Progression

Don't know how to solve a cube (with ZZ)

Current time: N/A (all times in this guide are average times)

Goal time: 1 min

General tips: Learn how to solve the cube using the beginner's method on this site. If you are struggling, you can find many high quality tutorials online, learn to solve the cube, then come back to the tutorial. There are no specific areas to practice, apart from just generally do some solves. Make sure that you have a good quality cube (as what is considered good changes, look at other up-to-date sources) and try to solve the optionally-intuitive parts intuitively and just understand the cube in general. Also try out quicker ways of turning the cube, for example flicking U instead of turning it with your whole wrist.

Sub 1 min

Current time: 1 min

Goal time: 45s

General tips: Take a look at the intermediate page and learn that. Do solves regularly and often and be able to start with opposite colours on F (so green or blue for this tutorial).

EOLine: Work on improving the speed at which you detect good and bad edges, but don't time inspection. Try to plan out as much of EO in inspection and try to be efficient. EO shouldn't take any more than 6 moves when done well.

F2L: Get familiar with blocks and <RUL> blockbuilding and aim to be efficient (around 35 moves). When solving, try to pause as little as possible and turn slower than your maximum turning speed, as this will actually result in an overall increase in your TPS.

LL: Learn the algorithms for 3-Look Last Layer which is the intermediate option. There are 7 OCLLs, 2 CPLLs and 4 EPLLs which you have to learn and they're all relatively easy to learn. Make sure that you become familiar with them and learn how to execute them well.

Suggested splits: 7, 28, 10.

Sub 45s

Current time: 45s

Goal time: 30s

General tips: Keep on solving regularly and often. There isn't a big difference between this step and aiming to be sub 1 min; it's just practice.

EOLine: You should be able to see most of EOLine in inspection now, even if it takes over 15 seconds. If you need help with it, you can do a scramble, just solve EOLine, scramble again, just sovle EOLine and repeat. The computer optimal for EOLine is just above 6 moves, so anything 9 or less is a good target at this stage.

F2L: Just work on F2L efficiency and lookahead. There's not a whole lot but improving on what you do to reach this point. Find good algs for cases which take a long time to solve.

LL: Finish PLL, which is 15 more algorithms. Make sure that you are doing the algorithms well and with good fingertricks and that the algorithms are actually good. The ones in External Resources are all very good. You should be able to execute them all under 2 seconds with a bit of practice. Also make sure that you can recognise each case well and that you are confident with what alg goes with each case.

Suggested splits: 5, 20, 5

Sub 30s

Current time: 30s

Goal time: 20s

General tips: At this stage, you'll want to reduce the pauses you have as much as possible to give yourself the best chance at improving. This will be especially the case with EOLine to first pair, then all of the following pair transitions. While you solve one, try to look for the next one as you solve it so that you can jump straight into that. This is called lookahead and will be a key part to getting sub 20.

EOLine: If you can't one look EOLine yet, that should be your top priority. This will allow you to work on the EOLine to F2L transition too, greatly reducing it. As always try to be as efficient as possible and try to turn slightly faster in this step as you should know the whole solution by the time you start solving. Another important thing is to become y axis neutral. This is where you can start with any colour on F that isn't your U/D colour. This unlocks another EO and is very beneficial in the long run, as you can choose the better case. It will take a while to get used to but the effort is worth it.

F2L: As previously mentioned, lookahead is a very important part in becoming sub 20. You should also be averaging less than 30 moves for F2L while maintaining a constant TPS. If you can do that, sub 20 will just be a case of gradually increasing TPS and working on a few other things in other parts of your solve. You will want to find a TPS which strains you, but it is still possible to turn consistently so that you are always pushing your lookahead to the limit. You will also want to begin implementing tricks such as keyhole for edges and corners and a couple of WV algorithms for the easy cases. Also check all of your last slot solutions and switch out any slow ones for faster and more efficient ones.

LL: You will want to learn full COLL minus 4 sune and 4 anti-sune cases. These cases will always give you an EPLL or a solved last layer. For the 8 cases you don't know, or when you get an OLL skip, you will get a PLL. Work on the execution speed, and aim to have all the algorithms you use under 1.5 seconds. This will lead to a more consistent and faster last layer.

Suggested splits: 4, 11.5, 4.5

Sub 20s

Current time: 20s

Goal time: 15s

General tips: Work on lookahead throughout the solve. Make sure that you have good hardware and good fingertricks so that your solve is more fluid. Keep on solving consistently and as often as you can (if you're serious) and check out the advanced page to optimise your solves.

