# BLD FAQ (Do yourself a favor and read this)



## Noahaha (Dec 1, 2013)

As someone who reads a lot of random posts/comments about BLD, I am somewhat annoyed by seeing the same questions over and over and over and over and over again, so this is sort of a beginner's guide to stuff that you should know about BLD and not ask questions about. I'm going to start with really basic stuff and end with more technical stuff.

(This is everything I can think of right now. Tell me if I've forgotten anything.)


*What do the different acronyms with "BLD" mean?*

BLD = Blindsolving in general, can also refer to 3BLD
3BLD = 3x3 Blindfolded
4BLD = 4x4 Blindfolded
5BLD = 5x5 Blindfolded
NBLD = NxN Blindfolded
MBLD = Multiple Blindfolded

*Ok wait... so 3BLD does not mean doing a multiple blindfolded solve with 3 cubes?*

That is correct

*How can you even solve a cube blindfolded? I mean, isn't that impossible?*

In a blindfolded solve you look at the cube first and memorize it, then you solve it.

*How could you possibly trace that many moves in your head?*

You don't. BLDers use algorithms that only affect a few pieces at a time. You really only memorize where the pieces start.

*But don't I need a photographic memory for that?*

Nope.

*Yeah, but my memory is actually really bad. I can't even remember my own phone number.*

I have great news for you! You can improve your memory dramatically by training it. BLD is a great way to do that. You don't need that good of a memory to start out with, because good memory techniques make 3BLD fairly easy.

*Alright, you've convinced me to learn BLD, but where do I learn it from?*

From me, of course.

*How long do you get to look at the cube before you start solving?*

As long as you want! However, that is part of your total time. The timer starts when you start looking at the cube and ends once you've put on the blindfold and solved it.

*Do I need a blindsolving method? Can't I just use CFOP and track the pieces?*

It will take much longer to memorize if you try to trace all of the pieces through a normal method. Speed methods are good for Speed BLD, which is an unofficial event where the memorization time doesn't count. Be prepared to spend a lot of time tracing the pieces though. It's much easier to learn a BLD method.

*What are the differences between the 3BLD methods?*

Old Pochmann/OP - Probably the easiest method for edges and corners. Solves one piece at a time and only requires three algorithms.
3OP - Orient pieces, then permute in 3-cycles. The original fast BLD method. Fairly difficult to use and not that much faster than M2/OP.
M2 - Much faster version of Old Pochmann edges. Requires a few more algs, but not any harder to use.
R2 - Faster version of Old Pochmann corners. It's much harder to use than OP corners. Most people don't recommend it.
Turbo - Mainly a method for edges. Generally considered as fast as M2. Not too many algs either, but a steeper learning curve.
3-style/BH/3-cycles/commutators - Using (conjugated) commutators to solve two pieces at a time in cycles of three. For 3x3 requires 819 algorithms. They are intuitive though, so you don't memorize them really.

*What's the difference between 3-style, BH, 3-cycles and commutators?*

These terms are used pretty much interchangeably, but BH refers specifically to being move optimal for every case. It is generally considered slower to limit yourself to being move optimal.


*What about memorization? Are there different methods for that too?*

Of course! Most of them are bad though. Always use letter pairs always. Seriously. If you want BLD to be easy and fun rather than slow and annoying, use letter pairs.

Here are some videos and some text.

*What letter scheme should I use?*

Whatever scheme you want! As long as it makes sense to you, it will eventually become automatic.

A lot of people use Speffz, but only because it's convenient to have one scheme that lots of people use.

*Can't I use numbers though?*

You can, but it's bad because no letter pairs.

*Ok, but what are the different ways to use letter pairs?*

Sentences - Make each letter pair into a word, and work the words into sentences.
Images - Like sentences, but you are imagining them happening very vividly. 
Audio - Make each letter pair into a syllable, and then repeat the string of syllables in your head a bunch of times. 

Images
Images and Sounds

*How do I even parity?*

Parity happens when you have an odd number of targets. In 3BLD, an odd number of edge targets always means you have an odd number of corner targets. Whatever tutorial you learned from should cover parity. If it doesn't, it's a bad tutorial.

*How do I learn big BLD?*

My tutorial
Daniel's Tutorial
Corey's tutorial

*How do you memorize for MBLD and Big BLD?*

LOCI!

Loci Tutorial

*Should I solve corners first, or edges first?*

Personal preference.

*What about solving order for big BLD?*

Also personal preference.

*I can't get a success!!!!!?! What do I do?????!?*

Do lots of sighted solves. Memorize, and then solve without putting on the blindfold. That will help you figure out where your mistakes are.

*I can't get faster!!! What do I do???*

Push your memo, eliminate pauses during execution. Only learn a faster method if you're executing without pauses. If you pause with a slower method, a faster method will only make your pauses longer.

*How do I get an awesome custom blindfold?*

Here (only $6)

*How do you even learn 3-style?*

My written tutorial
My video tutorial

*How do I choose what cycle to use for each case?*

Speed. Try not to rotate too much. More moves with no rotation is usually better than fewer moves with a rotation.

*How do I memorize 819 algorithms though?*

You don't. Cycles are intuitive, like F2L cases. The better your understanding of commutators is, the easier it will be to build your list.

