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Day 1: Trouble with the Fish, beginner method

NinjaGuerra

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Joined
Jul 25, 2013
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5
Hello everyone, I'm brand new to cubing and started off with a Dayan zhanchi that i got in the mail today.

I can confidently get the first two layers done and make the yellow fish, but after that I have no clue what to do :(

I look up algorithms and only about 10% of the time do I actually complete the cube...

I don't know where to look and i'm having difficulty grasping the final steps :(
 

NinjaGuerra

Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2013
Messages
5
When the corner piece is in the bottom left?

R U R' U R U2 R' U2

right? and then when i get the top layer all yellow i get even more confused... is there any trick to memorizing all of these or is it just repetition?
 

mDiPalma

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Jul 12, 2011
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1,534
After the fish algorithm: R U R' U R U2 R' you will be left will a PLL case (all the yellow stickers will be facing up).

This stands for Permutation of the Last Layer.

There are 21 unique cases for the PLL stage, but beginners often approach PLL with a two-step procedure.

First, the corner permutation is solved. The algorithm R' F R' B2 R F' R' B2 R2 is applied with the "headlights" in the back (two corner pieces having the same sticker color facing in one direction).

Then, the edge permutation is solved usually with U permutation cases.

See this site for a more detailed explanation.
 

cubesonfire

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Jun 15, 2013
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I don't think starting off with a DaYan ZhanChi is a good idea,especially as you don't know how to solve a cube.Who gave you this idea?
You could have bought a panshi or a lunhui. shengshou wind is a good cube too( especially for beginners )
 

ryanj92

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Yes, it is just repetition. When you're starting out, think about every move in the algorithm you're doing it. As you keep performing them, you'll gain more accuracy, because you'll start remembering the phases which the cube goes through during an alg.
 

BrainOfSweden

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I don't think starting off with a DaYan ZhanChi is a good idea,especially as you don't know how to solve a cube.Who gave you this idea?
You could have bought a panshi or a lunhui. shengshou wind is a good cube too( especially for beginners )
Why would some speedcubes be worse than others for beginners. If it's a bad idea to start with a good cube, then he should buy a Rubik's. Personally I recommend starting with a good cube, such as the ones you mentioned or a ZhanChi, since the thing they have in common is that they'll help to avoid developing bad habits.
 

Ninja Storm

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I don't think starting off with a DaYan ZhanChi is a good idea,especially as you don't know how to solve a cube.Who gave you this idea?
You could have bought a panshi or a lunhui. shengshou wind is a good cube too( especially for beginners )

While I personally don't think that speedcubes are for beginners, why the hell would you tell someone to waste their money on cut-rate cubes? If they want to go for a speedcube to start, let them get the best on the market.
 

Zeotor

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Sep 1, 2012
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While I personally don't think that speedcubes are for beginners, why[...]would you tell someone to waste their money on cut-rate cubes? If they want to go for a speedcube to start, let them get the best on the market.
This has been discussed before. See the following threads for more information.

Should a beginner start with the best cube available?

Should beginners use "beginner" cubes?

(This has been an off-topic post in an attempt to prevent other off-topic posts.)
 

1LastSolve

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May 11, 2013
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The fish??

and you can start off with a good cube PERFECTLY FINE. I started off with a Rubik's. Then I moved to a PanShi, even though its tight it has good corner cutting for smaller amounts. After the PanShi, I tried my friend's DianSheng, (No Reverse Cutting AT ALL) and got about no lockups in a solve.
 
Last edited:

chardison1980

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Jul 8, 2011
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any cube is just fine to start cubing with if your just working on cubing and not speed cubing, its a top cube that the top solvers use and will last you a good while as along as you take care of it.
 
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