any tips to get me started on my Falco?

[Jeike]

Yeah i'm takin the bird. And if you don't like it... I flip a bird. Any tips to help a beginner. Any thing I should do to get on the right trak?

[RPK]

Easy. Get use to pillaring, SHL, waveshining, phantasm to sweet spot ledge or faster get back up. know when to use bair instead of dair. and for the hell of it use the I forget the name of falco's up+B >.< so Ill just say firefox stall. and if you have the reflexes backwards SHL with falco

[BrTarolg]

well there are the basic advanced techniques and movements which you need <and some which you dont, but definately extend your options>

the most important are probably shieldgrabbing and l-cancelling - both related in aerial terms - these provide you the backbone of aerial defence and offence - learning to shffl isnt as important<but still very important!> <as it only provides you speed - mindgames are better than this> however learning to l-cancel is <it doesnt provide speed, but rather reduce lag, which is vital for avoiding shieldgrabbing>

after that its probably learning to space your aerials, and learning preset combos <for example, in NSTC - down throw combos are very important against fox> - and VERY important is edgeguarding technique - learning to make sure the opponent cannot sweetspot by using your downsmash or dtilt, and using your spike effectively as such.

after this its learning how to recover <one of the best to try against is a good marth - if you can recover against marth and jigglypuff, youve got the basics sorted> - this includes learning to mix up your recovery, mindgames on the sweetspot, and learning ledgeteching and ledgehopping, and ledge walljumping <ledgetech is easy - just press l and a direction towards the stage as you do your up+B so you wont airdodge>

once youve done all that, then you want to extend yourself to shffling, and wavedashing <use in mindgames>

once youve done THAT, THEN learn how to SHL and pillar and the various other falco extensive combos

after this youve got a pretty solid falco - the rest comes from experience and practise.

[NJzFinest]

you have everything backwards BrTarolg.
shieldgrabbing...why did u mention that? hold shield, press A, wow.
anwyas, first learn how to l-cancel since it's important with every character.
next, learn how to SHL first, if u can do that, dont use falco. in order to becaue a decent falco, you must know how to SHL effectively. then learn how to shffl and wavedash. after than try learning combos and shine techniques (pillaring, shine combing) as your tech skill raises. then try LHDL and RSHL. assuming ur tech skill is much better than u started, u know how a gateway to new mindgames or what not.

[ShizutYoMizouf]

um before u get decent wit falco u need to know how to pillar (like try pillaring fox and marth, two different stylez of pillaring lolz), how to waveshine, and turn around laser (jump up in tha air, flick tha control stick tha other way real fast, and press b, if u do phantasm ur doin it wrong). im assumin u already know tha basicz like shffling and wavedashing and shiz so i wont talk about it. but as long as u laser effectively, l cancel ur aerialz into other shiz so u dont leave urself open (usually a shine), and u jump cancel every shine (wit a wavedash or shorthop or full hop if ur pillaring a non fast faller) then u should be on ur way lolz

[7ak]

I agree with FoxandFalco...........I started with SHL because it looked so flashy but it really helped out my finger speed which is probably the most essential thing to master with Falco and Fox. If you cannot consistently SHL after 2-3 days, advanced Falco/Fox might not be within your ability to learn. Now, SHL is so easy I can't believe I ever had trouble with it....except I never bothered to learn backwards moving/forward shooting.

After SHL, you'll have SHFF down and then you can move on to L-cancels so you can SHFFL. SHFFL isn't as important as you'd think with Falco because he is so fast anyway that you're adding milliseconds, but it counts when you need to string attacks together and is especially important for pillars without lag.

For L-cancels with Falco/Fox I think bornfidelity's tip to WATCH for the second when you land and press L a split second before is absolutely right. The timing is different when you hit a shield, or even when you hit their body so its good to practice this technique so you dont miss an L-cancel.

A bonus to learning Falco is that he is great training for using Fox. I started with Falco because you need insane finger speed to use Fox but after getting sick of only using Falco I tried Fox and was amazed with the results. They're both great characters with their own well balanced pros/cons and I think everyone should learn at least one of them instead of relying on Marth, Shiek, or Peach.

[training_master(KVF)]

A bonus to learning Falco is that he is great training for using Fox. I started with Falco because you need insane finger speed to use Fox but after getting sick of only using Falco I tried Fox and was amazed with the results. They're both great characters with their own well balanced pros/cons and I think everyone should learn at least one of them instead of relying on Marth, Shiek, or Peach.

well I started playing SSBM with fox, and have played with him to this moment, but I started palying Falco about half year ago, and I think that I had to learn everything again with Falco, timings are all different, combos are pretty much different.. and I'd think that Falco isn't that much of a training in using fox... that's just my opinion..

as for getting started with Falco, I learned to do wavedash first, then SHL, then l- cancels, shffl's, pillar, reverse SHL and all that, ledgehop double laser, reverse ledgehop double laser (although I find it only flashy rather than useful), and all that kind of ****... combos and mindgames come only when you get to play people at your level, or higher.. maybe people with no skills can help your mindgames a bit, but the better player the better for you.

[7ak]

well I started playing SSBM with fox, and have played with him to this moment, but I started palying Falco about half year ago, and I think that I had to learn everything again with Falco, timings are all different, combos are pretty much different.. and I'd think that Falco isn't that much of a training in using fox... that's just my opinion..


Yeah I don't know how Fox players would adapt to Falco but starting with Falco, I found Fox a lot easier. All the SHL and SHFFL practice with Falco allowed me to do it with Fox almost as well. I could barely SH on command with Fox when I started using Falco, now I can do it probably 95% of the time.

I really wish Falco and Fox's wavedash was as easy as Luigi, Marth, IC, Samus, etc. because thats probably the most difficult technique they have which is very useful for combos. For Falco's wavedash its really important to learn early on that theres a slight delay between jumping and airdodging because Falco has a laggy jump. Fox is the complete opposite and you need to WD really fast.

[training_master(KVF)]

with fox I have most difficulties with shffl'd moves, fox's SH is so god**** fast, I have got it somehow down, but not perfectly, sometimes they just don't involve the fast fall, and I get shieldgrabbed... :(
and with Falco, my only problem is fast falling dair, I just don't seem to get it to my brain to ff it every time I do it, don't really know what's wrong with me, but lack of training I think... :/
I can SH about 99% of the times I try it with both fox and falco, but ff doesn't come that easily, but more training and I can get it down someday..

[quak]

im going to say something that will help you out more than any of the ppl above.

Read the Falco guide, it has more info that all the posts above put together.

Watch "Soldier of Fortune" on Google video by masterwumpus/bombsoldier. Then do that stuff.