[Help Thread] Big Cubes Discussion

[One Wheel]

After 3 months of not practicing 5x5 I just beat my compPB average by 11 seconds and my global average dropped 6-8 seconds, how often does this happen?

In my experience jumps like that are not uncommon, but personally I have trouble making them stick.

 

[cuber314159]

After 3 months of not practicing 5x5 I just beat my compPB average by 11 seconds and my global average dropped 6-8 seconds, how often does this happen?

I think practising 7*7*7 helps 5*5*5 alot without you really noticing

 

[Daniel Lin]

not sure if people will know what i'm talking about but

is using R2 to flip edges good? (5x5)

for the first 8 edges i never use a flip alg like R U R' hedge, since i just adjust the E layer to make it symetrical then do R2 to flip an edge

 

[xyzzy]

not sure if people will know what i'm talking about but

is using R2 to flip edges good? (5x5)

for the first 8 edges i never use a flip alg like R U R' hedge, since i just adjust the E layer to make it symetrical then do R2 to flip an edge

I used to do this, but I found that I sucked at keeping track of how the slices were aligned. Now I either use a 5-move flip alg affecting only one slot or R U/U' R2 U'/U R (affects two slots, so you can insert stuff while flipping).

 

[cuber314159]

Recently I realised that I averaged about 2 minutes on 5x5x5 so is it worth learning the l2e algs, how much will it reduce my times by.

 

[Malkom]

not sure if people will know what i'm talking about but

is using R2 to flip edges good? (5x5)

for the first 8 edges i never use a flip alg like R U R' hedge, since i just adjust the E layer to make it symetrical then do R2 to flip an edge

It sucks for F8E since it screws up the centers, making everything symmetrical to avoid this seems like a lot of effort for pretty much zero profit. It also screws up possible good cases just to flip an edge. For L4E its okay, I use it but I try to get rid of it since it feels like it ruins the flow and might force rotations (since you throw around the other edges all over the M-slice).

 

[Daniel Lin]

It sucks for F8E since it screws up the centers, making everything symmetrical to avoid this seems like a lot of effort for pretty much zero profit

it usually takes 2-3 moves on average to adjust the centers and do R2, so not that much effort really. I'm still confused why most people prefer using the standard R U R' hedge

It also screws up possible good cases just to flip an edge.

like what? flipping and R2 basically do the same thing except R2 flips 2 edges on the Eslice, but i don't see why that would matter

For L4E its okay, I use it but I try to get rid of it since it feels like it ruins the flow and might force rotations (since you throw around the other edges all over the M-slice).

it doesn't work for L4E

 

[Malkom]

like what? flipping and R2 basically do the same thing except R2 flips 2 edges on the Eslice, but i don't see why that would matter
E

It takes wings from certain edges and throws them around.
Imagine you have the upper wing connected to its midge (?) in LB and the centers are a Uw' away from symmetry. If you just flip it normally it will be preserved and can then easily be solved. If you do the double face turn thing you either screw it up or take it out just to but it back, you could also just do a Dw' but that doesnt count since it requires you knowing too much about the cube.

It should also hinder lookahead slightly since you move stuff around more.

it doesn't work for L4E
E

You either flip with an alg or do a 180° face turn on one of the un"solved" faces (if you solve them in the M slice its F, B, D and U turns).

 

[Daniel Lin]

If you do the double face turn thing you either screw it up, take it out just to but it back or do a Dw' but that doesnt count since it requires you knowing too much about the cube.

haha i would solve it with Dw'. but yeah i guess it could be worse for lookahead

 

[Daniel Lin]

probably an overly asked question but
how does yau5 movecount compare to redux?

i kinda expect redux to be more efficient, but not sure. If they're about the same i'm definitely going to practice yau5

 

[Isaac Lai]

probably an overly asked question but
how does yau5 movecount compare to redux?

i kinda expect redux to be more efficient, but not sure. If they're about the same i'm definitely going to practice yau5

Redux is slightly more efficient, but Yau5 has arguably better lookahead.

 

[GenTheSnail]

What are good % splits for 6x6/7x7 (Freeslice)?
Based on an ao5 on 7x7 I just did, and these are my percentages:

F2C - 23.2 %
S2C - 22.4 %
L2C - 10.4 %
F8E - 24.2 %
L4E - 11.4 %
3x3 - 8.4 %

Is there a particular area that I should work on?

 

[One Wheel]

What are good % splits for 6x6/7x7 (Freeslice)?
Based on an ao5 on 7x7 I just did, and these are my percentages:

F2C - 23.2 %
S2C - 22.4 %
L2C - 10.4 %
F8E - 24.2 %
L4E - 11.4 %
3x3 - 8.4 %

Is there a particular area that I should work on?

