Falco is one of the most used characters in Melee. His punish on most of the cast is relatively simple thanks to pillaring (shine → dair → repeat) and has access to one of the best tools for his neutral game (lasers). Many newer players often find Falco to be a very difficult matchup because of these, however thankfully Link has relatively decent counterplay to his options. As you level up as a player you'll find Falco to be one of your more comfortable matchups.

Alright chances are if you're here and you're new, you're probably wondering “how do I deal with Falco lasers?” In between laser shots Link can pull a bomb and he can throw a bomb. You should also learn to powershield the lasers consistently. Powershielding a laser while you have a bomb in hand and throwing the bomb after the powershield is great, or if you don't have a bomb and are close enough go for a powershield into a grab. If you're struggling with powershielding UnclePunch has a mode that allows you to practice powershielding vs a Falco only shooting lasers. Some players may also find powershielding easier when performing trigger-tricking (trigger-tricking is when you hold down either or both triggers down without fully pressing them to the point that they click while plugging your controller in the Gamecube/Wii while they're powered on or while starting up the game in Slippi/Dolphin). This will disable lightshielding on the trigger(s) that you trigger-tricked with until the next time you plug it in normally.

Week U-air -> Early D-Air...... 70s-120s Kill~90s
U-Throw -> Running D-air....... 60s-120s Kills~90s
D-Throw -> Up-B................ 70s-200s Kills~120s
Dash Attack -> Up-B............ 60s-110s kills~100s
Dash Attack -> D-air........... 80s-120's Kills~90s
D-Tilt -> D-Air................ 50s-150s kills~90s
U-tilt -> D-Air................ 50s-100s kills~90s

Edge guarding Falco is pretty simple. Throw a boomerang at his firefox or to stop his phantasm and then jump out with a nair or shoot an arrow at his other option. If you're sticking to the stage try doing an ftilt to hit his sweet spot, it works. The nair is probably your best option if you have enough time to get out there and use it. -Sklr