*Where can I find other people's lists of cycles?*

You should be coming up with your own algs for the most part, but in case you need help with a tricky cycle:

My UBL Corners
Marcell's Everything (DFR, DF, DFr, ulf, uf)
AronPM's DF Edges (in this letter scheme)
Riffz's UBL corners and DF edges
Ollie's DFr wings
Skarrie's UF Edges
BH Edges (UR)
BH Corners (UBR)
Lucarubik's UB Edges and UBL Corners

(Please tell me if I missed any)


*I AM SO CONFUSED! CAN I BE SPOON-FED EVERYTHING?*

NO! THERE ARE A LOT OF THINGS YOU'RE JUST GOING TO HAVE TO FIGURE OUT FOR YOURSELF!

(It's better for you in the long run)


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## yoshinator (Dec 1, 2013)

Oh my god this is perfect.


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## Mikel (Dec 1, 2013)

So in blindfold, how do you know when you are done?


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## Ollie (Dec 1, 2013)

Mikel said:


> So in blindfold, how do you know when you are done?



lols, I've had the AUF question at least twice so far.

EDIT: I've also had "Feliks can see ahead to the 2nd F2L pair, why cant you just look ahead to to PLL?" as a genuine question


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## TheNextFeliks (Dec 1, 2013)

Ollie said:


> lols, I've had the AUF question at least twice so far.
> 
> EDIT: I've also had "Feliks can see ahead to the 2nd F2L pair, why cant you just look ahead to to PLL?" as a genuine question



Lol. But thanks do much Noah for making this. 

Can a mod sticky?


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## TeddyKGB (Dec 1, 2013)

TheNextFeliks said:


> Can a mod sticky?



Yes they can, the question is will they?


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## kcl (Dec 1, 2013)

This is everything that I couldn't figure out when I was a major nub. I had to slowly figure it all out over a few months..


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## Deleted member 19792 (Dec 1, 2013)

Ooh oOh I have a question teacher!

How do you know when you are ready to start solving the cube blindfolded

pic my question pwetty preese!


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## Tao Yu (Dec 1, 2013)

You should probably mention something about the difference between speedblind and BLD since that confuses so many people.

Great FAQ though. Thanks for making it!


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## szalejot (Dec 1, 2013)

Great FAQ. I am sure I will use some of links 
Thank you Noah!


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## verdito (Dec 1, 2013)

THIS IS JUST GREAT

ps: bh edges have UR buffer


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## Username (Dec 1, 2013)

verdito said:


> THIS IS JUST GREAT
> 
> ps: bh edges have UR buffer



People can choose whatever buffer they want....


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## Tao Yu (Dec 1, 2013)

Username said:


> People can choose whatever buffer they want....





Noahaha said:


> BH Edges (*UF*)



Actually I think he is referring to this. If you follow the link the buffer is UR, so it actually should be changed.


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## Noahaha (Dec 1, 2013)

Added one about speed BLD.



verdito said:


> THIS IS JUST GREAT
> 
> ps: bh edges have UR buffer



Thanks and fixed.


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## kinch2002 (Dec 1, 2013)

You should have left it with the large letters at the end only


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## Noahaha (Dec 1, 2013)

kinch2002 said:


> You should have left it with the large letters at the end only



I know...


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## DrKorbin (Dec 4, 2013)

Why 3-cycles require 819 algs? 378 for corners, 440 for edges, and 1 for what? Parity? It's not a 3-cycle


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## Noahaha (Dec 4, 2013)

DrKorbin said:


> Why 3-cycles require 819 algs? 378 for corners, 440 for edges, and 1 for what? Parity? It's not a 3-cycle



Must have been a typo.


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## Jander Clerix (Dec 9, 2013)

1) I just learned 3 style but i'm using Ufr as buffer and i see that the most people use ubr or ubl as buffer is it really a disadvantage when using ufr and should i better switch to Ubl or ubr because for urf there is also no algorithm list on the net


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## rj (Dec 9, 2013)

Ollie said:


> lols, I've had the AUF question at least twice so far.
> 
> EDIT: I've also had "Feliks can see ahead to the 2nd F2L pair, why cant you just look ahead to to PLL?" as a genuine question



I call that possible. Mats might be able to do that. Seriously.


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## cmhardw (Dec 9, 2013)

Great FAQ Noah, thanks for making this!


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## AmazingCuber (Jan 2, 2014)

This is awesome thanks so much noah!


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## applemobile (Jan 2, 2014)

But how do you know when your finished?


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## Jander Clerix (Jan 2, 2014)

applemobile said:


> But how do you know when your finished?



Realy?

When you done al you memorized targets for corners and edges and when you have done parity


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## Maskow (Jan 2, 2014)

Noahaha said:


> *Can't I use numbers though?*
> 
> You can, but it's bad because no letter pairs.



Damn it, I didn't know that, maybe with letter pairs instead of my numbers and random images I will be faster xD
I my opinion letter pairs aren't optimal at all. Maybe it's not bad but it isn't the only one way to be very fast.


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## Tao Yu (Jan 2, 2014)

Maskow said:


> Damn it, I didn't know that, maybe with letter pairs instead of my numbers and random images I will be faster xD
> I my opinion letter pairs aren't optimal at all. Maybe it's not bad but it isn't the only one way to be very fast.



