Blind Accessible Rubik's Cube Tutorial
Beginner's Method
Table of Contents
- Start Tutorial
- The Cube 101
- Cube Notation
- Daisy
- Transfer Daisy to Cross
- First Layer Corners
- Middle Layer Edges
- Orienting Last Layer: Edges
- Orienting Last Layer: Corners
- Permuting Last Layer: Corners
- Orienting Last Layer: Edges
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Welcome! In this guide, we’re gonna learn how to solve a tactile Rubik’s Cube from start to finish. This tutorial is completely text-based with no images. It’s beginner-friendly, and we’ll be learning the beginner’s method step by step.
The only thing you need is a tactile cube. The one I’m using is the Texture Cube from texturecube.com.
Before we jump into solving, we’ll first get to know the cube and learn the notation for moves. That’s actually going to be the majority of the tutorial, because once you have that down, it will be easy to understand how to do the actual algorithms!
So firstly, the cube has six sides. We will refer to the sides as top, bottom, back, front, left, and right. The top of the cube is whichever side is currently facing the ceiling. The bottom is facing the floor or table. The front is facing yourself. The back is facing away from you. The right is facing to your right, and the left is facing to your left. Make sure to lock those in before moving on.
In addition to the six sides, the cube is sometimes looked at as three layers: top, middle, and bottom. Think of the cube like a stack of three books, or a three-story building, where the first floor is the bottom layer.
The cube can also be looked at as having twenty-six different pieces that comprise the cube. There are three types of pieces: centers, edges, and corners. I’ll explain them each very briefly and then go into more depth. Corners are the ones in the corners that have three different textures, each facing a different way; edges have two textures and are found between the corners, and centers have just the one texture. Now I’m going to talk about these three types in depth.
The centers are in the center of each face of the cube. There are six in total, one of each texture. The key point to understand about centers is that they are always in the same configuration. No matter what moves you make, the center pieces will be in the same places relative to one another. Feel free to try changing the configuration of the center pieces to get an understanding of how this works. So the centers are the skeleton of the puzzle. You don’t even solve them, because they are already solved, but they are like a map that tells you where to put the rest of the pieces. They can also be used to identify the texture of a particular side of the cube, even when it is scrambled. So whenever I refer to the “bumpy side of the cube”, or also if someone refers to the “green side”, even if your cube is scrambled, there is a bumpy side, which is the side that currently has bumpy in the center. Even though the edges and corners are not solved yet and are different textures, we can still call that side the “bumpy side” because that’s the side that’s going to be all bumpy in the end. The center dictates what texture each side will be. On the cube, you may have noticed there are texture or color pairs that are inherently opposite. On the standard six-color cube, white and yellow will always be opposite, and so will green and blue, and so will red and orange. If you’re only solving by texture, you don’t really need to know those color pairs, but you do need to memorize which textures on your cube are opposite each other. So on my Texture Cube, the bumpy side is opposite the fluffy Velcro side. The rough side is opposite the half-spheres. And the smooth is opposite the velvet. We can refer to the center pieces either by their texture, or by their location, which is either top, bottom, right, left, front, or back, the same as the six sides we learned earlier. Remember, right is your right hand side, left is your left, front is facing your body, back is facing away from you, top faces the ceiling, bottom faces down. Let’s practice. Touch the front center piece. Now touch the top center piece. Now touch the right center piece. Now touch the back center piece. Now touch the bottom center piece. Now touch the left center piece. Practice this until you’re able to immediately touch any center piece without having to think about it. Don’t move on until you understand this and have that down.
Now let’s talk about the next type, the twelve edges. Each edge has two textures, each facing a different side, but they’re attached as one piece, so they can’t ever be separated. Feel around now and see if you can find all twelve edges. Looking at the cube as three layers, four of the edges are on the bottom layer, four are in the middle, and four are on the top. You may notice that the middle layer uniquely only consists of center and edge pieces. We can name each edge by its two textures or colors, like the bumpy-rough edge, or the green-white edge, if you’re using colors. And we can also name each edge location by which two sides it is facing. So the top-front edge is the edge that is on the top and front sides. Let’s find it on the cube. The top and front sides of the cube share three pieces where the two sides meet. Two are corners, and the middle one is the top front edge. This piece itself has two sides of the piece, each a different texture. One of its textures is on the top side of the cube, facing the ceiling, and the other is on the front side of the cube, facing yourself. So there are twelve edge locations and twelve edge pieces. To solve, you need to put each of the twelve edge pieces into their correct location and in their correct orientation. What I mean by “correct location” is the bumpy-spheres edge, for example (but you can substitute that in your head for whatever two textures you have on your cube), the correct location would be the edge of the bumpy side and the sphere side, which you may remember are the sides that have those textures in the centers. So if I have the bumpy side, which means the side with the bumpy center, facing front, and sphere side facing top, so my front center is bumpy and my top center is sphere, then the bumpy and sphere edge piece belongs in the top-front slot. By orientation, I mean the bumpy side of the edge piece needs to face front, and the sphere side of the edge piece needs to face up. It’s possible to have the edge in the right location, but the wrong orientation. In this case, the edge’s sphere side facing front and bumpy facing up. That would be backwards: correct location but wrong orientation.
