What Is the Roux Method? Solve a 3x3 Cube in 4 Steps

What is Roux?

The method is named after Gilles Roux, a French cuber. According to the SpeedSolving Wiki, he published it in 2003 (SpeedSolving Wiki).

Roux has four steps:

1. First block: a 1x2x3 block on the left.
2. Second block: a 1x2x3 block on the right, without breaking the first one.
3. CMLL: the four corners of the top layer.
4. LSE: the last six edges, using only M and U.

You work out the first two steps by thinking, with nothing to memorise. Wikipedia notes that only the CMLL step relies on ready-made algorithms, so Roux needs fewer algorithms than CFOP (Wikipedia).

How to read the pictures

• Yellow on top, white on the bottom, green at the front. The left face is red and the right face is orange. This is also how you hold the cube in EasyRubic's Roux guide.
• Each picture shows two cubes: the left one is before the moves, the right one is after.
• Pieces you do not need to care about in that step are coloured grey.

Every move sequence in this post has been tested on EasyRubic's Rubik's Cube simulator. If R, U and R' are new to you, see Rubik's Cube notation for beginners.

The M move: the most important turn in Roux

M turns the middle slice, the one between the left and right faces, in the same direction as L: the front goes down. M' is the opposite direction, and M2 is a half turn.

In the picture below, the four edges of the middle slice are one turn out of place, and a single M puts them back.

1. You start with (input)
3. After the formula

Roux uses M a lot, especially in the last step. Practise M and M' until you can do them without looking at your hands.

Step 1: The first block

The first block is the bottom two layers of the left face: one red centre, two corners and three edges, making a 1x2x3 block.

Good Roux solvers usually pair a corner with an edge, then put the whole pair in at once. Beginners can place one piece at a time, just like steps 2 and 3 of the beginner's method.

In the picture below, the last corner and edge of the block are in the top layer, and go into the front-left slot:

U' L' U L

The back-left slot works the same way, just in the other direction:

U L U' L'

There is no fixed algorithm for this step. Every scramble is a new puzzle, so this is the part that needs the most practice. The SpeedSolving Wiki also points out that building blocks can be hard for beginners (SpeedSolving Wiki).

Step 2: The second block

The second block sits on the right and is orange. The big difference: you must not break the first block, so you mostly use only R, U and M. None of these moves touch the left face.

Here is the last pair going into the front-right slot, using only R and U:

R U R' U' R U R'

1. You start with (input)
3. After the formula

And here is the last pair going into the back-right slot:

U' R' U R

After step 2 you have a block on each side and an empty channel in the middle. It is normal for the top layer and the middle slice to still be mixed up. According to the SpeedSolving Wiki, after the first block most of the solve uses only R, M and U, so you hardly ever need to turn the whole cube (SpeedSolving Wiki).

Step 3: CMLL, the four top corners

CMLL solves the four corners of the top layer without caring about the edges. The one-look version has 42 algorithms (SpeedSolving Wiki). Beginners do not need all of them: doing it in two looks is enough.

First look: yellow stickers on top

Use the Sune algorithm, the same one from the yellow face step of the beginner's method. It keeps both blocks in place:

R U R' U R U2 R'

If the corners still do not all have yellow on top after one go, turn U and do it again.

Second look: swapping corners

Look for two corners side by side that share the same colour on one side face. If you find a pair like that, put it on the left and do the algorithm below to swap the two right-hand corners:

R U R' U' R' F R2 U' R' U' R U R' F'

If there is no such pair, two diagonal corners need to swap:

F R U' R' U' R U R' F' R U R' U' R' F R F'

These two algorithms also mix up the top-layer edges. That is fine: step 4 solves them again.

Step 4: LSE, the last six edges

Exactly six edges are left: four in the middle slice and two at the top left and top right. According to the SpeedSolving Wiki, this whole step uses only M and U (SpeedSolving Wiki). The usual way splits it into three smaller parts.

4a. Flipping the edges

An edge is oriented when its yellow or white sticker is on the top or bottom face. An edge with its yellow or white sticker on a side face is misoriented. The number of misoriented edges is always even.

The picture below has four misoriented edges. Three moves are enough:

M' U M

1. You start with (input)
3. After the formula

Don't worry that the top layer in the "before" picture is one U turn off: during LSE you only need to turn U to line it up at the end.

4b. The left and right edges

Bring the yellow-red edge above the red block and the yellow-orange edge above the orange block. In the picture below, the yellow-red edge is at the bottom front.

U M2 U'

1. You start with (input)
3. After the formula

In the "before" picture, the top centre is white. M2 flips it back to yellow, so don't worry if the centre shows the wrong colour during this step.

4c. The four middle-slice edges

Finally, only the four edges of the middle slice are left. If three of them need to cycle and the front-bottom edge is already in place:

M U2 M' U2

1. You start with (input)
3. After the formula

If the two top edges need to swap with each other and the two bottom ones do too:

M2 U2 M2 U2

1. You start with (input)
3. After the formula

Once this is done, the cube is solved. Step 4 needs very little memorising: the SpeedSolving Wiki calls this way of solving it completely intuitive (SpeedSolving Wiki).

What is good and what is hard about Roux?

Good points:

• Fewer moves. The SpeedSolving Wiki estimates about 48 moves for a speedsolve. Wikipedia gives 45 to 50 moves for experienced solvers, fewer than the 55 to 60 moves of CFOP (SpeedSolving Wiki, Wikipedia).
• Fewer algorithms. Only CMLL needs algorithms; the two blocks and LSE are done by thinking.
• Hardly any whole-cube turns, so your eyes can easily track the next piece while your hands are turning (Wikipedia).

Hard parts:

• Building blocks takes time to get used to, because there is no algorithm to lean on.
• M moves are hard to turn fast. Wikipedia notes that M moves are almost always finger flicks, which makes high turning speed hard to reach, though practice gets you there (Wikipedia).
• Hard to use on big cubes. The SpeedSolving Wiki notes that the middle slices get harder to turn on 6x6 and 7x7 cubes (SpeedSolving Wiki).

Where do I start with the Roux method?

1. First, be able to solve the cube with the beginner's method. You need to know how the pieces move. If you cannot solve it yet, start with the 7-step guide.
2. Practise M moves until you can do them without looking.
3. Follow [EasyRubic's Roux guide](/vi/lessons/roux/1). It has 7 steps, every case has a before and after picture, and it uses the same way of holding the cube as this post.
4. Practise the first block a lot. Scramble the cube, do only the first block, then scramble again. Once you are quick, try planning the whole block while you inspect the cube.
5. Add CMLL algorithms bit by bit, a few each week, in place of the two-look version.

To compare Roux with other methods, see Rubik's Cube solving methods or What is CFOP?.

Video

Want to see it in motion? The short video below from the Việt Roux channel on YouTube adds to what this post covers. The video belongs to that channel and is embedded directly from YouTube.

Sources

• Roux method (SpeedSolving.com Wiki)
• CMLL (SpeedSolving.com Wiki)
• LSE (SpeedSolving.com Wiki)
• Speedcubing – Wikipedia