How hard is the square-1?

[Skyz]

Hi! I was thinking about getting a square-1, it looks fun but i have heard that is one of the hardest WCA puzzles right now. So i was wondering, how hard is it?? Does it fit for someone who has been cubing for about 6 months??

 

[turtwig]

It's probably the hardest WCA puzzle to learn how to solve due to the restrictions in its turning and its uniqueness, but I wouldn't say it's too hard to learn, so if you're interested, you should definitely learn it.

 

[shadowslice e]

It's not too bad tbh. If you can learn how to solve any twisty puzzle then if you put some effort in then there's no reason why you couldn't learn any of the others. (when I first solved it i did it mostly intuitively though I used bob burton for parity and I knew the basic steps even if not the algs).

 

[Rubix Cubix]

I think it is quite hard to get the hang of cube shape at the start, but if you just play around with it and experiment you'll get it eventually. Most of the other steps aren't that hard with the beginners method, the only other thing would be to learn the parity alg.

Square-1 is really fun to solve once you learn it tho

 

[JustinTimeCuber]

It's comparable to a 3x3, but I'm bad at it

 

[Mastermind2368]

Parity takes some time to learn unless you watch some sort of vid. Other then that, it only took a day for me to learn.

 

[1973486]

It's impossible

 

[Malkom]

it's boring so it's hard to practice.

 

[greentgoatgal]

I did not find it hard to learn it all. I had mine solved after 30 min out of the box.

I'd probably been cubing 5-6 months.

 

[CornerCutter]

You only need to learn 5-7 algs to learn how to solve it. If your interested I would check it out. What events are you doing currently?

 

[Skyz]

You only need to learn 5-7 algs to learn how to solve it. If your interested I would check it out. What events are you doing currently?

I dont compete, but i do 3x3 and megaminx, and the non wca mirror cube

 

[T1_M0]

I got one right in the beginning, with my first speed cube order. Took a couple days to get the hang of it but no, it's definitely not too hard. It's just, when you are learning the first algorithms, it feels like nobody could possibly remember them, but later, learning algorithms gets easy. And 6 months is a lot, I've not been cubing more than 8 months either.

 

[Competition Cuber]

@DGCubes has a pretty good tutorial.

 

[xyzzy]

Do you intend to figure it out on your own or do you intend to follow a tutorial?

None of the WCA puzzles are so complicated that you'll have difficulty solving it even while following a tutorial. However, the square-1 is unique among them as a bandaged puzzle, and many "intuitive solving" techniques like blockbuilding and commutators don't work directly; figuring out how to solve the square-1 without external help is not going to be easy, but it's also not impossible.