Let’s practice finding edge pieces by location. It might feel tedious, but I promise this is one of the most important things to know for this tutorial, and once you get the hang of it, it will feel easy and you’ll be able to solve the cube without issues. Touch the front right edge. Touch the top left edge. Touch the back right edge. Touch the bottom front edge. Touch the top front edge. Touch the bottom right edge. Touch the back left edge. Touch the top back edge. Touch the front left edge. Touch the top right edge. Touch the bottom back edge. Touch the bottom left edge. Keep practicing this until you can immediately find every edge as soon as you hear it, without having to think about it. Don’t move on until you have that down.
Lastly, we have eight corners. Each corner has three different textures, and it meets three sides, facing three different directions. There are eight possible locations. They are in the corners of the bottom layer and the top layer, and none are in the middle layer. So you have to put each of those eight pieces into its correct location, and in the correct orientation. There are three possible orientations for corners. Obviously, you want each side of the corner piece to be on its matching texture’s side, like with the edge. And we can refer to the corner by its three textures, like bumpy rough smooth, or by its colors, green white orange, and we can also refer to it by its location.
So let’s practice, it might be tricky to find them at first, since you have to find three sides now. Find the top front right corner. It has one texture facing yourself, one facing the ceiling, and one facing to the right. Now touch the top front left corner. Touch the bottom back left corner. Touch the top back right corner. Touch the bottom front right corner. Touch the top back left corner. Touch the top front right corner. Touch the bottom front left corner. Touch the bottom back left corner. Keep practicing this until you can immediately find every corner as soon as you hear it, without having to think about it. Don’t move on until you have that down.
What you should have a good grasp of before you move on is being able to touch a piece right away when you hear its location. The more you practice, the fewer problems you’ll have later on. You can also come back to this part as many times as you need while you progress through the tutorial. Let’s review and practice all the pieces together this time. Touch the top front edge. Touch the back right edge. Touch the top back left corner. Touch the right center piece. Touch the bottom front right corner. Touch the bottom back edge. Touch the front center piece. Touch the top left edge. Touch the front right edge. Touch the bottom front left corner. Touch the top back right corner. Touch the bottom center. Once you get the hang of these, you are ready to move on and start turning the cube!
Now that you know the terminology for the locations and can quickly find them with your fingers, we are going to talk about cube notation, which are the letters that represent the types of moves you can make on a Rubik’s cube. So there are six letters corresponding to the six sides of the cube, and for each side, you can turn it clockwise or counterclockwise. We’re going to go through and practice each move one by one. At the end of each move, I’ll also describe the exact finger movements you can use for these moves. These are commonly called finger tricks. Following along can help your movements be more fluid, and will also help make sure you’re doing the right moves. The finger tricks you actually use while you’re solving do somewhat depend on the situation though, so you can absolutely switch it up as needed. If you don’t feel like you need to learn the finger tricks, or if you just want to focus on learning the moves first, you can just skip ahead to the next paragraph.
The first move is U, which stands for up. Up is the same as top, so U is up. D is down, and that’s the same as bottom. So a U move means to turn the top layer clockwise, which means clockwise from the perspective of that layer. This can be a little confusing, but it’s not essential to understand. So for a U move, from the top looking down at the cube, it’s clockwise, but you can memorize it however you want to as long as you’re moving in the correct direction. The U move is like if the Rubik’s cube was a jar, and you’re tightening the lid of the jar. If you do it correctly, the top front edge moves to the top left edge location. Then there’s U prime, which is indicated with the letter U and then a prime symbol or sometimes an apostrophe. (Screen readers can be configured to correctly read the prime symbol, but some will not do this by default, so for ease of use, we’ll just use the word “prime” in this guide.) Or sometimes called U inverted, or Ui, U with a lowercase i after it. The U prime move is turning the top layer counterclockwise, so if you’re using the jar analogy, this is opening the jar. The top front edge moves to the top right edge location.
