Falco Thread(Updated on 7/14/2008)

Falco



General Discussion:

Falco is one the the three space animals, also known as the laylat trio. Falco relies on his lasers, shine, and quick moveset to win. Paired with his speed, he has good priority, two useful spikes, a descent recovery, and a chaingrab that can be very annoying. The one thing about this matchup is that pika can take away some of falco's advantages, like his laser and his shine by ducking underneath them. But, due to pika's weight, falco has an easier time killing than in other matchups.

Pika's Advantages:

1.) fsmash can outprioritize/outrange most of falco's moves
2.) dsmash can stop falco's illusion(>B)
3.) can duck under lasers AND shines(no matter how close pika is)
4.) pika can CG falco till about 40%
5.) falco's spike is almost rendered useless if using the QA

Pika's Disadvantages:

1.) pika's projectiles(thunder tjolt) can be reflected
2.) light weight= easier KO
3.) falco's airiel game> pika's airiel game
4.) dsmash can be grabbed while still smashing
5.) falco can spike
6.) cannot run under lasers(people thought this to be true on another thread)

Strategy for Winning:

Projectiles/Shine
In this matchup between falco and pikachu, the match will probably start out with both characters using their projectiles(the lasers and the tjolt). For pika, I would suggest starting out with a full hop tjolt. (This applies for stages where falco is on the same platform as you, like FD) The reason for the full hop tjolt is because falco's laser is very fast and can travel any distance. If you start out with a full jump then you can safely send a tjolt, stop the lasers from coming, and safely dodging the leftover lasers. But, remember that falco can also jump and hit you with 2 lasers. He can also not use his lasers and do a running usmash which can get you up to 20%.

If the opponent ever decides to start spamming the lasers then just duck below them and start crawling. There is still a chance that you will get hit by them, but that chance is low and moslty dependent on when you duck as compared to when they fired the shot. If you crawl be sure to time it so that your tail is up when there is no laser. Otherwise you will get hit by them. Another thing with crawling is that is can be used to avoid the thrown shine. If you ever feel a shine coming on just duck. This leads very easily to a dtilt or a fsmash if you are close enough. But, remember that the shine can also trip, which can lead to a CG at lower percents, or a sliding upsmash at higher percents.

Attacking/Being Attacked

When playing falco, they will try and use their ftilt(or even the dtilt or AAA combo) to keep you out of range of using your dsmash effectively. When they do this be sure to watch out for the fsmashes and any airiel attacks(namely the nair/fair). When falco does get you out of dsmash range and decides to stick on the offensive, spotdodge>dsmash/grab. Let him be aggresive and predictable. Be sure to watch out for him spotdodging your grab though if you do decide to take that route. Stick to mostly dsmashing since he gets hit even if he dodges. If he decides to let you be offensive one, remember that he has enough time to use his reflector if you tjolt.

When Falco dashes towards you and uses his Running A and you shield to set him up with some lag to counter-attack, more and more Falcos are discovering that they can immediately Up Smash our block attempt. The sad thing to this is that the move is without lag. I'm not sure what they have to do to perform the move, I just know that they can do it and that this could lead into some serious mind game problems for Pikachu.

What mind games? Alright, a Falco player now has two options when his Running A is blocked. They can immediately go into an Up smash, or wait a second as if the he did have lag to cancel and then gain a free attack on us. The reason I say free attack is because I and most Pikachus have been used to immediately counter-attacking out of a shield block, BUT facing this new threat, our first instinction would be the shield just a bit longer to block the upsmash. Well what if the time we chose to block an upsmash was a time where Falco did not attempt to attack us? He now has the possibility to go for a 100% connect grab or to hope we let down our shield to counter-attack so that he may unleash something more deadly, maybe a shine into some forsaken combo.

