SSBM/Captain Falcon

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Introduction

Douglas Jay Falcon, or Captain Falcon, is everything defining about melee turned up to 12. Fast as lightning, nigh impossible to control at first, almost always jumping around, and incomparably flashy. There's a reason he's a fan favorite. He has a simple, strong toolset with some of the best moves in the game along with being able to tank a lot of hits due to his weight. His noticeable flaws include a lack of powerful grounded moves, slower than average start up on his otherwise incredible aerial attacks, along with the weakest defensive options of the top tiers. In other words, he’s Melee's gorilla. A character of extreme strengths and weaknesses.

Given his relatively linear moveset, he has to creatively use his movement to dance around his opponent and position his moves appropriately. This is made all the more difficult by how unwieldy his excessive speed, both in the air and on the ground, make him. However, no character is able to take a little momentum in a match and run with it quite like Falcon. Once he gets a solid hit or grab, he can feel truly unstoppable. And, like all melee characters, he has limitless depth with new tech and strategies being discovered to this day.

Make no mistake however, when zoomed out far enough Falcon's plan is quite simple. You run around spacing his gigantic aerials or try to grab the other guy. Then hit them really, really hard. Like a wise man once said, everyone has a plan until they’re kneed in the face.

Strengths

Weaknesses

Extremely Fast and Mobile - Unrivaled combination of ground and air mobility allows for Falcon to fly across the screen and reposition nigh instantaneously, allowing for him to exert threat from far distances while being difficult to whiff punish himself

Powerful Combos - The Captain has some of the deadliest and most explosive combos in the game off a full combo starter, giving him significant comeback potential

Heavy Fast faller - His combination of high weight and fast falling speed makes him one of the most resilient characters to stray hits in the game, making dropped edge guards vs him particularly punishing

Massive Aerials - Very few characters can consistently directly beat Falcon's aerial attack hitboxes, forcing many characters to instead call out his jumps or pressure his landing instead

Linear Toolset - Falcon's lack of powerful grounded moves can make him predictable in how he approaches various situations and forces Falcons to think outside of the box to get an opening

Defense and Recovery - Falcon has notoriously limited options when forced to block pressure as well as being very limited in recovering once he's knocked offstage, even at low %s

Startup - While Doug himself is quite fast, his moves have a significant amount of startup, leading to them having a propensity to be interrupted before the hitbox has come out. This emphasizes the need for proper positioning

Low Profile - Falcon heavily struggles to deal with low profile as his grab often whiffs and his aerials that hit low to the ground take a long time to startup and can be blocked on reaction. Often, low profile has to be defeated indirectly, by reading what the opponent will do after it, or preemptively covering it

Physics

Weight	104 (6th)
Fall Speed	2.9/Fast 3.5 (2nd)
Gravity	0.13 (3rd)
Ground Movement
Walk Speed	0.85 (19th)
Initial Dash Speed	2 (1st)
Initial Dash Length	15f (2nd)
Run Speed	2.3 (1st)
Traction	0.08 (7th)
Jumping
Jumpsquat	4f (8th)
Jump Height	Full 38.52/Short 14.85/Air 28.56 (3rd/8th/10th)
Air Speed	1.12 (4th)
Air Acceleration	0.06 (5th)

Normals

Ground moves

All of Falcon's grounded moves, besides grab, range from acceptable to niche at best. While using them well is important to maximize all of Falcon's potential, often the most consistente answer to frustrating situations was to prevent them from being forced upon you in the first place.

Normal

Jab1 Total: 21Hit: 3-5 Window of the second punch: 3-25 Second punch starts: 9

Falcon's main rebuttal to opponent's attempting to abuse his lack of quick moves, his jab is heavily used by Falcon's despite its flaws

Jab1 - grab mention

Explain gentleman, aaa hold on the third one, if you miss a jab you can either time the inputs precisely or walk between jab1-2 or 2-3, learning to avoid accidental rapid jabs is tricky at first but a key skill for a Falcon player

Jab 2 Total: 20 Hit: 5-7 Window of the knee: 2-25 Knee starts: 8

Jab3 Total: 32 Hit: 6-12 IASA: 23 Rapid Jabs Start: 13

Gentleman

"Press A three times and clench"

Jab1 grab can be mashed out of, but is a powerful check on an opponent as it's quite fast and difficult to react to.