Finger tricks for U and U prime: For the U move, you’ll want to hold the cube with your right thumb on the front of the front right edge, and your right middle finger is on the back of the back right edge. So both are in the middle layer in the layer model. And you can put your left thumb on the front center piece, and left middle finger on the back center. Or however you hold it, just make sure not to obstruct the movement of the top layer. And we’re using our thumbs and middle fingers to hold the cube, so we can use our index fingers and sometimes our ring fingers to actually move the layers. We can call this particular holding position the “U position”. To do a U move, take your right index finger, which should be sort of floating behind the cube, and push the back of the top back right corner. So you’re pushing that corner toward yourself, completing the U move. You can do U prime by holding the same U position, but then use your left index finger to push on the back of the top back left corner toward yourself, which moves the top layer in the U prime direction.
So that’s U and U prime. Memorize these; use whatever mnemonic devices, or memory shortcuts help you remember. And practice. U . U prime. U . U prime.
Next, we’ll learn a D move, D for down. Since clockwise and counterclockwise are viewed relative to each side, D is clockwise, but only if you were underneath the cube and looking up. Again, don’t worry if this is confusing. The way I like to remember it is just that D goes in the same direction as U prime, and D prime goes in the same direction as U. So we’re swapping the directions. So for D, the bottom front edge becomes the bottom right. And then, D prime moves the bottom layer in the opposite direction, moving the bottom front edge to the bottom left edge location.
Finger tricks for D: you would hold the cube in U position, and use your left ring finger, to push the back of the bottom back left corner, toward yourself. And then, D prime moves the bottom layer in the opposite direction by using your right ring finger to push the back of the bottom back right corner toward yourself.
Let’s practice. D . D prime. D . D prime.
The next move is F, which stands for front. It moves the front side, the side facing your body, clockwise. If you think of the front layer as a steering wheel, F would be a right turn. So the top front edge moves to the front right. Then F prime is just the reverse of that, so it’s like a left turn, and the top front edge moves to the front left.
So the finger trick for F is to hold your cube in what we’ll call F position. So you’ll hold the cube with your right thumb on the bottom of the bottom right edge, and your right middle finger on the top of the top right edge. And your left hand can mirror that, or you can simply keep your left thumb on the front center and left middle finger on the back center. Just don’t obstruct the front layer from moving. This move kind of reminds me of taking a photo with a digital camera. I take my right index finger and push down on the top of the top front right corner. Then, F prime is taking your left index finger and pushing down on the top of the top front left corner. You can also do this with your right thumb pushing up on the bottom of the bottom front right corner.
Let’s practice. F . F prime. F . F prime. Let’s practice all three of the moves we’ve learned so far. F . U prime. D . U. D prime. F . D . F prime.
Then B stands for back. We honestly won’t be using this very much in this tutorial so this one is more optional, but we’ll go over it quickly anyway. So B does move the back layer clockwise, but clockwise from the back perspective. So it’s the same direction as F prime, like a steering wheel left turn. Like with U and D, you can just remember we’re swapping the directions. So the B move moves top back edge to the back left slot. And B prime turns the back layer like a right turn, same direction as F, and it moves the top back edge to the back right slot.
Finger tricks for B: Hold the cube in the F position, then use your right ring finger to push down on the top of the top back right corner. For B prime, use your left ring finger to push down on the top back left corner.
Next, we have R. R stands for– you guessed it– right. So you move the right layer clockwise, as in clockwise from the perspective of someone standing on your right. So that means you’re turning the layer away from you, from front to back. So the front right edge moves to the top right slot. And then R prime is just the reverse of that. It’s counterclockwise from the perspective of someone standing on your right. So you move the right layer toward you, and the front right edge becomes the bottom right edge.
So the finger trick is to put your right hand in the F position, so thumb under bottom right and middle finger on top of top right, and then move the layer forward. So you’ll end up in the U position, with your thumb in front and middle finger in back. And then for R prime, you start in U position and move the layer towards you, so that you’re in F position.