The only was I have been able to block this is, don't shield block his Running A. This by far is the easiest of all choices, you can simply roll, jump, or run. One that is a bit harder is to keep the same technique; however, you must be on your toes to get ready for a shield grab. This requires timing, and a little bit of a 6th sense to predict your opponent's move. This of course is harder to do, but still within the power of our character. The last thing to do is to avoid shielding all together, but to actually just counter with a Down Smash. I haven't generated a list but I do know that Pikachu's Down Smash has a good amount of priority over MOST of the other character's Running A attacks. Of course not against any sword users. He mainly has priority with this move if the opponent has to make physical contact with his body, such as Pikachu, Mario, Sonic, etc.

Another thing that was discvoered was that whe being chaingrabbed by falco, you can use your dair to knockback falco at around 30%. This improves your chances at beating falco immensely. DI back and use your dair. But, if the falco is on his toes, he can just shield it and continue the CG. Also, after the last CG, he can dair you, and depending on how you DI, he may be able to get another grab in.

When going on the offensive, there are a few different ways to approach falco. First is from the air. A good combo is the FF Ffair>dsmash/grab. If you find that you won't be able to combo then use your nair/fair and then back off. Get away. The nair has good knockback so be sure to use this often when in the air.Falco can easily punish untimed/laggy moves. The uair should not be used much in this matchup, use it sparingly. The bair should also be used less in this matchup due to landing lag(if you do not time it). Falco can grab you/smash you and really punish your mistakes.

The second approach is from the ground. This is where pika should shine in this match. Fsmash can kill, dsmash/ftilt/dtilt can disrupt, utilt can lead to airiel combos, and the QAC is amazing. The first thing that you should keep in mind in the beggining of the match is to try and get falco in a grab and then CG him across the board. Fthrow/Dthrow are your best friends here. Fthrow can lead to CG's and eventually get him of the stage, which leads to edgeguarding(later in this section). The dthrow can be comboed into an usmash>thunder. Even if you don't use the thunder, you still got the usmash in. Use the dthrow once the CG becomes impossible(around 40%). Grabbing can be/is the winning factor in this match.As for attacking, do not go running in to attack unless you are doing a running usmash. Play mindgames. Run in, shield, rolldodge, jump around, etc... Try and be unpredictable, which is pika's best advantage. The QAC is great for mindgames and great for getting in close to punish. Just be sure to watch out for the fsmash.

Killing/Edgeguarding/Recovering

Knowing how to kill falco is also very important. The easiest way is to get him in the sweetspot of the fsmash,, thunder him, or at higher percentages, run>usmash. Dsmash can kill too but it can be DI'ed out of, so don't be afraid to use it. Rolling into a dsmash can be effective. When falco is trying to recover, he has 2 means of getting back to the stage. The first is the firebird. Easily gimpable. Use your invincibilty frames when hanging on the ledge. The other is the illusion. Very fast and can also be used on the ground to disrupt you. There are 3 things you should be doing to stop this recovery. (1.) Thunder[most important/used] (2.) dsmash[ if you can't use the thunder then go to where falco will be and dsmash (3.) fsmash[used the least because its very hard to time. but, the reward is great.] Try and use your thunder as your edgeguard though.

Another thing you should try to do when the falco is recovering is make him go under the level. Once he is under the level and is required to up-b, you can run out and hit him with the weak part of nair for a gimp since falco has an utterly horrible up-b. If the falco knows what he is doing, he will quickly try to forward-b, and possibly cancel it so you are stuck using a D-Smash so he get a free hit, which is a very bad thing when fighting a falco.

Falco's killing potential is enormous. Up-smash will kill at around 90-100%, Sweet-Spotted F-Smash (which range is very deceiving) can kill you at 60-70% when near the edge, or more like 90-100% when in the middle of the stage. His spike can kill you at around 70% since the falco can then grab the ledge and spike you again if you go too high, or uair, which is another powerful attack, can kill at around 110%. (This section is thanks to ESAM)

As for pika's recovery, using the skullbash can lead into a spike(dair)/fsmash from falco. Use the skullbash situationally. The QA is much more useful and harder to edgeguard.

Side note: Falco can reflect the thunder right back into you. Do not thunder spam if you let the thunder hit you. Try and always wavebounce so that just in case he reflects it you will not be hurt by it.

