Falco (Clash)

Falco Lombardi
Coming Soon
Universe	Star Fox
Appears in	Melee, Brawl, Clash
Debut	Star Fox (1993)
Availability	Starter
Tier	Unknown

Falco is a starting playable character in Super Smash Bros. Clash. Falco was the leader of a gang before becoming an expert pilot and member of the Star Fox team. Falco enters the Dark Tournament shortly after leaving Star Fox for his unknown reasons and plans to use the reward for winning the tournament for a, once again, unknown purpose. He ends up getting in some trouble on his journey though.

Falco is a heavy defensive character who's combination of blaster keep-away, Predator Missile / Reflector traps and extremely powerful Clash Attack arguably making him the most frustrating character in the game to fight. His close-up from Brawl has taken a massive nosedive in exchange, however.

Changes from Brawl to Clash

Falco has been one of the more changed veterans in the transition between games. He's received some nerfs to his close up game, but his keep away is far, far better.

First of all, he has new Side Strongs, Up Strongs, Up Smashes, Up Aerials, Forward Aerials and Down Aerials. He also has a modified Blaster and two new specials. The buffs / nerfs explained here talk about what he has from Brawl.

Buffs

• Reflector travels a longer distance.
• Reflector hits on the returning path to Falco.
• DI window for Up Throw reduced.
• Side Smash hits on frames 14 - 16 (compare 16-18) and the tip hitbox is stronger.

Nerfs

• Back Aerial first hits on frame 7, compare frame 4.
• Down Strong first hits on frame 9, compare frame 7.
• Jab first hits on frame 6, compare frame 2.
• Reflector does not trip on counterhit.
• Neutral Aerial hits on frame 6, compare frame 3. Also has 5 more frames landing recovery and less priority.
• Down Throw has increased base knockback, so unless you use it decayed, good luck chain grabbing with it.

Pros & Cons

Falco is a very crafty character who has a ton of tools at his disposal for annoying opponents and keeping them outside attack range. He's also notable for now being almost completely different from Fox now; all they share now is a tilt, dash attack, pummel and 4 throws. The two also play as different as night and day, Fox attempting to rushdown with his shine and Fox Illusion and Falco plays keep away to an extremely good degree.

Falco is an extremely difficult character to get inside on thanks to his variety of projectiles and massive amount of ways to punish dodges. His blaster-Predator Rocket combo allows him to really control what the other fighter does and react appropriately, allowing Falco to easily bust out a counter. Since he is so good at performing several attacks consecutively, Falco builds up the Clash Attack Meter he needs for MANY things (bursts for when a foe is inside, canceling lasers, etc.) much faster than other characters. He also has a great flight mode, is fairly good at combos despite his weak offense, good Final Smashes and some solid methods of anti-air.

Falco's close range offense is really weak, has very bad throw options, and doesn't have a lot in terms of mix-ups. Falco also has some powerful attacks, but frequently has problems landing that knockout blow. He does have good recovery, but is very very easy to gimp because of the charge time his flight mode needs to be effective and his fast falling speed. Of course, Falco is still a very light, low armor, fast falling character which means almost every character can get him to knock out percents with two combos. A solid invincibility frame or teleport move also helps characters to approach him greatly, and makes Falco's life that much harder.

Falco plays a lot differently than he did in Brawl. You could make a solid argument for him being the most modified character actually; people who enjoyed Falco's space control with lasers will enjoy him here but people who like his excellent close offense with dash combos and chain throws will think otherwise. People who like a character who has a lot of space control and mindgames should give the Brooklyn Bird a try or two; you aren't going to regret it.

As long as you don't get your hands on his bread, of course.

