Introduction
The Roux method is an alternative to CFOP, that focuses on efficiency, lower move count, and forgives slower turning. Here is a full overview of the method.
You can learn the Roux method from any tutorial on YouTube. This blog goes in-depth into how and what you need to improve if you have just learned the Roux method.
Colour neutrality
In order to take advantage of more premade pairs, it is important to become x2/y colour neutral.
This means you need to be able to solve with either white or yellow facing down and either blue/green or red/orange on the sides. This lets you take advantage of all sorts of pairs on the cube.
You can become fully colour neutral too, but that is a difficult task as being full colour neutral on roux is much harder when compared to CFOP. It will also increase your workload throughout the solve as knowing your colour scheme and L/R edges are also important.
Freedom while solving
While using the Roux method, it is important to know that you are using the Roux method.
Yes, you read that right. What I mean is that there aren’t as many restrictions during the first block and second block as there are in F2L, and you need to be aware of that.
A lot of tips below in this blog will expand on this concept.
Making full squares
During the first pair, you don’t necessarily need to put an edge in the bottom layer, and only then attach a pair to it. You can be creative and attach corners to edges to create squares, which essentially becomes your first pair. Here is an example of this.
D' L2 B2 U2 F2 U L2 D2 F2 R2 U B2 R' B2 D' F' L2 R' B' D' B 
Now do a y rotation on your cube. If you don’t know the notation, just put red in front and white on top. We will be solving the yellow-orange-green pair as our first pair. Here you can see that by doing U2 L’ U, I am able to form a square and then do an L2 to solve it to the bottom layer.
Roux is all about efficiency, so it is important to be well versed with tricks like this. You must practise this kind of thought process while solving first block by doing lots of slow and untimed solves where you take your time and come up with good solutions.
Keyhole for edge and corner inserts
During the first block, keyhole edge and corner inserts are much easier and shorter on Roux as compared to CFOP.
Here is an example of its usefulness.
B2 D2 L2 F L2 F2 U2 B L2 R2 F' R D L' U' L2 F2 D B L' B’ R D2
Here you can see that in order to solve the yellow-orange-green pair as your first pair, you can do keyhole. If you were to use some CFOP logic, you would probably do a D to offset the bottom layer, then U2 R U’ R’ to insert the corner, and D’ to solve the pair to its spot.
However, while using Roux, you can just do D U R’ D’ to solve the corner. Here you can see that we saved some moves by simply inserting the corner with U R’.
This trick is also extremely helpful when the bottom coloured corner sticker is facing up. Normally in CFOP, if you were to solve a situation like that with keyhole, you would have to first orient the corner and then insert it, which can take up a lot of moves. However with Roux, you only need to do an R2 to solve the corner.
An example would be doing the exact same scramble as above and adding U R at the end.
Now, you can solve the yellow-orange-green pair by doing D to offset the bottom layer, R2 to solve the corner, followed by D’ to reset the bottom layer.
Use wide moves
Wide moves like Rw and Lw are very helpful in Roux. When solving the second block, instead of using a hedgeslammer (F R’ F’ R) for the front pair, you can do Rw U Rw’. You can also solve pairs in the back using Rw’ U’ Rw.
Wide moves are also very helpful in orienting your DF edge for the second block. If the white sticker of your edge is facing you in the UF slot, you can do Rw to now make it face up and do U R2 to solve the edge into its spot. By extending this concept, you can use M moves to orient your edges for second block as well.
There is one more specific situation where you can use wide moves. It is when you are solving your last pair in the front using R U’ R’, and your next move has to be an M move to orient your centres (ie put a yellow or white center on top). In this case, instead of the final R’, you should do Rw’ instead. So your last pair would be solved using R U’ Rw’ and you directly get your centres oriented. The same logic applies to R U R’ inserts and back pair inserts.
Learn all EO cases
If you really want to get good with Roux, you should know the best way to solve every EO case.
Learn full CMLL
The algorithms for CMLL are much easier than for a similar set on CFOP, which would be COLL, because once again, you have a lot more freedom in Roux. Learning CMLL helps you get familiar with all the 42 Corner Permutations of the top layer, which is a very important skill. The experience you gain by learning how to recognize corner permutations will also help you a lot in other events like 2x2 where CP recognition is very important for advanced subsets like CLL and EG. It will also give you an easier time learning ZBLL algorithms for CFOP.
For both the above points, I would recommend learning the algorithms from speedcubedb.com They have a variety of algorithms for each case, and you can choose the one you like best or think is the fastest.
Hardware
Unlike CFOP, where most of the turning is R U F moves, Roux has you doing all kinds of different turns throughout your solve. You will be doing lots of L moves, wide moves and M moves frequently. For this, you need good and reliable hardware, with a moderate magnet strength that is not too light and not too strong.
Most Roux solvers love MoYu cubes for these reasons. They would recommend the Moyu RS3M v5 (Ball-core UV) or the Weilong v10 (Spring Ball Core).
Some other options are the Tornado v3 or v4 Flagship editions. Some Roux users also use Gan cubes but the magnet strength can be a hit or miss.
If you are more of a beginner, looking for a budget-friendly cube, the Drift 3M plus v2 is a great option.
Explore
Roux is a rare method. Therefore you have to extract every bit of information you can find on tips and tricks. Kian Mansour had played a great hand in the development of Roux by creating a playlist full of tips that you can find on YouTube. You can check out his recent example solve videos for both OH and 2H solving too. You can also use J Perm’s short and concise videos to improve.
Going forward, you will find advanced algorithm sets and subsets on your journey like EOLR and EOLR 4b, among a myriad of things. I will leave that up to you and say goodbye for now. Hope this blog helped!
