Hi, I am a beginner cuber and currently only using beginner methods. I am learning Omega method for 2x2, and I have almost learned OLL. I would like to start learning PBL, but I'm kinda stuck. I'm not sure what the case is supposed to look like on my cube with these pictures,
http://www.cubewhiz.com/ortegapbl.php can someone explain these pictures to me? Also, I would like to get faster on my 3x3 as well, and i get a 50 second average with then method on rubik's.com. What should I learn first? Thanks!!!
As somebody just said, the diagrams with the blue arrows just show you which pieces of the top and bottom layers will be swapped by the algorithm. It also helps a lot if, when you plan your (bottom) face, you already know what permutation you are going to get in that face. There are only 3 cases:
- Layer: you are going to get a solved layer with all 4 corners correcly permuted, then, when you reach PBL you have to use an alg that does not permute anything in the bottom / down layer.
- Diagonal swap: you will get a face where two oposite corners need to be swapped. Note that it is completely irrelevant which corners you swap, so you can ignore the direction the diagonal arrow is drawn and leave the face in whatever rotation / orientation.
- Adjacent swap: you will get a face where two adjacent corners need to be swapped. In this case you need to know which two corners you need to swap (they will be opposite to the two that are correctly placed, which you can see as they form a 1x2 "bar" of the same color on one side of the bottom face. In this case it is very helpful if you already leave this face correctly rotated / oriented before you go on to OLL, so that when you reach PBL it is already correctly placed. Depending on the algs you are using you will need to put the bar on the back (if the alg is going to permute the two front corners) or, on the front or even on the side. Take a look at the blue arrow for the down face and put the bar in the two corners not swapped.
Then you do your OLL.
Then, for PBL you will have to identify the corner permutation you have gotten on top. There are the same 3 cases. If you have a bar orient it properly as stated above depending on which two corners your alg will permute.
Execute the PBL alg for the combination of permutation cases you got in both layers, like diag swap on top and bar / adjacent swap on bottom, etc.
Finally you might need to AUF, that is, to align the top and bottom layers so that colors on the sides match each other, by either doing a U, U' or U2.
Cube solved!!!!