Are your images completely random? Like (this is from your video) is there any reason that "12" would be "tap dancing"?

Also, do you use audio loops?

Maybe the op should tell you to use _any system_ that encodes _ at least two_ targets to _one_ image. It's the systems that use, like, three letters to encode one corner target that suck.

But then again, that might overcomplicate a FAQ that's meant for beginners.


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## DrKorbin (Jan 2, 2014)

applemobile said:


> But how do you know when your finished?



When your judge starts to applause and to cheer you, you can put off your blindfold.


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## Goosly (Jan 2, 2014)

DrKorbin said:


> When your judge starts to applause and to cheer you, you can put off your blindfold.



I hate it when people do that. It distracts the other competitors.


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## GLgamer10 (Jan 2, 2014)

nice tutorial. I just started blindfolded yesterday, so we will see how this works out. I'm still not getting everything. Like how you memorize the orientation of the piece and be able to do the set up moves correctly in order to place it in the correct place with the right orientation. It's going to take some time.


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## abunickabhi (Jan 14, 2014)

Ollie said:


> lols, I've had the AUF question at least twice so far.
> 
> EDIT: I've also had "Feliks can see ahead to the 2nd F2L pair, why cant you just look ahead to to PLL?" as a genuine question



it will be a bad day for all bld cubers when some really good cubers start seeing the pll.bld is finished them.we will have to migrate to higher cubes 4x4,5x5 or get some rank in fmc.my vote is for introducing 4x4 fmc as its god number is still not figured out.yo


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## mns112 (Sep 1, 2014)

DrKorbin said:


> When your judge starts to applause and to cheer you, you can put off your blindfold.


How do you know its your judge??


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## Bldnoob (Feb 23, 2015)

Sums up everything


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## DeeDubb (Feb 27, 2015)

Could this be added to the FAQ or wiki or something?

http://mt.artofmemory.com/files/forum/947/initials.txt

Quite a lot of initials for images.


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## abunickabhi (Jul 18, 2015)

BLD FAQ....
Someone asks me my 3bld time, i say suppose 1 min
then they ask me my 4bld time, i say 4min....

and then the big question....
"Why does it take u so much time to do 4bld when you do 3bld in a 1min.....its just an extra layer,na?"


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## sqAree (Sep 13, 2015)

Hey, I recently started learning bld and use OP for corners, and (idk how it's called) something similar with T perms for edges. Would you say it's wasted to learn and train that considering M2 is so much faster and immediately move on to M2?


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## MatejMuzatko (Sep 13, 2015)

sqAree said:


> Hey, I recently started learning bld and use OP for corners, and (idk how it's called) something similar with T perms for edges. Would you say it's wasted to learn and train that considering M2 is so much faster and immediately move on to M2?



Some people say it's waste of time, but I think it's good to get the principles down first, because it's much easier than M2 I think... And if you know CFOP with full PLL, you don't have to learn more algs for now ;-) Then you'll know how it works and will move onto M2 much more easily...
That's just my opinion though


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## tseitsei (Sep 13, 2015)

sqAree said:


> Hey, I recently started learning bld and use OP for corners, and (idk how it's called) something similar with T perms for edges. Would you say it's wasted to learn and train that considering M2 is so much faster and immediately move on to M2?



M2 is almost as easy as OP and saves a c**pton of moves. So yeah I would recommend learning M2 asap. Of course it's not a total waste of time but IMO it's not really all that efficient practise either if you want to get fast as quickly as possible...


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## newtonbase (Sep 13, 2015)

Personally I found learning M2 far too tricky at first so went for full OP until I felt more comfortable. Whenever you do start on M2 try to learn more advanced set ups as early as you can. It's not much harder and saves a lot of time and effort in solves.


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## PenguinsDontFly (Sep 13, 2015)

tseitsei said:


> M2 is almost as easy as OP and saves a c**pton of moves. So yeah I would recommend learning M2 asap. Of course it's not a total waste of time but IMO it's not really all that efficient practise either if you want to get fast as quickly as possible...





newtonbase said:


> Personally I found learning M2 far too tricky at first so went for full OP until I felt more comfortable. Whenever you do start on M2 try to learn more advanced set ups as early as you can. It's not much harder and saves a lot of time and effort in solves.



I find M2 to be very confusing. the whole thing about flipping the M slice and how stuff ends up on the opposite side is almost impossible for me to understand. M2 isnt necessary, and it probably isnt right for some people.


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## tseitsei (Sep 14, 2015)

PenguinsDontFly said:


> I find M2 to be very confusing. the whole thing about flipping the M slice and how stuff ends up on the opposite side is almost impossible for me to understand.


I always found M2 to be essentially same as op but instead of t-perm you only do M2. 

The targets ending on the opposite side only happens for 2 of the pieces and it is easy to know if it has happened because most people memo in pairs anyway so just check if you are at first or lasta letter of the pair. All you need to memorize for this are 4 algs (2 of which are 4 move long and you probably know already) and that uf <---> db and fu <--> bd if you have done an odd number of targets) 



> M2 isnt necessary, and it probably isnt right for some people.


