Falco (SSBM)/Down aerial

Overview

The hitbox of Falco's dair.

Falco spins around in place at a downward angle. His down aerial is considered the best spike in the game, having an extremely long duration of 20 frames, sourspot hitboxes that still spike relatively powerfully (in NTSC only), and an extremely short start-up of 4 frames. The move is generally regarded as the best non special move in the game, and one of the best overall attacks in Melee. Falco's down aerial is vital to his success as a character, acting as a powerful approach, combo, tech chasing and edgeguarding option all at once. The move is Falco's most rewarding approach option; at low percents the move directly combos into his shine or down tilt, and at higher percents combos into other aerials including itself. In addition, the move, being a spike, invalidates ASDI-down, aiding in its abilities as a neutral opener at low percents.

Using this move in conjunction with the shine is known as pillaring and is the basis for all of Falco's combos; the vertical knockback of shine directly combos into a down aerial which as a spike, links perfectly into another shine. This cycle of shines and down aerials is expanded with a variety of other moves, most notably up tilt, neutral aerial, and back aerial, and is a notable way to wear down shields. The possibilities opened up by Falco's down aerial are near unlimited, and this is one of the primary reasons why Falco is such an unforgiving character; in the hands of a competent player, this move can absolutely devastate every other character, potentially netting KOs as early as 30%.

Despite the move's strengths, it still has some weaknesses, primarily at low percents. Until the opponent reaches high enough percent to be tumbled, any airborne opponent who gets knocked back down into the ground will go through their normal landing lag, which is 4 frames for most characters. Against crouch cancelling, however, is where things get confusing. At mid and high percents, down aerial will cleanly beat crouch cancelling, putting the opponent into grounded hitstun or launching them into the air, leading to Falco's aforementioned pillar combos. At low percents, though, the move deals such low hitstun against crouching opponents that it may be possible for the opponent to become actionable before Falco does, leading to a reversal. This is dependent on a variety of factors, including the opponent's percent and weight, whether Falco hits them with his sweetspot or sourspot, how much the down aerial is staled, and at what stage of his jump Falco did the down aerial. For example, against a crouching Fox at 0%, an unstaled frame-1 SHFFLed down aerial that hits on the earliest active frame will be -12 on hit, leaving the Falco vulnerable to a shine, jab, or even up smash. The counterplay for Falco, in this scenario, is to hit extremely late into his jump, minimizing the amount of frame advantage the opponent can get.

Hitboxes

NTSC

ID	Part	Damage	SD	BK	KS	FKV	Radius	Bone	Offset			Sound
Clean
0	0	12%	0	10	100	0	5.15592	7	-1.32804	1.495998	0.0	Kick
1	0	12%	0	10	100	0	5.987898	7	0.99603	0.99603	0.0	Kick
Late
0	0	9%	0	20	100	0	5.15592	7	-1.32804	1.495998	0.0	Kick
1	0	9%	0	20	100	0	5.987898	7	0.99603	0.99603	0.0	Kick

PAL

ID	Part	Damage	SD	BK	KS	FKV	Radius	Bone	Offset			Sound
Clean
0	0	12%	0	10	100	0	5.15592	7	-1.32804	1.495998	0.0	Kick
1	0	12%	0	10	100	0	5.987898	7	0.99603	0.99603	0.0	Kick
Late
0	0	9%	0	20	100	0	5.15592	7	-1.32804	1.495998	0.0	Kick
1	0	9%	0	20	100	0	5.987898	7	0.99603	0.99603	0.0	Kick