Dealing with Falco's Lasers as Bowser
Falco gets to dictate the pace of the neutral game in a way that no other character can due to the power of his lasers. Asking for Falco advice generally leads to being told stuff like "learn to deal with lasers", which while true, I don't think is as helpful as it could be. Due to their versatility in application, there's hardly going to be a one-size-fits-all solution to working around Falco's lasers. I think there are a lot of Falco players at low-mid level who use lasers and rely on them fully shutting down their opponent's movement. While it's not an unfounded assumption to think lasers can shut down movement, they definitely aren't perfect. In this writeup, I'm going to detail movement options that Bowser can use even while under incredible laser pressure. Note that although this writeup is centered around Bowser's options, most of them aren't fully Bowser-specific, and the methodologies would be transferable between characters.
II. Options
III. Tips 'n Tricks
Falco's Shorthop Laser:
Jumpsquat: 5 frames
Shorthop rising: 13 frames
Fastfall: 4 frames
Fall: 12 frames
Autocancel Landing: 4 frames
Laser: Comes out on frame 13
Repeated shots: every 16 frames
Lasers on hit:
Hitstun: 11 frames
CC'd Hitstun: 7 frames
Shieldstun: 7 frames
Lightshieldstun: 10 frames
Bowser's Frame Data:
Jumpsquat: 8 frames
Wavedash Lag: 10 Frames
Nair: 8-23
Fair: 8-11
Bair: 9-17
Grab: 9-10
Uspecial: Intangible frame 1, hitbox frame 5
Falco's common post-laser options:
Grab: 7-8
Another laser (fastest): 18
Another laser (same height): 26
Dair: 5-25
Nair: 4-31
Bair: 4-19
Jab: 2-3
Dash Attack: 4-17
Ftilt: 5-9
Utilt: 5-11
Dtilt: 7-9
Fsmash: 12-21
After shielding a laser:
Wavedash out of shield
- 11 frame leniency with full length wavedash back
- Can dash back for quick and easy powershields
- Can get a shield up before a subsequent laser guaranteed with any wavedash angle behind forward 45 degrees down
Guardoff dash
- Simply drop the shield input and wait through thre 16 frame guardoff animation, then dash in the direction of your choice
- 6 frame window to get a shield up if you dash back
- 4 frame window to get a shield up if you dash forward
Fullhop
- If you delay the jump slightly, you can jump over two full lasers without fastfalling, and get a shield up before the next one
- You can change the window on this with aerial drift. This is hardest to do out of a fullhop drifting back
- You can obviously do aerials in this situation, can rise and get AC aerials like Uair and Fair
Aerial out of shield
- You can do an aerial attack of shield and purposely get hit by a laser during it to cancel the lag
- With no drift, you can get 15 frames actionable in the air
- 17 actionable frames before the next laser with full drift backwards
- 13 actionable airborne frames if you drift fully forward
- After getting hit, do one of the "After getting hit in the air by a laser" options
After getting hit on the ground by a laser:
Dash out of hitstun
- 25 frames of moving back if you dash back out of hitstun (can powershield on frame 26)
- 14 frames of moving forward if you dash forward out of hitstun
- You can barely get a dash attack out forward in this time
Jump out
- Just jump out to a platform
Put up shield
- Use lightshield so as to not trigger the tech window
After CCing a laser:
Dash out of hitstun
- 29 frames of moving back if you dash back out of hitstun (can powershield on frame 30)
- 16 frames of moving forward if you dash forward out of hitstun
- You can do pivots, jumps, run cancel tilts, or dash attacks out of this easily
Jump out
- Same options as jumping out of shield, just a bigger window
Put up shield
- Use full lightshield to not trigger the tech window
After getting hit in the air by a laser:
Jump out
- After being hit, you can simply jump out and go to a platform or land after the next laser and get a shield up or crouch
Waveland
- Since you're airborne, you can just airdodge down to the ground
- If you were high up or got clipped on the foot with a laser, then you have to delay your waveland in order to get your shield out in time
- If you were low, you can just
Flame cancel
- In 20XX or 1.0, you can flame cancel here, which will interrupt a lot of Falco's options
Shield
- Shield on landing with full lightshield to not trigger the tech window
None of these are one-size-fits-all solutions to Falco's lasers, and they're ideally used in conjunction with proper spacing, mixup utilization, and other types of movement. The idea is that you've gotta be honest with yourself about Falco's lasers, they're great tools, and at their best they're annoying as all hell, but you've gotta account for that. You can't try to do your normal movement around Falco's lasers, you've gotta recognize the limitations and work within them. There's no getting around it or avoiding them entirely, the best you can do is respect what they can do and do the best you can considering.
