New to cubing: using petrus

R

rishabh_s

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Joined
Jun 3, 2010
Messages
4
Hey guys. I'm new to the cubing world, just started two weeks ago.
I was not sure what i should do and didnt know anything about all the methods etc. I just googled and searched a few sites and then came to lars petrus' website.Then I started to use that method because i found it quite easy to understand and not so many algs. All other methods had a lot of algs so i avoided them.
After two weeks i can solve a cube easily but my average time is 4min 30sec.
What do you think about the solve time? Is it average or slow (i know it isnt fast) considering I've done it in two weeks?
Also should i continue with this method ? Or should i go for fridrich as many say that it's the best for speed?
 
Petrus can also be very fast. The worlds fastest Petrus solver is Erik Johnson who averages about 13 seconds.

I am a Fridrich user and have been for 2 years. (19 second average) Roux is another fast method. (Also in my opinion, the funnest) :P
 
rishabh_s,

Hi and welcome. Your time is faster than 99% of the human race. :-) It can get much faster, world class fast. I use Petrus for one handed solving, but I am slow. As JackJ pointed out, Petrus can be extremely fast, but it takes just as much practice and study as any other method.

Most people use a method called Fridrich or CFOP. Many others use Roux or Petrus. The fastest current solvers use variants of CFOP, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's inherently faster, correlation doesn't not imply causality.

I'd say stick with Petrus for a little while. Get down to a minute or so, it shouldn't take you more than a month or two. Once you're adept at that method you can explore other methods and compare for yourself. Again, I'm pretty slow myself, but I can solve using CFOP, Petrus, Roux, Heise and Waterman methods. I think that learning more methods improves my intuitive understanding of the cube and I enjoy it.

There are plenty of avid Petrus fans here, you'll certainly find plenty of support in your efforts. The less popular methods seem to spur greater fervor in their fans. :-)

Welcome to the forums, hope you enjoy participating.
 
I used Petrus before my long break. I regret losing the ability to use it effectively. I had it down to 19 seconds.

Count your moves for creating the initial 2x2x3 block. That's where I found it easiest to slice seconds off my time. Getting this as low as possible is the hardest, but most rewarding, part of petrus.

Good luck and keep practicing!
 
Hi, welcome! I think that you should continue with Petrus until you get sub-50. At that point, you could decide to use it or to transfer to another method like Fridrich or Roux. However, I would recommend you still practice Petrus because it is a block building method, and the more efficient you are at building blocks, the easier cubing will be to you. Other then that, I wish you luck in your future cubing :).
 
brunson said:
rishabh_s,

Hi and welcome. Your time is faster than 99% of the human race. :-)
Click to expand...

Thanks, haha that makes me feel better :)

I have a problem too. Can someone explain how to use 'Niklas' ? I always try to target the piece like in sune but i think it works for other pieces too?? Or maybe i dont need to target it at all.
 
hey. welcome to the forums.
4 minutes is just faster than 99% of the human race. :P
hmmm. i know that when you use niklas, the cubie in the Upper Right Front (UFR) goes to the back, and a cubie from the Up Back Left corner replaces it. The Upper Front Left is unaffected. amirite? hmmm...

AND HEY. AFTER YOU LEARN PETRUS, LEARN ZZ METHOD! YOU'LL LOVE IT. :P
 
rishabh_s said:
brunson said:
rishabh_s,

Hi and welcome. Your time is faster than 99% of the human race. :-)
Click to expand...

Thanks, haha that makes me feel better :)

I have a problem too. Can someone explain how to use 'Niklas' ? I always try to target the piece like in sune but i think it works for other pieces too?? Or maybe i dont need to target it at all.
Click to expand...

Niklas in the petrus method is used for permuting corners, if I remember correctly? It permutes 3 corners either clockwise or counterclockwise.
Remember, orientation of the corners does not matter at this point.

Versions of Niklas I use:
Clockwise: U' L' U R U' L U R'

Counter Clockwise: R U' L' U R' U' L U

I set the corner I don't want cycled at UFL (I just realized you might not be familiar with shorthand and other cubing notations UFL = the corner that touches the 'up', 'front', and 'left' faces). Clockwise Niklas will move the corners as such:

ULB -> UBR (Up Left Back corner will move to the position UP Back Right)
UBR -> URF (Up Back Right corner will move to the position UP Right Front)
URF -> ULB (Up Right Front corner will move to the position UP Left Back)

and the counterclockwise Niklas does the exact opposite.

I hope that this helps, you can click on the algorithms to see how they are used.

I use Petrus for my first two layers, but I do not use Petrus for my last layer.
One suggestion that I might have for you is to learn the OLL (Orientation of Last Layer) cases just for corners, and maybe 2 look PLL (Permutation of Last Layer, corners then edges).

One of the best suggestions that I can give is: for now, stick with Petrus, try to get as fast as you can with it, Petrus is really easy to be color neutral with and has a lot of intuition that is highly applicable to other methods. So even if you do move to Roux, you're already a pro at blockbuilding and color neutral. And if you move to CFOP you're already color neutral and you can easily get an extended cross nearly every solve.

If you changed CFOP now but decided to go back to Petrus later you'd have to basically re-learn how to blockbuild, but if you fully understand Petrus, and want to move to CFOP, blockbuilding is highly useful in CFOP, while a lot of intuition in CFOP isn't very applicable to Petrus.

Really good tutorials for petrus:

fallofshadows Tutorials:
2x2x2 block: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ9OrFVQw0o
2x2x3 block: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1Bege4weSA
bad edges: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAmhWTzwqEo
Finish F2L: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEuJPSk1vtI


CaptainCrash44 Tutorials (kinda advanced)
Part1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeC3JUbDcL0
Part2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU6ZzTvLzHE&feature=related
I hope that this post was useful, and comprehendable.

Let me know if I was helpful in any way.


P.S. Petrus can be quite fast, I average about 25 seconds these days, but I've only been speedcubing since March. And I don't think too many people actually use Petrus for the last layer, so like I suggested, consider using OLL/PLL
 
Thank you very much that solves my problem!! And thanks for the vids they are helpful too.
And as told by everyone i'm going to stick to petrus for some time before using any other method.
 
Welcome to the forums!

I really enjoy Petrus also. I've been using it off and on for about half a year now and am down to around 25 seconds.

Another good place to get advice is in the Petrus Home Thread.

EDIT: Oh wow, Thrawst's tutorial is hilarious. He's not even teaching Petrus!
 
Last edited:
Stachuk1992 said:
oprah62 said:
what ever you do dont ask petrus advice from 04mucklord
Click to expand...
However, *totally* ask petrus advice from CubeOrDie.
Oh, and don't trust ErikJ. He doesn't know what he speaks of.
(bahahahahah. lolol cubeordie...petrus. haha :e)
Click to expand...

Hey, I've gotten a lot better at Petrus now! Still can't break 20 moves for F2L though...
 
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