[Help Thread] 4x4 Discussion

[Hypocrism]

Could I upload a photo? Here it is.View attachment 4228:confused::confused:

You didn't pair up all the edges before beginning the 3x3 stage!

You don't solve any 3x3 steps until you are entirely reduced to a 3x3. That means pairing all of the edges, including those for the last layer, before you start your cross / first step of your method.

 

[PJKCuber]

Yeah, you didn't finish edge pairing.

Wait! That means I have to pair up yellow edges too? IDK that!!. All I do is pair up the cross dedges and then the middle two layer dedges. FAIL

 

[Hypocrism]

Wait! That means I have to pair up yellow edges too? IDK that!!. All I do is pair up the cross dedges and then the middle two layer dedges. FAIL

It's reduction because you reduce it to a 3x3, then solve just like one (+ parity).

 

[h2f]

How to make better times with two first centres? Is there something similiar like making cross in fridrich blindfolded?

 

[Hypocrism]

How to make better times with two first centres? Is there something similiar like making cross in fridrich blindfolded?

Try seeing the entire solution in inspection and solving without looking.

 

[TinaIsAwesome]

Wait! That means I have to pair up yellow edges too? IDK that!!. All I do is pair up the cross dedges and then the middle two layer dedges. FAIL

Lol, yes that's what edge pairing is. The whole point of reduction is to reduce the 4x4 down to a 3x3. If you have unpaired edges you haven't fully reduced the cube. When I was learning reduction, in order to not confuse myself, I would always pair the white edges, then yellow edges, and then pair the remaining middle edges and then go into solving it like a 3x3. It's not the most efficient way of performing edge pairing but it helped me stay on track. Eventually I just started pairing whatever pairs I saw first but you could try that for now and see if it works for you.

 

[PJKCuber]

Lol, yes that's what edge pairing is. The whole point of reduction is to reduce the 4x4 down to a 3x3. If you have unpaired edges you haven't fully reduced the cube. When I was learning reduction, in order to not confuse myself, I would always pair the white edges, then yellow edges, and then pair the remaining middle edges and then go into solving it like a 3x3. It's not the most efficient way of performing edge pairing but it helped me stay on track. Eventually I just started pairing whatever pairs I saw first but you could try that for now and see if it works for you.

Sure, but how can I pair yellow dedges without messing up the ones/ I have already created. There are no empty slots on the cube.Oh and is there any point in learning 3-2-3 edge pairing after getting a sub 3 on 4x4? The current beginners edge pairing method is boring and slow.

 

[TinaIsAwesome]

Sure, but how can I pair yellow dedges without messing up the ones/ I have already created. There are no empty slots on the cube.Oh and is there any point in learning 3-2-3 edge pairing after getting a sub 3 on 4x4? The current beginners edge pairing method is boring and slow.

3-2-3 is what I use and I think it's a very fast method of edge pairing but I think it only works with Yau (someone correct me if I am wrong). I would wait until you are maybe 2:30ish to learn Yau and 3-2-3 but I don't think the time matters that much, it's just an estimate. You can switch to a different method once you are pretty comfortable solving a 4x4. Yes the beginner method is slow and boring but it's a BEGINNER method. Remember you have to learn how to solve a 4x4 first before jumping into speedsolving it. If you switch before 'mastering' the beginner method you may confuse yourself or at least struggle a little bit since you are still having trouble with edge pairing. Edge pairing is very easy using reduction, all you have to do is solve 4 pairs and store them on one side, solve 4 more and store them on the opposite side, and then solve the remaining 4 pairs in the middle using the flipping alg.

 

[PJKCuber]

Thanks for your help guys but I am having trouble solving the last 4 yellow dedges. How can I solve them?

 

[uberCuber]

3-2-3 is what I use and I think it's a very fast method of edge pairing but I think it only works with Yau (someone correct me if I am wrong).

The same idea works with reduction. It's just 3-2-2-2-3 then since you have more edges to solve.

Thanks for your help guys but I am having trouble solving the last 4 yellow dedges. How can I solve them?

You know, if you had put in the tiny effort to search for a beginner's 4x4 tutorial on youtube/google, you would have had this problem solved awhile ago. I suggest you do that now, as a tutorial would solve not only your current question, but also several more that would come up when you get to having to deal with parity.

 

[TinaIsAwesome]

Thanks for your help guys but I am having trouble solving the last 4 yellow dedges. How can I solve them?

I mentioned this earlier but you solve the last four edges a little differently than the other 8. It doesn't matter what color the pieces are or what face they are on (I just used my colors as an example). Just make sure the two edges you are solving are across not adjacent to each other and do the flipping alg. If you don't mine me asking, how did you learn how to solve a 4x4? Any basic 4x4 tutorial would have covered this.

