How To Get Faster at 2x2 (2025)
Want to get faster at 2x2 in 2025?
We asked Luke Burns (0.70 single & 1.22 average) some questions to see what advice he would offer cubers in certain brackets/time frames. Luke is one of the fastest 2x2 solvers In the UK and also provides 2x2 coaching for those wanting to seriously improve.
In this guide, we will break down Lukes advice into time brackets starting at 20-30seconds and working our way down to 3- 5 second solvers and how everybody can improve.
30 Second+ Solvers:
Q: What’s the biggest mistake you see new solvers make when learning 2x2?
A: Wasting a lot of moves starting to build the first layer is a huge mistake which will cost at least 5 seconds per solve. Instead of purely using R U R' U' to solve a corner, see if you can build up a pair of solved corners in 1 move.
Q: At this stage, should people worry about algorithms or just focus on intuition and layer-by-layer?
A: If you want to, you can learn OLL (6 short algorithms) and pll (2 algorithms) but the beginners method is most likely enough to get you to around 20 seconds.
Q: Any drills or habits that really help build recognition and confidence early on?
A: To work on first layer efficiency, search up some CLL walkthrough solves on YouTube where they go through making the first layer. From there, you can figure out how doing 1 move will affect building the rest of the layer.
10-30 Second Solvers:
Q: What’s the key focus for cubers in this range?
A: Yet again, layer efficiency is a large factor separating 10 second solvers from 5-6 second solvers. It also becomes more important to replace beginners method with OLL and PLL (8 algorithms in total).
Q:
Is it worth learning full Ortega here, or should they master the basics first?
A: Ortega isn't really needed for this speed, and to be honest, Layer-by-Layer (OLL and PLL) can be used to get sub-5 times very consistently. Sorting out the first layer is something I cannot stress enough.
Q: Are there any bad habits in this range do you think?
A: Not learning the proper finger tricks when learning new algorithms is something I see a lot. I urge people to watch videos when learning algorithms to see how they should be executed.