Video:

Anther(Pikachu) vs DBS (Falco)(Anther contribution)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7frCsAAum7E

Overall matchup:

Pikachu=Falco

Osgiliath said:

Hey everyone,

This is a bit of information I found out about a day or two ago. Since this is way after the thread about this particular matchup, I wanted to make sure everyone read this. If the author of the thread wants to add this in there please by my guest.

A very important technique to us Pika players is Shielding an attack and counter-attacking quick with a Down Smash, Grab, or Up Smash; however, when facing Falco players I discovered something a little dis-heartening.

When Falco dashes towards you and uses his Running A and you shield to set him up with some lag to counter-attack, more and more Falcos are discovering that they can immediately Up Smash our block attempt. The sad thing to this is that the move is without lag. I'm not sure what they have to do to perform the move, I just know that they can do it and that this could lead into some serious mind game problems for Pikachu.

What mind games? Alright, a Falco player now has two options when his Running A is blocked. They can immediately go into an Up smash, or wait a second as if the he did have lag to cancel and then gain a free attack on us. The reason I say free attack is because I and most Pikachus have been used to immediately counter-attacking out of a shield block, BUT facing this new threat, our first instinction would be the shield just a bit longer to block the upsmash. Well what if the time we chose to block an upsmash was a time where Falco did not attempt to attack us? He now has the possibility to go for a 100% connect grab or to hope we let down our shield to counter-attack so that he may unleash something more deadly, maybe a shine into some forsaken combo.

The only was I have been able to block this is, don't shield block his Running A. This by far is the easiest of all choices, you can simply roll, jump, or run. One that is a bit harder is to keep the same technique; however, you must be on your toes to get ready for a shield grab. This requires timing, and a little bit of a 6th sense to predict your opponent's move. This of course is harder to do, but still within the power of our character. The last thing to do is to avoid shielding all together, but to actually just counter with a Down Smash. I haven't generated a list but I do know that Pikachu's Down Smash has a good amount of priority over MOST of the other character's Running A attacks. Of course not against any sword users. He mainly has priority with this move if the opponent has to make physical contact with his body, such as Pikachu, Mario, Sonic, etc.

Well, hopes this helps. For all of you who don't know me, though I'm not as popular as Anther, I have been playing Pikachu since 64. I was with him during Melee (though he sucked) an I'm still with him in Brawl. What I'm trying to say is, I know what I'm talking about....

Happy Hunting my fellow Pika users!
Osgiliath

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Funny that I haven't read this yet. I hope it's good info. *reads now*

thanks for the info. i am definately gonna put this info in here and highlight the new stuff so that everyone can see.

haha I like how he was trying to give himself credit here, when no one really does, we all assume we know what we're talking about XD

but as to falco, gotta take advantage of crawl and grabbing for sure, you can avoid dash attacks fairly easily, but thanks for the heads up on the DACUS (dash attack cancel upsmash)

i asked plasmid to post that for me. he was not taking credit for anything.

no no not plasmid, the osgiliath guy was like "i've been playing pika since n64, so i know what im talking about" I just lol'd thats all, nothing at all against plasmid

This is just a quick copy and paste of the thread I created

oops!! I didn't know someone already posted it for me. Thanks for taking the initiative Plasmid!

Much appreciated!
Os

Lol you make it seem like this is an even matchup, i highly doubt it.

First off, when you start off the match, full-hopping a thunderjolt isn't incredibly safe. He can full hop laser, hitting you with 2, or he can dash attack up-smash thing, which can send him flying towards you hit you for about 20%. CG is not that easy to get out of as pikachu, i couldn't just dair out of it. If the falco is on his toes, he can just shield it and continue the CG. Also, after the last CG, he can dair you, and depending on how you DI, he may be able to get another grab in.

One thing you should always try to do when the falco is recovering is make him go under the level. Once he is under the level and is required to up-b, you can run out and hit him with the weak part of nair for a gimp since falco has an utterly horrible up-b. If the falco knows what he is doing, he will quickly try to forward-b, and possibly cancel it so you are stuck using a D-Smash so he get a free hit, which is a very bad thing when fighting a falco.

