The ideal patch: Falco

[TheLobsterCopter5000]

In just about every smash bros appearance, Falco has been considered a worse version of Fox. But, to quote Corrin: 'This ends here!' as i present the ideal patch for Falco. Note: this thread is part of my own project to create a hypothetical 1.1.7 patch for all fighters in the game.

weight: 82 -> 88
air speed: 0.93 -> 1.01 *
gravity: 0.13 -> 0.125 **
jumpsquat: 6 frames -> 4 frames ***
rapid jab damage: 0.4 -> 0.6 ****
up tilt FAF: 37 -> 34
up tilt (hit 2) KBG: 150 -> 162 ****
forward smash hitbox information: late hitbox replaced with extended clean hitbox
forward smash KBG: 90/93/96 -> 97
forward smash hitbox active: 17-20 -> 16-20
Down throw base KB: 60 -> 57
Down throw KBG: 110 -> 98
Down throw IASA frame: 2 frames earlier (actual values unavailable)
air dodge intangibility: 2-26 -> 2-27 *****
Nair autocancel ASA: frame 43 -> frame 38
Fair (loop) hit rate: 5 -> 6
Fair autocancel ASA: frame 46 -> frame 42
Bair (clean) KBG: 130 -> 135
Bair (clean) hitbox size: 4.8/3.2 -> 5.0/3.4
Bair autocancel ASA: 15 -> 14
Uair FAF: 34 -> 30
Uair autocancel ASA: frame 23 -> frame 21
Dair autocancel ASA: frame 38 -> 35
Blaster damage: 3 -> 4 ******
Reflector (hit) hitbox active: 5-14 -> 5-16
Reflector (hit) damage: 5 -> 6
Reflector (reflection) reflect-box active: 1-33 -> 1-40

* Falco's air game is meant to be his strong suit, buffing his air speed will improve this. Also faster recovery
** Harder to juggle, harder to gimp and edgeguard, slightly higher jumps, slightly improved recovery
*** can get into the air quicker
**** this move has abysmal range, but is still the weakest rapid jab in the game, even weaker than Fox's
***** changes to move's FAF and Falco's jumpsquat compensate for the slightly reduced combo potential
****** safer recovery, harder to edgeguard
******* since this is so much slower than fox's, it deserves a slightly larger damage buff

sigh, the sad fact is, people only reply to my threads to complain.

 

[JasonKaroshi]

Well, not in all games is he considered a worse version. In Brawl he's much better than Fox due to his laser camping and down throw chaingrabs. Moving on, I think first we need to identify Falco's weaknesses. First off, his recovery. His main problem is his vertical recovery is pretty bad. Despite having a good jump and horizontal recovery, he still lacks vertical distance. This isn't as bad as melee due to magnet hands, but we should increase the length by a smidge, but not as long as Fox's. His Fire Bird will also move faster. Secondly, his neutral game. His projectile is much too slow and punishable. We're going to give it autocancel properties similar to Melee and Brawl, allowing him to short hop fast fall single laser, however, to keep him from being too polarizing, after every 5th laser, he will have a brief reload time of about 30ish frames. If Falco has not fired a laser in around 7 seconds, the laser counter will refresh, allowing him to fire 5 more consecutive lasers. Just to make him more fluid and faster, I'll be removing some end lag on his moves, namely, Fair and Dair. Originally, they'll have 25 and 23 frames of landing lag respectively, but now they'll have 18 and 16 respectively, making them much faster. His Dair will also retain it's melee startup time, instead of the long duration it is now, however his dair will be similar to PAL, where the sex kick hitbox does not spike, but instead sends them horizontally. We'll also decrease his jump squat by 2 frames and increase his air speed to match Zelda's, at 1.04. I'll also decrease the knockback on Falco's up throw, increasing his KO potential from a grab.

In Summary:

- Increase Fire Bird speed and length.
- Let lasers autocancel, but must recharge after 5 uses
- Fair landing lag 25 -> 18
- Dair landing lag 23 -> 16
- Melee PAL Dair
- Jump Squat 6 frames -> 4 frames
- Air Speed 0.93 -> 1.04
- Decreased Up Throw knockback growth 100, 80 > 80, 70

This should let him move faster in the air, while keeping up the pressure with lasers and a strong spike, however he cannot spam with lasers, limiting himself to 5. He's able to take to the air faster and have overall better mobility. To be honest this might make him a high tier or even top tier character in the right hands, simply due to how powerful lasers are in the neutral game, how strong dair is on and offstage, and his new kill confirm in Up Throw Up Air.

This is all just my opinion btw.

 

[MERPIS]

- Melee PAL Dair

You would be able to get dair out of a dthrow on some characters at some percents, that thing comes out on frame 7, pretty broke, but then again, Falco needs everything he can get at this point.