EOLine: At this point you will want to decide between EOCross and EOArrow. There is more about this on the advanced page, but the aim is to be able to plan whichever one you choose in 15 seconds consistently, but don't time inspection unless you have a competition coming up. In any case, work on making them consistent and start tracking your F2L pieces while you do EOCross/EOArrow. This will helpe keep that transition time to a minimum.

F2L: As you've probably switched to either EOCross or EOArrow, your F2L TPS should be higher. Get used to the solving style, but make sure to make the best of every case, so if you have good blocks, do EOLine instead, or maybe an easy EOCross will mean you do EOCross style. Try to implement more tricks into your solves and try to choose the best pair/block mid F2L. Try to abuse the higher TPS that you've unlocked and practice doing more specialised subsets such as <RU> scrambles so that you can work on your turning.

LL: Learn either 2GLL or T or U ZBLL. You don't need to learn them in a week, but make sure that you start learning algs and that you use them every time that they come up in your solves. If you learn 2GLL, anti-2GLL (ZBLL but with a diagonal swap) is the next logical step, while if you learn T, it's U and vice versa. Make sure that you are using good algs from a variety of sources with good fingertricks.

Suggested splits: 3, 9, 3

Sub 15s

Current time:15s

Goal time: 12s

General tips: Lookahead and TPS are a top priority. Again, implement more things from the advanced page, otherwise it's the same as sub 20, just doing it even better.

EOLine/Cross/Arrow: Push your inspection so you can know where your first pair will be after that step. This is definitely something that isn't going to happen every solve and will require a lot of work, but if you manage it, you will be at a great advantage.

F2L: Optimize your last slot solutions for all slots and for slots that aren't last slot. Otherwise, just push lookahead and TPS.

LL: Learn ZBLL as you go along. The final aim is to know all 493 algorithms, so just keep up a pace that you can do consistently.

Suggested splits: 2.5, 6.5, 3

Sub 12s

Current time: 12s

Goal time: 10s

General tips: Do focused practice so that you can accelerate the improvement process. Incorporate however much you deem necessary.

EOLine/Cross/Arrow: Make sure that all solutions are efficient and are mostly 9 moves or less for Arrow and 10 moves or less for Cross. Try out being x2y neutral. This is y axis neutral, but you can have any of the 2 remaining colours on D. It is not as beneficial as being y neutral, but if you ever have a better cross on a different D colour, being able to take advantage of that is advantageous. It also allows for easier XEOArrows or XEOCrosses, doubling the chances that an obvious one pops up.

F2L: Increase the overall TPS and efficiency. Enough said.

LL: Learn more ZBLLs. You'll want to know at least half.

Suggested splits: 1.5, 5.6, 2.9

Sub 10s

Current time: 10s

Goal time: 8s

General tips: At this point, it's all about TPS and lookahead, which ZZ has plenty of potential in. Other than that, there isn't a lot new to this stage apart from the fairly obvious things.

EOLine/Cross/Arrow: Working on TPS for this step and being able to do efficient EOCrosses/Arrows is vital. Also, knowing where first pair will end up after will also help a lot.

F2L: Increase TPS and make sure that all your last slot cases for all 4 slots are speed optimised. Know as many tricks as possible and influence your pairs as you solve them.

LL: Learn full ZBLL. You should be very familiar with learning algs, so just keep on chipping away. Also, try to predict OCLL where possible until you can do it fairly consistently.

Suggested splits: 1.3, 4.1, 2.6

Sub 8 and beyond

Current time: 8s

Goal time: World Class

General tips: You are treading where very few ZZers have ever got to before, so look further afield to see if there's anything else you can optimise on.

EOLine/Cross/Arrow: Make sure that this is optimised. Sub 1.2 seconds is a good aim for this step. Knowing where your first pair will end up every time will help a lot with your transition into F2L.

F2L: Completely fluent with a high tps and efficient. Maximum 8 moves per pair (on average) and use multislotting to help reduce movecount further.

LL: As you probably know full ZBLL, you want to optimise that. Try to predict the COLL case during last slot and, if possible, learn multi angle recognition. You can also learn TTLL, and whenever you have a 3 move TSLE or a skip, just use ZZ-CT instead. This is just one example of option select, which is where you use a different variant depending on the case. Work on option select so that your LSLL times are as low as possible.

Suggested splits: unknown

In short, there are 3 things to work on in ZZ:

• One looking a good EOCross/EOArrow.

• High F2L TPS.

• Good ZBLL skills (recognition and execution).

Good luck with your ZZ journey!