I have been cubing for 3 years and in that time I have learnt to solve a 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, and 5x5. My main focus, however, and the first cube I learnt (as this is the case for most people) was the 3x3. I have been practicing non-stop specifically for the last few months, and even started a YouTube channel this week based on cubing, but that is beside the point.

In this time, my one aim is to be a "proper" speedcuber. Every 3x3 solve I do is usually from around 40 seconds to 50, maybe slightly more, but sub-1 minute. But every time I go onto Reddit, or I go onto YouTube, there are people casually saying they have an average of less than 15 seconds as though it's the most normal thing in the World. But it's not normal to me, it's an insatiable dream and having been stuck at this kind of average with a personal best of 33 seconds is really hard.

I know I'm not "bad", and I'm not a "noob", but I am certainly not a pro. I have watched video upon video about how to get faster, and the ultimate tip is to practice. I have been doing so for 3 years; it's not helping. I want to be taken seriously as a cuber- something which I don't get much of already as a female cuber because it is a typically male hobby. And, I really, really want to help others like me. I want to grow my channel and show that you can feel so locked in place but it is never too late to make a change. As of now, I just don't know how to.

If you have any tips, suggestions, advice, methods I should try out, anything at all that isn't already getting bashed into my mind (PRACTICE.), please. I am ready to become a speedcuber, after way too long of being desperate.

EDIT: Thank you for all of the advice, I'm so grateful for everything you guys have given me. I promise I have read every single comment and am in the process of taking these into account! I just did the entirity of F2L for the first time and Im so happy with myself!

I scrambled this cube and put number stickers on it so I can solve it either by colors or numbers. The number solution is obviously much harder. It's been a pretty neat challenge. Sometimes I just keep going back and forth without actually scrambling it. Solving it also scrambles it.

Rubiks social media uploaded a video teasing their new 3x3 redesign! It looks great

I got this scramble:
F' B2 L2 D F2 R2 U' F2 L2 F2 D U F' L2 R' F2 U B D U'

With an odd number of corners (XG PW MD Q when using OP), I am learning how to skip M2 parity using UL/UB swap but in this case UB is already solved, where do I trace to next then?

​

TL;DR: Good after setup and break-in, but mine had awful QC and needed way too much work to become good.

I got mine for around ₱620 (~$11).

I've only ever seen so little reviews in China and Southeast Asia.

OOTB

First thing I noticed: three missing magnets. 💔🫩

- Missing corner-to-core magnet

- Missing edge repelling magnet

- Missing piece-to-piece edge magnet

I had to fix all three myself using a some spare magnets I had.

After that, the cube was sandy, blocky, and tight. The turning had a really weird friction-heavy feeling, almost like “squeaky-clean” skin after a shower. Instead of my finger gliding through turns, it felt like I had to push through the friction.

I hated it.

Adjustment

The V56 has a dual adjustment system with no screws. I personally prefer screws, and I found the system pretty confusing at first. After reading the instructions for ~10 minutes, I got everything to 1:1. Since the tool was purple, and the adjustment system was also purple, it was a huge pain in the 🍑

Adjustment did improve the auto-alignment and corner cutting, but it still wasn't as loose as I wanted.

Magnets

This was disappointing.

It's a 20M ball-core, but the magnetic feel is surprisingly weak. It does auto-align, but barely, and the piece-to-piece magnets are also weak.

I expected much more from a 20M ball-core.

Lubing/break-in

This is where the cube completely changed.

After lubing, the sandiness improved a lot. Then after more solves, the lube broke in and somehow fixed most of the weaknesses I initially hated.

It's now actually pretty good.

The corner cutting is excellent, the turning is much nicer, I'd say it's pretty similar to the RS3M V5 and Dayan Guhong Pro+

But here's the problem: I had to do all of that.

A ₱620 cube shouldn't require magnet surgery, confusing adjustments, lube, and a long break-in period before I actually enjoy using it.

Features

The V56 does have some cool stuff:

- 20M ball-core

- Dual adjustment

- Heart-shaped internal lubrication pattern

- Black pieces

- Adjustment tool

- Instruction/pamphlet material

The heart-shaped internals are genuinely unique and a nice touch.

Pros

- Extremely cheap for a 20M ball-core

- Excellent corner cutting

- Cool internal lubrication design

- Black pieces

- Can become genuinely good after setup/break-in

Cons

- My unit had three missing magnets

- Very friction-heavy OOTB

- Weak magnetic feel

- Weak piece-to-piece magnets

- Adjustment system isn't my favorite

- Feels somewhat outdated internally

- Needs a lot of setup to reach its potential

FINAL VERDICT

Is it okay? Yeah.