I'm curious about the same thing. I just ran splits on a single solve (actually 2, but I messed up the timer on the second one). Felt like a decent but not abnormally good solve. My splits were:
F2C: 1:42.75 19.98%
S2C: 2:19.16 27.06%
L2C: 52.55 10.22%
F8E: 2:00.77 23.48%
L4E: 55.93 10.88%
3x3: 43.10 8.38%

Looks pretty similar, but you're relatively better at S2C.

Edit:
Ao5
Total F2C S2C L2C F8E L4E 3x3
514.29 102.75 139.16 52.55 120.77 55.93 43.1
566.04 109.05 128.45 49.68 158.6 71.71 48.52 F8E pop
531.44 111.44 102.56 64.58 173.23 33.98 45.64 F8E pop. No parity.
514.61 87.02 114.03 48.25 137.03 81 47.26 OW Parity
531.68 110.01 122.13 67.45 133.88 54.42 43.66 No parity

Mean:
F2C = 1:44.05 = 18.75%
S2C = 2:01.27 = 21.92%
L2C = 56.50 = 10.17%
F8E = 2:24.70 = 25.99%
L4E = 59.41 = 10.69%
3x3 = 45.64 = 8.22%

Taking the best time from each split would make a total time of 7:15.68. My PB is 7:53.68.

Further edit:
6x6 Ao5:
Total F2C S2C L2C F8E L4E 3x3
370.82 73.18 50.35 37.27 104.74 70.04 35.21
342.57 62.29 66.39 20.06 104.69 39.63 49.49
356.84 57.38 76.61 37.3 98.47 37.38 49.68
346.94 43.29 71.93 32.51 104.01 36.97 58.2
373.41 63.64 58.68 53.69 104.16 28.84 64.37

Mean:
F2C = 59.96 = 10.85%
S2C = 1:04.79 = 11.63%
L2C = 36.17 = 6.52%
F8E = 1:43.21 = 18.61%
L4E = 42.57 = 7.77%
3x3 = 51.39 = 9.20%

3x3 stage is slower for 6x6 than 7x7 because I do edge parity for 7x7 in the L4E step.

Best times totalled: 4:36.22 That's actually pretty close to my PB.

 

[JustAnotherGenericCuber]

What should I focus on improving the most on 5x5? (Freeslice)
Splits from a mean of 5:
Mean: 2:56.32
F2C: 21.53 avg, 12%
S2C: 29.89 avg, 17%
L2C: 9.56 avg, 5%
F8E: 1:00.83, 35%
L4E: 27.92, 16%
3x3: 26.56, 15%

 

[Piotr Grochowski]

I'm a beginner, and I'm using reduction (I do last 4 centers horizontally) but I have a long method to do this on image and that's why I don't like big cubes like this - they have pieces like shown. I use 5x5 methods to do the solved green and red centers as shown (also the corner center pieces) but can you give me help for this one?

 

[xyzzy]

I do last 4 centers horizontally

More ergonomic to do it vertically (on the M slice), which also gives you better piece visibility.

Anyway, you can use commutators like Niklas to fix the obliques one at a time, e.g. u' R 3D R' u R 3D' for the specific case in your picture, but this takes a lot of time if you have a lot of obliques to fix. Instead, you can solve the centres in an order that minimises the number of commutators needed, e.g. starting with the bottom row of the front face, and moving up, where you need to fix two obliques at most.

 

[Piotr Grochowski]

More ergonomic to do it vertically (on the M slice), which also gives you better piece visibility.

But that's not how beginners work. You probably said similar thing about cross on top.

Anyway, you can use commutators like Niklas to fix the obliques one at a time, e.g. u' R 3D R' u R 3D' for the specific case in your picture, but this takes a lot of time if you have a lot of obliques to fix. Instead, you can solve the centres in an order that minimises the number of commutators needed, e.g. starting with the bottom row of the front face, and moving up, where you need to fix two obliques at most.

I already do one at a time, but using a longer method that consists of two edge pairings (l' U L' U' l and r U' R U r') and OLL parity (r U2 x r U2 r U2 r' U2 l U2 r' U2 r U2 r' U2 r' U2 l' r x' U2) at right angles. Thanks for a shorter method!

 

[xyzzy]

You probably said similar thing about cross on top.

I mean, I do cross on left, so who am I to talk about where to solve the cross? Point taken, but I still think you should give M-slice centres a go.

 

[Piotr Grochowski]

I do it my way, you do it your way.

 

[One Wheel]

Has anybody else got times recorded for 6x6 parity? Just wondering how much time I should put into drilling parity vs. regular solves. I just did an Ao12 for inner wing/outer wing/OLL parity, and the times are 10.40, 8.00, and 7.26 seconds. I'm aiming for 4:30 total now, current Ao12 is 4:59.88, Ao100 is 5:10.83.