Yeah that's true. No method is suitable for everyone I believe . Turbo is just as viable method than M2 imo. You just need a couple of algs more. Or you could go straight to comms (but if you find understanding M2 hard that probably isn't for you at this point...)

But at some point everyone who wants to get fast needs to switch away from op anyway. Op is just wayyyyy too many moves to be fast with...


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## sqAree (Sep 15, 2015)

Thanks for all your answers!

It seems like everyone has a different view on M2, so I'm not sure if I know more now..
My big problem is memo time anyway, I need like 6 minutes for the whole cube.. I can work on that regardless of the method.


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## h2f (Sep 15, 2015)

Just practice and your memo time will shorten very fast.


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## Maskow (Sep 15, 2015)

tseitsei said:


> M2 is almost as easy as OP and saves a c**pton of moves. So yeah I would recommend learning M2 asap. Of course it's not a total waste of time but IMO it's not really all that efficient practise either if you want to get fast as quickly as possible...



For recommending M2:
I will find you. Then I will eat you xD

Of course M2 is much faster than OP edges but IMO (and not only IMO I guess) comms for DF buffer are worse than for UF if you just learned TuRBo  And learning TuRBo is probably easier after OP than moving from M2. Especially if TuRBo is much faster than OP and isn't faster than M2 so why anybody should even try it after M2? ^ _ ^

Of course I can be wrong but I really believe that I am not. And maybe difference isn't that big (especially for lower level, hell yeah, you can do BLD in sub1 using only T-perm and Y-perm xD) but it's crucial when you are aiming for sub25 average.


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## rybaby (Sep 16, 2015)

Maskow said:


> For recommending M2:
> I will find you. Then I will eat you xD
> 
> Of course M2 is much faster than OP edges but IMO (and not only IMO I guess) comms for DF buffer are worse than for UF if you just learned TuRBo  And learning TuRBo is probably easier after OP than moving from M2. Especially if TuRBo is much faster than OP and isn't faster than M2 so why anybody should even try it after M2? ^ _ ^
> ...



Hmm, interesting point. I use M2 and have been gradually incorporating comms for corners (though typically lots of setup moves), and now I'm also looking at edges. I doubt switching to UF would be worth it at this point (avg around 1:10), though. Is there anything making comms from UF inherently better than from DF? The average move counts (using optimal BH) are exactly the same, but is UF a more finger-tricky place for algs? I do like M2's transition into advanced M2 (setting up comms), as well as many easy setups into half slice plane cases (M' U2 M U2 and inverse).


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## adimare (Sep 16, 2015)

rybaby said:


> Hmm, interesting point. I use M2 and have been gradually incorporating comms for corners (though typically lots of setup moves), and now I'm also looking at edges. I doubt switching to UF would be worth it at this point (avg around 1:10), though. Is there anything making comms from UF inherently better than from DF? The average move counts (using optimal BH) are exactly the same, but is UF a more finger-tricky place for algs? I do like M2's transition into advanced M2 (setting up comms), as well as many easy setups into half slice plane cases (M' U2 M U2 and inverse).



I think he just meant that going from TuRBo into comms with UF buffer will be better than going from TuRBo into comms with DF buffer. Similarly, going from M2 into comms with DF buffer will probably be a lot easier than going from M2 into comms with UF buffer.


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## modforge (Oct 29, 2015)

In BH method, What is difference A9 and B9?
It's not matter learn methods, but I'm very wonder that.

I'm waiting a answer!


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## MatejMuzatko (Oct 29, 2015)

modforge said:


> In BH method, What is difference A9 and B9?
> It's not matter learn methods, but I'm very wonder that.
> 
> I'm waiting a answer!



Pure commutators have the form of A B A' B'. 
A9/B9 is type of commutator, where you set up to pure commutator and 1 move cancels out.
In A9 the A part has the cancellation and in B9 the B part has the canceled move  Most people though call all comms where 1 move is canceled an A9


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## modforge (Nov 4, 2015)

*Thakns for Answer!*



MatejMuzatko said:


> Pure commutators have the form of A B A' B'.
> A9/B9 is type of commutator, where you set up to pure commutator and 1 move cancels out.
> In A9 the A part has the cancellation and in B9 the B part has the canceled move  Most people though call all comms where 1 move is canceled an A9



Thanks!


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## Rastinha (Nov 18, 2015)

Hi guys, I'm kinda new around here and I was wondering if anyone could help me with a 3BLD query? I have just started looking at 3BLD, so it's all very new. I have watched Noah's videos and I understand most of it, but I am not sure about this aspect:

I have managed to solve my 2x2 blind so far, haha. Just practicing corners. I have been watching Noah's videos, but there's one thing I'm having trouble with. So, is it right that you just need a memo letter for each PIECE rather than sticker? So the most you should end up with for corners is 8 letters or 4 pairs? Or can you end up with more? I'm having some trouble figuring out when to stop. If you have 2 corners (or edges) and it just keeps going back and forth between them, do you just do only one letter for each piece? Like at the end of this one in Noah's video, when you do QOA, how do you know not to include V on the end, or not to leave A off the end? Because once you do QO you've touched all of the pieces, but you go back one more time for A, but not again for V.






Sorry if that's a dumb question or confusing! Hopefully someone can help!


