# 6x6x6 Speed Solving: How do I get to Sub-4?



## ChrisBird (Jul 21, 2009)

Hey Everyone,
I searched the forum, and found nothing on this subject (aside from a lot of 4x4 and 5x5 stuff) so I thought I should ask.

I am really out of practice on all the cubes, (2-7) and just got back into a very strict practicing schedule in hopes of improving my times by August 14th.

My main event is the 6x6, as it is one of the few puzzles I can do somewhat decent at, and I can now consistently solve sub-5.
So I was wondering, aside from lots of practice, what new algorithms I can learn, or any tips/tricks on how to lower my time. I am already improving my 3x3 solve, which should help, and I learned Lucas' awesome parity for 4x4 and 6x6.

Is there anything else I can do to get faster? I hope to be sub-4 within a month, and any help would be greatly appreciated.

~Chris


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## Kian (Jul 21, 2009)

You mean you don't know the super-duper sub-4 6x6 secret?


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## Faz (Jul 21, 2009)

Centers are all about turning fast. Edges are the same as 5x5, don't stop and look ahead. Then blitz the 3x3 stage.


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## ChrisBird (Jul 21, 2009)

For centers, aside from 1x4 blocks, is there any method to solve them faster?

Like on 5x5 there is 1x3s and the 2x1-2x2-2x3-3x3 method (not sure of the name)


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## AvGalen (Jul 21, 2009)

New algs for a 6x6x6? Nope, not needed.

For sub-4 I needed to do about 1:50 (centers) + 0:25 (inner edges) + 1:00 (outer edges) + 0:45 (3x3x3 + parities)

You need lots of practice and a good cube. With a bad cube (pops) I have trouble staying under 5 minutes 

for centers you can also use SPAVG (search)


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## ChrisBird (Jul 21, 2009)

Although it probably does not make any difference, I should ask anyway.

When solving the first 8 pairs, should I have my working area be horizontal (u and d to pair up pieces) or Vertical (r and l)?

I currently go horizontal, but I find it hard to find pieces on the D later and end up doing much more cube rotations then I need.

Also, for flipping edge pairs to help pair them up, I used the simple R U R' U' F' U F, but I noticed Nakajima does it a different way. Where would I be able to find this faster algorithm?

Edit: I searched SPAVG, but it returned absolutely nothing. No thread in this entire forums uses that acronym  What else could I search in order to find it?


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## Am1n- (Jul 21, 2009)

Kian said:


> You mean you don't know the super-duper sub-4 6x6 secret?



+1
lol 

mvg


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## liljthedude (Jul 21, 2009)

MonkeyDude1313 said:


> Although it probably does not make any difference, I should ask anyway.
> 
> When solving the first 8 pairs, should I have my working area be horizontal (u and d to pair up pieces) or Vertical (r and l)?
> 
> ...


 Is this when centers are sliced? If not try R2 B U R'.

Start doing AVG method for edge pairs if you don't already.


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## Dene (Jul 21, 2009)

What are your breakdowns? They might give us an indication as to what you should work on.


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## AvGalen (Jul 21, 2009)

You can use whatever slice you prefer. I use E (horizontal) but I think M (vertical) is better.

R U R' U' F' U F can also be done as (R U' R') (F' U2 F) or as (RF') U (FR') or in many other ways


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## ChrisBird (Jul 21, 2009)

Dene said:


> What are your breakdowns? They might give us an indication as to what you should work on.



For my solve it's really simple:

Centers: ~2 Minutes
Edges: ~2 Minutes
3x3 Solve: ~45 Seconds (With both paritys)


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## JLarsen (Jul 21, 2009)

AvGalen said:


> New algs for a 6x6x6? Nope, not needed.
> 
> For sub-4 I needed to do about 1:50 (centers) + 0:25* (inner edges) + 1:00 (outer edges)* + 0:45 (3x3x3 + parities)
> 
> ...


I was wondering if anyone did that. I just do the inners of an edge group, and then I do the outers of the same group. Same for 7x7. I'll try your way since I'm pretty good at 5x5 edges =].