Pros

• Some of the game's best keep away
• He has a lot of ways to play with the opponent's head
• Most characters have major problems dealing with his assaults by dodge means
• One of the best meter builders in the game.
• Plenty of options for damaging combos
• Fast normal attacks
• Solid super attacks

Cons

• Very weak game when he is forced to play inside an opponent's range
• Really really bad grab game
• Some problems with knocking out the other fighters
• Extremely easy to combo for high damage.
• Very little defense while he is recovering.
• Mobility, outside his outstanding normal jump, is on the bad side.
• Teleports and invincibility frame attacks give him enormous problems

Moveset

• Note: For Falco's 'Blaster' tilts and aerials, holding the Attack button causes the shots to come out more slowly and recover slower, but also causes him to fire two sets of shots with two blasters and can flinch the characters normal blaster attacks cannot, i.e. Ganondorf, Bowser and R.O.B.
• Notes: Falco's 'Blaster' tilts and aerials are Clash Cancelable.

Ground Moves

Normals

• Neutral Attack: Falco does a wing slash, then another wing slash, then spins around with a bunch of slashing attacks. This move has taken a fairly steep speed nosedive, it's still not a bad move. Every hit recovers quickly, has high priority, combos into a Side Smash at any percent, and the first two hits set the opponent up for an easy tick grab. One of Falco's better up close and personal attacks.
  • Damage: 4% first hit, 2% second hit, all spinning hits do 1% each
• Side Strong Attack: Falco takes out a blaster and fires two shots with it, straight forward. If you hold the Attack button down, Falco takes out two blasters and fires two shots each. These projectiles travel the entire screen without exhausting beforehand. The regular, two-shot version is decent in projectile wars because of it's quick recovery time. The dual gun version does great damage and has a much higher armor break rating than the regular shots in exchange for being slow to shoot and recover. This one of the primary tools in Falco's fantastic keep away game, and a move you will be using a lot especially against characters without effective projectiles.
  • Damage: 3% for each shot, if 3 or more shots land 1% chip is dealt
• Up Strong Attack: Falco takes out a blaster and fires two shots with it at a 45 degree angle upward. If you hold the Attack button down, Falco takes out two blasters and fires two shots each. These projectiles travel the entire screen without exhausting beforehand. These make for great counters to people who try to jump over your projectiles; particular against Luigi's Super Jump antics. The charged, two gun version is useful for countering 45 degree angle projectiles and as an early anti-air attack. The one blaster version is also good as a late anti-air due to being a projectile, therefore beating most moves. This is pretty useful in general.
  • Damage: 3% for each shot, if 3 or more shots land 1% chip is dealt
• Down Strong Attack: Falco does a sweeping attack with his tail feathers. Not much knockback or hitstun on this, plus it's slower. At least it has a low hitbox to stab through shields with. Seeing as how Falco's few good personal close options are better than this in more ways than one, you probably aren't going to find much use for it. Stronger when it connects close to Falco.
  • Damage: 12% close, 9% far
• Dash Attack: Falco hops off the ground slightly and performs a kick. Comes out pretty quickly (frame 4; one of Falco's fastest attacks) and sets the opponent up for easy juggles, including Up Smash set-ups. This attack doesn't recover incredibly quickly, but it does decent shieldstun if the target doesn't perfect shield it, so some characters have problems punishing it. Has some decent knockback on it, being able to KO above 200%; some lighter characters before that.
  • Damage: 9%