Practice this until you know right away which is R and which is R prime. Let’s practice. R. R prime. R. R prime. Let’s practice all the moves we know so far. R, F, U, R prime, U prime, F prime. A really common set of moves is R, U, R prime, U prime. It’s sometimes called the righty algorithm. So let’s practice. R, U, R prime, U prime. You may notice it’s a very fluid algorithm since the first R positions your hand to do the U move and then R prime, and then you can use your left index finger for the last U prime.
Then L is the same thing as R, but with your left hand. But remember L is clockwise from the perspective of someone to your left, and L prime is counterclockwise. So the directions are flipped compared to R and R prime. L moves the left layer toward yourself, so going from back to front, just like R prime but mirrored on the other side. And L prime is turning it forward, away from yourself, like an R, but mirrored on the other side. So L moves the front left edge to the bottom left slot, and L prime moves the front left edge to the top left slot. And the finger tricks are the exact same as R but on the left side and using your left hand. So practice. L . L prime. L . L prime.
So that might be kind of a lot, but go over the moves and practice each of them until you have them down. When I say F prime, for example, you should immediately know what move that means and be able to perform it without having to think too much. If you accidentally do F instead of F prime later on, it’s going to mess up the algorithm and potentially make you have to start over, so the better you know all the moves, the easier it will be to follow the steps.
Don’t move on in the tutorial until you can do these moves without having to think about it. If you do forget any moves later on, just come back to this section and review. So let’s practice some algorithms, which are just sets of moves. Take your time, and pause or go back when you need to.
R, U , R prime, U prime.
F, R, U, R prime, U prime, F prime.
R, U, R prime, U, R, U, U, R prime.
U, R, U prime, R prime, U prime, F prime, U, F .
U prime, L prime, U, L, U, F, U prime, F prime.
R prime, F, R prime, B, B, R, F prime, R prime, B, B, R, R .
F, F, U, L, R prime, F, F, R, L prime, U, F, F .
Okay, so those were actually not random. You just performed every single algorithm we’ll be learning for the rest of the tutorial. All we have to do now is learn when and how to apply them.
So before we start actually solving, make sure you’re well practiced at finding a specific piece based on the location, and that you can perform any of the moves as soon as you hear it. I recommend reading each step through once for understanding without trying to follow along. Then, read the step again and follow with your own cube the second time. To start, we are going to solve the four bottom edge pieces, which are known as the cross, because when you finish it, it makes a plus sign or cross out of the solved pieces. We need to choose a texture to be our “starting” texture, and it will remain that way until the end of the solve. We will also have an “ending” texture, and four middle textures. The classic way to solve the cube is starting with white, ending with yellow, and with red, green, blue, and orange being the middle textures. On my cube, that means the rough side is my starting texture, the spheres are my ending texture, and the other four are my middle textures. Just choose any texture or tactile marker you want to be your starting texture, and orient the cube so the starting texture is on the bottom. This means the center piece that has your starting texture is on the bottom facing down. Whatever texture you chose, I will be referring to that as “starting texture” for the rest of this tutorial. I will also be referring to its opposite as “ending texture” for the entire solve. So now that you have your starting texture on the bottom center piece, feel the top center piece. The texture of the top center piece is your ending texture. For the entire solve, the bottom center piece will be the starting texture and the top center piece will be the ending texture. We may rotate the cube to change which centers are facing front, back, left, and right, but we will keep starting texture on bottom and ending texture on top. So whenever we do a rotation, it’s only rotating the cube the way you would a top. So the bottom stays on bottom and the top stays on top. Only the front and sides move. If someone told you to spin around, you would probably only rotate your body, not go upside down or anything. You can think of the bottom center piece like your feet, it will stay facing down no matter what.
In order to solve the four bottom edge pieces, also known as the cross, I’ll teach you a beginner method which is not the fastest way; it’s just the simplest way. Feel free to experiment and see if you can figure out for yourself how to put the bottom edges in their correct places. Just make sure they correspond to the starting texture, as well as to the textures of the front, back, right, and left centers. This step will be the longest because there are many potential cases where the edges might be, since the cube is entirely unsolved. So what we’re going to do is temporarily put the starting texture edges into the top layer, so they’ll be facing up, and then we’ll transfer them to the correct locations in the bottom layer afterward. This beginner method is sometimes called a daisy, or a sunflower, because it has yellow in the middle and four white “petals” around. So I’m going to find my starting texture edges, one at a time, and put them in the top layer, with the starting texture side of the edge facing up. The top center piece is still ending texture. After we get all four edges, we can easily transfer them to their correct locations around the starting texture center piece on the bottom to make the cross.
