Learn · the Pyraminx · getting fast
Where Pyraminx time actually goes
The world's best finish this puzzle in under two seconds, and they do it by thinking before the clock starts rather than by knowing more algorithms. There is very little left to learn.
Competition rules give fifteen seconds of inspection before the timer starts. On a 3×3 that is enough to plan the first stage. On a Pyraminx it is enough to plan the entire solve, and that is what separates a ten-second solver from a three-second one. The hands are barely the point.
The method the fast solvers use, called L4E, reorganises the work rather than adding to it: solve one whole face first, including its corners and the three edges around it, then finish the last four edges in one look. The number of distinct last-four-edge cases is small enough to learn in a week, and unlike a cube's last layer you can often see the whole thing coming during inspection.
Why so little is needed, counted rather than asserted: of the 933,120 positions this puzzle can reach with its tips ignored, 6.8% are solvable in six turns or fewer, and the very worst needs 11. A scramble simply cannot bury the solution deeply, which is why planning beats memorising here and why the event rewards calm eyes over fast fingers.
The practical drill is the same as the cube's: use the inspection habit, and time yourself honestly with the timer. Then watch what your own numbers say about which stage is costing you.
The figures on this page are re-derived at build time by sweeping every position the puzzle can reach, and the algorithm is checked by simulation: it must cycle three edges and return every corner untouched.