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## 4Chan (Jul 21, 2009)

I can sub 4 a 6x6, and have done so many times. Do you know the algs for last 2 edge pairings from bigcubes? I know a few, and have found they help a lot.


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## Tortin (Jul 21, 2009)

MonkeyDude1313 said:


> Also, for flipping edge pairs to help pair them up, I used the simple R U R' U' F' U F, but I noticed Nakajima does it a different way. Where would I be able to find this faster algorithm?



He uses R U R' F R' F' R


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## ChrisBird (Jul 21, 2009)

Cubes=Life said:


> I can sub 4 a 6x6, and have done so many times. Do you know the algs for last 2 edge pairings from bigcubes? I know a few, and have found they help a lot.



Which algorithms are you referring to?



Tortin said:


> MonkeyDude1313 said:
> 
> 
> > Also, for flipping edge pairs to help pair them up, I used the simple R U R' U' F' U F, but I noticed Nakajima does it a different way. Where would I be able to find this faster algorithm?
> ...



Oh wow, that's fast


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## Mike Hughey (Jul 21, 2009)

Tortin said:


> MonkeyDude1313 said:
> 
> 
> > Also, for flipping edge pairs to help pair them up, I used the simple R U R' U' F' U F, but I noticed Nakajima does it a different way. Where would I be able to find this faster algorithm?
> ...



One thing I've always wondered - why do people do these 7-move algorithms for flipping edge pairs? Are they really that much faster than something like R F' U R' F? (Actually, I use M slice, so I go U F' L U' F.) I admit that it seems like these are a little awkward, but it seems like someone would be able to find a good way to fingertrick them. Is that just not possible? (I realize the answer is probably yes it's not possible, but it still bugs me.) 5 moves instead of 7 just seems like such a big win when it might happen a bunch of times during a solve.

I use this when I do Bigcubes pairing, because I'm too slow for fingertricks to help me much anyway - fewer moves means shorter times most of the time for me. So should I just give this whole silly behavior of mine up and go for the 7-mover instead, and practice the fingertricks?


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## fanwuq (Jul 21, 2009)

Mike Hughey said:


> Tortin said:
> 
> 
> > MonkeyDude1313 said:
> ...



I agree with you. In fact, I was about to point that out. Also try y' UR'FU'R y (rotation before your alg.) That makes it more fingertrick friendly. I actually use U'R2UFRF' most of time out of habit.
Edit: y'R'UF'Rd' to save a rotation if you like multilayer turns.


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## Mike Hughey (Jul 21, 2009)

fanwuq said:


> Also try y' UR'FU'R y (rotation before your alg.) That makes it more fingertrick friendly.


Oh, that's nice - the best of both worlds. Fingertricks plus few moves. My favorite.

I'll have to work on that.


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## Shamah02 (Jul 21, 2009)

MonkeyDude1313 said:


> Cubes=Life said:
> 
> 
> > I can sub 4 a 6x6, and have done so many times. Do you know the algs for last 2 edge pairings from bigcubes? I know a few, and have found they help a lot.
> ...



Cubes=Life is just talking about the last 2 edges algs off of bigcubes.com for the 5x5.

Yu Nakajima also has a video for every case on his CUTEXcuber channel on youtube. Just search "5x5x5 last 2 edge cutex" on youtube. There are 7 algs.


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## ChrisBird (Jul 21, 2009)

Ohh okie, thanks.

I still can't find Arnaud's Center Idea. (SPAVG) Where would I find out about that? The search function returned nothing.


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## LNZ (Jul 21, 2009)

I was looking at Youtube videos for a while and I have found some real time saving parity buster algs. I have them all stores on a alg sheetand I have memorized every one of them to memory. The problem is the diagrams are hand drawn and cannot be shown on this site. So use the following algs on computer cube software like Gabbasoft, etc:


Swap two centres (of a parity pair)

r2 U2 r / U2 r2 U2 / r2 U2 r / U2 r2

Parity Pair buster alg (Adaptable for bigcubes like 6x6 and 7x7 and useful with adapting for all types of 7x7 parities too. For 4x4, only use the d slice.)

u' d / R U R' / U' F' U F / d' u

All cubes 3x3 and above.