Jab 1 useful as a jab reset, can generally be escaped but but is still useful

Dash attack Total: 39 Hit: 7-16 IASA: 38

"Hitstick"

A fairly weak move with niche use cases at best. It is the fastest hitbox out of dash of any of Falcon's moves which can make it useful in very niche spots. It can also serve as a tech trap, for that reason, and dash attack covers Falcon/Ganon's 8B "sweetspot". If performed early enough, it'll be a weak hit and not be wall techable until a much higher %.

Down tilt - Does a quick round kick. The down tilt is a great launcher, if difficult to land. It has a long lag and therefore is not one of C.F.'s preferred setups. However, it can combo at most percentages and almost every DI into a SHFFLed neutral aerial, which can further combo. Fox and Falco can often be regrabbed from a down tilt at medium damage percentages, and their side special moves can be intercepted by Falcon's down tilt if they try to sweetspot the ledge. The down tilt can also combo into a Knee Smash and the up aerial, depending on knockback and DI. 12% damage.
Forward tilt - Kicks his foot out in front of him. Fast with decent range. There are not a significant amount of combo options from an forward tilt because of its horizontal hit trajectory, low knockback and stun time, and wind-down lag. One can try to follow up with a up aerial or a Jump-canceled grab, and even a dash-canceled down tilt or Raptor Boost, but they are not true combos and can be countered by every character. It may be a good idea to wavedash slightly forward to maintain pressure, and enter a defensive stance or used after a pivot as a surprise attack to keep enemies away. An forward tilt, angled upward, can stun enemies long enough from an up/down throw that it can lead to a Knee Smash. 11% damage
Up tilt - Brings his leg up and brings it down in an axe-like way. His up tilt has horizontal knockback as well, and, like the forward tilt, is difficult to combo from. Due to its low trajectory, one can often follow off the edge of a platform or stage with a falling neutral aerial or non-sweetspotted forward aerial edgeguard, but this is not a true combo. It may be a good idea to wavedash slightly forward to maintain pressure, and enter a defensive stance. Most players use up tilts as an edgeguard technique since the heel can extend below the platform. 11% damage.

Smash attacks

Side smash -

Main use of fsmash is for the pullback to dodge an attack and then counter attack with a kill move, and it functions as a surprisingly adept anti-air kill move since fsmash will force a trade with nearly any aerial move

Up smash - Quickly thrusts both his feet upward in circular motions. A fast and powerful move, though short range. The second hit sometimes has difficulty connecting, as with Ganon's. When both hits connect, 19% uncharged, 27% fully charged. This is Falcon's most powerful move damage-wise (When fully charged).
Down smash - Back hit low lag, nice for covering two tech options and back hit is safe on shield and combos into more aerials, even knee, if they survival DI

Other attacks

Ledge attack - Picks himself up and kicks. 10% damage.
100% ledge attack- Somewhat slowly gets up and punches in front of him. 8% damage.
Floor attack - Gets up and flips while kicking. 6% damage.

Aerial attacks

fAir/J.6A
"What's fAir? It's the Knee"

First Active	Active	Recovery	IASA	Landing Lag	Autocancel
14	17	9	36	9	<6 >35
Damage	Base Knockback	Knockback Growth	Angle	Effect	On Shield
Clean: 18 / Late: 6	Clean: 24 / Late: 35	100/80	32/361	Electric	+1
One of the best moves in the entire game, this is Falcon's defining move as a character. A combo starter that combos into itself to death while still being a devastating combo ender, being plus on block, and massive active frames to be used for edge guarding. This move is a problem for Falcon's opponents and is only limited by its start up and limited active frames of its strongest hitbox Only the first 3 frames, or 1/20th of a second, are strong. After that it's a "weak knee" Weak knee allows for combo extensions into strong knee or uAir or edge guards in situations strong knee does not, meaning that it's often better than a strong knee A low strong knee on block into standing grab will beat a shield grab, as it's +1 on block, creating a favorable EV situation in match ups where the opponent doesn't have a good answer

fAir/j.6A

Total: 39 Hit: 14-30 IASA: 36 Auto cancel: <6 35> Lcanceled recovery: 9

"What's fAir? It's the Knee"

One of the best moves in the entire game, this is Falcon's defining move as a character. A combo starter that combos into itself to death while still being a devastating combo ender, being plus on block, and massive active frames to be used for edge guarding. This move is a problem for Falcon's opponents and is only limited by its start up and limited active frames of its strongest hitbox

Only the first 3 frames, or 1/20th of a second, are strong. After that it's a "weak knee"
Weak knee allows for combo extensions into strong knee or uAir or edge guards in situations strong knee does not, meaning that it's often better than a strong knee
A low strong knee on block into standing grab will beat a shield grab, as it's +1 on block, creating a favorable EV situation in match ups where the opponent doesn't have a good answer

nAir/j.5A

Total: 44 Hit: 7-12, 20-29 Auto cancel: <3 34> Lcanceled recovery: 7

"Two kicks. Two. Kicks."

