Falco (SSBU)

Falco in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Star Fox
Other playable appearances	in Melee in Brawl in SSB4
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Team Star Fox
Tier	A- (31)

Falco (ファルコ, Falco) is a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He was officially revealed on June 12th, 2018 alongside fellow Star Fox fighter Fox and the rest of the returning roster during the E3 2018 Nintendo Direct. Falco is classified as Fighter #20.

Mark Lund reprises his role from Super Smash Bros. 4, with new voice clips that match his portrayal from Star Fox Zero and Starlink: Battle for Atlas. In the Japanese version, Falco is now voiced by Kōsuke Takaguchi, who voiced the character in Star Fox 64 3D and Star Fox Zero, reprising his role with new voice clips. This reflects his succession of Hisao Egawa, the character's voice actor since the original Star Fox 64 to SSB4.

Falco is ranked 31st out of 82 on the current tier list, placing him in the A- tier. This is a significant improvement over his low tier placement in SSB4, where he was ranked 46th out of 54 characters. Falco, unlike his fellow Star Fox brethren, is more centered on combos and advantage state, with his aerial combos being formidable and highly damaging. His up tilt is one of the best combo starters in the game, courtesy of him having the highest jump and vertical mobility in the game along with excellent aerial followups. Falco's edgeguarding is also very effective due to his aerials having either long-lasting hitboxes (neutral aerial and forward aerial) or being strong KO tools (back aerial and down aerial). His Blaster helps to force approaches and can aid with some defensive play and Falco Phantasm serves as a solid burst option to surprise opponents. His Reflector is his main anti-zoning tool, which can also help set up niche edgeguards and combos.

Despite these strengths, Falco has some weaknesses. Like Fox and Wolf, his endurance is not the greatest; in Falco's case, he is a lightweight character with the same predictable recovery issues as the other space animals due to Fire Bird and Falco Phantasm's linear angles. While Falco possesses one of the best vertical mobilities in the game, his horizontal mobility is not as formidable, as he lacks the grounded mobility of Fox and the air mobility of Wolf, giving him difficulty approaching and staying in neutral. While his combo game is strong, he lacks strong KO moves, making him reliant on moves such as down tilt, back air, or edgeguarding.

Overall, Falco's drastic improvements has resulted in him seeing significantly better representation in comparison to Smash 4. While the size of his playerbase was initially below average compared to the other Star Fox fighters, it has since surpassed both Fox and Wolf thanks to strong results and placements from players such as MASA, Tilde, M0tsunabE, and Rarikkusu.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play VS. matches, with Falco being the 32nd character to be unlocked.
• Clear Classic Mode with Fox or any character in his unlock tree, being the 4th character unlocked after Peach.
• Have Falco join the player's party in World of Light.

With the exception of the third method, Falco must then be defeated on Corneria. In World of Light, he is fought on the Ω form of Lylat Cruise.

Attributes

Falco is a lightweight character with the highest jump in the game, a fast initial dash speed, the 7th highest gravity, the 10th fastest walking speed, the 11th fastest falling speed, the 12th highest traction and the 9th best air acceleration, but in contrast has average dashing speed and the 23rd slowest air speed. This makes his movement somewhat polarizing as he has overall mediocre horizontal movement (especially while airborne), but excels in reaching impressive heights.

Owing to his status as a "talented aerial fighter" with an "amazing jumping ability" and fast falling speed, Falco's greatest strengths lie in his strong combo, juggling, and edgeguarding capabilities; with his aerials being most evident of these traits. Up aerial, in particular, is his primary juggling tool, thanks to its quick startup, wide hitbox that can hit opponents on landing, and low overall lag and knockback. These traits make it very effective at starting and extending juggles, as well as being capable of comboing into itself and other aerials. Additionally, it can KO at high percentages near the upper blast line. Neutral aerial has a large, lasting hitbox that covers Falco and is a fast multi-hit, making it a good disruptor and combo extender/finisher. It can also drag opponents downward, allowing it to start combos on stage. Forward aerial has decent horizontal range and is also a lasting multi-hit, allowing it to edgeguard and KO reliably. Like his neutral aerial, it can drag opponents downward as well, potentially leaving offstage opponents in a very vulnerable position. Back aerial is one of the strongest aerials of its kind and can reliably KO even from center-stage. Lastly, down aerial, while nowhere near as notorious as its previous iterations, comes out fast and is a lasting hitbox; with its clean hit being a powerful meteor smash, giving it the ability to start combos onstage and score early KOs against poor recoveries.

