Beginner CFOP — cubewithali

Stage 1

Cross

The cross is the same 4 white edges you already build in the beginner's method — but in CFOP it's done with two upgrades: it's solved on the bottom instead of the top (so it's out of the way for F2L), and it's planned in your head before you touch the cube, not piece by piece.

Solve on the bottom. Hold white on the bottom from the start and build the cross there directly, rather than building a daisy on top and flipping pieces down.
Plan all 4 edges before moving. Look at the scramble, find all 4 white edges, and work out the moves for all of them in your head — ideally during the inspection time before you start the clock. This is called "cross planning" and it's the single biggest thing that separates a fast solver from a beginner at this stage.
Keep it efficient. Look for moves that place more than one cross edge at once, and avoid twisting the same face back and forth. A good cross takes 6-8 moves for all 4 edges, not 15-20.

How to practice: scramble the cube, then spend a few seconds just looking at it (without turning) and try to say out loud the moves you'd make to solve the cross. Then actually do it. This "look before you turn" habit is what inspection time is for in real CFOP solving.

Stage 2

F2L — First Two Layers

This is the stage that makes CFOP fast. Instead of finishing the white layer then separately inserting second-layer edges (like the beginner's method does), F2L solves both layers at the same time, one corner-edge pair at a time.

Every non-yellow corner has a matching non-yellow edge that shares one of its colors — together they're called an F2L pair. There are 4 pairs total. For each one:

Find a white corner and its matching edge (no yellow on either piece).
Bring them both up into the top layer, and manipulate them so the edge tucks underneath the corner, forming a matched "pair" shape with the corner's white sticker facing up.
Line the pair up above its empty slot, then insert both pieces into that slot together in one smooth motion.

There's no fixed algorithm list for this — F2L is meant to be learned intuitively, by understanding how the pieces move relative to each other, not by memorizing a case for every configuration (that comes later, once you're faster). Expect this to feel slow and awkward at first; that's completely normal and it's the stage every CFOP solver spends the most time improving.

A good way to start: practice with just one pair at a time, undisturbed, before trying to solve all 4. Scramble only a corner and its edge into the top layer (keep the rest of the cube solved) and practice pairing and inserting them repeatedly until it feels natural.

Stage 3

2-Look OLL

Full OLL (orienting the last layer so it's all one color on top) has 57 cases — too many to start with. 2-look OLL splits the job into two easier steps using algorithms you may already know:

Look 1 — orient the edges. This is the exact same "yellow cross" step from the beginner's method (Dot / Line / Hook, all solved with F R U R' U' F'). If you've already learned that step, you're done with Look 1.

Look 2 — orient the corners. Once the cross is formed, the 4 corners fall into exactly 7 possible patterns. Recognize the pattern and run its algorithm:

These are also cases 21-27 in the full OLL reference, if you ever want to see them alongside all 57.

Stage 4

2-Look PLL

Full PLL (permuting the last layer into its final position) has 21 cases. 2-look PLL reduces that to just 6 algorithms by splitting the job in two:

Look 1 — fix the corners. Ignore the edges completely. Look around the top layer for headlights — a side where the two corner stickers match in color.

If you have 1 headlight (one side with matching corners): Hold that headlight on the left side and perform the T perm below. Your corners will now be solved.
If you have 0 headlights (no side with matching corners): Hold the cube from any angle and perform the Y perm below. This will give you exactly 1 headlight. Then rotate the cube so that headlight is on your left and perform the T perm to finish the corners.
If all 4 corners are already correct (every side has headlights), skip straight to Look 2.

T permR U R' U' R' F R2 U' R' U' R U R' F'

Y permF R U' R' U' R U R' F' R U R' U' R' F R F'

Look 2 — fix the edges. Corners are now solved. Check the 4 edges and run whichever matches:

Ua permR U' R U R U R U' R' U' R2

Ub permR2 U R U R' U' R' U' R' U R'

H permM2 U M2 U2 M2 U M2

Z permM' U M2 U M2 U M' U2 M2

These 6 solve every one of the 21 PLL cases when combined this way. The full PLL reference has all 21 as single algorithms, for whenever you're ready to upgrade to 1-look PLL.