SpeedSolving.com Puzzle Forum - How-to's, Guides, etc.

Tips for Sub-20 CFOP from a Noob

TomH — Sun, 12 May 2013 05:21:19 GMT

Well I will start off by saying that I am not exactly the fastest cuber around, and have actually have only been achieving sub 20 averages for the last 2 weeks or so. You may see this and turn away immediately, but I believe that this gives me some very good insight into exactly what you're going to have to do to get there that these super cubers have forgotten since they themselves were at this stage. Some things I mention im sure you will have heard before, but some is going to be new information to you. These little tips got me from about 24 second averages down to 18 seconds in the last month or so, so I hope it helps!

First off, and the most obvious thing that you have heard 50 million times, is to slow down and look ahead. Everyone who actually gives information about how to get faster will tell you this, and the best advice I ever got is to just calm down and look for the pieces. There all there. Slow down and figure out what you will need to do to solve your next pair and execute. Don't freak out and start turning randomly looking for pieces, as I know this is something I did for a long time.

Secondly, don't waste moves. If youre looking for how to pair two pieces, slow down, and think about the most efficient way to do it. Your automatic response may be 5 moves slower and another solution that could have taken you a split second longer to come up with. Just learn every f2l combination from every single angle and do them as efficiently as possible. Notice I did not say quickly.

Some times you have to get slower to get faster. Confusing I know, but hear me out. When I first decided that everyone wasn't BSing me and slowing down and looking ahead was a good idea, my average went down to about 26 seconds ish from 24. After an hour or so of getting used to this, I was down to 22-23 seconds. Just realize that just because it slows you down now, dosnt mean that it wont help you later on. Breaking old habits is the best thing you can do to improve your times.

You don't need to know every algorithm to get good times. I got a 14.66 today slow turning with 4 look last layer ( don't know my dang G-Perms yet >:/ ) which is fairly close to my pb. Im not discouraging you to learn full pll and soon full oll, but it shouldn't be your main focus. Cramming a million algorithms isn't going to help half as much as getting better cross and f2l times. Work on consistency with your f2l and it will help you more so than anything.

Well these are my tips, I hope some of this is new to you. Im still a noob myself, but I figured some of my advice has to help someone, right? :)

PRACTICE!!!!!!

2-3-4 Edge Pairing for Yau

SenileGenXer — Sat, 04 May 2013 05:52:16 GMT

This is a technique I have developed out of my 4-4 technique for edge pairing. I haven't heard anyone talk about this though I'm sure someone has done it this way. It feels very Yau to blend the steps of last cross dedge with first edge pair.

I give one clean example and then three "unlucky" examples where this technique kinda falls down. I filmed 17 solves to get the 3 bad ones. That's how "lucky" this is and about how often I can finish cleanly doing 4 pairs at a time.

I'm sorry about the video. When I turn on the camera I seem to turn into an ID10t and can't say exactly what I want and can't solve the cube well. I can't seem to look ahead or even recognize things. I hope you can take something out of this.

CheescakeCuber's Roux Steps 4b-4c Alternative

CheesecakeCuber — Sat, 04 May 2013 03:45:45 GMT

Hello all you Rouxers out there on the SS Forums. I'm not sure if this idea has been mentioned yet and I haven't perfected this alternative substep to Roux, but I'm hoping to gain feedback here on ways to possibly improve it or if it's harder or unnecessarily complicated. Anyway let's get to it:

4a) Ok so just your basic EO of course with tracking the UL and UR edges. (You could alternatively track the FU and BU edges as they will be used in the later steps.)

4b) Solve the UL and UR edges and the FU and BU edges with some combination of an M/M' U/U' M/M'. This can be done in any order...

4c) Instead of the usual Permutation of the M-edges, you'll be left with either the Dots Case (E2 M' E2 M) or a cube in need of AUF.

Reason for Development: My reasons for trying to come up with an alternative of the 4b-4c sub steps is to avoid the FUUUUUU cases as Waffo calls them because recog is very annoying for me.

Issues: It may take a while to get used to solving the UL, UR, AND FU and FB edges and to effectively track them without losing TPS.

Again, to all you more experienced Rouxers out there (I currently average about 23-25 seconds) especially 5BLD, Kirjava, and Waffo, it would mean a lot if one of you took a look at this and wrote some feedback.

4x4 Example Solves (Reduction)

SirWaffle — Sat, 04 May 2013 01:07:34 GMT

How to fix Dayan Panshi's broken corner

Pariah Cubing — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 10:56:12 GMT

Hey guys, I don't know how many of you got the bad batch of PanShi's, or just happened to accidentally snap it during a rough solve or scramble, but i have searched YouTube and Google and have only found tutorials that say glue the corner, which can make it unstable and permanently crooked. So i took it upon myself to make a quick tutorial of how i fixed mine, which works great. Keep in mind this can be temporarily used until you get a new piece from the place you bought it from.