Although Falco's ground game appears limited, he has a handful of respectable options at his disposal. Up tilt, in particular, is Falco's staple in initiating combos thanks to its very quick startup, large hitboxes, and low ending lag and knockback. It can combo into itself and any of his aerials, and even set up for KO's into back aerial or up aerial at high percents. Down tilt, despite being Falco's most powerful tilt, is also capable of follow-ups into aerials thanks to its sourspots' lower power. Additionally, it covers a good distance in front of himself, allowing him to KO grounded opponents with ease or 2-frame many recoveries. Forward smash has considerable range and respectable KO power, while down smash starts up quickly and sends at a semi-spike angle, working as another quick KO option and heavily threatening those with poor recoveries. His other moves, although more situational, still have their uses: neutral attack comes out exceedingly quick and its first two hits can lock, forward tilt can be angled and is relatively fast, allowing it to be used as a decent neutral option, and dash attack has a long duration, enabling it to catch dodges and landings, with its clean hit sending at a favorable angle for juggles and its late hit setting up for potential edgeguards.

Complementing Falco's aerials and tilts is his grab game, as shielding too often provides Falco the opportunity to make use of his highly damaging throws. Up throw is highly useful, as much as up tilt, it is an effective combo starter into any of his aerials at all percents, and can perform KO setups or even outright KO with its second hit. Down throw combos into forward aerial at low percents and forward, while lacking true combos, is useful for setting up edgeguards and tech-chases. Finally, back throw's first hit is a semi-spike that sets up for Falco's strong edgeguarding game, while its second hit can outright KO at high percents near the ledge.

Considering his versatile moveset, Falco's specials can provide unique benefits. Blaster is his primary ranged option, with it being an effective disruptor due to its fast projectile and surprisingly low ending lag. Its shots can be used to pressure, provoke, or halt approaches, snipe double jumps, or even outright gimp poor recoveries. Falco Phantasm propels Falco a significant distance very quickly, making it great for horizontal recovery. Its grounded version can start combos at low to mid percents and even set up KOs with back aerial at high percents, while its aerial version can meteor smash careless edgeguarders and even 2-frame low recoveries. Fire Bird is his primary recovery option and grants respectable distance in any chosen direction. Falco can notably use it in conjunction with footstool as an out of shield option; it has damaging hitboxes throughout and can deal up to 40% if all hits connect. Lastly, Reflector activates on frame 1, making reacting to projectiles less of a liability for Falco; it also has a hitbox that activates slightly later that serves as a decent poking tool.

In spite of Falco's well-balanced strengths, he has numerous weaknesses. His most prominent flaws are his survivability and his inconsistency. Despite being a lightweight, Falco is vulnerable to combos due to his fast falling speed and lack of reliable escape options. Although Falco's recovery grants a respectable distance, it is very linear. Falco Phantasm no longer passes through shields, making it far easier to corner him and force him offstage as a result. Without his double jump, Falco is in great danger offstage due to the nerfs to air dodging and his two recovery options, each being slow and predictable.

Regarding his moveset, Falco has several moves that do not function properly and can even work against him. Up smash, despite having fast startup and high vertical reach, has large blind spots that often miss outright against many grounded opponents, leaving him extremely vulnerable from behind and against small or crouching opponents (even if they're directly in front of Falco). Plaguing him since Smash 4, both up tilt and up smash are prone to failing to properly connect against aerial opponents. Despite its appearance, neutral aerial has difficulty hitting opponents from behind, and due to changes in the game's engine, the move's looping hits are more prone to missing than they were in the previous installment. While Blaster and Reflector have reduced lag, the former is still unsafe on hit even from a distance, while the latter still has a misleadingly small hitbox, and its removed trip chance ironically makes it even more unsafe on hit overall than in Smash 4. Most notoriously, however, are Falco's back and up throws. Due to changes in the game's physics, the lasers from both throws are even more susceptible to DI than before, allowing opponents to survive what otherwise would effortlessly KO.

These aforementioned problems compound Falco's other, more defined weakness of struggling to secure a KO. Like fellow Star Fox fighters Fox and Wolf, Falco's strongest moves are also his slowest in terms of startup and/or endlag, requiring careful execution to avoid heavy punishment. Lastly, Falco's damage output and range have been nerfed from Smash 4. This is especially noteworthy due to most of the cast receiving various buffs, not limited to these aspects, and the prominence of swordfighters and zoners in Ultimate.

Overall, Falco has the tools that let him defensively pressure his opponent, then effectively capitalize on their errors with his strong combo and edgeguarding capabilities. However, he can struggle keeping up with opponents who can outmaneuver or outrange his options. Although he can score early KOs through a well-executed edgeguard or hard read, Falco must be careful not to let opponents take advantage of his own weaknesses to avoid being combo'd and KO'd early himself.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4

Falco was previously considered a lackluster character in SSB4, due to the harsh nerfs he received in the previous game, as well as gameplay mechanics working adversely towards him. Likely owing to this, Falco has received a mix of buffs and nerfs in the transition to Ultimate, being greatly buffed overall.

