Falco (PM)

Falco in Project M
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Universe	Star Fox
Base game appearance	Brawl
Moveset inspiration	Falco (SSBM)
Alternate costume	Classic Falco

Falco is a playable character in the Brawl mod Project M. He was remade to be nearly identical to his Melee counterpart in terms of attack hitboxes and animations.

Falco ranks 22nd out of 41 on the official tier list, near the lower half of the B tier, a significant drop from his 2nd out of 26 and 7th out of 38 positions on the Melee and Brawl tier lists, respectively.

Attributes

Falco retains his strength of having an above-average on-stage game, as he possesses a rather powerful and formidable comboing game in his repertoire.

However, Falco has some major issues with his survivability, which compose most of his weaknesses. He is among the lightest characters in the game (he weighs as much as Lucas, Pikachu, and Pit), and is therefore easy to knock off the stage horizontally. Additionally, his recovery continues to be one of the worst in the game; this is due to a few factors, including a very low air speed, an extremely fast falling speed, and his two recovery options, Fire Bird and Falco Phantasm, not providing enough distance.

In addition, other characters have been buffed in Project M to the point where Falco's matchups are not as favorable as they were in Melee.

Given that Falco was among the best characters in Melee however, and has transitioned better than other Melee top tier characters (such as Jigglypuff) he remains a significant threat to most of the roster.

Differences with Fox

This article or section may require additional technical data. The editor who added this tag elaborates: All valid frame data differences between the two. You can discuss this issue on the talk page or edit this page to improve it.

Despite other clones (except Luigi and Wolf) are decloned, Falco was significantly recloned from Brawl, reverted to become a full clone of Fox again.

Aesthetics

• Falco's taunt, idle pose, running, sleep, and victory animations are different from Fox's.

Attributes

• Falco is taller than Fox, giving him more reach, but makes him easier to hit.
• Falco has better jumping prowess than Fox.
• Falco has more jump-squat frames than Fox (3 frames → 5 frames), making his SHFFL slower, but easier to perform.
• Falco has a much higher wall jump than Fox.
• Falco walks (1.6 → 1.4) slower than Fox.
• Falco dashes (2.2 → 1.5) significantly slower than Fox.
• Falco's wavedash is slightly shorter than Fox's.
• Falco's rolls cover more distance than Fox's.
• Falco is heavier than Fox (75 → 80), allowing him to survive slightly longer, though he is still one of the lightest characters in the game.
• Falco falls faster than Fox (2.8 → 3.1). Combined with his heavier weight, it grants Falco much better vertical endurance. However, his faster falling speed makes him more susceptible to combos and chaingrabs and worsens his already poor recovery.
• Falco has less gravity than Fox (0.23 → 0.17).

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • Falco has a different neutral attack, where he chop-slashes with one wing after the other, then spins quickly while leaning forward stationary with a single wing out to repeatedly slash the opponent.
  • The second hit of Falco's neutral attack has a different angle than Fox's (70° → 50°).
  • Falco's rapid jab having shorter gaps between hits (7 → 5 frames), set knockback (10 (base), 80 (scaling) → 3 (set)/100), and different angles (80° → 30°/50°/80°) than Fox's. Altogether, these differences make it connect more reliably.
  • Falco's rapid jab has a higher hitlag multiplier than Fox's (1x → 1.3x), making it easier to SDI.
• Falco's dash attack deals more damage than Fox's (7%/5% → 9%/6%).
• Falco's forward tilt has a slightly longer duration than Fox's (frame 5-8 → frame 5-9).
• Falco's up tilt deals overall less damage (12% (foot grounded)/9% (leg & foot aerial) → 9% (consistent)) and knockback (18 base/140 scaling → 30/120) than Fox's. This makes it unable to KO at realistic percentages, but makes it a much more reliable combo tool.
• Down tilt:
  • Falco's down tilt deals more damage (10% → 13%), making it much stronger than Fox's and a viable KO move at high percents.
  • Falco's down tilt has less range than Fox's despite his attacks generally having more range, due to his shorter tail.
• Forward smash:
  • Falco's forward smash deals more damage (15%/12% → 17%/14%) than Fox's, although its knockback was compensated (10 base/105 scaling → 40/90).
  • Falco's forward smash has a slightly shorter duration than Fox's (frame 12-23 → frame 12-22).
• Up smash:
  • Falco's up smash hasn't intangible frame on his head.
  • Falco's up smash deals less damage (18%/13% → 14%/12%) and knockback (30 base/112 scaling → 25 base/100), making it drastically weaker than Fox's. It also has a shorter duration (frame 7-18 → frame 7-16) and more ending lag.
    • However, its weaker knockback makes it a much better combo move.
  • Unlike Fox, Falco has the ability to DACUS from Brawl.
• Falco's down smash deals more damage (15%/13%/12% → 16%/13%) and has more knockback scaling (65 → 70) than Fox's. It also gains more intangibility frames on his legs (frame 6 → frame 1-6).