So there are four edges we need to locate and solve. Each of these has starting texture on one of its sides, and a middle texture on the other side. There is no edge with starting texture and ending texture because they are opposites. The four edges are somewhere in four of the twelve edge locations, so they may be in the top layer, the middle layer, or the bottom layer. Remember, by this I mean if you think of the cube as a three story building, the bottom floor is the bottom layer, and so on.
So now we’re gonna go through all the different cases. Again, you may want to read through all the cases first for understanding, then try to apply it only on your second read-through.
First, feel the edges in the top layer. Only the edges, not corners. You’re searching for any edge that contains starting texture. If there aren’t any in the top layer, skip this paragraph and move on to searching the middle layer. If you do find one, there are two orientation cases. Either starting texture is facing up, or the other side of the edge, the middle texture, is facing up and starting texture is facing out, which means either front, right, back, or left. If starting texture is facing up, congratulations, you have your first daisy petal already solved. You don’t need to do anything else right now; we just have to make sure not to displace this piece because then we would have to solve it again. If you have the other orientation case, with starting texture not on top, you’ll have to put your target edge in the top front edge slot. By “your target edge”, I mean the edge you are currently working on solving into the correct daisy position, so it’s whatever edge you just found. You can move the edge into the top front slot by doing U moves until it’s in the top front slot. You could also do it by rotating the cube; remember that rotating means spinning the cube like a top but keeping the top center on top and the bottom center on the bottom. Now that your edge is in the top front, do these moves: F, U prime, R . This moves the top front edge into the middle layer with the F move. Then the U prime move turns the daisy so that you don’t have to worry about displacing any petals that you’ve already solved. Finally, we put the edge back into the top layer with an R move, and now the orientation is the other way around, so it has starting texture facing up, the top layer, and it is now a correctly oriented daisy petal. Repeat this step until you don’t have any starting texture edges in the top layer, except for the ones you have already solved and are in the correct orientation. If at this point, you already have all four solved, you can skip to transferring to the bottom.
Otherwise, search in the middle layer for more starting texture edges. If there aren’t any, skip this paragraph and move on to searching the bottom layer. If you do find a starting texture edge in the middle layer, you can put it into the daisy. So rotate your cube so that your target edge is in either the front left or the front right, whichever makes it so that the starting texture side is facing front. If it is in the front right edge slot, so it has starting texture facing front, and the middle texture facing right, you can put it in the daisy, which should still be in your top layer, with an R move. But first check your top right edge; if it already has a solved daisy petal there, meaning starting texture facing up, then do a U move first, so that you don’t displace that previously solved edge. Keep doing U moves and checking the top of the top right edge until there isn’t an already solved starting texture edge in that slot. Then you can do your R and you’ve got another petal done! If the edge was on the front left, you’re gonna do the same thing on the other side. Check the top left edge and do U moves until it doesn’t have a solved petal there, then move your target edge from front left to top left by doing an L prime.
Repeat that until you don’t have any more starting texture edges in the middle layer. If the daisy is now done, skip to transferring the daisy. Otherwise, you have to finally check the bottom layer for the remaining starting texture edges. When you find one, rotate the cube so the target edge is in the bottom front edge slot. Then, check the top front. If it has an already solved petal, do U moves until it doesn’t. Then, check the orientation of your target edge, which should still be in the bottom front. If the starting texture side is facing down, do two F moves to put your edge into the daisy. If the starting texture side is facing front, then do F prime, U prime, R. The F prime moves your edge from bottom front to front right. Then U prime turns the top layer so we don’t displace any solved pieces. And R inserts your edge from the front right edge slot to the top right. Repeat this until you are finished with your daisy.
Check to make sure you have a correct daisy. This means your top center piece is ending texture, and the tops, as in the side facing up, of the other top edges— top front, top left, top back, and top right— all are starting texture. Only move to the next step if this is what you have on your cube. Now, this is obviously not where these edges ultimately belong, since the starting texture center piece is on the bottom and we know the center pieces map out where the rest of the pieces go. So now we have to transfer those four edges from the top to the bottom. We want to end up with the four starting texture edges correct relative to the bottom center piece which is starting texture, and also relative to the four middle texture center pieces in the front, left, back, and right. This is a pretty easy process.