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## sqAree (Nov 18, 2015)

It depends on the number of disjoint piece cycles you have.
For example if there is only one corner cycle, you will have 7 letters. For the very first cycle you don't need to come back to the first piece.
But for every additional cycle you have to memorize another sticker of the first piece.
This is because after your first cycle the buffer piece is solved, thus the next shoot unsolves it to break into the next cycle.

So, you have 8 letters if and only if there are two cycles. It's possible to have 7 or more than 8.


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## Kit Clement (Nov 18, 2015)

Rastinha said:


> Hi guys, I'm kinda new around here and I was wondering if anyone could help me with a 3BLD query? I have just started looking at 3BLD, so it's all very new. I have watched Noah's videos and I understand most of it, but I am not sure about this aspect:
> 
> I have managed to solve my 2x2 blind so far, haha. Just practicing corners. I have been watching Noah's videos, but there's one thing I'm having trouble with. So, is it right that you just need a memo letter for each PIECE rather than sticker? So the most you should end up with for corners is 8 letters or 4 pairs? Or can you end up with more? I'm having some trouble figuring out when to stop. If you have 2 corners (or edges) and it just keeps going back and forth between them, do you just do only one letter for each piece? Like at the end of this one in Noah's video, when you do QOA, how do you know not to include V on the end, or not to leave A off the end? Because once you do QO you've touched all of the pieces, but you go back one more time for A, but not again for V.
> 
> ...



The number of targets for each part of 3BLD is this:

Corner Targets = 7 + (number of cycle breaks) - (permuted pieces)
Edge Targets = 11 + (number of cycle breaks) - (permuted pieces)

However, if you twist corners/flip edges by targeting the same piece twice, then it is:

Corner Targets = 7 + (number of cycle breaks) - (solved pieces) + 2*(twisted corners)
Edge Targets = 11 + (number of cycle breaks) - (solved pieces) + 2*(flipped edges)


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## Rastinha (Nov 18, 2015)

Kit Clement said:


> The number of targets for each part of 3BLD is this:
> 
> Corner Targets = 7 + (number of cycle breaks) - (permuted pieces)
> Edge Targets = 11 + (number of cycle breaks) - (permuted pieces)
> ...



Thanks, that's really helpful! I'll go away and reflect on that for a while. The theory is the same for corners and edges right? So if I just practice memoing and sighted solving corners for a bit it should help me to see how it works and once it makes sense for corners it will make sense for edges?


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## Kit Clement (Nov 19, 2015)

Rastinha said:


> Thanks, that's really helpful! I'll go away and reflect on that for a while. The theory is the same for corners and edges right? So if I just practice memoing and sighted solving corners for a bit it should help me to see how it works and once it makes sense for corners it will make sense for edges?



Yeah, it's all the same idea. The basic idea is to first assume everything needs permutation, which requires you to have 7 targets, because solving 7 of the 8 corners requires the 8th to be solved. But clearly, if a piece is already permuted, you won't need to target it, so the number will drop for every permuted piece. However, if you solve your buffer before you've reached the required number of 7 (minus the permuted pieces), then you're doing another target just to put something else in the buffer position. This target doesn't solve any piece though, which is why the extra target is needed every time you need to break into a new cycle.


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## CREEPINGIRON (Dec 22, 2015)

I've watched a few videos and read a few things on the internet and they've said different things about OP (They all say it uses a different amount of algorithms). What are the three algorithms you're talking about in the original post? I got bored and wanted to learn BLD.


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## tseitsei (Dec 22, 2015)

CREEPINGIRON said:


> I've watched a few videos and read a few things on the internet and they've said different things about OP (They all say it uses a different amount of algorithms). What are the three algorithms you're talking about in the original post? I got bored and wanted to learn BLD.



You only NEED 2 algs if you flip pieces by treating them as independent short cycles with only 2 targets. T-perm (to swap the edges) and modified Y-perm without F/F' at the beginning/end (to swap corners)

But I recommend 4 algs. Those 2 mentioned above and one for flipping 2 edges and one for twisting 2 corners...


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## willtri4 (Dec 22, 2015)

CREEPINGIRON said:


> I've watched a few videos and read a few things on the internet and they've said different things about OP (They all say it uses a different amount of algorithms). What are the three algorithms you're talking about in the original post? I got bored and wanted to learn BLD.



T perm for edges, Y perm for corners, and one way to deal with parity is with an R perm. I think the easiest way to deal with parity is to just switch UB and UL in memo.


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## CREEPINGIRON (Dec 22, 2015)

Thanks. I already know t perm and modified y perm. R perm shouldn't be that hard since I learned altered y perm in a few minutes. Next I just need to have a good memory system and practice a bit. Then I should be on my way.


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## Thecuberrr (Jan 31, 2016)

How do you know when you've memorised all of the pieces?


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## PenguinsDontFly (Jan 31, 2016)

Thecuberrr said:


> How do you know when you've memorised all of the pieces?



All the pieces will be solved.


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## Thecuberrr (Feb 1, 2016)

PenguinsDontFly said:


> All the pieces will be solved.



