Template:SSB4 to SSBU changelist/Falco

Aesthetics

• Falco's design is now a combination of his appearance in Star Fox Zero, and his design used in Brawl and SSB4. His flight suit, boots, and headset are from Zero while retaining his weapon designs and head proportions from SSB4. His eyes are now colored green instead of blue, his beak is slightly smaller, and his feathers are also more pronounced. Lastly, the aesthetic used in Ultimate has resulted in Falco's overall color scheme being more vibrant.
• Falco's holster has been redesigned indigo with vegas gold tints, and his headset is now entirely gray. These changes are unique to Ultimate.
• Idle, sidestep, roll, initial and secondary falling animations animations have changed slightly. However, he will revert to his idle animation from Brawl while holding a small item.
• Much like in Melee, Falco once again vocalizes when performing a midair jump.
• Falco now says "Come on!" during his side taunt instead of "Get some!".
• Falco now does a different pose in his jumping in the air victory animation.
• Falco has a new victory pose. He walks up to the camera, shrugs, and says "Sorry! Gotta jet!" while crossing his arms. This line replaces his "You aren't worth the trouble." line from previous games.

Attributes

• Like all characters, Falco's jumpsquat animation takes 3 frames to complete (down from 6).
• Falco runs faster (1.472 → 1.619).
  • His initial dash is faster (1.9 → 2.035).
• Falco walks slightly faster (1.28 → 1.344).
• Falco's air speed is slightly higher (0.93 → 0.977).
• Falco's traction is significantly higher (0.065 → 0.127).
• Forward roll grants less intangibility (frames 4-16 → 4-15).
• Back roll has more startup with less intangibility (frames 4-16 → 5-16), and more ending lag (FAF 30 → 35).
• Back roll has a new animation in which Falco jumps backwards after the initial flip. As such it covers even more distance.
• Spot dodge has more startup (frame 2 → 3).
• Air dodge grants more intangibility (frames 2-26 → 2-27).
• Air dodge has more ending lag (FAF 32 → 44).

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • The first hit transitions into the second faster (frame 9 → 5), which transitions into the neutral infinite faster (frame 10 → 7). The second hit's automatic transition into the infinite (by holding the button when it hits) is also faster (frame 18 → 7).
  • The neutral infinite has faster startup (frame 8 → 5), a much shorter gap between hits (5 frames → 2), and deals less hitlag, in addition to keeping opponents on the ground, allowing it to connect much more reliably and making it harder to escape.
  • The neutral infinite's finisher has a new animation: Falco performs a spinning downwards kick instead of a knifehand strike, and backflips upon finishing the attack.
  • Neutral infinite's finisher connects better due to its hitbox change, as it was prone to missing in Smash 4.
  • All hits except the finisher deal less damage (3% → 1.5% (hit 1), 2% → 1.5% (hit 2), 0.4% → 0.3% (infinite)).
  • Falco no longer moves forward when performing each hit of neutral attack, decreasing its range. Additionally, the first two hits have a shorter duration (frames 2-4 → 2 (hit 1), frames 3-5 → 3-4 (hit 2)).
  • The neutral infinite's finisher has one frame more ending lag (FAF 40 → 41).
  • The first and second hits have altered angles (68°/77°/80° (hit 1), 80°/50°/45° (hit 2) → 361°/180° (both)) and knockback (35 (base), 30 (scaling) (hit 1), 30/30 (hit 2) → (25/20)/(30/25/20) (both)) to keep opponents close to Falco, akin to other neutral attacks. This allows them to connect better and jab lock, but hinders their guaranteed jab cancel setups.
  • Neutral infinite has a much larger "wind" particle around Falco while he spins.
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt has less ending lag (FAF 28 → 25).
  • It deals less damage (9% → 6%).
  • It has altered knockback (0 (base), 100 (scaling) → 42/60), making it much weaker overall. This makes forward tilt slightly safer at lower percents and allows it to tech-chase at KO percents, but hinders its locking potential and greatly reduces its KO potential to the point it can no longer KO under 300% from center stage.
• Up tilt:
  • Up tilt has much less ending lag (FAF 37 → 30), significantly improving its combo potential.
  • The first active frame is now able to hit aerial opponents.
  • It deals less damage (4% → 3.5% (hit 1), 3% → 2.7% (hit 1, late tip), 5% → 4% (hit 2)).
    • The second hit's knockback was not compensated, further aiding in combos but reducing its KO potential.
• Down tilt:
  • All of down tilt's hitboxes deal more damage (12%/11%/9% (near/mid/far) → 13%/12%/10.5%) and the mid hits have higher base knockback (35 → 40). This improves the move's KO potential, while keeping its combo potential intact due to Falco's faster jumpsquat.
  • Down tilt launches at a more vertical angle (75˚ → 85˚), allowing it to KO earlier.
  • Down tilt has slightly more startup (frame 7 → 8).
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack deals more damage on both early and late hitboxes (9% (early)/6% (late) → 10.5%/7.5%) along with compensated knockback growth (70 → 63/61), making it KO slightly earlier.
• Forward smash:
  • Forward smash deals more damage (15% → 16% (clean), 10% → 12% (late)), with its knockback scaling not fully compensated (90/93/96 → 89/91/93), improving its KO potential.
  • It has an altered animation where Falco does not move as far forward, hindering its range.
• Up smash:
  • Up smash has a new animation: a 540 kick while facing the camera (if facing left, his back is toward the camera). In terms of execution, it is similar to Captain Falcon's up smash.
  • Up smash's second hit deals more damage (12% → 13%), with only some of its knockback compensated (31 (base), 104 (scaling) → 28/102), improving its KO potential.
  • Its animation change lifts its hitboxes much higher from the ground. This prevents it from hitting behind Falco, and reduces its horizontal reach in front of him, with up tilt's first hit having more range; it also limits his ability to hit shorter, crouching or prone opponents with the move, even if they are directly in front of him. This drastically reduces up smash's utility.
• Down smash:
  • Down smash has one extra frame of intangibility (frames 3-7 → 3-8).
  • It has more startup lag (frame 7 → 8).
  • The sourspot's angle has been altered (80° → 361°).
  • Falco's torso faces the camera while performing down smash. He also spreads his palms out towards the camera, with one arm on the ground.

