[Help Thread] Square-1 Discussion

[Jokerman5656]

This thread is here to help all of you fella's that are looking to get some tips for the Square-1, also it is here for people to ask and share algs and methods they use. If you post in this thread and aren't getting a reply within a few days then feel free to message me and I'll do my best to get you some assisstance.

I will also try to keep up to date with all the links posted in this thread and compile them in this first post for you guys. Play nice.

*Links*

Sq1 Tutorial
Sq1 Cubeshape
Sq1 Lookahead
Forcing good U's
PBL via 2 CP algs
Square- 1 Shape
EP
"PLL"
Simon Crawfords EP thread
Andrew Nelson's CP thread
Cubezone by Lars Vandenbergh
Sq1 algs needed for CP parity
Square-1 "PLL" Recognition
A Comprehensive website on Square-1
Square-1 back to a cube
Sarah Strong's Sq1 algs
Sq1 AO
Sq1 Cubeshape

 

[blade740]

If we're posting Square-1 links, here are a few things I've written:

Square-1 Tutorial
Square-1 Cubeshape
Square-1 Lookahead
Forcing Good U's (more lookahead stuff)
PBL via 2 CP algs

I'm sure someone will find some of that useful.

 

[Lid]

Here are some of my Square-1 pages:
Shape
EP
"PLL"

 

[vcuber13]

MTGjumper's EP Thread

Blade's Parity CP Thread

 

[sa11297]

Well I am pretty bad at sq 1. I do cubeshape by matching all the edges together, and then I do a couple if moves and its in the cubeshape. From there I orient the corners. (should I bother to put the corners such that they are correctly oriented or not?) Then I orient the edges using one of two algorithms multiple times. ( one that swaps one on the bottom layer with one on the top and one that swaps UF with DF and UB with DB) Where can I find the best EO algs? Then I do one of the CP cases I have learned from lars' site. Next I do EP which is usually doing the alg that swaps UR with UB and Dr with DB. Sometimes I will do M2 U2 M2, and of course i finish with parity. So what should I start improving? cubeshape, EO, or EP?
EDIT: I read blade740's tutorial and I plan on learning the 5 algs that he posted for cubeshape. What averages can I expect to obtain with the method blade740 shows?

 

[drewsopchak]

Sometimes I will do M2 U2 M2,

How do you do M2 on SQ-1? Do you mean /?

 

[vcuber13]

1,0/-1,-1/0,1

 

[blade740]

Well I am pretty bad at sq 1. I do cubeshape by matching all the edges together, and then I do a couple if moves and its in the cubeshape. From there I orient the corners. (should I bother to put the corners such that they are correctly oriented or not?) Then I orient the edges using one of two algorithms multiple times. ( one that swaps one on the bottom layer with one on the top and one that swaps UF with DF and UB with DB) Where can I find the best EO algs? Then I do one of the CP cases I have learned from lars' site. Next I do EP which is usually doing the alg that swaps UR with UB and Dr with DB. Sometimes I will do M2 U2 M2, and of course i finish with parity. So what should I start improving? cubeshape, EO, or EP?
EDIT: I read blade740's tutorial and I plan on learning the 5 algs that he posted for cubeshape. What averages can I expect to obtain with the method blade740 shows?

It really depends on how much you practice. Using the method posted there, and no more, it's certainly feasible to average sub20 without learning anything else.

As for what to improve: EO is an easy choice, since there are only a few algs to learn in order to do it 1-look. Cubeshape is the sort of thing that you learn gradually with lots of solves, sorta like cross on 3x3, or maybe intuitive F2L. And EP... well, just learn a few EPs at a time until you know them all.

 

[Czery]

HELP!
How I get sub 20? (consistently)

Urgh.

 

[Cheese11]

Hey everyone!

Did anyone use this site to get fast?

 

[Cheese11]

Yay Canadian
sorry, back on topic. Yeah I started off with Lars' site, partially because there weren't that many resources when I started in 2008, and partially because I wasn't very good at finding websites (I don't think I found speedsolving then...)
Lars is the one that came up with the square-1 speedsolving method that almost everyone uses nowadays, but just like Jessica Fridrich, his algs are outdated. It's still a good site to get the concept down, but I suggest looking at threads that people posted above, particularly MTGjumper and pkFeng's EP algs which I found to be very useful.

Heh heh, Canadians are awesome.

I remember back in 2007 the resources I could find on cubing were Dan Browns tut and Rob(lot's-o-numbers) tut. I didn't even know what speedsolving was until a friend introduced me to Roux. Back on topic; I just learnt square-1 and I just learnt the necessary algs off of the site I posted and I'm starting to learn some more of them. Now I'm averaging about 1:30 and it's pretty much all I'm practicing.

 

[Czery]

I like the style of the movie
I was going to comment on how you take too long to recognize CP, then I realized you use parity CP (I think...) anyway I still think you can make that step a bit faster. I subconsciously recognize parity when I do CP but I use normal vandenbergh method. A good way I think would be to count how many "blocks" of corner+edge are solved before doing CP, and that way you can easily figure out whether you have parity on each layer or not.

Hmm... Now that you mentioned it, I actually do pause a lot during CP. I actually have no method of identifying parity on separate layers.
Using blocks seems like a good idea if there are blocks at all. The Q, E, X cases aren't blocked at all and recognition is nasty on those. I think Andrew wrote something about it somewhere...

 

[vcuber13]

look at an edge corner edge, if there are 2 or 4colours its parity, if three its good

 

[rubixwiz031]

Heres the parity I use:
/, (-3, -3,) /, (3, 0), /, (-3, -3), /, (2, 0), /, (-4, 2), / (4, 2), /, (1, 0), / (-3, -3), /.
That will do 2 things. It will solve parity on top, but make a H perm on the bottom.
To solve the H perm on the bottom ONLY, here's my alg: /, (-3, 3), /, (-3, 3), / (0, 1,) /, (3, -3), /, (3, -3), / (1, 0)

 

[blade740]

The Q, E, X cases aren't blocked at all and recognition is nasty on those. I think Andrew wrote something about it somewhere...

3-Color rule. Look at one corner (any corner), plus the edges on either side of it. If there are 3 colors total, it's an E, so no parity. If there are 2 colors or 4 colors, it's X or Q, respectively.

 

[sa11297]

It really depends on how much you practice. Using the method posted there, and no more, it's certainly feasible to average sub20 without learning anything else.

As for what to improve: EO is an easy choice, since there are only a few algs to learn in order to do it 1-look. Cubeshape is the sort of thing that you learn gradually with lots of solves, sorta like cross on 3x3, or maybe intuitive F2L. And EP... well, just learn a few EPs at a time until you know them all.

how many EP cases do you know?

 

[blade740]

how many EP cases do you know?

All of the nonparity ones, plus O-perms and adjacent swap.

 

[mrpotatoman14]

Out of curiosity, does anyone know how fast people have gotten with the screw method?

 

[Robert-Y]

People have managed sub 20 averages, but I'm not sure about official times.

 

[MTGjumper]

Random proposal: how about using / to indicate clockwise slice turns and \ for counterclockwise slice turns? For example, (1,0) \ (3,0) / (-1,-1) \ (-2,1) / (-1,0) (for what it's worth, in my shorthand this could be written as 1 \ 3 / -1,-1 \ -2,1 / -1 )