FalcoNotes so far

REMEMBER: Falco performing a dash into his jump is what makes it seem faster
NOTE: Early/mid/late defined by when he does it in his jump
NOTE2 for later: Don’t forget that if he spaces further into you it might just be a bait (esp from FH). THough it’s p risky lol
NOTE3: when you fail your grab on something that was ambiguous, there’s often situations where you will feel “tricked”

“High on block”: unreactable but large punish window
“Mid on block”: the guessing zone that punishes panic buttons but is hard(er) to convert off of.
“Low on block”: large startup but very safe and mixup heavy

Plan: Learn defense without platforms, without lasers
(Test rolling out too briefly just to see how it interacts with each of these options. I imagine Falco will want to hit low so he has more time to chase, or cross up to catch braindead back rolls)
Then learn defense/neutral without platforms, with lasers
Then learn defense with platforms, without lasers
Then learn defense/neutral with platforms, with lasers

Move
Side

Spacing (Max, Spaced, Deep) - Timing (Early — hits high on block, Mid — hits middle of block, Late — hits low on block) - Movement state (stationary, retreating, toward)

Assume Sheik is facing forward. Backwards in all these scenarios is different but most of the time you will have to hold that shit if he’s hitting the back of your shield.
All nair OOS here are tested with 20XX dummy, meaning that slight forward nair is the only permutation possible. Therefore, this guide is not comprehensive. Additionally, may not be comprehensive due to intial movement changing stuff with nair. Finally, don’t forget that the inputs performed by the CPU are frame perfect. Test for leeway too!


NAIR
Same Side
Max (foot to knee):
High - cannot shieldgrab, cannot nair OOS. Probably gotta just evade here. You can actually WD backwards and punish I think, or create awkward situation(?). (Stationary or retreating) Can grab toward but only if he spaces closer to the knee.
Mid - shieldgrab will not work. if you nair OOS he will get hit weakly (i.e. CC shineable though that might be enough to stop him if he’s not prepared) UNLESS he WDs out or shields, in which case he will evade and block respectively. If he does it stationary or slight retreating he has the option of hitting you with strong f-smash. If he does it full retreating you have the chance to WD OOS and punish, I think. If he does it toward he can be punished but only if he spaces closer to the knee.
Low - He can definitely do whatever he wants from this without fear of grab or nair.
BUT! At all max distance nairs he cannot shine your retaliation should you fail.
Spaced (knee) -
High - cannot shieldgrab stationary or retreating. Can shieldgrab toward. Nair OOS will hit with the weak hitbox on stationary and toward but he can shield (to shine/aerial OOS) if he does it correctly. If he does it retreating it’ll miss clean, and he might be able to retaliate with dash attack (certainly gives him room to run back and laser more). He can’t quickly retailaite with shine or shieldgrab on any of states of movement.
Mid - unless he’s exactly at the knee, cannot shieldgrab stationary or retreating. Can shieldgrab toward. Stationary and retreating will hit weakly but can be shielded if done correctly. Frame perfectly, you can punish towards with nair OOS (more leniency the higher he hits on your block).
Low - cannot shieldgrab any.
Deep (body)-
Can shieldgrab any timing and state of movement . Gets grabbed of out shine, too. These ones have the most leeway. You can also nair OOS vs any of these.
Crossup WHAT ABOUT BAIR OOS?
Can’t shield grab any of the crossups. Note that if he tries to crossup front to back spaced and you have a full/large shield (i.e. don’t get chipped) your grab will prevent cross up (though leeway is probably small the lower he is due to relative position to Sheik’s grab).
If he comes from the back and he doesn’t have sufficient momentum he’ll get grabbed.
The same goes for Nair OOS — if he tries to cross up front to back you cannot nair OOS him reliably. But if he doesn’t have sufficient momentum and doesn’t hit Late low, then you can nair reliably.

