Is 4x4 or 5x5 very hard?

[MoyuFTW]

4x4 isn't hard at all. My friend only knowing 3x3 solved the 4x4 full layer - by - layer intuitively. (Yes that's right. Not centers, edges then LBL, PURELY LBL). He's over 10 minutes though and doesn't know parity, but it is possible. He took about 30min the first time he tried

 

[mafergut]

Yes, this is Yau. You solve the centres for your cross colour and your opposite cross colour, then solve three cross edges. [...] Aside from switching to Yau, just doing more solves will help your lookahead, and you'll start to be able to find pieces more easily.

Thanks. I will definitely try to switch to Yau then. I think I've watched some walkthrough solves. Only thing I need to be careful with is to remember to use the empty cross edge as a rotation buffer to complete the other 4 centers

Yes, I think it is always possible to give yourself that case when you have parity. The algorithm to solve it is very similar to OLL parity:
4x4 parity:
Rw U2 x Rw U2 Rw U2 Rw' U2 Lw U2 Rw' U2 Rw U2 Rw' U2 Rw'
5x5 parity:
Rw U2 x Rw U2 Rw U2 Rw' U2 Lw U2 3Rw' U2 Rw U2 Rw' U2 Rw'

Hold the edge in UF.

Wow! I checked the 5x5 L2E algs at Meep. I saw that there were 4 very similar algs for this "basic" parity case (O-parity they call it) but I didn't realize one of them was SO similar to the 4x4 OLL parity one. So I already know the alg Thanks a lot for your help!

EDIT: Alg learned and practiced several times! By the way, I assume that Yau can also be applied just the same to 5x5, right?

 

[TDM]

EDIT: Alg learned and practiced several times! By the way, I assume that Yau can also be applied just the same to 5x5, right?

Yau can be used on 5x5, yes. However, most people use Reduction on 5x5, since they think it's faster. All the WRs are with Reduction.

 

[mafergut]

Yau can be used on 5x5, yes. However, most people use Reduction on 5x5, since they think it's faster. All the WRs are with Reduction.

Funny that what's faster for 4x4 is not for 5x5. Does anybody have an explanation for that or is it just empirical evidence? By Reduction I assume you mean plain centers --> tredges --> 3x3. Are any other methods I've heard about any good (K4, Hoya...)? Or would you recommend directly to go to Yau? I ask because I'm not sure if you recommended it because it is the one I more or less described in my initial post or because you think it's the best method (for 4x4).

 

[TDM]

Funny that what's faster for 4x4 is not for 5x5. Does anybody have an explanation for that or is it just empirical evidence? By Reduction I assume you mean plain centers --> tredges --> 3x3. Are any other methods I've heard about any good (K4, Hoya...)? Or would you recommend directly to go to Yau? I ask because I'm not sure if you recommended it because it is the one I more or less described in my initial post or because you think it's the best method (for 4x4).

Yeah, I think it could be something to do with there being new types of pieces on 5x5. Not really sure though, I think it's mostly evidence from fast cubers. And yes, that's reduction.

I think Yau is the fastest 4x4 method. Hoya is close though, and I think Hoya could maybe be a bit faster than Yau on 5x5, but on 4x4 I think Yau is best.

 

[EvilGnome6]

Any advice is welcome in order for me to enter into the sub-2-minutes / sub-1:30 realm.

First step is to learn Yau and there are lots of tutorials on that.
Learn 3-2-3 for edges. CrazyBadCuber has a good tutorial on that. Note that there are many exceptions and special cases to 3-2-3 and is probably the hardest part.
Give half centers a try. Not everyone likes it but I think it's faster because I don't have to hunt around for pieces. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iLxE4WZtr8

This makes me come to the conclusion (maybe wrong, can you confirm?) that I could solve all no-parity cases and reduce all the parity cases to this basic one, which, for now, would allow me to solve a 5x5 on my own by just learning this one alg. Of course, I assume that if I want to get any faster I will have to learn all those 12 cases (4 no-parity & 8 parity cases)

I learned all the 5x5 Last Edge cases from the Andy Klise site http://www.kungfoomanchu.com/home.html#bigcubes

Spend a little time going over them rather than being overwhelmed that there are 10 big algorithms.

3 of them are just edge flips and don't need to be memorized (the ones with R U R' F R' F' R or L' U' L F' L F L' in them).

F2 r D2 r' F2 U2 F2 l B2 l' - can be ignored (it's rare so just do an edge flip to turn it into another case.)

r2 B2 r' U2 r' U2 B2 r' B2 r B2 r' B2 r2 - Same as the edge swap on 4x4 so you should already know it.

The only essential ones you need are the following two:

x' u2 r2 F2 U2 u2 F2 r2 u2
r2 B2 U2 l U2 r' U2 r U2 F2 r F2 l' B2 r2

Optional:

l' U2 l' U2 F2 l' F2 r U2 r' U2 l2

l U2 l2 U2 l' U2 l U2 l' U2 l2 U2 l and r' U2 r2 U2 r U2 r' U2 r U2 r2 U2 r' are mirrors so once you learn one, you've learned the other.

So what looks like 10 algs is really 2 essentials and 2 optionals.

 

[Wylie28]

idk how old this is but the best advice i can give you is learn the 5x5 oll parity. It can be used on every big cube even 4x4 with no modifications. The 4x4 oll parity alg is weird on larger cubes. I dont think any of the big cubes are harder than any of the others they mostly just take more time. I reccomend getting a 5x5 along with your 4x4 i enjoy 5x5 way more

 

[nube]

4x4 and 5x5 cubes are on the way, should be a lot of fun to solve. Going to learn a better 3x3 method soon but wanted to try some larger cubes first.

Thanks for all the resources, this is great because I'm lousy at intuitive solving and do better with pattern recognition/algorithms.

 

[G2013]

"Hard" is relative

 

[PenguinsDontFly]

"Hard" is relative

tell me something that isnt relative.

 

[Reprobate]

4x4 and 5x5 cubes are on the way, should be a lot of fun to solve. Going to learn a better 3x3 method soon but wanted to try some larger cubes first.

Enjoy! I definitely prefer big cubes

Though focusing on them probably made me lazier about improving my 3x3 *shrug*