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Step 5 + 6

Final layer position index

This is a complete index of all possible corner positions in step 5, and some good ways to solve them. It does not deal with edge issues at all, so after this you are left with step 7. Since Step 5 is about positioning the corners, this index only deals with positions where the corners need to be swapped. If the corners are correctly placed, see the Step 6 position index

The Math

I've based this on the 7 possible ways the corners can "look". The top color stickers of the corners can for 7 different patterns, which I've named A-G. It's easy to see fast, and is what I look for when I get here. The next thing is to look for is positions of the corners.

There are 27 different ways that the corners can be arranged. Corners 1, 2 & 3 can show the top color three different ways, while the 4th is determined by the other three. 3x3x3 = 27. For each of those, there are 6 different ways the corners can be placed to show that pattern. So in total we have 27x6 = 162 different corner configurations. In theory.

Of those 6 corner placements, 1 is that they are correctly placed, 1 is that two corners are swapped diagonally, and 4 are that adjacent corners are swapped. I've taken to name them like this:


Due to symmetries etc, the 162 positions are really just 32 distinct ones
Correct: 7 of 27 (A 1, B 8, C 4, D 4, E 4, F 2, G 4)
Adjacent: 18 of 108 (Ax 4, Bx 8, By 8, Bz 8, Bq 8, Cx 8, Cy 4, Cz 4, Dx 8, Dy 4, Dz 4, Ex 8, Ey 8, Fx 4, Fy 4, Gx 8, Gy 4, Gz 4)
Diagonal: 7 of 27 (AA 1, BB 8, CC 4, DD 4, EE 4, FF 2, GG 4) For example, 8 of 162 is 4.94% of the cases.

How much should I learn?

First of all, there is nothing wrong with learning a lot of final layer sequences, but you should understand that it is not the only or even the most important way to get fast. It's just a way to use fewer moves. Getting fast is mostly a mix of two things: using fewer moves, and making faster moves.

For few moves, learning to do Step 1-4 in few moves is the most important. Aim for 30 moves when going slow and thinking about every move, and don't expect to get to 30 very fast. Step 5-7 improvements is what this page is about, and you can cut that down from 30 to 15-20 if you memorize a lot of these sequences.

For faster moves, the two important parts are physical finger speed and lookahead. The trap here is to get fixated with just doing moves incredibly fast, but failing at lookahead. If you do 7 moves in a second and then have to spend 3 seconds finding where to do your next move, you're not really going fast. Better to do 3 moves per second but always know what your next move is.

I just say this since I think a lot of people get caught up in learning sequences instead of doing other more important stuff that I can't really make a page for. That said, if you like to learn all this anyway, go ahead.

OK, but which cases should I learn??

Of my two indexes, Step 5+6 is more important to know than Step 6+7. So start here.

Apart from Niklas, Sune etc from the main tutorial, I've named 8 sequences for use in the index. Most of my solutions are combinations of these ~15 sequences. If you learn anything, learn those. Clix, Evelyn and Eve are probably the most important.

By - Buffy
Bz - AntiBuffy
BB - Bob
Cx - Clix
Cz - Czeslaw
Dz - Denzel
Ey - Evelyn
EE - Eve

Really Advanced Stuff

I've been working on a full Step 5+6+7 Index, with a new approach. It's still a bit crude, but I think it's already the best way to do the final layer, if you want to spend a lot of effort being really fast. Check it out here.

A lot of the sequences are taken from Bernard Helmstetters computer runs. This just scratches the surface of what is on his site.

A -
Ax, AA
B -
Bx, By, Bz, Bq, BB
C -
Cx, Cy, Cz, CC
D -
Dx, Dy, Dz, DD
E -
Ex, Ey, EE
F -
Fx, Fy, FF
G -
Gx, Gy, Gz, GG

Mail me at cube@lar5.com
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