Desert Falcon LR 1.05

XZero264

FSD | Nichol
Premium Donor
Over the past couple days I've been freaking out about the unwritten change to Leons Desert Falcon from patch 1.05. For those who don't know about it Desert Falcon has been changed so that Leons voice and the actual hit animation against a wall are both different when executing the throw in close proximity to walls and taller breakable objects. The video below was recorded on patch 1.05 but shows you a comparison of what the old vs New Desert Falcon looks like. You are just going to have to imagine that Leon is close to a wall when performing the ranged DF.


Previously the first displayed DF is what you would get at all ranges of the throw. The second displayed DF is what was changed about the throw.

So what exactly had changed about this new closer to something DF? On the surface nothing other than the wall hit animation and Leons shout changing to that of his cliffhanger throw. On a regular wall and taller breakables the damage has not changed and will deal 88 damage. However, against taller breakables the closer DF will not grant sit down stuns.

Unfortunately that is not all, on walls that grant relaunches like in Fuel and The Show this new throw will act as shown above. Those walls will not bounce your opponent into the air. I was up in arms about this change but after some experimenting this change had been warranted, will explain later.

Those right there, not having sit downs or bounces are the only negatives in this change. As shown above, you can still get sit downs (and not shown is bounces) when using DF from a distance. Being at that range is kinda difficult to judge mid battle but it is possible.

So what are the positives of this change?
First of Leon is left at a significant advantage (+26 if teched) and if your opponent doesn't tech you get a guaranteed ground throw into Dervish Throw and you completely eliminate wake up kicks. It's difficult to actually determine if your opponent techs in the window you have so if you commit to a ground throw and are teched you will be at -5 but at a safe distance if teched away from. Effectively unteched you can get 88+55 damage on normal walls on normal hit.
This isn't the only nice change.
Unmentioned in the patch notes is that explosive wall damage had finally been resolved and most throws in the game now deal increased damage against walls. This includes all of Leons throws that interact with walls except his Dervish Throw. Ex: Walled T previously did 75 explosive but now deals 78. It's a cast wide buff but Leon probably got the best buff from this overall.
The best possible change is that his new DF deals 105 damage on NH to explosive walls. Ranged DF deals 93. Hi Counter new DF deals 149 damage on explosive walls. Hell yes, he now has two half health damage throws. The removal of bounces is warranted simply because you could net over 200 damage from a single throw, even I agree with that despite how much I want sit downs and bounces from it.

After talking with myself over the course of an hour and a half I came to the conclusion that this is a berf, but overall this is actually a buff. Nerf because he loses close range sit downs and bounces from walls but buff because of increased damage potential against walls based on opponents actions.

It's a change we didn't see coming but I
think in the long run this is a change for the better. Only 8 stages have breakables that are affected and it's not actually very often that yo can get DF near these obstacles. Air throw still functions normally and that is executed more often anyway.

The video below shows which breakables and bouncing walls that have been affected by this change. The title of the video says "Bug" but that title was made when I hadn't put any time into trying to learn what happened (I had only 15 minutes with the patch when I made that video).

Not in the video but also affected are the pillars in Gaia.

Right now this change only affects forward facing opponents and only when going head on into walls and tall breakables. Angled hits and back turned hits don't trigger this new DF so we can still play normally but you have to be ready to adapt if you happen to get a close range DF when you were attempting to get an angled hit or ranged hit.

Note: this change does not affect small breakables like tables, pots, and benches. Only the ones shown in the video and mentioned above are affected.

If you guys find out something I haven't posted go ahead and share it.
 
Last edited:

Rikuto

P-P-P-P-P-P-POWER!
Pretty much the same conclusion I came to.

Overall It's a Burf. Leon is still playing pretty much the same and is a scary asshole.
 

Lulu

Well-Known Member
Y'know. I think "Desert Falcon" is an appropriate name for that throw. How nice of Leon to grant man his greatest wish.... the ability to soar through the air like a bird..... or a spit ball. :)
 

XZero264

FSD | Nichol
Premium Donor
From my testing so far yes. Some are the same a pre patch (example Dervish Throw and walled TFBB, checked that with Mr. Wah this weekend) but for the most part they've gone up in damage but each character would need to be tested. I checked Ein's stuff and it had all gone up and I can run through the list later as my XBone copy is still on 1.04 but that is going to take some time.
 

Matt Ponton

Founder
Staff member
Administrator
Standard Donor
Unmentioned in the patch notes is that explosive wall damage had finally been resolved and most throws in the game now deal increased damage against walls. This includes all of Leons throws that interact with walls except his Dervish Throw. Ex: Walled T previously did 75 explosive but now deals 78. It's a cast wide buff but Leon probably got the best buff from this overall.

This is incorrect as I've verified through even the characters you stated you test with that the only throw that does more damage is his new desert falcon throw against a wall. Otherwise damage, wall damage included, has not been altered.

Using the PC version to test this. Specifically, in 1.04 his Walled T did 78 damage, not 75 as you stated.
 

UncleKitchener

Well-Known Member
Standard Donor
Okay then that simplifies things. Something like walled TFBB doing even more damage would've been very silly.
 

XZero264

FSD | Nichol
Premium Donor
Not sure what's going on then. What I said is what I got when I was going through Leon differences but I can't even recheck now because my xbone decided to update without asking me to deny it. It could have been a difference between pc and console.
 

DontForkWitMe

Well-Known Member
Did they revert this back to the old DF? It no longer does the new animation even when using it point blank into walls/tall breakables and now works like before giving him his guaranteed follow ups. guess it actually was a bug that was most likely some old scrapped animation file that snuck its way in on accident during the previous patch, glad they fixed it.
 

XZero264

FSD | Nichol
Premium Donor
Okay, the ground throw options haven't been removed from 1.05 DF but you only get them using DF against a half wall.
 
ALL DOA6 DOA5 DOA4 DOA3 DOA2U DOAD
Top