ZBLL (video)

pedrinroque — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 21:07:23 GMT

I was thinking about doing a series of videos showing all cases of ZBLL divided in their respective sets.
I decided to start today, and here's the first video, T cases without permutation of corners, most algorithms of this set is made with 2 gen, so its easy to learn.

Ortega Image Turorial

Jaylez — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 01:35:35 GMT

So I'm learning Ortega at the moment and I can't find any really good guides with all the algs laid out and everything explained so I made one for myself based off of Yoshinator's video tutorial and other tutorials I found. I decided others might benefit from it as well so I made a version for other people to use also. Enjoy.

2x2 Ortega Tutorial

3x3 Example Solves

SirWaffle — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 22:57:01 GMT

This was my first attempt at Example solves so please don't be too harsh.

15 2x2 example solves

ottozing — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 05:35:21 GMT

The Sledge Hammer (Intermediate cubers)

JHB — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:35:22 GMT

Hey everyone, just sharing a video I made on the basic "Sledge Hammer." It is intended for intermediate cubers; those who use
2-Look OLL and are beginning to consider partial edge control.

When and how to move from 2-look to 1-look OLL

mark49152 — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 13:34:39 GMT

[EDIT: This post is updated from time to time to make improvements]

Two of the questions that come up regularly on the forums are "when should I learn full OLL?" and "what order should I learn the OLLs in?".

Well, obviously you should learn them when you think they will benefit your solving more than anything else you could spend your practice time on. Then learn them in an order that starts with those that will benefit your solving most. The question of course is when and by how much they will benefit you.

The attached guide should help you decide this for yourself. It lists all 49 OLL cases that could be learned on top of EOLL & OCLL, ranked in order of move savings. That means it compares the number of moves taken to solve each case using 2-look OLL with the number of moves taken to solve the same case with 1-look OLL, and ranks the OLLs according to how much shorter the 1-look algorithm is. The logic is that you should learn the OLLs in order of potential move savings.

Here it is: oll1look.pdf

This guide assumes that you know 2-look OLL already, meaning the usual EO/OCLL approach (there are other ways of doing 2-look but we'll ignore that). If you don't know 2-look OLL, meaning all 3 EOLL algs and all 7 OCLL algs, learn that first. Also, full PLL is more beneficial than full OLL, so if you don't know full PLL, learn that first.

Guide to the table

The table is split vertically into three sections.

The blue section shows the OLL cases. Wiki# is the reference number of the case on the Speedsolving Wiki. EO and U patt give the edge pattern and the OLL U-face pattern, and the fourth column shows the probability of the case occurring. This is important, because clearly it's less useful to learn a case with probability 1/216 than one with probability 1/54.

The orange section shows the OCLL cases that occur when using 2-look OLL on each case. There are four positions relative to the picture shown in the wiki - unrotated, U, U2 and U'. The four columns show which OCLL you will get depending on which position you are in when you start EOLL, and also which AUF move is required between EOLL and OCLL. Note that for OLLs with "L" shape edges, the starting positions are relative to the position with the L at back left, rather than the wiki picture, to save having to look those cases up, and different algs (see OLL-44) are used for each L position.

The last two columns in the orange section show the worst-case and average move count for EOLL/AUF/OCLL. Worst case means the longest sequence from all possible starting positions, per case. Move counts are in QTM but with double moves (R2, U2 etc.) counted as 1.5 and cube rotations counted as 2 moves. This gives better proportionality between move count and execution time (at least for me! :)) although it is still only an approximation and actual execution time obviously depends also on how easy or awkward the flow of the alg is.

The green section shows the full OLL algs and their move counts, in the same metric. The final column shows the number of moves saved, relative to the average 2-look move count. The table is ranked by order of move savings; OLLs with the same move saving are ranked by length of alg on the basis that longer solutions are more in need of shortening. OLLs that have a probability less than 1/54 are weighted accordingly, i.e. a case with probability 1/108 has its score halved before ranking.

Underneath is a second table that shows scores for OLL groups. These are groups of cases with the same U-face pattern, as listed on the SS wiki, and the score given is the average of all cases in that group. Some of the groups have been modified slightly.

Recommendations

Based on this analysis, some OLLs have the potential to save as many as 8-10 moves and are certainly worth learning earlier in your progression. That many moves will make a difference well before you get sub-20. On the other hand, some OLLs save so few moves that they would offer only minimal benefit compared to fast and well-practiced 2-look algs, even if you are sub-20.

My plan is as follows. Obviously you can make your own mind up what will work for you.

First, I will learn a selection of OLLs that save 6+ moves, by selecting U-pattern groups. Learning in groups reduces recognition time because you can make a fast decision based on U face only as to whether you will do 1-look or 2-look. Learning only part of a group slows down the 2-look cases because you pause to eliminate the 1-look possibilities.

I selected 15 cases in 5 groups and I call these the "top third" OLLs. These account for 42% of the total moves saved by learning full OLL, with an average score of 8 moves per case, compared to only 3 moves per case for the worst 15 OLLs. Some of them are really easy, like learning which cases are solved directly by the EOLL algs OLL-2 and OLL-45 and making sure to execute them from the right starting position. Most of the dot OLLs are included, which makes sense as EOLL and the 2-look solution is longer.

