Joe “JustJoe” Dattalo
Falco’s laser is, without a doubt, his strongest tool in neutral. For many Falcos, it is far and away his most common neutral tool as well.
Every time you shield a laser or take a laser, it’s on you to move out of it in a timely manner. If you move 4 frames late out of shield, which I just found out before typing this was my personal average, you’re frequently giving Falco a lot of frame advantage that you simply should never give him.
In this article I’m going to provide a couple examples of reaction cues that you can use in response to Falco’s gun.
Out of Shield Visual Cue
When a laser hits a shield, it creates a bubble. After this, it becomes a circle with a dot in the middle.
The moment you react to the circle with the dot coming up is the moment you can move out of shield.
You don’t have to keep a sharp eye on it forever, but it’s a great help when practicing. It didn’t take too long before I was able to get a grasp on the timing without watching the bubble. This goes for light shield, too. This could potentially be a useful visual cue in other scenarios as well, so experiment and see if it can be helpful when shielding other attacks.
Rumble Cue
Rumble notably shakes the controller when grabbing ledge and stops rumbling the moment you can act again. I believe it does the same with all types of hitstun. One thing for sure though is that it rumbles when laser hits a character’s body, but not their shield.
Falco isn’t going anywhere in the meta, he’s got a lot going for him. Anti-laser technology also has a lot of room for advancement as well. These cues are a good foundation for anyone to use when you’re looking to stop getting abused by Falco in neutral.