Falcon's god button. It is a swiss army knife of a move and helps form the foundation of his neutral and combo game. Generally, a character's ability to make Falcon hesitate when using this move is what makes them win or lose the match up and is a defining interaction for the characters. This is a solid, go to option in neutral in many match ups as it's often low risk, medium reward.

Unpunishable on block when performed correctly at -2, being particularly safe when spaced
Relatively quick start up and long active frames make it a great choice to throw out as a safe wall
Can combo into grab at low % and knee at higher %
Be wary of crouch cancelling, generally safe vs CC but it can catch you unawares
Generally want the 2nd hit to hit as low to the ground as possible to maximize combo potential and safety
First hit is vulnerable to being traded with, but the low recovery means it's challenging to whiff punish. Often requires a read to consistently beat

bAir/j.4A

Total: 35 Hit: 10-17 IASA: 29 Auto cancel: <6 21> Lcanceled recovery: 9

"Cool guys don't look at explosions"

Falcon's back air has rather slow startup but is otherwise an oppressive move that is extremely hard to deal with once the opponent is past knockdown %. Its massive range means that very few characters can directly challenge the move if it is not preemptively challenged.

Falcon's hand has a tipper property, meaning the end of the bAir hits harder than hitting it closer to Falcon's armpit, effecting combos
Low to the ground bAirs can be safely spaced once the opponent is at high % and confirmed into fAir if they are not willing to preemptively attack
Instant short hop bAir can be auto cancelled if the fast fall input is slightly delayed, and double jumped out of before landing if not fast fallen, adding layers to the landing mix up

dAir/j.2A

Stomp

Total: 44 Hit: 16-20 IASA: 38 Auto cancel: <3 36> Lcanceled landing recovery: 12

"The most powerful nipples in the game"

An infamously ignorant move. Getting hit by this move, even at 0%, can lead into touch of death combos in as little as 1-2 combo resets or mix ups for much of the cast. This is truly Doug's party starter

Falcon's best combo starter
Can extend legs through platforms if used on top of them, which will hit people beneath them
Combining this with edge cancelling to remove the recovery time makes it amazing on platforms
The upper most hitbox is a true spike commonly referred to as "the Nipple Spike" due to its location around Doug's pecs
High reward anti approach or approaching option, however it has high recovery if not edge cancelled which makes it risky to whiff. High risk, high reward

While Falcon can fall into his opponents with an attack much more successfully than most characters due to the size of this move, remember to avoid getting too predictable with it!

uAir/j.8A

Total: 35 Hit: 10-17 IASA: 29 Auto cancel: <6 21> Lcanceled recovery: 9

"It's not my fault you jumped"

The size of this move along with Falcon's impressive dash jump means that situations that are challenging to deal with for other characters, such as a character being above and in front of you, are trivial to deal with for Falcon. This combined with it often being a guaranteed follow up after a throw in many situations, and being among the best combo extensions in the game, make it the move you are likely to use most often in Falcon combos as well as vs opponents who are a bit too jump happy.

If knee won't kill or combo into itself, uAir -> fAir is often a 50/50 kill with fAiring outright in practice
If nearly anyone is above you, this is usually a good response

Grabs & throws

Pummel - Knees opponent in the torso region. 2-3% damage per pummel.
Forward throw - Punches foe forward. Oddly, has two hits, the first hit doing 5% damage, second 4%.
Back throw - Kicks foe behind. Also has two very small and hardly noticeable hits. Knockback is usually hard to follow-up or combo with unless over a ledge. Throw does 5% first, 4% second.
Up throw - Punches foe upward. Yet another mysterious throw where Falcon supposedly only hits the foe once, although has two separate hitboxes. Foes usually fall straight down afterward, at lower damage percentages can lead into his side special and aerial follow-ups. 4% then 3%.
Down throw - Crushes foe to the floor. Only one hitbox unlike his other throws. This knocks the foe to the floor, and this can easily lead into his side special. At lower damage percentages, following his down throw and side special, an up smash or tilt is possible. At higher damage percentages, follow with an neutral aerial or whatever, depending on the foe's DI reaction. Throw does a single-hitting 7% damage.