A lot of this stuff is really hard to get down, especially with people who are good at mixing up laser timings and heights. You can download some of the 20XX savestates of various laser timings here. Incorporating them into play can and will take even longer than just doing it against a looping CPU, so I'd recommend starting off by working on it against low-level Falco players then working your way up.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. Frame DataII. Options
III. Tips 'n Tricks
I. FRAME DATA
Falco's Shorthop Laser:
Jumpsquat: 5 frames
Shorthop rising: 13 frames
Fastfall: 4 frames
Fall: 12 frames
Autocancel Landing: 4 frames
Laser: Comes out on frame 13
Repeated shots: every 16 frames
Lasers on hit:
Hitstun: 11 frames
CC'd Hitstun: 7 frames
Shieldstun: 7 frames
Lightshieldstun: 10 frames
Bowser's Frame Data:
Jumpsquat: 8 frames
Wavedash Lag: 10 Frames
Nair: 8-23
Fair: 8-11
Bair: 9-17
Grab: 9-10
Uspecial: Intangible frame 1, hitbox frame 5
Falco's common post-laser options:
Grab: 7-8
Another laser (fastest): 18
Another laser (same height): 26
Dair: 5-25
Nair: 4-31
Bair: 4-19
Jab: 2-3
Dash Attack: 4-17
Ftilt: 5-9
Utilt: 5-11
Dtilt: 7-9
Fsmash: 12-21
II. MOVEMENT OPTIONS
After shielding a laser:
Wavedash out of shield
- 11 frame leniency with full length wavedash back
- Can dash back for quick and easy powershields
- Can get a shield up before a subsequent laser guaranteed with any wavedash angle behind forward 45 degrees down
Guardoff dash
- Simply drop the shield input and wait through thre 16 frame guardoff animation, then dash in the direction of your choice
- 6 frame window to get a shield up if you dash back
- 4 frame window to get a shield up if you dash forward
Fullhop
- If you delay the jump slightly, you can jump over two full lasers without fastfalling, and get a shield up before the next one
- You can change the window on this with aerial drift. This is hardest to do out of a fullhop drifting back
- You can obviously do aerials in this situation, can rise and get AC aerials like Uair and Fair
Aerial out of shield
- You can do an aerial attack of shield and purposely get hit by a laser during it to cancel the lag
- With no drift, you can get 15 frames actionable in the air
- 17 actionable frames before the next laser with full drift backwards
- 13 actionable airborne frames if you drift fully forward
- After getting hit, do one of the "After getting hit in the air by a laser" options
After getting hit on the ground by a laser:
Dash out of hitstun
- 25 frames of moving back if you dash back out of hitstun (can powershield on frame 26)
- 14 frames of moving forward if you dash forward out of hitstun
- You can barely get a dash attack out forward in this time
Jump out
- Just jump out to a platform
Put up shield
- Use lightshield so as to not trigger the tech window
After CCing a laser:
Dash out of hitstun
- 29 frames of moving back if you dash back out of hitstun (can powershield on frame 30)
- 16 frames of moving forward if you dash forward out of hitstun
- You can do pivots, jumps, run cancel tilts, or dash attacks out of this easily
Jump out
- Same options as jumping out of shield, just a bigger window
Put up shield
- Use full lightshield to not trigger the tech window
After getting hit in the air by a laser:
Jump out
- After being hit, you can simply jump out and go to a platform or land after the next laser and get a shield up or crouch
Waveland
- Since you're airborne, you can just airdodge down to the ground
- If you were high up or got clipped on the foot with a laser, then you have to delay your waveland in order to get your shield out in time
- If you were low, you can just
Flame cancel
- In 20XX or 1.0, you can flame cancel here, which will interrupt a lot of Falco's options
Shield
- Shield on landing with full lightshield to not trigger the tech window
III. TIPS 'N TRICKS
None of these are one-size-fits-all solutions to Falco's lasers, and they're ideally used in conjunction with proper spacing, mixup utilization, and other types of movement. The idea is that you've gotta be honest with yourself about Falco's lasers, they're great tools, and at their best they're annoying as all hell, but you've gotta account for that. You can't try to do your normal movement around Falco's lasers, you've gotta recognize the limitations and work within them. There's no getting around it or avoiding them entirely, the best you can do is respect what they can do and do the best you can considering.
A lot of this stuff is really hard to get down, especially with people who are good at mixing up laser timings and heights. You can download some of the 20XX savestates of various laser timings here. Incorporating them into play can and will take even longer than just doing it against a looping CPU, so I'd recommend starting off by working on it against low-level Falco players then working your way up.
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