Here is a cheat-sheet for these 15 cases/algs: ollTopThird.pdf

Next, mid-table OLLs. In general, I would not bother to learn these except for algs that are really easy and fast, or where I don’t like the OCLL case. A good example is OLL-54, which is an easy double wide Sune, and where 2-look always results in a Pi OCLL which I’m not keen on. I won't learn any case unless I believe I can recognise it fast enough not to slow down 2-look for other cases in the same group.

Bottom of the league OLLs that only save 1-2 moves I probably wouldn’t even consider provided that I know what OCLL is coming and can do the 2-look without pause. The prize for the most useless OLL goes to OLL-41, for which the "optimum" 1-look alg scores worse than 2-look (due to the rotations).

Finally, there’s another option for OLLs that have a relatively small move saving, say <6. That is to force a preferred OCLL case by choosing the right starting position. For example, OLL-14. The 1-look OLL alg has a rotation, and I don’t like Pi OCLL either, but I know that if I start 2-look with the L at back left then I will get a Bowtie with no AUF. What’s even better is that I can run the F' at the end of the EOLL immediately into the F' at the start of the Bowtie.

Caveats and disclaimers

Move count is a useful metric for estimating alg execution time, but it's nowhere near 100% reliable. It's just an approximation. A 12-move alg that flows well can be faster than a 9-move alg that doesn't, so it's quite possible that an OLL that the table says will save you 10 moves will make less of a difference to your times than another alg that only saves you 7 moves. This table is intended as just a helpful resource, not a definitive account of the relative speed of OLLs.

Also there is more than one possible alg that can solve each OLL. The rankings in the table are based on the algs shown, but there might be other algs out there that are shorter or that are longer but faster. It's up to you to find those. If this guide says learning a case has little benefit, that doesn't mean there isn't some other, better alg out there that makes learning it worthwhile. The algs here are mostly from Badmephisto, with some from the Speedsolving wiki, and are the ones that work best for me personally.

If you read this far, I hope it helped! Happy OLLing! :)

(Old versions of the guides, for top 18 algs by HTM, not in groups: oll1look.pdf ollTopThird.pdf)

Attached Files

oll1look.pdf (17.7 KB)
ollTopThird.pdf (18.7 KB)
ollTopThird.pdf (87.1 KB)
oll1look.pdf (22.0 KB)

The Ortega Method- How it works, and how to be world-class with it

yoshinator — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 05:49:06 GMT

Quote:

In which I go over the steps and algorithms for the Ortega 2x2 method, and talk about common mistakes, and some tips and techniques that will help you to improve, and ultimately to reach sub-3 averages.

If you are confused or have any questions or comments on the workings of the method, or how to improve at it, please leave a comment or video response. I am also absolutely willing to critique video of your solves.

Thanks for watching!

[The video will be up soon, be patient]

Two-sided PLL recognition guide

mark49152 — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 19:31:40 GMT

So, I decided to learn two-sided PLL recognition, just for the fun of it. It looked pretty complicated at first, but it turned out to be much easier than I expected - only really 35 two-side cases that need to be recognized to cover all 21 PLLs, many of which are quite obvious. I found great resources from Sa967st, jskyler91 and others, but nothing that worked well for me as a quick-reference guide. So I made the attached. I hope someone else out there finds it useful, and would welcome any feedback to help improve it.

pll2side.pdf

For practice, I recommend the random button in RiDo's play-tool. Scroll until the answer is off the top of the window, to make it harder ;)

Why bother? Well I'm not fast and it's not like avoiding looking at a third side is going to save me that 0.2s that gets me a WR. But it did occur to me that checking around the cube for the usual headlights and bars to confirm my PLL case is kinda lazy when they can be recognized more quickly with a just bit of practice. I often still look at the 3rd and even 4th sides to confirm the case, but by then I know what case to expect and am already AUFing when I check the other sides. So it's definitely reduced my pre-PLL pause, and, well... is there any reason not to? :D

EDIT: Here are links to some resources I found useful while learning two-sided recognition:-
Sa967st's guide - good explanation and some good ideas.
jskyler91's videos part 1 & part 2 - basically a video walkthrough of Sa967st's guide
Andy Klise's guide - reference sheet organised by PLL case rather than by side view

Attached Files

pll2side.pdf (49.4 KB)

4x4 Walkthrough solves

yoshinator — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 05:54:56 GMT

Quote:

Some 4x4 walkthrough solves. I go over all of the things that I do differently from most people. Again, I average around 43 seconds, and if you have any questions, please ask!

Cube: Shenshou v4 (Florian+Konsta mod)
Method: Yau (Obviously)

Thanks for watching!

Please leave any comments or questions here or in the comments. Thanks!

How to sub 1 your H Perm

Kaozty — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 17:29:36 GMT