I mean before you solve it (during memo)


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## AlphaSheep (Feb 1, 2016)

Thecuberrr said:


> I mean before you solve it (during memo)



If your memo covers all of the pieces, then you've memoed all the pieces. E.g, there are 8 corners, so if you've memoed one sticker on each corner, then you've memoed all the corners... If you haven't, then you've got to see which corners you've missed. There are 3 possibilities: either they're already solved, or twisted in place, or you need to break into a new cycle.


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## Kit Clement (Feb 1, 2016)

Thecuberrr said:


> I mean before you solve it (during memo)



Alternatively, simply scroll up to find the answer I gave a few months ago.


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## PenguinsDontFly (Feb 1, 2016)

Thecuberrr said:


> I mean before you solve it (during memo)



Start memo. Put your finger on every target. Once you get to the spot where the buffer is, that means the buffer will be solved. Put your finger on the buffer piece. If you have a finger on every corner (except UBL of course) then you're done. If not, there are either solved pieces (still done), twisted pieces (use a twisting alg), or you need to break into a new cycle (shoot the buffer somewhere else)

If you have to break into a new cycle, your next target will be any sticker on a piece your finger isn't on. Don't put your finger on the random target. The buffer is now at that random spot, and whatever piece you swapped it with is the piece you solve next. Continue memo until you find that the target is the random spot. If it is, then you put your finger on it. Check again if you have a finger on every piece and check for solved and twisted stuffs and repeat until done.


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## Shiv3r (Apr 15, 2016)

*What are the differences between the 3BLD methods?*

Old Pochmann/OP - Probably the easiest method for edges and corners. Solves one piece at a time and only requires three algorithms.
3OP - Orient pieces, then permute in 3-cycles. The original fast BLD method. Fairly difficult to use and not that much faster than M2/OP.
M2 - Much faster version of Old Pochmann edges. Requires a few more algs, but not any harder to use.
R2 - Faster version of Old Pochmann corners. It's much harder to use than OP corners. Most people don't recommend it.
Turbo - Mainly a method for edges. Generally considered as fast as M2. Not too many algs either, but a steeper learning curve.
3-style/BH/3-cycles/commutators - Using (conjugated) commutators to solve two pieces at a time in cycles of three. For 3x3 requires 819 algorithms. They are intuitive though, so you don't memorize them 
(It's better for you in the long run)[/QUOTE]
One Question: when youre doing OP or M2, and you end up with the buffer edge solved but some other edges unsolved, how, just how do you move that piece and continue solving


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## turtwig (Apr 15, 2016)

Shiv3r said:


> One Question: when youre doing OP or M2, and you end up with the buffer edge solved but some other edges unsolved, how, just how do you move that piece and continue solving



Shoot to an unsolved piece and continue solving. Also known as breaking into a new cycle.


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## Shiv3r (Apr 15, 2016)

turtwig said:


> Shoot to an unsolved piece and continue solving. Also known as breaking into a new cycle.


that kinda doesn't make sense, i think. how do you memorize that?


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## turtwig (Apr 15, 2016)

Take this scramble for example: F L2 U2 L2 B2 L2 B2 R2 U B2 F2 D L' B F R2 F2 D B'
I use M2 for edges, so my targets would be (for Speffz)
IT RL GA WP D
(Here, since the buffer is solved, we break into a new cycle and shoot to an unsolved edge, in this case B. Just memorize and execute as if we were solving B)
B VM
Or with normal notation:
FU BR BL FL LD UB DB RF UL
Break into new cycle
UR DR RU
I hope this helps.


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## adimare (Apr 15, 2016)

You can use scrambld.cubing.net to generate letter pair solutions for scrambles to help you figure out how they work.

These are the letter pairs and solution it produces for turtwig's scramble (the letter pairs are exactly the ones he came up with): http://scrambld.cubing.net/?scramble=F_L2_U2_L2_B2_L2_B2_R2_U_B2_F2_D_L-_B_F_R2_F2_D_B-


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## EminentCuber (Apr 18, 2016)

This is great. I must thank you, Noah, for this.

Blindfolded solving is SO STINKING COOL!

Ohh it's so helpful!

Thanks again.
_~EminentCuber_


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## Shiv3r (Jul 18, 2016)

EminentCuber said:


> This is great. I must thank you, Noah, for this.
> 
> Blindfolded solving is SO STINKING COOL!
> 
> ...


I think I came up with an easy-to memo corners method, I think Ill post it eventually.


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## sqAree (Aug 6, 2016)

A few questions about how to proceed in 3BLD:

For now I used OP/OP completely, memorizing edges first and executing corners first, audio memo for both (because as there are not as many corners I wanted to exploit my short-term memory), averaging around 5min and a sub4 pb.

Now I'm aware that's crappy, so I want to move on to something better. My original plan was to learn Turbo, but I'm too lazy to learn those 8 algs, so it's M2 (requires no algs and is essentially the same idea as OP).

1. Would you recommend learning special algs for BU, BD and FU? The way I read it one would use M U2 M U2 / U2 M' U2 M' and flip the pieces in the end.

2. For those special cases where the M slice is off by an M2 and my target is in the M slice, should I memorize the sticker whose corresponding alg I will execute or figure that out while executing?

3. I used (M' U')*4 (M' U)*4 to flip single edges which worked quite well with UR as my edge buffer, but for DF it's not really good. Any alternative?