Falco's killing potential is enormous. Up-smash will kill at around 90-100%, Sweet-Spotted F-Smash (which range is very deceiving) can kill you at 60-70% when near the edge, or more like 90-100% when in the middle of the stage. His spike can kill you at around 70% since the falco can then grab the ledge and spike you again if you go too high, or uair, which is another powerful attack, can kill at around 110%.

Pikachus thunder can be reflected, so make sure you are ALWAYS moving when you do it. Shine can also trip, which can lead to a CG at lower percents, or a sliding upsmash at higher percents.

Falco's illusion can be very hard to intercept, and even if you do, the falco i play is very good at smash DI-ing so it only gets around 7%. Keep on your toes with falco's illusion, for if he jumps and VERY QUICKLY forward-B's, it can hit you and he has barely any lag when he lands with it.

Hope i contributed to this thread

thanks dude. i will definately add some of this info into the thread.

*edit* hey guys. i just added some moare info into this thread and i hope it is a little more accurate and covers more of this matchup than before.

I face a really defensive Falco that is really hard for me to approach with anything. He always full hops 2 lasers then uses reflector to keep me at bay, the second I get close he usually uses f-smash, AAA, or again, reflector. I didn't know you can crawl under reflector, but so far I haven't even been able to QAC approach, and full hop fast fall fair comes up short. It always gets shielded and he goes into chain grab with what little lag F-air has. Any advice?

And i always thought this was in favor of falco =/

Haha the only reason I read this was cause of SK92 always placing 1st in the dang local tourneys here..
Well, I hope it works..

I play him a lot and he MINDGAMES SOOOOOO MUCH.
You really have to just be careful of Fsmash and Dair. Otherwise just CG the Falco and Use Pika's Fsmash to your advantage, Also Thunder his recovery. and when they have to use Up B get them with Uair>Nair works like a charm. :D

I try all of that but it never works in my favor, I always get out prioritized and take damage faster than the Falco. I can't QAC approach cause it always gets blocked, I can't get close enough to FF a Fair, and even when I do I get grabbed/AAA'ed in the lag of the landing every time.

im gonna be changing a few things here in a bit. dont worry.

any other tips on falco's CG? i've been CG>spike by falco a bunch of times. i didn't know that pika's dair at ~30% was fast enough (frames?) but i still think the spike part of it is a problem.
(oh and pls don't mind the avatar, i'm picking pika up)

i suppose you are picking pika up Inconspicuously? (i know bad joke) the cg to spike is pretty much unavoidable. you basically want to try to break/escape before the spike. if you are going to get spike, just get prepared to recover. not much else you can do.

So yeah, i didnt read this in the write-up and people might know this already, but I just thought I'd add. Some falco's fall in love with their illusion, and it can be really effective. Especially recovering from the stage it's expected but still hard to hit. I've found that a simple sh nair does wondering in stopping them from illusioning at all onto the stage, and from illusion camping.

Why nair? Well obviously it has more priority, it comes out very quickly and fast enough to react to seeing a falco illusion. It doesnt have a ton of lag if they choose to not illusion so you can do one again. It does a good amount of damage, has a lot of knockback (it usually hits with the first part of the attack b/c illusions so fast), and if theyre at a high percentage it'll KO them, especially if theyre on the edge.

To do well in this matchup, you must know how to play well in Jungle Japes. Easily one of Falco's best stages, pika is forced to change his approach to air, which can be easily threatened by falcos options such as his lasers. Plus you must be cautious of the chaingrab on the middle platform, where you may be spiked into the water, probably leading to your death.

Ok so now it's pretty much 60-40 Pika, or 65-35 D:

Yeah, due to the new buffer CG that is literally 1 grab = 1 stock its a lot more difficult for you guys (the bread protectors)

Hey, once we've CG'd him to 100% or so, do we have any finishing moves we can do out of the grab?

we can nair or utilt. i will update here soon.

