Here it is, the culmination of 3 months of work and collaboration from several members. Don't take this (or myself) as the definitive authority on Falcon, as there is loads that needs to be added. I look forward to updating this guide as character metagames get developed, new advanced techniques come to light, good vids for Falcon matchups get uploaded, and balance changes to Falcon (and to a lesser extent other characters as relevant in the matchup section). I hope that this guide is helpful to new Falcon mains and experienced ones, I'm sure there is stuff in here that others don't know.

A word of warning, it is quite long (this dwarfs TCS's Yoshi guide by comparison) so if you actually aren't a Falcon main you probably won't be too thrilled by reading the whole thing. I don't expect anyone to read it in one sitting either. Take your time, I did my best to make it readable and clear, and I have an excellent organization system in place to make the document easy to navigate.

Link to the Google Doc

Wow, 105 pages?! Extremely impressive, I love seeing this kind of stuff in the community, great job!

This dedication makes me cry.
So admirable.

Looks like you have been getting stuff done nice work!

This is what I like to see

This is really amazing, great work. Can't say i'm gonna read all of it LOL but kudos to the hard work and effort put into this, very informative as well.

starkiller I love you, can't wait to read this :]

EDIT: man that was a great read.
feedback:

• first off the frame data is AMAZING. can't believe you went to such lengths to test all that - I love it.
• jab 2 & 3 are great for shield pressure. if I nair, late uair or late knee on their shield, I always go for the full gentleman (jab 1, jab 2, jab 3) to stuff any oos options that they might go for. jab3 can lead into grab at lower percents too. if they shield all 3, you can simply dash away and reapply pressure using spaced nair again. I think jab4 should never be used on purpose - anything to combo from jab3 is better, including simply dashing away.
• you said something about this thing (sorry for the bad quality) to the ftilt section. while in the run animation (not dash animation), press the opposite direction and attack at the same time to do a sliding reverse ftilt. a minor error, especially as it's not really a useful technique, just thought I'd point it out tho. EDIT: you point it out as run animation later on - just a brainfart in the earlier section I guess.
• great in depth analysis of the taunt attack - some people think it's OP, but they just need to learn the matchup imo.
• at low %s, the opponent will almost always be out of hitstun before dthrow -> knee works - any character with a fast aerial will hit you out of it.
• great analysis of stomp and bair.
• love the stuff about the tipman spike on uair. there are loads of hitboxes on this move tho, maybe talk about more of em? most important ones imo is the one directly above falcon, and the one right at the start of the move in front of him (can be used as a 'pop-up').
• bthrow is good vs. floaties - bthrow -> double knee works at low percents on floaties with certain DI. bthrow -> knee is an amazing DI mixup from fthrow/dthrow vs. floaties too.
• if an opponent DIs in on fthrow, you can followup with an immediate fullhop stomp (true combo). good for a DI mixup if they start DIing dthrow in all the time.
• I've tested the sacred combo a lot, and I'm pretty sure it's never a true combo with DI away or no DI in this game. haven't been able to test with DI in yet however, so there may be hope yet.
• you should totally add tac3 bodying tson to the taunt cancel section.
• AMAZING techchase analysis. your frame data work is so good.
• you should totally mention soft knee -> uair for edgeguarding, easy to hit, guaranteed and a great edgeguard.
• good s*** on corner/ledge pressure, gotta work on that. didn't know you could let go after only 6 frames!
• on the matchups, could you give a ratio as well as the '-2' thing? I know what -2 and such means (60-40 to the other guy right?), but it's more generally accepted to use ratios I think.
• f*** incredible matchups section - everything you could possibly want to know about every matchup. really really great stuff.
• end of the guide. really enjoyed reading that, and will probably be back many times to look stuff up. GREAT JOB!!!

Mwahaha i see that you don't know that Falcon Punch can be edge cancelled! https://youtu.be/zelaVfGQIX8?t=37s As you can see, edge cancelled Falcon Punch has many uses such as style of the highest calibre and ultimate mind games .

But seriously, an awesome guide! The detail is incredible! But do you really think the gentlemen's combo isn't worth the hit? Whenever I land the knee hit, I'm almost given a free grab. And free damage is free damage so I don't think it's that bad.

PS. I know that the falcon punch was cancelled due to smashville platfrom mechanics. Please don't tell me that I'm wrong or somehing

I didn't know that about FP, but I do believe it is only because of the silly SV platform. After all, tech rolls get edgecancelled by moving platforms as well I was worried for a second tho haha. Despite the fact that I include this moving platform edgecancel info in the guide, I didn't put any info about it when describing the stages. Thanks for reminding me about the hijinks that the moving platform causes, I'll include this information in the section about SV and other stages this info is applicable to.

As for the Gentleman, I'll definitely re-examine it for utility (especially since that part of the guide would have been written back in March lol) although I think that if it had just a teensy bit more KB it would be great. Maybe the Gentleman just seems weaker to me than it was in Melee, as SSF2 Falcon's jab1 is way better than Melee Falcon's jab1, so perhaps I'm just too focused on jab1.



On an unrelated note, It's come to my attention that there are several inaccuracies which I intend to fix at the earliest convenience. I will have an update to fix this misinformation, and at the end of the guide I will enclose a section about what was changed so that if you happen to have read that far you will know what I changed. I don't think I will keep a comprehensive changelist for all versions of this (when Beta comes around I'm not gonna list everything that changed lol, and I don't want to add pages upon pages filled with update info like "Version 4.20: Fixed some typos"), so in the case of small updates like this one I will be able to tell you guys what changed and I will only list the changes from the previous version to the next one.

Phoenix 'In His Own' Wright is truly a legend in his own right - Gary Coleman

SK you're a god, marry me bb


Edit: oml this frame data <3, among the few things I love, data is like #4, preceded by redhead chicks, hip hop, and casting counterspells in mtg ofc

Congrats! I don't play Falcon, but I love reading these guides. I wish there were more of these! Pretty good!

@Jammy While the rest of the jab combo seems safer onshield, none of it is actually safe on shield. It might help out if someone is slow on a punish, but neither nair nor soft fair (especially not soft fair) is actually safe on shield through brute force UNLESS they are one of the characters that doesn't have a frame 4 option oos. Turns out late uair on shield is safe if you jab right away, but jab isn't actually safe on shield against buffered grab (again, if they don't have a frame 4 option then you can get the next jab off). So I'll say that it works but one shouldn't rely on it.

All of your feedback is greatly appreciated!

THANK YOU SO MUCH OH MY GOD

Updated to 1.01, I think it's up to my personal standards for the moment and can stand on it's own for a while. See section IV: The End for details on what changed.