DAIR
Same Side
Note: Falco cannot hit high dair from SH, only FH.
Max (toes to mid shin) — Don’t forget to test nair oos
High: Can’t shield grab. If he hits enough towards the shin, you can shield grab toward/stationary. If he hits shin and he retreats, he’ll be fine and will be actually in a really good spot to fsmash you.
Nair OOS is extremely inconsistent. Thank GOD that he has to telegraph a high dair with an FH on flat ground, and on platforms if he wants to do a high dair then he has to jump from certain position(s)…
Mid: if he retreats he’ll be safe from grab OOS to do stuff like fsmash. If he goes towards, he’ll get grabbed (cannot shine either). If he’s stationary, he’ll be fine from grab OOS and he can punish w fsmash.
Low: if he does stationary or retreating, he’s safe and cannot shine punish. If he does it towards you can shield grab.

Spaced (shin to stomach)
High: can grab or nair OOS stationary or toward (though stationary looks a little wonky). No can do on retreating.
Mid: can grab or nair OOS stationary or toward. No can do on retreating.
Low: grab, nair OOS are no bueno on stationary. Good on towards. If he retreats no good.
Deep (body)
Can’t high/mid/low with body hitbox, can only go deep with crossup.

Crossup - WHAT ABOUT BAIR OOS?
Front to Back
Grabs fail obviously UNLESS he doesn’t build enough momentum and hits you right around the middle of your shield and not low/mid
Nair OOS seems to be not very good. Seems like I’d have enough time if he didn’t go all the way through on mid dair (a specific amount though). Feels like 20XX might influence testing here here because it only does forward nair which might influence the hitbox…but if it comes out on the first frame available are 3+2 frames of jumpsquat enough to significantly change the trajectory/results? Meh. Videos will help.
Back to Front
Nair OOS is strong if he doesn’t hit the front of your shield and he doesn’t do the aerial late.
Grab is good if he doesn’t hit low and he doesn’t hit close enough to the front of your block. He can hit the middle and you’ll warp grab.

IF SHINE HITS YOUR BLOCK AND HE DOESN’T DOUBLE SHINE HE GETS NAIRED OOS EVERY TIME. YIKES.

—
Stationary cases, no platforms
From a little outside 1/4 to full FD away: Falco can only shoot lasers but your needles don’t reach. Your needles reach around 2/3. This is the point where if you move forward you need to have a plan, and if he moves forward then he wants to be able to apply aerial pressure.
From a little outside 1/4th to 1/4th stage: this is the range where at the end-ish of his dash he can jumping nair/dair you (they will hit relatively low on your shield and in the front). I.e. if he dashes forward and carries the momentum of his dash with his jump around the 1/3rd FD range he can hit your shield with a late aerial
From 1/4th stage away: this is where it begins to get hard to react (i.e. rambo early dair/nair — that coincidentally hits high on your block and cannot cross up). But if he doesn’t do that junk he’s extremely ineffective from this range without a laser (though sadly it’s hard to punish the laser from this range if he doesn’t move forward).
From 3 Falcos away: with a slight dash he can start crossing you up. At this point is where you’re almost absolutely blocking. If he does a high or mid laser you can dash attack him here though.
From 2 Falcos/ away/right next to you: RIP hope you’re blocking cuz there’s no way you can react to anything here unless you reacted to how he entered this space. Though note that he has to sufficiently stagger you for him to be able to use low/mid aerials without you escaping early (i.e. he has to complete one rep). If he lasers here you can easily dash attack/ftilt.

If he tries to rambo into the 3 or 2 length with SHL you can nair OOS and he’ll get bodied. You could conceivably WD OOS and dash attack to accomplish the same result provided he doesn’t shoot a lower laser (though you might still have time to DA him since the low laser takes a while to come out).
HOWEVER it’s really easy for him to bait the nair oos here. You just need to show him you can do it to stop him from playing like a nut.

You actually should really first see the space between you and Falco — his ability to dash/create run for the sake of movement — and then focus on his character model. Remember that Falco wants to be control your relative position as well as force you to block so he has more flexibility. Lasers are NOT the problem!!! His ability to freely mix you up is. That being said, don’t forget that you can absolutely crouch under mid lasers and SH over low lasers (and you can crouch under high lasers ofc). NEED TO INVESTIGATE HOW THIS AFFECTS NEUTRAL GAME ON GROUND.