 

[ryanj92]

Thanks for your help guys but I am having trouble solving the last 4 yellow dedges. How can I solve them?

Just solve them like the first 8 and don't preserve your f3l, it will probably take you longer to do it in an f3l preserving way than it will to solve it and then resolve the f3l

 

[Hypocrism]

Sure, but how can I pair yellow dedges without messing up the ones/ I have already created. There are no empty slots on the cube.Oh and is there any point in learning 3-2-3 edge pairing after getting a sub 3 on 4x4? The current beginners edge pairing method is boring and slow.

To start with, try to work out your edge pairing intuitively. Don't follow any method. When you learn Yau, you'll advance to more systematic methods, but for redux, just go freestyle. In any case, for the last 4 dedges you can start by keeping at least one of them in the U/D layer. Then you can slice to pair up a yellow dedge, replace with the unsolved dedge in U/D, and slice back. When you're comfortable with that, you can learn to replace more accurately so that you create a second pair when you slice back.

For the last two dedges, you don't have any left to replace like this. Instead, you need to slice to mix the edges, flip the dedge (flip alg: R U R' F R' F' R) and slice back. (for example, set that up with u' [flip alg] u).

 

[PJKCuber]

How can I solve the last 4 yellow dedges on a 4x4 withou destroying the created ones?. I am using reduction.

 

[Brest]

How can I solve the last 4 yellow dedges on a 4x4 withou destroying the created ones?. I am using reduction.

When you are edge pairing with reduction the idea is to pair all of the edges before you build any of the "3x3 stage". So you pair them exactly like you have for the first 8 pairs.
With reduction:
• make all 6 centres
• pair all 12 edges
• solve like a 3x3 (plus any parities)

 

[PJKCuber]

Brest, your post didn't help at all. I want to know how to solve the last four edges on a 4x4 without destroying the created ones. I know what reduction is. How can I get faster at 2x2? My PBL sucks.

 

[uberCuber]

Brest, your post didn't help at all. I want to know how to solve the last four edges on a 4x4 without destroying the created ones. I know what reduction is. How can I get faster at 2x2? My PBL sucks.

Have you looked up a 4x4 tutorial yet? Or at least read this post in response to the last time you asked and tried to think about what it's saying? Edges 9 and 10 should be made exactly the same way as the first 8, with only the last two needing something special as mentioned at the bottom of the post I linked. What are you currently doing to solve the first 8 edges?

 

[elrog]

I don't think that post you linked to really helps much. I think this video on commutators would be much more beneficial. He starts out doing 3x3x3 commutators, but moves on to 4x4x4 ones later in the video. If you get a position where you have two unsolved edges that cannot be solved by 3-cycles, do the orientation parity algorithm to fix it.

If you don't feel like watching a 40 minute video:

If you have 3 or more unsolved dedges: Try getting 2 dedges that share a common edges color in the FR and FL positions. Make sure you have an unsolved dedge in the top or bottom layers. Then use a Uw move to match up 2 edges to make one correct dedge. If you cannot match one up, you need to flip either the FR or the FL dedge (not both) and then do a Uw move to match up a correct dedge. After you have matched a dedge up correctly, swap it out for an unsolved U or D layer dedge while preserving your E layer centers orientation with a series of moves such as R U R' or F D' F'.

If you have only 2 unsolved dedges: Place the unsolved dedges in the UF and UL positions. Do a Uw or Uw' move. If this matches up one dedge correctly, undo the Uw move and flip either the FR or FL dedge (R' F z' R' works nicely) and then do the Uw move. You should now flip the FR dedge if you did Uw. If you did Uw' flip the UL dedge. When flipping a dedge with the centers misaligned, you must not change the orientation of the centers, so you should flip the FR edge with something like this: R U' R' F' U2 F. You then need to undo the Uw move you did.

After you do these enough to understand what is going on, you do not need to always put the pieces in these exact spots and you will be able to go "freestyle" as that other post said to do.

 

[PJKCuber]

I have a PLL Parity which is like an H perm, but 2 opposite dedges are solved which leaves me with blue and green dedges to solve. Can anybody give me the solution?

Hey Guys, I finally learned how to solve a 4x4, but I average 5 minutes and more when I have parity, how can I get faster?

 

[TheNextFeliks]

Hey Guys, I finally learned how to solve a 4x4, but I average 5 minutes and more when I have parity, how can I get faster?

Practice. Just straight practice should drop you to 3 minutes pretty easily.