THE BEST FALINKS BUILD GUIDE - POKEMON UNITE

Attack Weight :
Falinks has excellent and repeatable ratios across their entire movepool and all of their moves are designed to chain into each other and keep a rhythm going through the use of the CD reduction built into the boosted auto, due to this and the high attack boost that Falinks gets when going No Retreat, Weight becomes a mandatory option for this premiere laner.

Razor Claw :
Razor proc compounds well with the 50% slow built into every boosted attack, which are automatically gained after every use of Move 1 (Tackle, Megahorn, Iron head), its damage also gets boosted through the usage of No Retreat and the crit rate increase is more than enough to satisfy Falinks’ needs.

Curse Bagel :
With Falinks being a close range brawler and having such a unique assortment of multiple targets, Cursed Bangle becomes mandatory for tower sieges, extended brawls and countering usual counterpicks that gain enhanced healing from hitting multiple targets, this item also becomes the best bank for your buck in terms of flat Attack investment.

X-Speed :
With Falinks requiring positioning in order to pull off their moves, this item becomes essential for any kiting and follow up and you may need, regardless of formation, specially benefiting Dust Devil Formation due to the extra movement speed and negation of Speed debuffs.

Eject Button :
Great for instant repositioning and further extension to your kit, can replace X-Speed depending on personal playstyle and enemy team composition.

Write-up courtesy of SBDoodles

In the early game, Falinks has access to Tackle and Bulk Up, while Falinks charges with Tackle, the Troops instantly snap back into a straight column aimed at the direction of the dash and become active hitboxes capable of dealing damage and shoving enemies, make use of that in order to achieve a faster clear and safely steal farm while retreating in the opposite direction.

Use Bulk Up to boost your defenses, attack power and attack speed prior to any engagement as it will help in disposing of enemies and getting your moves back faster through the faster auto attacks and enhanced stats.

With Falinks being such a unique Pokémon through the use of several formations, we are going to go to the basics and break down the ins and outs of your possible formations while in this moveset.

Column formation basics:

• While in this formation, the Troops will lag behind the Brass like the tail of an Ekans, it is recommended to keep in mind the relative position of the end of your formation and the enemy team so you don’t receive any cheap shots while fighting or getting away, ideally this formation should be reserved and used for general movement around the map.
• Tips and tricks: The Troops while being part of Falinks, they contribute towards the field of vision of the Pokémon, which means that you can use the tail in order to check any incoming enemies from a safer distance and in certain scenarios you can also use the Troops to bush check for you.
  
• The Troops will try their best to maintain formation at all costs, but they will stop when meeting terrain, so you can put your back against a wall when attempting to back in a risky scenario in order to reduce the chances of your recall to base being denied by damage taken from the Troops.

No Retreat Basics :

• Range: No Retreat is on the shorter end of the range scale, with a wide CC in the affected area and a noticeable amount of animation lock at the end, which means that this move is very committal upon activation.
• Formation: No Retreat formation gets to enjoy a couple of blanket buffs in the form of a 40% Atk buff and a DR increase on both the Brass and the Troops, it seems powerful but it also comes with their own downsides as your hitboxes are locked in front of you and the only way to reorientate while maintaining formation is through the use of Move 1 (Iron Head/Megahorn), on top of that, the extra DR only applies to damage taken from the front and you move 10% slower whilst moving backwards, which further incentivizes committing or swapping back into Column whenever the formation isn’t needed anymore.
  Furthermore, the Troops being in the front of the Brass makes it easier to block any body-blockable moves / skillshots that are aimed at you, with an example being Gardevoir’s Moonblast which depending on positioning can get eaten by the Troops and leave the Brass able to keep inputting actions
• Upon activation: This move shoves and damages any Pokémon caught within range, the buff from No Retreat formation activates on the latter end of the move, but it is recommended to use it near point blank in order to better secure any follow ups, while this move is ending, Falinks will be animation locked for a bit as both the Brass and the Troops are roaring.

Proper use of No Retreat requires good risk assessment and situational awareness in order to make sure you don’t lock yourself into a bad position once the intended target is dealt with, it is recommended to swap back into Column formation whenever you need to roam / rotate the map or hard reposition yourself.