We can also U-smash dude...

i never said we couldnt. i just named two....

Ok sir. I apologize.

update this gal! i faced a good falco in the tourney i went to this past weekend and three stocked him, but thats not the point i just think that you should update this, shouldnt be too much work...hyphen smash works too out of the last hold of the buffer chain

piman, ill update soon. give me a bit. im still worknig on the other MU's.

That doesn't work...
1. They would have to DI the F-throw toward the ledge
2. They would have to not momentum cancel OR airdodge
3. Momentum cancel + side-b recovering will let falco live at that low of a %

It's more than 60:40 imo with the new chaingrab.

I felt it was 60:40 just with the F-throw CG, we could still **** him up and we don't really get screwed over by his CG since we have an amazing recovery. Now, we get a grab and we almost get a stock. We will if they DI incorrectly (nair if the are DIing away if they are anticipating U-smash, U-smash if they are DIing up anticipating the nair.)

Also, pikachu survives until like 150 average against a falco because falco's kill moves are blatantly obvious. You know when they are gonna come.

Whatever, no need rehashing an old thread which is out-dated anyway.

Falco boards have it at 65:35, and I agree on it.

I could help by giving correct information about falco n stuff. I'll keep an eye on this thread. Might writeup later.

What all does Pikachu have in this matchup, because it sounds like it's just a chain grab and a few ways to out gimp Falco's recovery. If that's the case then shoudn't we assume that they would be expecting it and try to punish us for it or bait us into to punish us. Also does any of Falco's air moves beat Pika's, because that sounds like a possible scenario that you might want to know about when facing a Falco?

This matchup is sort of like a game of rock paper scissors. It's not quite this simple, but it sort of goes like this. If both characters focus on the grab, pikachu wins. If pikachu focuses on the grab and falco just camps, falco wins. If Falco camps and pikachu plays 'normal', falco gets ***** for free. If Falco plays 'normal', he'll eventually get grabbed. The only time you ever want to focus on the grab is if falco is doing so as well. With that in mind, the matchup should generally start out with the falco camping to avoid the grab, while you take advantage and rack of damage. Eventually the Falco cant stand to keep taking damage while camping, so he'll stop camping and likely end up getting grabbed.

Keys to this matchup are 1) being able to shut down falcos camping, 2) not overly relying on the chaingrab, and 3) not getting destroyed against falco in normal 1 on 1 fighting. Anything short of being destroyed and youll still probably be able to win.

The Truth! said:

This matchup is sort of like a game of rock paper scissors. It's not quite this simple, but it sort of goes like this. If both characters focus on the grab, pikachu wins. If pikachu focuses on the grab and falco just camps, falco wins. If Falco camps and pikachu plays 'normal', falco gets ***** for free. If Falco plays 'normal', he'll eventually get grabbed. The only time you ever want to focus on the grab is if falco is doing so as well. With that in mind, the matchup should generally start out with the falco camping to avoid the grab, while you take advantage and rack of damage. Eventually the Falco cant stand to keep taking damage while camping, so he'll stop camping and likely end up getting grabbed.

Keys to this matchup are 1) being able to shut down falcos camping, 2) not overly relying on the chaingrab, and 3) not getting destroyed against falco in normal 1 on 1 fighting. Anything short of being destroyed and youll still probably be able to win.

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Thanks this actually was insightful on how to start the match, but what would be considered normal for Pikachu campy, or aggressive?. Also how would you rack up damage on Falco if he's camping, because (for me at least) it's a bit hard to approach him due to those lasers and i'm sure if you got close enough from crawling he would just f-tilt, or f-smash you when you got to close, and then just rinse and repeat. How does Pikachu beat Falco in a grab game, I don't really know for sure or anything, but doesn't Falco's grab outrange our's? Also how would a "normal" Pikachu **** a campy Falco.

