Falco can be frustrating to play against. His tools are extremely oppressive in many situations. Most of all, his lasers give him unique control on horizontal space. There are many ways to laser and many ways to counter lasers. Many players opt to go to platforms to circumvent them altogether. Here are a number of techniques that require more finesse, some of which you are undoubtedly familiar with, and some which you probably aren’t.

Taking lasers is a metagame staple. Lasers don’t have a lot of stun. If you are good at moving out of getting lasered, you can take a laser in a position where you can potentially try to hit the Falco after throwing out the laser. You also have considerably more freedom to reposition after taking a laser than shielding one. The dance unfolds around this. Falco studies your preferred ranges and your tendencies to retreat or aggress after tanking lasers while you try to find the perfect moment to try to open him up. Conceptually, it’s basically just dash dancing. You have to put yourself into ranges where you can either hit your opponent or entice him to try to hit you. Make sure your movement is extremely deliberate, as small errors in spacing will surely get punished. And much like dash dancing, be sure to threaten something, or else you’ll find yourself in the corner with severely limited options. There’s a counter for lasers you should be willing to tank before trying to assert yourself.

Tank lasers in the air. Some characters like Luigi, Sheik, or Marth can get lasered in the air and convert it into a punish. Many players are too committed to staying grounded. If you have studied where the Falco likes to put himself relative to his lasers, you might be able to jump, tank the laser, put out a quick move (e.g. Marth’s fair), and get a meaningful opening. This can even work out of shield. Practice SDI on lasers to augment this tactic, as you’ll be able to adjust your positioning at a time when your opponent is unlikely to be ready.

SDI on lasers is one of the most important techniques. Falcos with conventional patterns such as approaching laser –> dashing aerial are usually easy to bury in the dumpster by using SDI on lasers. If you have tanking lasers as a staple of your Falco matchup, both sides are going to get to study movement patterns and preferred ranges more than in other fastfaller matchups. You get many trials to feel out your opponent. Try to bait them in by getting in a “vulnerable” range, then SDI the laser away and proceed to whiff punish. Alternatively, get just outside a threatening range, then SDI the laser in and pounce on them (this is more challenging than SDI away because you’ll be holding your stick forward, then SDIing forward, then dashing forward again). Ultimately, good SDI on lasers only necessitates Falcos to be that much more cognizant of ranges, but even if they have good cognizance, some of these situations unfold so quickly that they are unlikely to be able to react properly.

CC on lasers lets you act out of them even more quickly. Similar to how you can bait a Falco in by using SDI away on lasers, you can also trick them into coming in by crouching, then evading more quickly than they were ready for. On top of this, you might be able to hit them outright out of their next approach option. As a rule of thumb, you should usually be able to do a quick grounded move before Falco can laser –> aerial if you CC the laser. For characters like Sheik, who have a small dash range, practice running into crouch, crouching the laser, then acting out of it. Crouching a laser and using it to turn you around can also be a useful tool, as they may be thinking of you as in a retreating state when running away, and then you can put a move out that they may not have been trying to space around.

Powershielding is a useful tool against lasers but don’t delude yourself into thinking that a 100% powershield rate will entirely neutralize lasers*. Powershields are only useful if you find yourself in a favorable position afterwards. Practice attacking and wavedashing out of your powershields immediately. Go for powershields at favorable ranges and have the confidence to act quickly afterwards. Know whether your shield input was correctly timed—reacting visually to the success of your powershield cedes the possibility of a conversion. Excessive attempts at powershields will invariably cost you the match against good Falco players. Shielding too much is bad in Melee, and though having a high powershield rate is helpful, spamming it is not viable.

Light powershield is something that was discovered a few years ago and a technique that few people use. I don’t think it will ever be commonplace, but it is useful if you know someone is committed to lasering in place. Use this technique against people who don’t use their lasers aggressively.

Crouching powershield is an older technique that not too many people use anymore. Certain characters like Sheik and Marth have an easier time powershielding when they are crouching. This is because of their hurtbox while crouching compared to where the shield covers when it appears. Most people stopped using crouching powershield because if you’re crouching, it telegraphs what you’re going for. However, I can imagine that using this in tandem with crouch out of run could be quite useful and would allow you to pick between CC and powershield while still remaining dynamic in your movement. Note that if a laser hits the back of your shield, it will still get powershielded back the same way it came. This means that if you crouch under a laser, then powershield it as it passes you, it will still get sent back toward the opponent, which may catch them off guard. Sheik players tend to get a lot of reverse powershields.

Running powershield is a technique that I haven’t seen anyone implement yet but that I expect to be influential in a future meta. Shielding out of a dash immediately stops your momentum but shielding out of run does not. If you powershield a laser out of run, then immediately jump, you will jump with your full running momentum, letting you do an approaching aerial from far away.

*Concerns when powershielding

Laser height. Your character’s height will change depending on your state. Falco’s will change depending on his. Successful powershields can be punished by Falco if he shoots a low laser and jumps over the powershield, or if he shoots a high laser and moves under it. If you play Marth or Sheik, be sure to abuse your character’s low dashing height to minimize his options for laser heights. If you play Marth and Falco shoots the lowest possible laser, you can’t powershield it.

What to do after powershielding. Different characters have vastly different options here. Remember that lasers don’t have too much stun, so there’s not a lot of guaranteed followups after powershields. In spite of this, it’s often still worth trying to throw out a move or wavedash in after a powershield. Know exactly where you want to be relative to your opponent and how to convert powershields into meaningful aggression.

Which direction you’re facing. A lot of the time, it’s good to tank a laser, reposition, then powershield the next one. In these cases, be sure to consider which direction you’re facing, as it will dictate which offensive options are suitable after your powershield.

How they tend to deal with powershields. This is the most important thing. Falco players have so many counters to powershields. Some Falco players, even at high levels, mess up their movement after getting powershielded and open themselves up to punishes, but don’t count on this being the case. Figure out how they like to counter powershields. They might like to trick you with laser height. They might like to powershield your powershield. The list goes on. Don’t get baited into shielding and play into their hand.

“Fuck Falco” is a common sentiment. One of the most frustrating things in the game is when you feel like you don’t exist, like your opponent doesn’t even need to pay attention to you, and like they don’t have to put any effort into trying to specifically counter what you’re doing. Falco is a character that often feels like he can impose his will on you. Implementation of these techniques will make the matchup more fun and make you feel like you have some control over the ebb and flow of the match. Playing against Falco requires extreme dispatch and precision—milking every actionable frame is crucial. Practice with 20xx color overlays on and don’t forget to use cactuar dash. Cactuar dash will allow you to be more comfortable in your run, which will let you space yourself better, cc lasers at better spots, use crouching powershield, and cross up falcos. Once you learn to move unimpeded by lasers, playing against Falco can be one of the most fun and rewarding matchups. I give you my word that it will feel great the first time you grab a Falco after he lasers in place while trying to get a second laser out, then gets grab released from the second laser and falls off the stage to his death.