Smash Attacks

• Side Smash Attack: Falco does a dual wing overhead slash with a very small vacuum effect to it. This is Falco's strongest regular attack and one of his few reliable methods of landing knockouts. Landing it outside of a combo is easier said than done due to the sweetspot and fair start-up. This has decent range, but it is much weaker if it hits from far away; only at point blank is it really going to send people flying. At all ranges, this is safe against most characters on block. Like in Brawl, this also has the distinction of being the strongest Side Smash between the Star Fox fighters like how Fox has the strongest Up Smash and Wolf has the strongest Down Smash.
  • Damage Tip: 10% uncharged, 14% charged
  • Damage Close: 15% uncharged, 21% charged
• Up Smash Attack: Falco does an upwards drilling attack with his beak that hits several times. Takes Falco above the ground slightly, so some moves like Donkey Kong's Hand Slap avoid Falco during this. This attack starts up FAST (frame 9), recovers quickly and has an invincibility frame at the start, so if you can master the timing on abusing said frame you can do some ridiculous anti-air things with this. Not a very hard attack to combo into, but is Falco's weakest Smash Attack. It also does the most damage if every hit connects though, so you're probably going to be using this more in combos or as anti-air than to kill some one.
  • Damage: Does 7 hits; the first 3 always do 2%. The last 4 do 2-2-2-4 uncharged (for 16% total) and 3-4-3-6 (for 23% total).
• Down Smash Attack: Falco does a split kick. Comes out very quickly and has some decent range on it, and like the Down Strong useful as a poke / shield stab; be very weary of using this in a blockstring if you aren't going to break a shield though because this isn't safe. Fairly strong horizontal knockback, but if you can hit an airborne opponent with it this sends people vertically. A pretty good killing move, but the weird hitbox makes this a lot harder to combo into than your Side Smash.
  • Damage: 14% uncharged, 19% charged

Aerial Moves

• Neutral Attack: Falco does a series of slashing attacks with his wings. It still has alright priority, speed and landing lag, but obviously none of those are as good as in Brawl. This is still good when close for combo set-ups since on hit it provides a lot of frame advantage, allowing Falco to link into several attacks. Also works well to hit people below or right above platforms; decently sized hitbox. Pretty good aerial for Lombardi.
  • Damage: First two hits do 3%, second 2%, final hit 4%
• Forward Aerial: Falco takes out a blaster and fires two shots with it at a chosen direction. If you hold the Attack button down, Falco takes out two blasters and fires two shots each. These projectiles travel the entire screen without exhausting beforehand. This is a rare side aerial that can be angled; holding Up Forward causes Falco to shoot at a 45 degree angle upward, Down Forward 45 degrees downward, and just forward sends the bullets straight ahead. Very useful for controlling air space and making some very tricky to manuever through "walls" of projectiles, and when combined with the Predator Rocket, creates some very tricky situations for air dodges. Used properly in tandem with Falco's other keep away tools, it can be very hard for most of the cast to defend against these things. Also note that the single gun version of this can flinch everyone unlike the ground shots. The single shot version can be auto-canceled, so after landing a KO it is pretty good for building meter. Timing is strict though.
  • Damage: 3% for each shot, if 3 or more shots land 1% chip is dealt
• Back Aerial: Falco stretches one of his legs out behind him, kicking anyone who comes close. Fairly fast start-up, has a larger hitbox than you'd think and is one of Falco's stronger aerial attacks. This is a pretty good approaching attack if you do want to get close with Falco for some strange reason due to it's long lasting hitbox and large frame advantage on hit or block. Good attack. At it's strongest when you hit with it early, although it isn't horribly weak if you hit late.
  • Damage: 13% initial, 9% otherwise
• Up Aerial: Falco slashes one wing upward, then performs a powerful circle kick. Comes out very quickly (on frame 3), has high knockback and delivers heavy frame advantage if you only get the first part to hit. This move does, though, lack range or quick recovery. The priority also seems to be pretty bad, and the two hits are not a natural combo against the entire cast. Still, it's Falco's most powerful aerial attack and makes for a good combo finisher.
  • Damage: 3% first hit, 8% second hit, 11% total
• Down Aerial: Falco takes out a blaster and fires two shots with it straight downward. If you hold the Attack button down, Falco takes out two blasters and fires two shots each. These projectiles travel the entire screen without exhausting beforehand. By far the least useful version of Falco's 'regular' projectile attacks, but is pretty useful to stop anti-air attacks without invincibility frames and can also be used as a very weak Meteor Smash. Recovers slightly quicker than Forward Aerial shots but has more landing lag and isn't auto-cancelable.
  • Damage: 3% for each shot, if 3 or more shots land 1% chip is dealt