On the ground, our dtilt outranges his everything. It's also why in a straight up game of who can grab who first, pikachu can generally beat out falco, especially since theres a fairly good chance dtilt will trip. Its generally not worth it for the falco to try, although many who are unfamiliar will try so its good to know.

Its very unlikely the falco will stay on the ground and lazer, if he does then crawl or QA and punish the lazer lag when youre close enough. If he double lazers you can dash under the lasers and force a close range game. If he tries to illusion away a lot, sh dair/bair/nair/fair. Basically, between quick attack and his small size, good speed, and fairly good aerials; pikachu has very good tools to combat camping. It's something you have to practice and become proficient at, but he has the ability to do so.

Also when falcos are campy, they tend to limit themselves and become a lot more predictable. Contrast that with the pikachu who does not have to limit themselves or be as predictable and this is why pikachu generally has an advantage on a campy falco that doesnt want to get grabbed. Same way the pikachu tends to get ***** if all he focuses on is the grab, he becomes too one-dimensional and predictable. As far as 'normal' or aggro vs campy, I think it generally depends on your style, but personally I would say trying to keep it a close range game is a good deal, that way falco just tends to land into grabs in the normal flow of the game.

The Truth! said:

On the ground, our dtilt outranges his everything. It's also why in a straight up game of who can grab who first, pikachu can generally beat out falco, especially since theres a fairly good chance dtilt will trip. Its generally not worth it for the falco to try, although many who are unfamiliar will try so its good to know.

Its very unlikely the falco will stay on the ground and lazer, if he does then crawl or QA and punish the lazer lag when youre close enough. If he double lazers you can dash under the lasers and force a close range game. If he tries to illusion away a lot, sh dair/bair/nair/fair. Basically, between quick attack and his small size, good speed, and fairly good aerials; pikachu has very good tools to combat camping. It's something you have to practice and become proficient at, but he has the ability to do so.

Also when falcos are campy, they tend to limit themselves and become a lot more predictable. Contrast that with the pikachu who does not have to limit themselves or be as predictable and this is why pikachu generally has an advantage on a campy falco that doesnt want to get grabbed. Same way the pikachu tends to get ***** if all he focuses on is the grab, he becomes too one-dimensional and predictable. As far as 'normal' or aggro vs campy, I think it generally depends on your style, but personally I would say trying to keep it a close range game is a good deal, that way falco just tends to land into grabs in the normal flow of the game.

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I'm pretty sure his f-smash can beat d-tilt, and it's also a kill move so that just doesn't sound safe, but that's some cool info about the d-tilt causing a trip so thanks. ^_^

If you try to crawl under his laser your tail will get hit, unless you time it right between shots, but even if you get too close they can just throw you away with a f-smash, and i'm not completely sure but don't you have to stand up for QAC which will lead up into you getting hit by a laser still, and if you close enough could result in you getting u-smashed? Also I didn't know that many of Pikachu's aerials could beat Falco's illusion.

That's a pretty good point about the predictability if they're campy, but most of the Falco's i've played camp until you get up close and then go on the aggressive until they can camp again. I understand that part about the predictability of going for a grab, that's one of the first things I brought up about this match up. I guess being more aggressive would work, but doesn't that kind of play into Falco's CG. Since all he would have to do is shield something and then your stuck?

honestly, how i approach this matchup is, either counter his attempts at approaching with a grab, OR pshield his camping attempt till i get a single hit in, then i go to th eother end of the stage and crouch till he approaches, make him make the mistake first

Stealth Raptor said:

honestly, how i approach this matchup is, either counter his attempts at approaching with a grab, OR pshield his camping attempt till i get a single hit in, then i go to th eother end of the stage and crouch till he approaches, make him make the mistake first

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That actually sounds really good to me as well in my opinion. If you can ps good then that strategy could even make the CG very doable, so yeah thanks. ^_^

you need to have really good reaction time. ive got it down where i can pshield all the lasers and most of the time hit his phantasm on reaction. if you can bait the phantasm, start running away from falco, pshield the phantasm, then run and grab. works pretty well, and discourages them from using phantasm (which is a ***** to pshield in the first place)