No Head Basics:

• Basic combo: your basic No Head combo is Iron Head > No Retreat > Iron Head > Auto x4 , this is the bread and butter of most of your engagements and any follow-up or mix-up will vary depending on the situation, said follow-ups / mix-ups can be performed by swapping back into column formation and chasing with a second Iron Head or even finishing someone off with Dust Devil Formation.
• Upon activation: The No Head animation will overwrite No Retreat’s roaring animation, which means that you can perform an animation cancel and speed up the move, which in turn will better secure the following Auto damage.
• Autos: Upon using the move, your next auto cycle will be Boosted, Basic, Basic, Boosted , even though the game doesn’t visually show the auto counter on the UI, Boosted autos behave the same as usual, so you need to make sure to hit either of your two Boosted in order to reduce Iron Head’s CD and have it ready for your next cycle. Due to being dependent on auto attack inputs, you need to be very deliberate with your inputs so not a single attack gets wasted or canceled by CC. On top of that, your Troops will become active hitboxes as well during those aforementioned 4 autos, so in order to hit with the Brass and as many Troops as possible it is advised to keep the target around the center of the formation, more specifically in the area between the Brass and the Troop in front of the formation, this will ensure that the Brass and 2 Troop autos connect on most Pokémon without many issues.
  

Dust Devil Formation Basics:

Falinks’ Unite Move has use case in finishing off any stragglers as well as a quick form of damage that you can pop in the case of your kit being entirely on CD, it is recommended to stay in No Retreat formation during large teamfights due to the blanket DR coming more in handy than the extra DR on Troops and the Unite Move buff, but it can be used to deliver quick damage on the go by popping X Speed and squirming/slithering through the enemies, though this last one requires being a really good pilot. Through the use of X-Speed and rotating counter-clockwise against the intended target, this Unite Move can be used to quickly shred down objectives, but at the expense of not having any form of secure, so it is advised to employ this strategy with a teammate capable of securing by your side or in an uncontested scenario. Dust Devil Formation can also be used to quickly get out of No Retreat formation and reposition / escape.

No Head is an all in move combination that thrives on a good mix of assassin and brawler playstyle and excels when the user has good positioning and situational awareness, always think before you do a full head on assault and make sure to stay ahead of the enemy and know when to retreat or switch formations.

Beat Up makes the Brass dash into the designated direction and dispatch two of their Troops into any enemy that’s in place, ordering them to remain stationary and making the Troops automatically auto attack any target in range, dispatched Troops do not proc Muscle Band and share the same stats as the Brass, except HP, which is a 900 Base + 150 x (Level – 1) scaling and their boosted attacks do not apply any slow nor reduce the cooldown of Move 1.

This move combination excels in higher than usual mobility thanks to the multiple charges on Beat Up and the long range present in the column formation of Iron Head, the usual bread and butter of this moveset revolves around going in with Iron Head and deploying your units while you dish out the pain with Auto attacks, the usual move cycle goes as follows: Iron Head > auto > Beat up > auto > beat up > auto > auto > Iron Head; run away until beat up at 2 charges again. This can, however, be mixed up depending on the scenario, but generally you want to maximize the amount of Razor procs you get per move cycle and ensure that there are as many dispatched Troops as possible before recalling all of them back with Iron Head.

Recalling Troops with Iron Head makes the dispatched dash a direct line into the center of the landing area that you aimed at, dragging and CC’ing any players caught in their path whilst dealing damage.

*It is important to note that landing Iron Head even slightly behind an enemy while they are attempting to run away with pull them backwards, the enemy does not 100% need to be in the trajectory of a dispatched troop to get dragged. This can prove VERY useful in chase scenarios where there are just out of reach of your Iron Head’s aiming reticle.*

Once Iron Head+ is unlocked at level 10, using it with 4 of your troops dispatched will make each one hit your target with the 2% max HP damage, resulting in 10% total max HP extra damage (4 troops plus brass) on your target. This extra damage is capped at 400 per troop, but even with that cap it still is 2000 total possible extra damage, which makes for excellent burst damage on ANY kind of enemy, squishy and tank alike…while also serving as very respectable objective secure if and when needed. Be very conscious of this effect once you unlock the + version, and use it exactly when it would cause the most destruction.

Dispatched Troops will go back to the Brass whenever the Brass recalls them with Move 1, moves too far away or when their HP reaches 0.

Dispatched Troops do not have any Damage Reduction, but on the flipside they no longer transfer their damage taken to the Brass while being in Dispatch formation.

Use cases for Dust Devil Formation remain the same as Moveset 1.

Counters:

ABSOL

AZUMARILL

Favourable Matchup:

These are Pokémon that our team has determined FALINKS is strong against. FALINKS will generally be able to shut down these opponents playstyle's or have the advantage in a one on one fight.

MIMIKYU

UMBREON

SYLVEON

INTELEON

GLACEON

CINDERACE

Unfavourable Matchup:

These are Pokémon that our team has determined FALINKS is weak against. These Pokémon will have the upper hand in a fight or be able to exploit FALINKS's weaknesses.

METAGROSS

BLAZIKEN

TALONFLAME

TYRANITAR

AEGISLASH

GARCHOMP

Countered By:

VENUSAUR

NINETALES

LUCARIO