Aerial attacks

• All aerials have less landing lag (15 frames → 9 (neutral, up), 25 → 15 (forward), 15 → 13 (back), 23 → 11 (down)).
• Neutral aerial:
  • Neutral aerial's third and fourth hits have less startup lag (frame 14 → 10 (hit 3), frame 23 → 17 (hit 4)).
    • However, the move's total duration remains the same, thus increasing its ending lag. This worsens its ability to combo into other attacks without landing.
  • Its reduced landing lag allows it to combo into itself repeatedly near the ground from low to mid percents, drastically improving its damage racking potential.
  • Neutral aerial autocancels earlier (frame 43 → 41).
  • Due to Falco rising faster from his jumps, opponents are more likely to fall out of neutral aerial's looping hits, making it harder to connect.
  • It has a larger "wind" particle around Falco while he spins.
• Forward aerial:
  • Forward aerial has less startup lag (frame 10 → 7).
    • However, its total duration remains the same, thus slightly increasing its ending lag.
  • It auto-cancels earlier (frame 46 → 42).
  • The landing hit deals more base knockback (30 → 50), allowing it to KO more reliably near edges.
  • Its hitboxes are smaller (5u (loop)/6u (finisher) → 4u/5u), reducing the move's range.
  • The landing hitbox is smaller (5u → 4u) and further back (Z offset 7-12 → 5-10), reducing its range and shortening its previously very large disjoint.
  • The initial auto-cancel window is shorter (frames 1-5 → 1-4).
  • The last hit has lower knockback scaling (145 → 137).
• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial has significantly increased startup lag (frame 4 → 9). This makes it harder for him to hit opponents out of a short hop with the move, and it is no longer one of the fastest-starting back aerials in the game.
    • However, its total duration remains the same, thus reducing its ending lag compared to the hitbox, slightly improving its followup potential.
  • It auto-cancels later (frame 15 → 20).
  • It has an altered animation, with one of Falco's arms facing the camera while he looks back over his shoulder. This animation shrinks Falco's hurtbox more, improving its reliability.
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial does less damage (10% → 9%), with its knockback adjusted (35 base/90 scaling → 38/95), dealing slightly more knockback at low percents and slightly less at high percents, slightly weakening its KO potential without improving its combo potential.
  • It has an altered animation where Falco's body faces the side of the screen more than in SSB4, matching the hitboxes more closely.
• Down aerial:
  • Down aerial has significantly faster startup (frame 16 → 10), being only twice the startup of Falco's down aerial in Brawl.
    • It also has less ending lag (FAF 51 → 43).
  • It auto-cancels earlier (frame 38 → 30), restoring its ability to auto-cancel from a short hop. Combined with its faster startup and lower landing lag, this significantly improves its previously situational use, making it more reliable for approaching and contesting opposing attacks.
  • Down aerial's clean hit on grounded opponents has more base knockback, but less knockback scaling (10 (base), 80 (scaling) → 55/50). This allows it to start combos at a wider range of percents, but hinders its KO potential.
  • The clean hit has been moved slightly further along Falco's leg (X offset 3.5 → 4.2, increasing its range below Falco but reducing its internal range.