4. As fixing parity with M2 and executing corners first seems to be complicated my plan is to memo corners first (with images), then memo and executing edges (with audio) and execute corners last. This seems to be fairly standard, but I have doubts, because there are so many edges that short-term memory has high chances to betray me?

5. When there is parity I won't be able to memorize letter pairs only since there is one additional letter for both edges and corners. How should I memorize that single letter?


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## newtonbase (Aug 6, 2016)

sqAree said:


> A few questions about how to proceed in 3BLD:
> 
> For now I used OP/OP completely, memorizing edges first and executing corners first, audio memo for both (because as there are not as many corners I wanted to exploit my short-term memory), averaging around 5min and a sub4 pb.
> 
> ...


1. Yes, learn the tricky setups. They aren't that bad and 2 are inverses. You can learn tricks to avoid them in many cases here https://www.speedsolving.com/forum/threads/advanced-m2-guide.56076/
2. I memo as normal. If FU or BD come as the 2nd letter in a pair I switch the setup on the fly. Other people switch during memo. See which works best for you. 
3. M' U' M' U' M' U' M' U2 M' U' M' U' M' U' M' flips UF and UB. I set up to those. 
4. This works fine for me. This thread helped me with audio edges https://www.speedsolving.com/forum/...ocus-on-phonetics-rather-than-spelling.51937/
5. You can use a rule for the single letter. I use superheroes so if my last word is Catwoman then I know it's a single C. You could choose anything with a range of letters such as Pokemon. Another option is to pair with an unused letter, usually Y or Z in Speffz.


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## sqAree (Aug 6, 2016)

newtonbase said:


> 1. Yes, learn the tricky setups. They aren't that bad and 2 are inverses. You can learn tricks to avoid them in many cases here https://www.speedsolving.com/forum/threads/advanced-m2-guide.56076/
> 2. I memo as normal. If FU or BD come as the 2nd letter in a pair I switch the setup on the fly. Other people switch during memo. See which works best for you.
> 3. M' U' M' U' M' U' M' U2 M' U' M' U' M' U' M' flips UF and UB. I set up to those.
> 4. This works fine for me. This thread helped me with audio edges https://www.speedsolving.com/forum/...ocus-on-phonetics-rather-than-spelling.51937/
> 5. You can use a rule for the single letter. I use superheroes so if my last word is Catwoman then I know it's a single C. You could choose anything with a range of letters such as Pokemon. Another option is to pair with an unused letter, usually Y or Z in Speffz.



Thank you a lot, a very useful answer! The advanced M2 guide looks super interesting. Haven't read everything yet, but just at the beginning it already feels like I'll be using full 3-style soon.


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## CyanSandwich (Aug 6, 2016)

I'd recommend mentally swapping UL and UB if you have parity.
You memo as if UB and UL belong in each other's spots, then you have an even number of edges and finish corners with OP.

So you'll still have a single letter for corners. You could come up with a rule like suggested. I have single letter images that just make sense, like I=eye, V=V (the drink), A=A+


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## AlphaSheep (Aug 6, 2016)

sqAree said:


> 3. I used (M' U')*4 (M' U)*4 to flip single edges which worked quite well with UR as my edge buffer, but for DF it's not really good. Any alternative?



(U M')*3 (U M) (U M')*3 (U M) flips DF and UB and is quite fast to execute. Change the last M to M' and it also becomes a decent alg for the BUR target.


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## newtonbase (Aug 6, 2016)

AlphaSheep said:


> (U M')*3 (U M) (U M')*3 (U M) flips DF and UB and is quite fast to execute. Change the last M to M' and it also becomes a decent alg for the BUR target.


Nice edge flip. I'll use that one.


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## Shiv3r (Aug 6, 2016)

I use Old pochmann for edges, but Im too lazy to have to memo 3 different cases for each corner
for edges I use one letter per edge; if It's flipped I memo it with as "x-prime", and because each letter is a word for me, I have two sets of words, one for regular the other for prime. so A would be "Alexis" and A' would be "Anthony Brooks" and things like that.

I often will use boomerang or another pre-orienting method for corners. sometimes Ill use my semi-freestyle method OSP(*O*rient *S*olve D corners *P*arity/*P*ermute), because the memo is actually pretty fast (faster than my Old pochmann, Boomerang, and 3OP), while execution is decent.

I know Im doing everything wrong. Please dont make too much fun of how bad I am at Blindfolded.


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## Daniel Lin (Aug 7, 2016)

sqAree said:


> Now I'm aware that's crappy, so I want to move on to something better. My original plan was to learn Turbo, but I'm too lazy to learn those 8 algs, so it's M2 (requires no algs and is essentially the same idea as OP).


It doesn't really matter whether you use M2 or TuRBo. IMO M2 is slightly easier, because you only set up one piece. 
If you are going to use M2, definitely learn the UF/BU/BD algs.


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## FastCubeMaster (Aug 7, 2016)

Random question, but why is TuRBo spelled with a capital R and B?


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## Shiv3r (Aug 7, 2016)

its on the wiki:
"
Kai Jiptner: "Erik came up with this term because Rama was always using the word turbo in terms of good cubing. So when Erik came up with his idea (it was while chatting with me actually) he decided to call this new blind method "Turbo" (he was tired of those boring/confusing combinations of letters). I said so that'd be TuRBo: "The Ruling/Reigning Blindmethod". That's why you should never ignore the capitals. It actually combines a fancy name and a letter abbreviation."