Grabs and Throws

• Grab: Quick swipe. Decent range, starts fast. Dash is a bit slower; so's the pivot.
• Pummel: Falco knees the opponent. Good speed.
  • Damage: 2%
• Forward Throw: Falco punches the foe, launching them forward. Combos into a Side Smash at low percents for an easy, damaging combo or into a Dash Attack for a longer one, but that's about it.
  • Damage: 7%
• Back Throw: Falco throws the foe backward and shoots them a bunch of times with a blaster. Does awful damage if not a lot of the shots hit, and even if they all hit you can't really do much off of this except set the opponent up for an edgeguard.
  • Damage: Initial throw is 2%, up to 6% from blaster shots
• Up Throw: Falco throws the foe up into the air and shoots them a bunch of times with a blaster. Like the back throw does really bad damage, and if they all hit it's not much. It's a little harder to DI out of it, allowing more of the shots to connect at least... well, it does get your opponent into the air.
  • Damage: Initial throw is 2%, up to 6% from blaster shots
• Down Throw: Falco throws the foe onto the ground and then shoots them a bunch of times with a blaster. Unlike the back / up throws these blaster shots always hit for ok damage. Combined with his weaker [Meteor Smash] Down Aerial and the lack of a viable chain grab with this move, this is a lot worse than it was in Brawl. It's still Falco's weakest throw in terms of knockback growth, so at mid percents it's possible to do a couple combos with it.
  • Damage: 9% (3% initial throw, 6% lasers)
• Air Throw: Falco punches the foe forward in the air, then shoots them a bunch of times with a blaster. Decent range and priority like the ground grab. Noticeably more damage and DI difficulty than the ground blaster throws make it decent. Given Falco's control over an opponent's dodging ability with his projectiles, you have a lot of opportunities to land this attack.
  • Damage: Initial throw is 7%, up to 6% from blaster shots

Special and Super Moves

Standard Special Move: Blaster

Falco still has a blaster, but it's a bit difference since he basically as his Brawl one divided into several normal attacks. This makes Falco takes out the blaster model from Star Fox: Assault and fire a shot with it. Holding the special button down makes Falco charge the blaster. Once it reaches max charge it is automatically fired. The air version of this attack makes Falco shoot at a 45 degree angle downward and can only be used once the total time Falco is in the air.

Good in projectile wars since they don't have as much of a start-up or recovery problem as 'tilt' blasters. The full charge version has +1 priority letting you win several wars with it when combined with proper canceling.

You should always be canceling your regular blaster shots into this for some more shield damage and to keep an opponent locked down with projectiles. This doesn't deal a lot of hitstun or blockstun; the lower charge versions of this are not safe on block up close and the full charge version just barely provides Falco frame advantage (+2) on block.

Like with Mega Man's Mega Buster, Falco can move around and attack while charging the Blaster, so if you land a normal while charging this you can easily combo into the blaster with a cancel.

A note for the Blaster is that Falco cannot perform a Side Smash (which uses both of his hands, inputting the motion for it gets a dash attack), any of his 'tilt' blasters or grab opponents while you charge it.

A pretty good move for Falco, and one of the main moves utilized in his keep away game.

This attack does 5%-14% depending on the charge.

Smash Special Version: Automatically at full charge, has the recovery cut in half and allows you to perform tilt blasters while keeping it held. This effectively means you can create insane walls of projectiles with tilt blasters, then firing an EX-Blaster, then recover fast enough to fire more tilt blasters or whatever. This and the Reflector are probably Falco's best Smash Specials.

Side Special Move: Predator Rocket

This makes Falco place a blue, glowing pod into the ground. If an opponent steps on this pod, nothing happens. If an opponent passes the pod's area while airborne, the pod is immediately set off and fires a red laser at the target with infinite vertical range.

Falco can have up to two Predator Rockets on stage at the same time. If he tries to put down a third, the first one he put down automatically goes off and he then places down the what-would-be third rocket.

This and Falco's various Blaster attacks make up the majority of Falco's keep away game. Your goal is to get the opponent into a false sense of aerial safety with your blaster, then they should be hit by or at least try to air dodge your Predator Rocket.

