[Help Thread] Do slice moves count as one move?

[QwertyQwerty]

Basically I was watching a video by BrodytheCuber and he says to count how many moves it takes to finish the cross. How exactly do I count slice moves?

 

[IsThatA4x4]

It depends what metric you're using. If you use HTM (half turn metric), slice moves count as 2 moves because you're moving effectively 2 outer layers. If you use STM (slice turn metric), a slice counts as 1 move. I would say brody's video is referencing a well known thing that crosses take at most 8 HTM to solve; I don't know what the count is for STM if it is different.

 

[Thom S.]

Simplyfied and generalised

If you reconstruct your 3x3 solve, Slice moves count as one move.
If you do FMC, slice moves count as two moves.

 

[xyzzy]

Basically I was watching a video by BrodytheCuber

Then you should ask BrodytheCuber. If Brody doesn't explain what he's saying well enough in his own video, the onus is obviously not on the rest of the cubing community to elaborate on his behalf.

In practice, if the slice move can be executed as quickly as an outer-layer move, you might as well count it as 1 move. This may or may not be the case! E.g. something like L2 R2 done with a grip shift (like M2'), regrip (like L2' R2), or overturning (like Rw2 R2') is likely to be slower than a normal outer-layer move, while something like an S/S' with no regrips before/afterwards is comparable to an F/F' move.

Remember that your true goal is not to reduce your cross move count; it's to reduce the time spent in the solution. Don't lose sight of this. Cross efficiency is very important, but that's only because it's very common for beginner/intermediate solvers to have horrendous cross (in)efficiency. (I am also in this category, fwiw.) Cross efficiency is not the be-all end-all of solving the cross.

 

[qwr]

reference http://cubezone.be/crossstudy.html