, because he can't shield in the airspace between us, so he has to go underneath where my down air rules the day.
All in all Marth is probably Falco's worst matchup, just because he's so well-equipped (super shield WD) to deal with your crap and ***** you really hard when he gets you. "So techno the trick is to never let him get close rite amirite?" No you're wrong, you generally want to be up close and personal with Marth because otherwise he's going to assume his money spot (about a fsmash away from you) and you're not going to be able to do **** about the spaced aerial barrage that's coming your way. Get your Pillar down, it's important in this matchup not to get grabbed, and once you establish the pillar, your own grab and tech-chase game comes into play.
For edgeguarding, generally use the lightshield edgehog trick (Roll towards edge, hold Z, DI off the stage), so that you can get invulnerability and set up for a number of neat things, most notably just ledgestanding, walking past him real quick and dowsmashing him back off. Don't forget to laser for damage as well at mid percents, it might cause him to get overaggressive and set him up the bomb. One last time for the quick: Don't miss with your lasers, and don't get grabbed.
Falcon
[PAWNCH]
Video: PC Chris vs. Darkrain
Falcon is one of Falco's most interesting matchups... see, the thing is, Falcon is bad against Falco. Really bad. Like, he has trouble edgeguarding you, landing hits, can't do much without a grab, his combos don't start until like 40%... whereas Falco just ***** up everything, if the Falcon fails to DI or DI's poorly, 0-death or 0-80% damage combos are not uncommon and lasers are good here too.
but the thing is Falcon doesn't care because he's fast as **** and his knee ***** Falco. Stomp->knee a level 1 cpu at 30% on YS to see what I mean.
So anyway, if you're having trouble against Falcon, it's time to get basic Falco mindgames relating to shield pressure. Practice this tech: D-air shield, shine, wavedash through Falcon, shine, wavedash, and then chase his roll (Falcons will often roll somewhere in there) with a d-air. Pressure strings like this allow you to see exactly how Falcon reacts to your approaches and then punish him hard for holding his shield too long or using his crappy spotdodge and roll.
Another game I like to play against Falcon is the "you have no aerial priority" spacing game. Against a lot of characters that can't beat out your D-air and N-air approaches consistantly, you can play laser tricksies on them. Try this string: Forward-dashing SHL, wavedash forward, Reverse-dashing SHL. This sets you up nice and tight for a quick approach, and baits them into trying to close the gap on you with a weak aerial, and you can punish with a quick D-air combo or a pressure string.
Combos on Falcon are lots of fun. On no-platform stages, stick to your space animal combos and juggles. Things like Shine, waveshine, WD and chase DI with an N-air, and continue from there are very solid and put good damage out there. Uptilts are golden on Falcon, you can usually get 2 in and then just chase DI with an Fsmash. If they refuse to DI, you can just walk to one side at medium percents and fsmash - too good. If they DI towards the middle of the stage then you can often land a JC upsmash and continue from there.
So there you have it. I've addressed your most obvious problems that aren't tech related, gave you some combos to practice and goals to work towards, and addressed your three toughest matchups and told you nothing about Samus.
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