If you use this move properly, Falco has a lot of control over the other fighter's head and can severely limit what they can do. When playing Falco, you are always going to be deciding what to do between firing Lasers or setting up Rockets. Once you have lasers and rockets in place, you have a lot of control over what to do next once the opponent reacts between setting up more traps, a Final Smash, going for an air throw or other actions.

It also has high knockback, KOing at 140% if every hit connects, and due to it's auto-activation feature can be useful for extension combos.

Basically, this is a better version of Snake's Down Smash mines combined with attacks like Inferno or Purification. Quite an impressive attack.

This attack does 7 hits for 2%, totaling to 14%.

Smash Special Version: Activates against grounded opponents and is OTG-capable. Useful if you've gotten the foe incredibly scared into jumping between your other projectile traps. Falco's other Smash Specials are improvements over this, though.

Up Special Move: Booster Pack

Falco takes out a Booster Pack and straps it on his back, letting him fly around the stage.

Basically this is Falco's flight mode. During this time, your air speed is much faster, but you can't air dodge or use your Final Smashes. Makes for a fantastic recovery move due to how much distance you can cover, though. Lasts for about 4 seconds, but needs to recharge like R.O.B. and Fawful's Up Bs.

This is a bit better than other flight modes offensively since you can still perform your 'tilt' blaster shots with it, so it can be useful for just flying out of someone's reach.

Smash Special Version: Only lasts 3 seconds, but it now has access to a chain combo-style feature. Falco can now cancel his Neutral Aerial into a Back Aerial. This flight also has a slightly longer air dash. Not really a useful attack at all; meter should be used on EX-Reflector/Blaster or even Predator Rocket.

Down Special Move: Reflector

Falco kicks his reflector forward. This acts as both a quick attack and a method of reflecting weak projectiles. Pretty handy.

There have been three noteworthy changes made to this move from Brawl.

For positive changes, this move now hits twice; once on the way forward and also on the way back. This makes it great for some extension combos, but be aware of the hitstun scaling system if you want to use this late in a combo. The second hit only provides +10 frame advantage on hit, so whatever you're comboing into needs to come out fast. Also has slightly extended range on it. Another not so great note on this is that unlike most attacks, the Reflector's two hits count as separate attacks meaning a Reflector, Reflector 2nd into Down Smash combo will have the Dsmash deal 90% of it's normal damage.

When used against another opponent's attack, though, this will never trip an opponent. It's not the biggest nerf but it's something.

This move still comes out EXTREMELY fast letting you interrupt many attacks with it and is one of the few good tools Falco has up close for pestering an opponent, poking someone (only at max range; this is very unsafe if blocked right next to someone) and comboing a character. Has high priority too.

Due to the extended range and speed, this is also useful in Falco's keep away. If you're too far away to punish a Predator Rocket air dodge with a air grab, this usually does the trick. Usually only the first hit connects though.

Like all reflectors in the game, note that any projectile with +2 priority or better can not be reflected; moves like Mewtwo's full charge Shadow Ball, Samus's full charge Charge Shot, all super projectiles and Pikachu's Thunder will go straight through the reflector and hit Falco for trying.

Both hits of this do 6%.

Super Smash Version: Hits once for 9%, makes Falco kick the reflector full screen really fast and unlike other EX Reflectors, this can reflect some (but not all) Clash Attacks; standard projectiles like Shinku Hadoken are no problem. Beams like Mario Finale are another story. Final Smashes still cannot be reflected entirely. A really good move for Falco since it's so fast, usually sends projectiles back to an opponent before they recover and has so much range. Very good tool to use in matches against other defensive characters.

Clash Attack: Missile Launcher

• Uses 1 bar of Falco's Clash Attack Meter
• Done with Forward, Down, Down Forward + Special + Attack

Falco takes out a... missile launcher. Once it's out, Falco shoots a missile out of it that is controllable until it collides with something or is on screen for 6 seconds, where it then blows up. After that the process repeats twice with two more missiles.