Aerial attacks

• Falco's neutral aerial and back aerial have more reach than Fox's.
• The first three hits of Falco's forward aerial deal more damage than Fox (7% (hit 1)/5% (hit 2)/5% (hit 3) → 9%/7%/7%), thus, giving it more damage than Fox's if all hits connect (24% → 30%). It can also autocancel in a full hop due to Falco's higher jumping height.
• Falco's back aerial can autocancel in a short hop.
• Up aerial:
  • The first hit of Falco's up aerial has different knockback properties (134 fixed knockback/120 scaling → 40/30 base/20 scaling), making it overall easier to connect with the second hit than Fox's.
  • The second hit of Falco's up aerial is weaker (40 base/116 scaling → 22/30 base/120/20 scaling) and deals less damage (first hit 4%/second hit 13%: 17% total → 5%/10: 15% total) overall than Fox's, hindering its KO potential.
  • Each hit of Falco's up aerial has different knockback angles (first hit 92°/second hit 85° → 90°/70°/90°).
• Down aerial:
  • Falco's down aerial only hits once, but is a powerful spike considerably better than Fox's down aerial (30 base/0 scaling → 10/20/100), significantly improving its edgeguarding potential and granting it KO potential.
    • Despite dealing much less damage than Fox's (21% → 12%), Falco's down aerial has much more combo potential when combined with his shine.

Grabs and throws

• Falco's grab range is longer than Fox's.
• Falco's forward throw can chaingrab more efficiently than Fox's because of his longer grab range.
• Falco's back and down throws are weaker than Fox's in damage and knockback output, with down throw being harder to meteor smash on the edge.
  • However, this considerably increases down throw's combo ability.
• Falco's up throw has less combo potential, with a followup often being dependent on the opponent's directional influence.

Special moves

• Blaster:
  • Falco's Blaster causes hitstun, allowing for better combo setups and better capability at hindering an opponent's approach. It also fires faster when airborne and the lasers cover much more distance.
  • Falco's lasers shoot slower than Fox's.
  • Falco's Blaster animation is different. Whereas Fox holds it straight with both hands, Falco holds it sideways with one wing next to his head.
• Falco Phantasm:
  • Falco's Falco Phantasm travels faster and possesses meteor smash capabilities.
  • Falco Phantasm does not travel as far as Fox Illusion, hindering its recovery potential, but improving its safety near ledges.
    • Falco Phantasm, however, has significantly more ending lag than Fox Illusion.
• Fire Bird:
  • Falco's Fire Bird has much more base knockback (60 → 80) than Fire Fox, granting it KO potential.
  • Fire Bird's recovery distance is much shorter, travelling only half the length of Fire Fox. Fire Bird also lacks Fire Fox's charging hitboxes, dealing less damage (25% → 16%) and making edgeguarding Falco much easier, especially with meteor smashes and spikes. These changes drastically reduce its recovery potential.
  • Fire Bird's animation differs slightly from that of Fire Fox; Falco does not spin during the travelling section of the move, whereas Fox does.
• Reflector:
  • Falco's Reflector sends opponents straight vertically, making it extremely useful for on-stage combos that can be hard to escape from, unlike Fox's, which instead semi-spikes the opponent, allowing for neutral resets, edgeguards, and guaranteed KO setups.
  • Falco's Reflector deals more damage than Fox's (5% → 8%).
  • Falco's Reflector has less range than Fox's.

