# Void Swap: A Unique Beginner 3BLD Method



## trangium (Nov 22, 2021)

*Motivation:*
The most commonly taught beginner 3BLD method, Old Pochmann, has a significant problem for edges: Setups are long and unergonomic, making it hard for beginner blinders to correctly undo their setup moves and execute setups quickly. Fortunately, there's a variation that's just as simple as Old Pochmann: Void Swap. The edges algorithm swaps 2 edges and cycles 4 centers, which leads to much less restricted setups.

*The Method:*
Speffz lettering will be used here.
Edges Buffer: H
Edges Target: B
Allowed setups: <U, R, F, D>
Edge swap alg: R' F2 R2 E' R' S' R' F2 R S (Use right index for E', and left index push for S)
Parity: Add W to the end of edge memo
Special case: if there are an odd number of edge letter pairs (include the letter you added for parity), add M' S' M2 S M to the start of execution

Corner Buffer: H
Corner Target: C
Allowed setups: <U, R, F>
Corner swap alg: R B R' U2 r U' r B r2 U2

*Example solve:*
View at alg.cubing.net

*Comparison with other BLD methods (for edges):*

*Method**Average Edge Swap Length**Average Setup+Restore Length (taking cancellations into account)**Average Moves Per Edge*Basic OP14418OP with Ja/Jb for tricky cases13215Void Swap102.312.3M215.76.73-styleN/AN/A~4


*Conclusion:*
Overall, I think Void Swap is better than Old Pochmann but worse than M2. It's a good starting option for those who are comfortable with S/E slices, and don't want to immediately deal with the increased mental overhead of M2's setups and special cases.


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## Blobinati Cuber (Nov 22, 2021)

Looks very interesting!! Don’t you mean M2 E M2 E’ for parity, to swap the E layer centers? 
And why are you only allowed to do UFRD turns for the edges? If the alg is cycling centers, then surely you wouldn’t have to worry about anything else right?


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## V Achyuthan (Nov 22, 2021)

trangium said:


> *Motivation:*
> The most commonly taught beginner 3BLD method, Old Pochmann, has a significant problem for edges: Setups are long and unergonomic, making it hard for beginner blinders to correctly undo their setup moves and execute setups quickly. Fortunately, there's a variation that's just as simple as Old Pochmann: Void Swap. The edges algorithm swaps 2 edges and cycles 4 centers, which leads to much less restricted setups.
> 
> *The Method:*
> ...


This looks cool. I might try this


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## CubeRed (Nov 22, 2021)

Nice job. This might actually be the thing that gets me into 3BLD.


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## Cuberstache (Nov 22, 2021)

Blobinati Cuber said:


> Looks very interesting!! Don’t you mean M2 E M2 E’ for parity, to swap the E layer centers?
> And why are you only allowed to do UFRD turns for the edges? If the alg is cycling centers, then surely you wouldn’t have to worry about anything else right?


L and B moves move the buffer piece


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## trangium (Nov 22, 2021)

Blobinati Cuber said:


> Looks very interesting!! Don’t you mean M2 E M2 E’ for parity, to swap the E layer centers?
> And why are you only allowed to do UFRD turns for the edges? If the alg is cycling centers, then surely you wouldn’t have to worry about anything else right?


M2 E M2 E' and M' S' M2 S M' both have the same effect. I personally prefer the first one. As Cuberstache pointed out, the buffer is LB, and you can't move the buffer, thus <U, R, F, D> are the allowed setups.


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## Lucas Garron (Nov 22, 2021)

Hmm, that's a neat! But using a 4-cycle requires keeping track of state seems unnecessary extra work.

What about using a an order-2 center parity?

Something like: U' M' U M U M' u M u' M U' M' U M' U'
Or maybe something like: M u M' u' M2' u' M' u2' M' u' M u2' M u' M u'

(Of course, you'd also want something for corners with the same center parity. I found F U' R u2 F u2 M2 U F' U r' U2 F r u U R', but that doesn't quite seem to cut it.)


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## trangium (Nov 23, 2021)

Lucas Garron said:


> Hmm, that's a neat! But using a 4-cycle requires keeping track of state seems unnecessary extra work.
> 
> What about using a an order-2 center parity?
> 
> ...


I actually considered that. The best algs I found for that were M' u' M' u M' u M' u2 M' u M' u M' u' and R' F2 R2 E' M' R' S' r' F2 R S, which are significantly worse than the 4-cycle alg. A better approach would be to alternate between R' F2 R2 E' R' S' R' F2 R S and R E R2' F2 R S' R' F2 R S which cycle the centers in opposite directions. Personally, I prefer the way that I mentioned in the original post, but different variants may work well for different people.

EDIT: There's also S' r' F2 R S R' F2 R2 E' (M' R') which is not too bad.


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## Cuberstache (Nov 23, 2021)

trangium said:


> M2 E M2 E' and M' S' M2 S M' both have the same effect.


I believe @Blobinati Cuber was referring to the typo in the OP:


trangium said:


> Special case: if there are an odd number of edge letter pairs (include the letter you added for parity), add *E2 M’ E2 M* to the start of execution


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## abunickabhi (Dec 5, 2021)

trangium said:


> *Motivation:*
> The most commonly taught beginner 3BLD method, Old Pochmann, has a significant problem for edges: Setups are long and unergonomic, making it hard for beginner blinders to correctly undo their setup moves and execute setups quickly. Fortunately, there's a variation that's just as simple as Old Pochmann: Void Swap. The edges algorithm swaps 2 edges and cycles 4 centers, which leads to much less restricted setups.
> 
> *The Method:*
> ...


Have you considered BOP method as well?

I think BOP also have weird setup moves. But it is a bit better than classic Old Pochmann method.


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## trangium (Dec 10, 2021)

abunickabhi said:


> Have you considered BOP method as well?
> 
> I think BOP also have weird setup moves. But it is a bit better than classic Old Pochmann method.



BOP and Void Swap have different objectives. To quote the proposer of BOP:


Lazy Einstein said:


> The idea was basically if one wants to learn to BLD solve and that's it, OP is fine.
> 
> If one wants to BLD solve and know they will want to get fast and work for it eventually, being a speedcuber, I am proposing that BOP is the better way to go.
> 
> ...


Essentially, if one wants to take BLD seriously enough that they intend to eventually use 3-style, they should use BOP. But if one just wants to learn how to solve it blindfolded as soon as possible, they should use Void Swap.


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