Falco's buffs mainly address his weakened tools that affected his previous transition from Brawl to SSB4, notably to his notoriously nerfed Blaster and down aerial; Blaster has faster startup, now fires at the same rate while grounded as it does in the air, and has much lower ending lag, drastically improving one of his staple moves and making it less punishable. Additionally, down aerial is much faster (now being half as fast as in Brawl) and has regained its ability to autocancel from a short hop. These changes allow both to function as tools for approaching or walling once again, instead of being limited to only edgeguarding and hard reads. Many of Falco's other moves have been made more usable as well. Neutral attack's first two hits can lock, and its infinite portion connects more consistently; down tilt, forward smash and up smash deal more damage, while forward tilt and up tilt have reduced ending lag (greatly improving their spacing and combo potential, respectively), and forward aerial starts faster.

Changes to gameplay mechanics have been kind to Falco. His grounded movement is noticeably faster, and the universal 3-frame jumpsquat and reduction to landing lag improve his strong aerial game, allowing him to easily juggle aerial foes while leaving him less vulnerable when landing; this also makes his short hop combos more effective. The nerfs to air dodging further strengthen his aerial game, allowing him to once again abuse his edgeguarding capabilities. As a result, Falco's neutral game is more consistent, improving on one of his biggest weaknesses from SSB4.

However, Falco has also received numerous nerfs, which worsen a few of his worst traits and give him more defined weaknesses. Though he possesses the highest jump in the game, Falco has had his already poor recovery nerfed as Falco Phantasm now travels slightly less distance and no longer passes through shields, making it even easier to intercept and more punishable. Additionally, while many of his combo-centric moves were made more effective through reduced lag, they have also been weakened (forward tilt, up tilt, and up aerial), requiring him to deal more hits to acquire damage. This ties in with Falco's KO ability, which has also been toned down: moves such as forward aerial and back throw do less knockback, while his strongest attacks have higher startup lag (down tilt, down smash, and most notably back aerial), making it harder for him to close a stock.

Certain moves, such as neutral attack, have less range due to Falco not moving forward as much, while up smash's hitbox was altered to such an extent that it has significantly less range in front of him, and the second hit now also misses grounded opponents behind him unless they're large enough. His forward smash also has less range, especially in the late hit, as Falco now stops in place in the middle of the attack instead of keep lunging forward. Reflector no longer has a bonus chance to trip opponents, removing its utility for follow-ups and worsening its overall safety. Finally, although the changes to air dodging help Falco more than they hinder him, they make both of his recovery options even more linear and exploitable than before.

In the end, Falco's key strengths have become more threatening than before, now possessing a significantly deadlier punish game courtesy of his various options to combo opponents and the potential to transition them into a KO, and his neutral game has seen noticeable improvements, though at the cost of worse KO ability, recovery and disadvantage, which means Falco must keep playing carefully to make use of his strengths. This overall amounts to Falco being a much better character in Ultimate than he was in SSB4.

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, slightly hindering its combo potential against an aerial opponent.
  • 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 → 124.2u).
    • 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!". [4]
  • 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.

Update history

Falco has been noticeably buffed via game updates. Prior to update 7.0.0, he was left totally unchanged; update 7.0.0 enlarged his shield as part of a near-universal buff.

Following this, update 8.0.0 granted Falco a number of noteworthy buffs. His infamous up smash became significantly more consistent, thanks to hitbox and knockback adjustments, and its respectable power was increased even further. Neutral aerial, which was also somewhat notable for being inconsistent, was noticeably improved via hitbox adjustments and its last hit being sped up. Down tilt's overall lag was decreased and its angle was adjusted; these changes not only improved both its KO and combo potential, but also reduced its susceptibility to DI. Down aerial also became more useful, as its excessive ending lag and landing lag were both decreased. Lastly, Falco Phantasm was sped up and its hitboxes were improved, which improved its trapping potential and even granted it utility as a set-up option.

Update 13.0.1 buffed Falco one last time. His dash attack deals more damage on both of its hitboxes with compensated knockback, making it KO slightly earlier. And finally, his forward smash now has added hitboxes on frame 17, making it better match the animation and giving it slightly longer hitbox detection.

Overall, Falco fares better than he did at Ultimate's launch, and he is seen as an effective character.

7.0.0

• Overall shield size has been increased.