Changes from Melee to PM

Falco was slightly nerfed overall in the transition from Melee to Project M. While he gained situational options from his Brawl incarnation, he lost a fair amount of his camping prowess due to the damage decay of lasers. Additionally, the strong hitbox of his down aerial now lasts less than half of its duration from Melee, forcing Falco to time his down aerial far more precisely than he had to before to approach, pressure, and KO with it.

Overall, Falco is still very strong and has the tools to take on any character. However, he is less effective in the metagame because he must now contend with not only his nerfs, but the prevalence of more floaty characters that he cannot combo as easily.

Aesthetics

• Has Brawl's running animation.
• Falco uses SFXs from Melee for certain moves, such as his down aerial and Reflector.

Ground Attacks

• Falco's jabs use their animations from Brawl.
• Falco retains his rapid jab from Brawl having shorter gaps between hits (7 → 5 frames), set knockback (10 (base), 80 (scaling) → 3 (set)/100), and different angles (80° → 30°/50°/80°). Altogether, these changes make it connect more reliably.
• Falco's rapid jab has a higher hitlag multiplier (1x → 1.3x) making it easier to SDI.
• Falco's up smash no longer grants intangibility on his head.
• Falco retains the ability to DACUS from Brawl although it covers less distance than it did in Brawl and Falco cannot perform the Gatling combo due to his decreased DACUS window.

Aerial Attacks

• Down aerial's strong initial hit duration was decreased to 4 frames (5-14 → 5-8), and the late hit does slightly less damage (9% → 8%).

Special Moves

• Blaster shots decay in damage based on distance.
• Reflector no longer has intangibility on the first frame of activation.

Revisions

v2.5

• Falco's Jab 1 reduced SDIability corrected to be normal.
• Falco's back throw and up throw lasers work like in Melee.
• Falco's down throw now has an animation for the victim while being lasered and no longer freezes them in place before being thrown.
• Reflector's initial graphical effects sized down to match the hitbox, and the hitbox made clankable.
• Falco's hurtboxes adjusted.

v2.6

• Lasers decay in damage based on distance.
• Shine invincibility removed.
• Forward Smash animation adjusted to match Melee.
• Up aerial animation adjusted to match Melee.
• Fire Bird's distance ported from Melee.

v3.0

• Shine start-up animation has been improved.

v3.0.1

• Forward smash charge graphical effects moved from his hands to his feet.

v3.5

• Fire Bird now matches Melee's version of the move. It travels a slightly greater distance and Falco falls later into the move.
• First hit of up aerial deals slightly less damage.
• Down aerial's clean hit window has been reduced from 10 frames to 4. Its late hit does 1% less damage.
• Can no longer jump cancel Reflector's recovery frames after reflecting a projectile.
• Can no longer Gatling Combo due to the DACUS window shortening to 2 frames.
• Ending Landmaster in the air now puts Falco in a helpless state.
• AI is more intelligent when using Falco, utilizing his down special, but is very prone to SD's.

v3.6 Beta

• Side Special no longer slides during startup, preventing a bug related to a sliding off and down of platforms.