(M' U)(x3) + (U M)(x3) + U2

Quick parity solver. Rotate cube 180 degrees before using for even better effect.

r2 B2 / r' U2 r' U2 / B2 r' B2 r B2 r' B2 r2 / B2

4x4 OLL Parity 

(M U')(x2) M U2 (M U')(x2) M U2

7x7x7 Cube Parity algs (tested on a real V-Cube7)

A B B B A
B A A A B

R2 B2 U2....B2 R2, using 1/2 and 6/7 slices.

A A B A A
B B A B B

R2 B2 U2....B2 R2, using 1/2/3 and 5/6/7 slices.

A B A B A
B A B A B

R2 B2 U2....B2 R2, using 3 and 5 slices.





Void Cube Parities

x2 + (R U R' [Dd]')(x7)

r2 U' M' U / r2 U y' U / M U M' U

x' M2 U' / R U M'/ U' R' U / M' U' R / U M' U' / R' U x

Algs tested on real cubes from 1x1x1 to 7x7x7 and adaptions tested on Gabbasoft cubes from 4x4x4 to 19x19x19.

7x7x7 Cube Parity algs (tested on a real V-Cube 7)


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## Shamah02 (Jul 22, 2009)

MonkeyDude1313 said:


> Ohh okie, thanks.
> 
> I still can't find Arnaud's Center Idea. (SPAVG) Where would I find out about that? The search function returned nothing.



It's in this thread. I found it using the search function.


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## qqwref (Jul 22, 2009)

I'm going to suggest just using pure reduction... centers in 1x4 strips, 8 full edge groups with freeslice and then the last 4 sort of however looks best (I usually do inners then outers but I'll do other stuff if it looks more efficient), then 3x3. Once you do that getting faster is just a matter of fewer delays and better lookahead. I suggest doing a bunch of slow solves (just slow turning, though, try to have less pauses, even if it means doing a ton of cube rotations in order to find stuff) to work on lookahead, but other than that, just practice.


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## Dene (Jul 22, 2009)

MonkeyDude1313 said:


> Dene said:
> 
> 
> > What are your breakdowns? They might give us an indication as to what you should work on.
> ...



You should be able to cut a good 20-30 seconds of your centers. Just turn faster and lookahead. How do you do the last 2 centers?


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## ChrisBird (Jul 22, 2009)

I do the center two 1x4s, then one full outer one, and 3 pieces of the last one.

I just use a little trick to get the last piece in there. (I can flesh this out if you would like me to)


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## Dene (Jul 22, 2009)

No it sounds like you are doing it the "good" way. Just keep working on it.


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## ChrisBird (Jul 22, 2009)

Do you find it more beneficial to do the first 8 edge pairs by pairing the center edges, then adding the outer ones? Or does it make little difference?


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## Gurplex (Jul 22, 2009)

theres no method to improve your speed.
but playing on hi-games is a great way to practice your look ahead!

to improve, i just did at least one average of 12 a day.
i average about 3:30 in real life.


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## Dene (Jul 22, 2009)

MonkeyDude1313 said:


> Do you find it more beneficial to do the first 8 edge pairs by pairing the center edges, then adding the outer ones? Or does it make little difference?



I do it freeslice, but both methods can be good.


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## AvGalen (Jul 22, 2009)

Shamah02 said:


> MonkeyDude1313 said:
> 
> 
> > Ohh okie, thanks.
> ...


Please, explain how you used the search function to return nothing. It is as easy as 
* Clicking on the Search option on the top navigation
* type SPAVG
* Click Search

All results are actually related to SPAVG (except the link to this thread obviously)


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## ChrisBird (Jul 22, 2009)

I'll try to attach a screen cap with my search results, but if it does not work I'll Photobucket it.

The screen cap is with all the omitted results included as well just to make sure I wasn't missing anything.
So I don't know why I am not getting anything besides this thread.


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## Am1n- (Aug 3, 2009)

http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/search.php


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