Special moves

Up-B, 8B

Falcon Dive

Total: 64 Grab: 13-33 Can grab edges as soon as: 38 --When grabbing--- Total: 79 Hit: 2-6 Sends away: 20 landfallspeciallag: 30

"If only it turned them around before throwing them, now that'd be a recovery"

This is Falcon's primary recovery tool when double jump won't get you far enough. While not a great recovery, it has quite a high skill cap and room for creativity. Using it well is often the difference between dying at 80% or living to 160% and mastery of it is a major difference maker between good and great Falcons.

Falcon Dive also doubles as a command grab, however it is unsafe on hit at low % or when opponent can wall tech offstage
Doug cannot drift before the apex of the move, so when using it make sure to make it hard to hit you before that point in order to enable drift mix ups
Can fast fall through platforms to make punishing landing more difficult
Can edge cancel the move to remove all landing recovery
Being able to wall or ledge tech when recovering from below is vital
Can't be sweetspotted from below, Falcon always flips his entire body above ledge even at its lowest

Down-B, 2B

Falcon Kick

"Falcon KIIICK"

Hit (from ground): 14-32 Hit (from air): 15-29 Recovery time (from ground): 29 Recovery time (from air): 28NOTE: landing during the air recovery time causes the ground hit Ground hit lag: 45 Ground hit damaging: 1-2 Wall hit lag: 60

Falcon's down-b, or 2b, is a relatively niche move besides on recovery. When hit high and far enough offstage, DJ falcon kick will give Douglas his DJ back, allowing for more recovery mix ups than would otherwise be possible. Just be careful not to use it too close to stage as the recovery can be easily punished!

Can be used to escape the corner as it has a potent reverse hitbox, but is often very telegraphed and has high recovery which limits this to being more niche
Aerial Falcon Kick can escape juggles when without a DJ as it stops falling for a moment on activation. This can also commonly shield poke

Neutral-B, 5B

Falcon Punch

"You already know what it is"

Total: 99 Hit: 52-56

Falcon's most famous move and also likely his least useful. It is nevertheless not entirely without use.

When an opponent is in a substantial amount of recovery, such as after breaking their shield or after Puff uses rest, Falcon punch is often a good option.

It can also be used as an edgeguard vs opponents with linear recoveries such as Captain Falcon or Ganon when forced to use their up-b/8b, but ultimately its high recovery makes it niche at best.

While you can find other niche usages, such as Falcon punch being able to cover the entirety of a side platform in specific spots as a tech chase, or rolling to the ledge and FH up angled falcon punching a recovering Sheik, in general this is likely Falcon's least commonly used move. And yes, it can be angled!

Side-B, 4/6B

Raptor Boost

' "F*ck it" the move'

Total ground (whiffed): 79 Hit window (ground): 15-34 Hit window (air): 17-34 When he hits: 4-8 Lag from hitting (air): 45 Lag from hitting (ground): 25 Landlag: 20 landfallspeciallag: 20

Falcon's Raptor Boost is the favored special move of many Falcon players.

The initial part of the move pulls Falcon backwards within the first few frames, allowing it to dodge and then punish whiffed attacks or grabs with a full launcher. This makes it tempting to use from the corner when combined with slide off, as rarely will an opponent want to commit to overshooting all the way into the corner if they don't feel that they have to. It can also be used to cover 3 out of 4 tech options on an opponent's knockdown when you have sufficient time to set it up, all but one of the tech rolls, which again can be converted into a massive punish such as a fAir, uSmash, or grab.

Finally, it can be used as a recovery due to being lower lag and quicker than his Up-B/8B. Just be aware that if it activates on anything or anyone it will result in Falcon falling helplessly to his death!

Combos

The basics of Falcon combos are quite simple. Most of his best combos start off of either dAair, j.2A, or grab.

Some rules of thumb are

1.) If they're above you, you can probably uAir/j.8A them. Even if it's not a true combo, few character can comfortably beat it and it's nearly always a massively favorable situation

2.) If you land a hit, preemptively dashing forward after it will usually allow you to either continue the combo or transition into an edge guard in most situations. They have to be surprisingly far to not get hit by Falcon again. Don't wait to dash until you've seen where they've been sent from your move. Dash preemptively, then react to how far your move has sent them!

3.) If you have enough hitstun to fAir/J.6A, do it! It is very rarely a bad idea to land a knee when you have the ability to combo into it. Otherwise, uAir/J.8A usually works