Moveset

Up to date as of version 3.6.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			4%	Falco does a chop, another outward chop, and then tilts diagonally and spins very quickly with one of his arms out.
			4%
			1% (loop)
Forward tilt			9%	Sticks his foot out to the side. This move be aimed up or down.
Up tilt			9%	Does a quick upwards back kick that can be useful for juggling opponents.
Down tilt			13%	Falco performs a quick tail swipe.
Dash attack			9% (clean), 6% (late)	Runs forward and sticks his leg out. Sends opponents upwards.
Forward smash			17% (clean), 14% (late)	Flips his body in front and kicks in front of him. Similar to Fox's f-smash, but much stronger.
Up smash			14% (clean), 12% (late)	Performs a quick bicycle kick. Drastically weaker than Fox's u-smash, but has better juggling potential. Unlike the Melee version of the move, Falco's head does not gain intangibility frames.
Down smash			16% (legs), 13% (body)	Does a quick split kick. The move deals high knockback and semi-spikes opponents, making it is an excellent edgeguarder, though it has short range. Both of Falco's legs are intangible whenever he starts up the move, even while he's charging, all the way until the hitboxes come out.
Neutral aerial			12% (clean), 9% (late)	Does a sex kick that loses power the longer it's out.
Forward aerial			9% (hit 1), 7% (hits 2-3), 4% (hit 4), 3% (hit 5)	Kicks forward five times. The move as high duration due to the number of kicks, and it is very difficult to connect all the hits.
Back aerial			15% (clean sweetspot), 9% (clean sourspot/late)	Does a quick kick backwards, with sex kick properties. A good move for edgeguarding due to its high KO potential.
Up aerial			5% (hit 1), 10% (hit 2)	Whips his tail up and kicks immediately after.
Down aerial			12% (clean), 8% (late)	Spins around in place at a downwards angle while extending one foot. Always acts as a spike, even in the lingering hitbox.
Grab			—
Pummel			3%	Knees opponent. A fairly quick pummel.
Forward throw			4% (hit 1), 3% (throw)	Falco bashes the opponent forward.
Back throw			2% (throw), 2% (laser)	Falco throws the foe backwards and then blasts them with his blaster.
Up throw			2% (throw), 2% (laser)	Falco throws the foe upwards and shoots at them.
Down throw			1% (laser shots 1-4), 1% (throw)	Falco forces his foe onto the floor, and fires directly at them. The foe now lands at the place they were thrown at, taking away Falco's chain grab ability.
Floor attack (front)			6%	Falco does a kick in front and in back.
Floor attack (back)			6%	Falco punches forwards, and kicks backwards.
Floor attack (trip)			5%	Falco spins around, kicking foes with who are close.
Edge attack (fast)			8% (legs), 6% (head)	Falco lunges at the opponent with a kick.
Edge attack (slow)			9%	Falco slowly gets up and hammers the ground with a kick.
Neutral special		Blaster	1-3% (laser)	Falco fires his blaster. Unlike Fox's Blaster, it is slow but does stun the opponent. Falco fires his Blaster faster when used in midair. The lasers now lose power the farther they travel.
Side special		Falco Phantasm	7%	Falco dashes forward, leaving an afterimage behind him. Enemies hit by the move will be meteor smashed.
Up special		Fire Bird	16%	Falco charges up in flames and suddenly launches himself in one of many directions, depending on what direction is held.
Down special		Reflector	8% (activation), 1.5x damage for reflected projectiles	Falco activates his Reflector around him. When activated, it can do damage to opponents. Any projectiles are reversed back at opponents and do more damage than normal.
Final Smash		Landmaster	Varies	Falco summons his Landmaster. It has more aerial mobility than Fox's, but is slightly weaker and has less ground mobility.

In competitive play

Notable players

•  Axe - Formerly ranked 1st on the Arizona Project M Power Rankings.
•  Larry Lurr - Formerly ranked 1st on the SoCal Project M Power Rankings.
•  Mango - 1st at B.E.A.S.T. 5 and 2nd at Battle Arena Melbourne 7.
•  Silver - 1st on the Massachusetts Project M Power Rankings.
•  SK92 - Placed 17th at EVO 2016.
•  Westballz - 9th at The Big Balc and BroCal's Gym: Bulking Season. Formerly ranked 3rd on the SoCal Project M Power Rankings.

Alternate costumes

Falco now has an alternative costume based off of his appearance in Melee, and Star Fox 64. There are four variations of this costume: the original and the three team colors used in Melee.

Falco's alternate costumes in PM

Trivia

• Oddly, Falco's Melee portrait in the Character Selection screen is mirrored, with his reflector and holster being on the wrong positions, and he faces right. Whenever any of his costumes is used in battle, his portrait shows him facing left, which is the correct position.