Falco (PM)

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 4th out of 26 and 7th out of 38 positions on the Melee and Brawl tier lists, respectively. His standing is slightly improved in Project+, where he ranks 20th in the , at the end of the A tier.
==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 , , and ), 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 ) he remains a significant threat to most of the roster.
==Changes from Melee to PM==
Falco was slightly nerfed overall in the transition from Melee to Project M. He was reverted to become a clone of Fox again, rather than a semi-clone (as he was in Brawl). 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===
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===Ground Attacks===
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===Aerial Attacks===
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===Special Moves===
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==Revisions==
===v2.5===
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===v2.6===
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===v3.0===
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===v3.0.1===
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===v3.5===
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===v3.6 Beta===
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==Moveset==
Up to date as of version 3.6.
 	 	Name 	Damage 	Description
Neutral attack 	Neutral attack 	 	4% 	Falco does a chop, another outward chop, and then tilts diagonally and spins very quickly with one of his arms out.
Neutral attack 	Neutral attack 	 	4% 	Falco does a chop, another outward chop, and then tilts diagonally and spins very quickly with one of his arms out.
Neutral attack 	Neutral attack 	 	1% (loop) 	Falco does a chop, another outward chop, and then tilts diagonally and spins very quickly with one of his arms out.
Forward tilt 	Forward tilt 	 	9% 	Sticks his foot out to the side. This move be aimed up or down.
Up tilt 	Up tilt 	 	9% 	Does a quick upwards back kick that can be useful for juggling opponents.
Down tilt 	Down tilt 	 	13% 	Falco performs a quick tail swipe.
Dash attack 	Dash attack 	 	9% (clean), 6% (late) 	Runs forward and sticks his leg out. Sends opponents upwards.
Forward smash 	Forward smash 	 	(clean), (late) 	Flips his body in front and kicks in front of him. Similar to Fox's f-smash, but much stronger.
Up smash 	Up smash 	 	(clean), (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 	Down smash 	 	(legs), (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 	Neutral aerial 	 	12% (clean), 9% (late) 	Does a sex kick that loses power the longer it's out.
Forward aerial 	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 	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 	Up aerial 	 	5% (hit 1), 10% (hit 2) 	Whips his tail up and kicks immediately after.
Down aerial 	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 	Grab 	 	— 	
Pummel 	Pummel 	 	3% 	Knees opponent. A fairly quick pummel.
Forward throw 	Forward throw 	 	4% (hit 1), 3% (throw) 	Falco bashes the opponent forward.
Back throw 	Back throw 	 	2% (throw), 2% (laser) 	Falco throws the foe backwards and then blasts them with his blaster.
Up throw 	Up throw 	 	2% (throw), 2% (laser) 	Falco throws the foe upwards and shoots at them.
Down throw 	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)	Floor attack (front)	 	6% 	Falco does a kick in front and in back.
Floor attack (back) 	Floor attack (back) 	 	6% 	Falco punches forwards, and kicks backwards.
Floor attack (trip) 	Floor attack (trip) 	 	5% 	Falco spins around, kicking foes with who are close.
Edge attack (fast) 	Edge attack (fast) 	 	8% (legs), 6% (head) 	Falco lunges at the opponent with a kick.
Edge attack (slow) 	Edge attack (slow) 	 	9% 	Falco slowly gets up and hammers the ground with a kick.
Neutral special 	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 	Side special 	Falco Phantasm	7% 	Falco dashes forward, leaving an afterimage behind him. Enemies hit by the move will be meteor smashed.
Up special 	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 	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 	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==
===Most historically significant players===
See also: :Category:Falco players (PM)
* - Formerly ranked #37 on PMRank 2019.
* - Ranked 8th in Arizona.
* - The best active Falco player in the world. Ranked #37 on PMRank 2023.
* - Considered one of the best Falcos in the world. Was ranked B+ tier (Top 24) on PMRank 2021-22 Mid-Season Contenders List.
* - 9th at and . Formerly ranked 3rd on the SoCal Project M Power Rankings.
==Alternate costumes==
===Project M===
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.
							
							
							
===Project+===
Falco has three new recolors for his default costume; a sky blue one similar to one in Smash 4, a pink one loosely inspired by Katt Monroe from early Star Fox titles, and a purple one inspired by his rival Panther Caroso from Star Fox Assault. The pink Melee outfit is similar to a hidden costume in the 20XX Melee training pack.
Z-Secret Costume: Star Fox Adventures Falco
R-Secret Costume: Star Fox Assault Falco
==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.
==External links==
*Falco's page at the Project M website
*Labbing Discord Tech Post
Category:Falco
Category:Characters (PM)