A bit on the slow side but EXTREMELY powerful, as one missile connects it provides enough hitstun to hit with all the others from anywhere on the screen for a very damaging combo. The final missile provides massive knockback, usually KOing another fighter at 55%. Like with Snake's controlled missiles, the missiles travel faster the longer they travel in a straight path.

Some of Falco's more hitstun heavy attacks (such as sweetspot Side Smash, first hit Uair, etc.) provide enough time to combo into this move, but the cancel into it needs to be done FAST. You can also cancel into this from most of your special keep away attacks (Blasters, Predator Rocket set-ups and the like) to create even more difficult air dodge situations. Not to mention, if the fighter does block it you still get a lot of chip damage.

Each missile does 15% with 4% chip, totaling to 45% regular damage and 12% chip.

Final Smash 1: Arwing

• Requires his entire Super Smash Meter to be filled.
• Done with Down, Down Forward, Forward + Special + Attack.

This has Falco pose for about 20 frames while he tries to call an Arwing. Once the 20 frames are up, Falco hops into the Arwing and he can do a variety of tasks in it. All 20 start-up frames are invincible.

Falco is in the Arwing for 12 seconds and you have a wide variety of tasks available with it:

• Just tilting the control stick around has it move in a desired direction. Like with the Landmasters, if someone is 'riding' on the Arwing you can fly straight up for a star KO.
• Tapping any backwards direction has the Arwing turn around. This does 10% with 2% chip.
• Tapping a direction makes the Arwing perform a dash. Straight up and down dashes do not deal any damage or knockback, but side ones deal very high knockback and damage; 20% with 5% chip.
• Pressing an Attack button has the Arwing perform a Barrel Roll. This does 26% with 7% chip.
• Pressing a Special button has the Arwing shoot a laser. This does 18% with 4% chip and has +5 projectile priority; enough to beat most Clash Attack projectiles. This will get beaten out by most projectile Final Smashes, though.
• Pressing a Grab button has the Arwing charge forward very slightly. This small charge is actually a throw; it's the only attack the Arwing has that cannot be shielded or air dodged. If the charge connects the Arwing flies into the sky with an opponent, then crashes down and piledrives them into the ground. Does 24% and doesn't have much range on it but is a frame 4 move.
• Pressing a Shield button has the Arwing drop bombs. Each use of this Final Smash only provides you with 5 of these, so use them wisely. They automatically explode when they hit the ground or make any contact with a character, and deal 17% with 4% chip.

There is one major thing to note: The Arwing is not completely invincible. Beam Final Smashes will slow it down significantly, and the cockpit also has 45% worth of super armor; if someone can get on the Arwing without being killed it is possible to end the Final Smash by breaking through the cockpit's window.

Still, this gives you a lot of power and speed, and a lot of characters don't really have many answers to this Final Smash. Pretty useful.

Final Smash 2: Plasma Cannon

• Requires at least half his Super Smash Meter to be filled.
• Done with Forward, Down Forward, Down, Down Back, Back + Special + Attack.

Falco takes out the titular Plasma Cannon out of hyperspace and blasts a massive beam of plasma energy from it's mouth. The initial appearance of the Plasma Cannon can hit characters.

This move takes 38 frames to actually starting shooting, but the Plasma Cannon pop up will hit on frame 7, and has a very large hitbox right above Falco. You can use this attack well as an anti-air because of the pop up speed. While it is NOT a guaranteed combo into the plasma energy beam, most characters still cannot air dodge through the whole thing so you can get some hits in.

Falco's wide variety of projectiles, namely the Predator Rocket, allow you to combo into this attack from a long distance. If someone does something stupid from a far, you can also make them pay for it heavily with this move.

This has the highest projectile priority of any projectile attack in the game at +8 priority, beating out other beam Final Smashes like Hyper Mega Man and the Zero Laser, which is a good property.

The initial cannon pop does 5%. The beam does 35 hits worth 68-95% depending on how much Super Smash Meter you had. Up to 16-22% is dealt in chip.