Throws and other attacks

• All grabs have less startup lag (frame 8 → 6 (standing), frame 10 → 9 (dash), frame 11 → 10 (pivot).
• Standing and dash grab have more ending lag (FAF 32 → 35 (standing), 40 → 43 (dash)).
• Pummel:
  • Pummel deals less damage (2% → 1.3%).
  • It deals more hitlag (4 frames → 14), but has much less startup (frame 5 → 1) and ending lag (FAF 16 → 7).
• As a consequence of the faster knockback physics, back throw and up throw's lasers stop connecting earlier.
• Back throw:
  • Back throw's release deals less knockback. However, due to the aforementioned change, this fails to make it connect better into the laser, while reducing the move's KO potential.
• Up throw:
  • Up throw has increased combo ability due to Falco's faster jumpsquat and jump speed.
• Down throw:
  • Down throw has an altered animation. Falco lays the opponent on the ground and fires a point-blank Blaster shot without slamming the opponent downwards.
• Edge attack:
  • Edge attack deals more damage (7% → 9%).

Special moves

• Blaster:
  • Grounded Blaster fires faster (frame 11 → 8) and has significantly lowered ending lag (FAF 59 → 42).
  • Aerial Blaster fires faster (frame 9 → 7) and has drastically lowered ending lag (FAF 50 → 39). As a result, short hop Blaster shots now cause Falco to experience only 6 frames of landing lag.
    • Consecutive aerial Blaster shots fire slower.
  • The grounded version has a shorter delay between consecutive shots (29 frames → 26).
  • The shots travel faster (3.8 → 4.6), but don't last as long (35 frames → 27). Overall they travel a shorter distance (133u → 124.5u).
    • The increased speed makes them better at sniping recovering opponents.
    • However the reduced duration makes them less obstructive when zoning.
  • Blaster has different sound effects when fired and when hitting an opponent.
• Falco Phantasm:
  • Grounded Falco Phantasm has less startup (frame 18 → 13), ending lag (FAF 61 → 50), and a longer hitbox duration (18-24 → 13-22).
  • The grounded version has altered knockback (40 (base), 100 (scaling) → 83/50). Combined with the aforementioned change, and Falco's faster jumpsquat and jump speed, this grants it combo potential from low to mid percents if it hits near the end of the dash.
  • Aerial Falco Phantasm has more active frames (18-24 → 18-27).
  • Aerial Falco Phantasm travels a slightly shorter distance.
  • It no longer travels through shields, making it extremely unsafe if blocked.
• Fire Bird:
  • The charging portion's looping hits launch opponents towards Falco instead of away from him, allowing them to connect much more reliably.
  • The dashing portion's looping hits connect significantly more consistently, due to using a different autolink angle that lifts opponents off the ground, though it is still prone to launching opponents away at very high percents.
  • Fire Bird is able to deal more damage (31% → 33%)
  • Fire Bird cannot carry over as much momentum during the charge (speed modifier: 1.25x → 1x), hindering its recovery potential.
• Reflector:
  • Reflector has less ending lag (FAF 51 → 45), improving its safety both defensively and offensively.
  • It can no longer be reflected.
  • It no longer has a bonus trip chance, removing its followups and safety on hit at close range.
  • It now deals hitlag.
  • Reflector's ending animation has been altered, with Falco standing upright to catch his Reflector while turned slightly.
• Final Smash:
  • Falco has a new Final Smash, Team Star Fox, which involves him leading an Arwing strike in a similar manner to Fox's Final Smash, but with a more erratic and aggressive flight pattern. Unlike Fox's version, Falco's sends opponents almost vertically.
  • Upon activating, Falco yells, "Showtime!" If the Arwings successfully catch their target, Falco yells, "Time for a little payback!", one of Falco's famous quotes from Star Fox 64 with it captioned on screen during the cinematic.
    • If the Final Smash hits multiple opponents, he will yell "We've got multiple bogies inbound!". [1]
  • Team Star Fox can potentially deal more damage than Landmaster (although it could also deal a lot less), and the single hit has increased KO power, making it more consistent.
  • It is much easier to avoid compared to Landmaster, and is overall less versatile.
  • Due to being a cutscene Final Smash, Falco can no longer accidentally self-destruct like he could in the Landmaster.