Intuitive F2L Tips

[stellarzeller]

Disclaimer: I'm new to not just SpeedSolving Forums, but forums in general. I apologize in advance for any rule i am inadvertently breaking.

Hi, I'm just looking for some basic tips to improve my intuitive F2L. Right now, I'm at about 30-40 seconds, but I have a competition coming up soon, and I want to be ready.

Thanks in advance!

 

[obelisk477]

1) Something that I see rarely mentioned is to keep in mind *where* the slots you have already solved are located on the cube at any point until F2L is completed. This will help you know which ones you can use and which ones you can't to form other pairs.

2) Alot of times you will already have edges or corners solved without their respective corner and edge pairs. Don't take them out to re-pair them. Set-up your cube with D' R U R' D. You may be tempted to solve the front-right slot with U2 F' U F U R U' R'. But you have a solved corner already, so save it! Move it out of the way with D' (not D because we are using the unsolved BR corner to replace it), insert the edge with a quick R U' R', and undo the D' with a D move. Similarly, set up your cube in the same way with D' R U R' D, but rotate y. Now you have a solved edge that you can make use of. Undo the set up moves to see what happens with the corner in this case.

3) Use algdb.net to find algorithms for particularly tricky cases that are not so intuitive (I'm thinking of cases 35-41 on that page). Sometimes its better to learn algs than use intuition, especially with something like those.

 

[Smiles]

know multiple ways to make pairs.
setup: F' U F U' R U' R'
solution: R U R' or U' R U R'

setup: F U2 F' R U R'
solution: R U' R' or U2 F' U2 F

 

[SpeedCubeReview]

Time, and practice. Figuring out some algorithms wither yourself or on these forums will help greatly to an intuitive solve.

 

[markfiend]

This might sound crazy but learning Roux has massively improved my intuitive F2L.