"


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## sqAree (Jun 2, 2017)

Hey, where can I find the best list of DF comms?


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## Malkom (Jun 2, 2017)

Do you bilingual blinders use easy cases from both languages or stick to one?


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## the super cuber (Jun 2, 2017)

Malkom said:


> Do you bilingual blinders use easy cases from both languages or stick to one?


I speak fluent english and hindi, I tend to use english words for my letter pairs mostly and connect them using hindi words to form sentences (more so in mbld)


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## Fábio De'Rose (Jun 2, 2017)

Malkom said:


> Do you bilingual blinders use easy cases from both languages or stick to one?



I speak a handful of languages and tend to mix them during MBLD, especially if I run into too many repeated pairs.


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## adimare (Jun 2, 2017)

Malkom said:


> Do you bilingual blinders use easy cases from both languages or stick to one?



I mix them. Whatever it takes to get easy to remember, short words.


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## Ceru (Jun 15, 2017)

Ok
:V


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## Prana (Oct 25, 2017)

Malkom said:


> Do you bilingual blinders use easy cases from both languages or stick to one?


I speak English and Bahasa Indonesia. Both language uses alphabet, so I mix up my memo with both of languages.


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## Duncan Bannon (Jul 13, 2018)

Bump.... The tutorial I learned from (JPERM) does edges then corners. He uses R U' R' U' R U R D R' U' R D' R' U2 R' U' for parity (OP btw) does this also work for if I do corners first? Thanks!


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## Thom S. (Jul 13, 2018)

Duncan Bannon said:


> Bump.... The tutorial I learned from (JPERM) does edges then corners. He uses R U' R' U' R U R D R' U' R D' R' U2 R' U' for parity (OP btw) does this also work for if I do corners first? Thanks!



Yes


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## IsoSpandy (Apr 4, 2019)

Duncan Bannon said:


> Bump.... The tutorial I learned from (JPERM) does edges then corners. He uses R U' R' U' R U R D R' U' R D' R' U2 R' U' for parity (OP btw) does this also work for if I do corners first? Thanks!


It is just a modified R perm


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## abunickabhi (Jan 19, 2021)

Sorry for the bump, but would anyone like to update the pinned post of this thread, and make it more 2021 relevant. (Noah's post is helpful even today after 7 years, but it will be better if someone adds up recent trends to it)

Adding more beginner's resources and more advanced methods that people have developed over the years.


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## abunickabhi (Jan 19, 2021)

sqAree said:


> Hey, where can I find the best list of DF comms?


The UF buffer is significantly better nowadays. You can learn it from Max's sheet or Daniel's google sheet which are both public and up to date.


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## sqAree (Jan 19, 2021)

abunickabhi said:


> The UF buffer is significantly better nowadays. You can learn it from Max's sheet or Daniel's google sheet which are both public and up to date.


Well thanks for your answer, but my post is 4 years old, I have learned full UF/UFR already by now and using it for over a year.


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## abunickabhi (Jan 19, 2021)

sqAree said:


> Well thanks for your answer, but my post is 4 years old, I have learned full UF/UFR already by now and using it for over a year.


Wow nice, UF/UFR is super fast algset indeed. All algs are intuitve sub-1able and fingertrickable, F' u' F' E F U E2 F.


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## Deleted member 55877 (Feb 2, 2021)

I have a question that probably is dumb. Is it worth it to be y2 color neutral for BLD? Because sometimes I find it annoying to sometimes start with a corner/edge solved in a buffer.


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## abunickabhi (Feb 5, 2022)

Deleted member 55877 said:


> I have a question that probably is dumb. Is it worth it to be y2 color neutral for BLD? Because sometimes I find it annoying to sometimes start with a corner/edge solved in a buffer.


Corner/edge being solves should not be annoying. Say if UF/UFR are solved, just shoot them to UL/UBL and continue tracing from there.

y2 tracing can get a bit slower. Believe me, I have tried being orientation neutral in 3BLD multiple times in the past decade and failed. The returns that you get with y2 orientation just to avoid half alg in edge/corner because it is solved is not worth it.

TL;DR it is not worth it, R' U' L' U S' M U' M' S L U R.


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## kubesolver (Feb 5, 2022)

Deleted member 55877 said:


> I have a question that probably is dumb. Is it worth it to be y2 color neutral for BLD? Because sometimes I find it annoying to sometimes start with a corner/edge solved in a buffer.


I think the advanced way to handle already solved buffer is to be able to use more than one buffer. So if your buffer is solved you start solving from another buffer (also known an floating buffers)


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## abunickabhi (Feb 5, 2022)

kubesolver said:


> I think the advanced way to handle already solved buffer is to be able to use more than one buffer. So if your buffer is solved you start solving from another buffer (also known an floating buffers)


Yes the default to when UF/UFR are solved is to trace from UB/UBR. Both those buffers are fast.

One small to note is that if you are going to get parity on that solve, it is better to start tracing from UF/UFR itself so that you can get good parity, last comm+parity or good LTCT case. So even doing floating buffers is not an ideal choice half of the times.


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