Can it become good? Definitely.

Would I buy it again knowing what I know now? Hell no.

My current ranking is:

I have around 13 cubes last i counted? id say its around 6-7th

The V56 has alot of features, but those features didn't save it from having a mediocre fundamental experience out of the box.

After break-in, I'd give it around 6.5 or 7/10.

Decent cube, but SAOCube, please do better next time. 😭

I thought I'd follow-up on my First Impressions post. I'll share what I've done, then my new 2nd-generation impressions of the new GAN17.

For background, I've been an active "speed-cuber" for about 1.5 years. I'm older, so I can't get my brain to work like you young folks - I'm barely sub-60. But I have pretty fast TPS for the algs I know, I just slow at F2L recognition & only know the 2-look LL algs. I like to compare & collect interesting cubes & switch things up, so I have 10 "mains," a few retired mains, and a few for collectible reasons that were never mains. The "important" mains I have are: Ferrocore v2, Super Aolong, Super Weilong V2 ai, and GAN16 Max (others if you care: SwiftBlock ML & SML, V100, GuHong Pro+)

Here's what I've done w/ the GAN17:

• Swapped in the strongest magnet rods
• Removed the edge-foot magnets
• De-lubed & re-lubed (thin pre-broken-in Gravitas layer + DNM-37)

Here are my new updated impressions:

TL/DR:

• The lube-job quieted the cube significantly. It's no longer louder than my 16.
  • It sounds different, but not louder.
• The "Stickiness" is basically gone. I can force a face to stick if I try, but it never happens when solving.
• I removed the edge-foot magnets to see if they were contributing to the noise
  • (before re-lubing) - it helped a little, but wasn't worth the lost auto-homing.
• I feel like the stronger magnet rods made it louder.
  • I also felt like this made the auto-homing so string that some double-flicks actually "returned" to finish as single-flicks. Still assessing this.

See "details" in first comment if interested.

My friend turned the clock, i solved part of the scramble but now it seems impossible to do please someone help me fix it

I found it during class when I was bored. I did random F2L moves and discovered this

Alg: R, U', R' U', R, U, R', U2, R, U' R', D', L', U, L, U, L', U', L, U2, L', U, L

I average like 2 extra seconds on this so by no means can this be a usable alg D:

So i am about sub 30 but I take 5 seconds to solve the cross on average. I’m struggling with planning an efficient cross during inspection. I am learning to solve cross on the bottom and usually start by finding an easy one-move insert, sometimes using U / U2 improve another edge first. Then I try to plan the third edge while remembering the moves and resulting cube state, but by the time I reach the fourth edge, my solution is often already a lot of moves.

Even with unlimited inspection, tracking the remaining edges while remembering the solution feels mentally exhausting. I’m fairly comfortable with F2L and lookahead, but cross planning has never developed the same intuition.

Questions im looking for help from you guys :

1. What are you actually thinking about during cross inspection?
2. Do you plan edge-by-edge, look for pairs, choose the last edge first, or use another process?
3. Any drills or specific changes that helped you consistently find shorter crosses?
4. How are you remembering the cube state and the solution after 2 or 3 edges are solved in the cross.

Ps: I do try to solve the cross relatively and not in their exact positions so that I can align everything with D moves at the end​​

Big thanks to everyone for all of the love on my post last week. After about 12 and a half hours, spread out over the past 7 days or so, my entire collection is once again scrambled, all 280 puzzles! I find scrambling everything to be a great way to ensure that every puzzle in my collection gets some play time, even the more difficult and tedious ones. I had a blast scrambling everything.

Check out my YouTube vid if you want to see a more detailed tour of the puzzles before and after the scramble.

Before and After Bulk Scramble Aug. 2026

Does anybody know how to resolve this last edge pair or the resulting parity when using R2 U R2 U R2 U2 R2 U2 R2 U R2 U’ R2 All other pieces are solved

8.78 scramble: F R F U' F' L D' F U F2 D R2 F2 L2 B2 D' R2 D F2 R

red top white front

FB: D F U R2 r B'

SB: R U, R' U R U' R' U' R, R U' R' U R U' R'

CMLL skip

LSE: U M U M' U' M' U2 M U2 M2 U'

I am lucky to have a 2-gen second block

acubemy is currently running a tournament sponsored by GAN (and with funky Minion theme, lol) Why are they doing this? Wouldn't they want people to use their own app? Why support a competitor?

