The Roux Method

The Steps in Roux:

Step 1 - Build a 1x2x3 Block on the left side of the cube
Step 2 - Build another 1x2x3 on the right side of the cube
Step 3 - Permute and Orient the U layer Corners
Step 4 - L6E or last 6 edges of the M-Slice needs to be solved this is divided
into 3 sub-steps.

- a) Orientation
- b) Permutation of UL and UR
- c) Permutation of the Rest

Step One - The First Block

The first step is creating a 1x2x3 block. Generally this step should take
between than 9-12 moves in real speedsolves. The Fridrich users can
consider to place the BL edge as one would do in the first step, while
building the cross, and then insert the corner and the other edges. A good
compromise is to insert directly corner-edge pairs. When you have done
some solves try to use M layer to hide edges, position the corner you want
to insert on the top layer and then compose the corner edge pair. Then
insert. You can also use F' and B moves to insert pairs since you don't have
to care about nothing else than your left 1x2x3 block.
The color scheme used in this pdf is: yellow on top, white on bottom, green
on left, blue on right, orange facing to you and red on the back side of the
cube.
 Step Two - The Second Block

The second step is creating the 1x2x3 block on the right side. In the
diagrams above the second block is shown as red and the orange is the first
block.
When building this block, the frst block restricts you from using certain
moves. Usually, the moves that are used are <r, R, M>.
The Roux user can consider to put the Bottom edge in place and then insert
the two pairs. In some cases you can conveniently use B' and F moves to
insert pairs but you have to make L' or L to avoid to break the left block.

Step 3 - The Upper Layer Corners

In this step, you want to orient and permute the U-layer Corners (shown in
purple). Roux Method uses a set of algorithms called CMLL which will orient
and permute the U layer corners in one algorithm. If you are approaching
this method for the first time you can use some of the CFOP algs and use a 2
look approach following the table below. Remember that one of the
advantages using Roux is the opportunity to avoid cube rotations. It is
preferible to switch soon to CMLL and use the better algs and avoid cube
rotations.
Step three - First look - Orientation
Picture of case. Names of the Case. Alg for that case. Initial Orientation follows the
Roux Table. The Blue Letters correspond the orientation on Roux table. On the right
columns you can find the similar cases in CFOP and the respective algs.
Picture Roux name Picture CFOP SIMILAR

Anti-Sune / B same as CFOP "Anti sune"

R' U' R U' R' U2 R

Sune / C same as CFOP "Sune"

R U R' U R U2' R'

L / Bowtie / D F' (r U R' U')(r' F R)

R U2 R' U' RUR'U'
RUR'U' R U' R'

U / Headlights / E
R2 [D (R' U2) R] [D' (R' U2) R']
F RUR'U' F'

T / Blinker / F
(r U R' U') (r' F R F')

RUR'U' R' F R F'

Pi / Dead Guy / Bruno / [f (R U R' U') f'] [F (R U R' U') F']

G
or
F RUR'U' RUR'U' F' R U2' R2' U' R2 U' R2' U2 R

H / Double HeadLights / same as CFOP "Car"

H
F RUR'U' RUR'U'
RUR'U' F'
Step three - Second look - Permutation

Two cases can be distinguished: the one with headlights and the one
without.

J-Perm / A2 – R U R' F' RUR'U' R' F R2 U' R'

Y-Perm/A6 - F R U' R' U' R U R' F' RUR'U' R' F R F'

If you are a Fridrich user you already know algs to solve these cases. You can
use for example

E-Perm - x' [( R U' R' ) D ( R U R' ) D' ( R U R' ) D ( R U' R' ) D' ]

CW Corner 3-Cycle - x [( R' U R' ) D2 ( R U' R' ) D2] R2

Step four - The Last Six Edges (LSE)
This step is where you solve the last 6 edges (L6E) of the cube. This step can
be divided into 3 sub-steps.
These are
1. Orientation - Where you orient the Last 6 Edges.
2. Permutation of UL and UR Pieces - This Step Solves the L and R layer
leaving only the M layer unsolved.
3. Permutation of the Rest - Finishing of the Rest of the Cube

Remember that you can only have 2, 4 or 6 bad edges to orient.

orientation

All cases can be reduced to this situation:

from this you want to cycle edges to get:

by using M' U M

to solve, bring the bad piece towards the arrow, turn the top layer in any
direction and then turn the middle layer in any direction.
If you want, you can learn all 9 cases from the table below. They are not
hard to memorize.
 Cases for Edge orientation

2 edges on bottom 4 edges on top

M' U M' U' M U M' M U2 M' U2 M' U M'

2 edges on top 2 on top 2 on bottom – “Plus”

M' U M' M' U M' U M' U M'
or M' U2 M' U2 M U M'
R U R' U' M' U R U' Rw'

2 edges diagonal 2 on top 2 on bottom – “1”

M' U M' U M U M' M2 U' M' U M'

2 edges inverse diagonal 3 on top 1 on bottom – “Arrow”

M U M U M' U M M' U M'

2 edges - “L” inverse “Arrow”

M' U M' U2 M' U M' MUM

or
U2 Rw U R' U M U'
R U' R'
6 edges

M' U M' U2 M U M U
M' U M'
 Step 4b - UL/UR Permutation
This step is where you solve UL and UR edges. You should do using intuition. If you want to solve by
algs below you can find some cases. At this point you have headlights on each of the four sides of
the top layer. What you want is to have green headlights facing to you, blue edge on DF and green
edge on DB. Or, alternatively blue headlights with blue on DF and green on DB. All you have to do
to solve the UL/UR is M2. In the images below purple stickers can be either blue or green, The
adjust UL move is required to position on front the headlights of the opposite colour respect the
edge on DF.
General Rules for UL and UR Permutation.
1) To preserve the EO, you can do M2 moves and U moves to permute stuf into place
2) It's okay to just use an M' or M move as long as you follow up with a U2 and another M' or M

Diag

M' U2 M adjust UL M2

Diag inverse

M' U2 M' adjust UL M2

Front

U2 M' U2 M' adjust UL M2

M2 U' M' U2 M adjust UL M2

Opposite

M2 adjust UL M2
 Step Five - Permutation of the Rest
As a general rule remember that, in this step you can perform only double turn on the U layer
I use U, I, M and K to names these cases because the morse code letter U, I, M and K are
respectively dot dot line, dot dot, line line and line dot line. Works just for me.

-U-
U2 M2 U2 M2

-I-

E2 M' E2 M

-M-

U2 M' U2 M'

-K-
U2 M U2 M

thanks to Wafo - http://wafelikescubes.webs.com/