# Hoya 5x5 Tips & Tricks



## lerenard (Mar 3, 2015)

I made a series of videos about the Hoya method on 5x5. I am by no means an expert, but I think I know some tricks that you can put to use in your solves.
This applies to all reduction methods:




This covers the cross and L2C:




This covers L8E and the rest of the solve:


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## Robert-Y (Mar 3, 2015)

It's kinda good. I personally wouldn't solve 4 pieces like that at the start because you might be trapping pieces which are annoying to extract. I like to do it more "traditionally". If you solve one cross piece at a time then it makes the other cross pieces more easier to solve because you keep eliminating places to search for pieces


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## lerenard (Mar 3, 2015)

Robert-Y said:


> It's kinda good. I personally wouldn't solve 4 pieces like that at the start because you might be trapping pieces which are annoying to extract. I like to do it more "traditionally". If you solve one cross piece at a time then it makes the other cross pieces more easier to solve because you keep eliminating places to search for pieces



But if you solve whatever piece happens to be within sight already you don't have to worry about searching at all until you get down to just a few pieces left usually.


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## Robert-Y (Mar 3, 2015)

That's true. I might try to do some cross+centres solves this way later to test it out.


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## Robert-Y (Mar 3, 2015)

After solving the first 4 centres, I tested out my move count for both ways:

"Traditional" Hoya cross: 46.00, (48.00), 47.00, 43.00, 47.00, 48.00, 42.00, 40.00, 45.00, 39.00, 43.00, (36.00) => 44.00

"Solving whatever piece happens to be within sight": 51.00, 56.00, 52.00, 47.00, 49.00, 47.00, 55.00, 50.00, 52.00, 52.00, 48.00, 47.00 => 50.30

Also I don't know why you're proposing freeslicing. That's not Hoya. I don't know where you got that from. I'm just getting my information from Hoya's example solves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8679BLdpk2E


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## Lazy Einstein (Mar 3, 2015)

Robert-Y said:


> After solving the first 4 centres, I tested out my move count for both ways:
> 
> "Traditional" Hoya cross: 46.00, (48.00), 47.00, 43.00, 47.00, 48.00, 42.00, 40.00, 45.00, 39.00, 43.00, (36.00) => 44.00
> 
> ...



I always thought Hoya was 2OppC, 2AdjC, Cross, L2C, Freeslice 4 edges and putting them in U, reset centers then L4E, 3x3x3 stage. He is definitely resetting his centers between edges in those example solves.


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## Chree (Mar 3, 2015)

lerenard said:


> But if you solve whatever piece happens to be within sight already you don't have to worry about searching at all until you get down to just a few pieces left usually.



My way of solving the cross is somewhere half way between you guys. I guess you could call it "solve what you see". I won't strictly lay down 1 piece per edge, but I also won't strictly solve one whole edge at a time.

Most of the time, if I already have 2 of 3 peices solved, I'll finish that before moving on. But let's say I have 2 of 3 blue edges solved when 2 paired red edges show up in the U layer. I still don't know where my last blue piece is and I want to preserve red. In this case, I'll quickly solve those while hunting for the last blue piece, either by putting them on the R face and doing a R2 or on F face and doing F R' F', depending on which way they're oriented. It's a case by case thing, and making the whole cross more efficient should be the goal.

It may not be "traditional" Hoya, but however Jong-Ho originally presented his method, that's just a jumping off point. The users of the method are free to modify, adapt, and apend the original method, but it doesn't mean that they aren't Hoya solvers anymore. Much the same way that a Yau user might adopt Half Centers, 3-2-3 edge paired, L3E algs, Hardwick Edge Pairing, Misplaced cross edges, or any of the other litany of choices we have for Centers, Edges, and 3x3 stage that were not originally presented with the method. You wouldn't then say "they aren't using Yau". Or at least THEY wouldn't say that. I don't find it at all constructive to parse terms so much. The Cross is the defining characteristic of the method and itself does not restrict the user to one set of choices.


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