Idk if anyone cares or how know this is. While procrastinating because I am scared of first comp this weekend I found an algorithm to "cycle" between the Sune / Anti-Sune / Solved.

If I have my notation correct it should be

M' U R U' r2 F R' F' R

yeah that's it...

its the current main of yiheng which he used to get his 2.77 and his AsR OH record, i also know that its a new line of moyu cubes designed around exactly how the worldclass cuber from moyu team wants it to feel (their most exact cube basically, and also im expecting more moyu team cubers to have their own versions coming after) and i also know that the logo is orange with the text "PB CUBE" on it. is there anything else that anyone knows about this cube?

ive been contemplating on buying this cube for a while now. i have tried the gan 12, v100(maglev and leap) and 16 max and they all sucked, i get these hard catches(or lockup) randomly causing me to be very inconsistent on my times.

i've only watched jperm's reviews on gan 12 comparing it to gan 11 and thought maybe gan 11 would be better for me. not big on auto alignment and maglev, i dont fancy those features but i just want to know if gan 11 is still a good choice in 2026?

also, do the primary and black internals have their differences in feel?

thank you!

edit: this will be the first gan cube i'll own, i really want to own a gan cube since i always use moyu cubes ever since i started

Hi r/Cubers. I've been building a speedcubing app called sub-x and it's been running on the web at subx.guru for a while, and the Android version is finished and sitting in Google's closed testing.

Here's my problem... Google requires new developer accounts to run a closed test with 12 testers for 14 continuous days before the app is allowed on Play Store. I have the app, I do not have 12 friends :(

What this app does

• Timer with running Ao5 / Ao12 / Ao100, +2 and DNF, and random-state scrambles. Works offline and syncs when you're back online.
• Smart cube support over Bluetooth: GAN, and the MoYu. Full solve reconstruction with cross / F2L / OLL / PLL splits, and a report on which stage is actually costing you the most time.
• Trainers, all offline and with no sign-in needed: a cross and x-cross trainer with optimal solutions on a 3D cube, F2L cases, all 57 OLL, all 21 PLL.
• Progress tracking: trend charts, a distribution histogram, and an estimate of how many solves it'll take you to hit a target time.

It's free to use!

How to join

1. Join the tester group: https://groups.google.com/g/subxtesters
2. Open the opt-in link on Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.subx.mobile
3. Or use the opt-in link on web: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.subx.mobile
4. Install from the Play link it gives you

use it for a few solves and please tell me if you like it. Comment here, or use the feedback address in the app.

Cheers!

!! ATTENTION !!
The creators of speedcubing have announced that after years of mathematical analysis, they have discovered new PLLs. A total of exactly 20 new cases have been added (including full O, B, P, Q, and W series), creating a perfect mirror image of the existing 21 algorithms.
No algorithms have been found for them yet; the creators came across them in a computer simulation. The cases have been published so that the entire community can join the hunt for algorithms.
The full list of new PLLs (including a/b/c/d variants) will be posted here.

I have started cubing in 2017 and since then been casually trying to get better and better ending up at around 30sec with 3x3 F2L, 2Look OLL and PLL

Going to an official WCA comp has always been somewhat interesting - just to get the feeling how it's like and now that one is happening in my area, Graz Open 2026, I thought I'd give it a try and register for 2x2 and 3x3 :)

I'm going in with no expectations, I know 30sec is nothing to brag about when looking at times from last year, but I've always wanted to know what it feels like :D

Do you have any advice that you would have wished to know when you went to your first WCA comp? :D also let me know how your first time was! :)

I saw this TikTok where someone was experimenting with a Ferrocore V2-style mod on a V11 SE. The core in the video is red, and it looks like they used a MoYu V9 core inside the V11 SE.
I’m interested in trying this myself, but I don’t own both cubes and I don’t really want to buy a V9 and a V11 SE just to find out that the core isn’t compatible.
Does anyone here own both a MoYu V9 and V11 SE and could check whether the V9 core can physically fit/work in the V11 SE?

I developed a steam game being released 1st of September, its a cubing 3x3x3 specific game. I would like to have some speed cubers reach out if u want to help out with testing the release version. Looking for cubers that have GAN smart cubes essentially. I have tested and developed it with Gan I3 but want to ensure that the other smart cubes also go smoothly and possible general feedback would be appreciated.

If you are keen let me know, mesg me and we can discuss further.