Feel the front of the top front edge. It should be one of your middle textures. Mine is fluffy, which is the blue texture. And I want this to match the front center piece. Right now, my front center is smooth, so it doesn’t match. So I’m going to turn both of my bottom layers at the same time. So it’s kind of like a U move, but instead of holding the two bottom layers still and turning the top layer, I’m going to hold the top layer still, and move the two bottom layers together. And I’m going to do this move until the front center matches the front of the top front edge. Since the front of my top front edge is the fluffy texture for me, I turn the bottom two layers together until the fluffy center piece is the front center piece. Now, if you feel the front center piece and move your finger up, the texture matches. Then, just do two F moves so your target edge ends up in the bottom layer. So now this edge is in the bottom front. And it’s completely correct: the bottom texture matches the bottom center, and the front texture matches the front center.
Now, do one U move and repeat the process with your new top front edge. Feel the front texture. Then, turn the bottom two layers together until the front center matches the front of the top front edge. Then, do two F moves to move the edge to the bottom. Make sure you’re only turning the two bottom layers together, so the bottom edges that are already aligned to their respective center pieces don’t get messed up. Repeat two more times. Now, you have your completed bottom cross; the four bottom edges are all completely correct.
So now you should have your cross complete, but let’s double-check. If you feel the bottom of the cube, the center, as well as all four edges, are starting texture. Then, if you feel the sides of the cube, the bottom edge always matches the center piece. Meaning, the front of the bottom front edge matches the front center piece, the right of the bottom right edge matches the right center piece, and so on. If this is not the case, you aren’t ready for the next step, and you have to go back and redo the previous steps.
Now that you have a completely correct cross, here’s how we can solve the four bottom corners, which will be the four starting texture corners. The four corners are in four of the eight corner locations. So they’re either in the top or the bottom layer, since the middle layer doesn’t have corners. Before we move on, let’s review some of our moves since we’re going to start using longer algorithm sequences. See if you remember which is R and which is R prime, and which is U and U prime. An R move turns the right layer away from you, so the bottom right edge becomes the front right edge. R prime does the reverse, so front right becomes bottom right. The U move turns the top layer clockwise, so the top back edge becomes the top right edge. The U prime move does the reverse, so the top right edge becomes the top back.
Ok, now let’s search for a corner that contains our starting texture. We’re gonna start by checking if there are any in the top layer. So feel all three sides of each corner to see if any of them contain starting texture on any of the sides. If there aren’t any, skip to searching the bottom layer. If there is one, you’re going to rotate the cube, or do U moves, until your target corner is in the top front right corner slot. Feel what the other two textures are that aren’t the starting texture. These will be two middle textures that aren’t opposites of each other. Mine are smooth and fluffy.
Then, turn the bottom two layers together, and make sure you only turn them together so you don’t mess up what’s already solved. Turn them until the front center is one of those middle textures and the right center is the other one. So since my corner has my rough starting texture, and fluffy and smooth are my other textures, I need my front center to be smooth, and my right center to be fluffy. So you should end up with your target corner in the top front right with one of its sides being the same texture as the front center piece, one matching the right center piece, and one matching our bottom center, our starting texture. Then, just do R, U, R prime. This will put the corner in the correct location without messing up the cross, but it may not be the correct orientation. Check the bottom front right corner to see if starting texture is facing down. If it is, then it is correct. In that case, the front texture will also match the front center, and the right texture will match the right center, meaning your corner is solved, and you can move on to the next one. If it’s not the correct orientation yet, do R, U, R prime U prime, the righty algorithm, which will take our target corner out again, and then you can again do R, U, R prime, to put it back in again, and it will be a different orientation this time. Check the bottom front right corner to see if the textures now match the center pieces. If it’s still wrong, do the same thing one more time. Take it out with R, U, R prime, U prime, then put it back in with R, U, R prime. If you didn’t make any mistakes, it should definitely be correct after three times maximum.
Then, search the top layer again to find another corner. If you find one, repeat the same process we just did. Do this for every corner until you don’t have any in the top layer. If you solved all four corners this way, you can skip to solving the middle edges.
If you don’t have any starting texture corners left in the top layer, but you still haven’t solved all four starting texture corners, search for them in the bottom layer. You’ll solve these the same way; you just have to move them into the top layer first. When you find a starting texture corner, rotate the cube— as always keeping the bottom center on the bottom— so your target corner is in the bottom front right corner slot. Then, do R, U, R prime, U prime, which will move it to the top front right, and you can solve as usual, moving the bottom layers together until the front and right centers match the target corner, then doing R, U, R prime, and then if it’s still not the correct orientation, do R, U, R prime, U prime, R, U, R prime, and check if it’s correct, and then repeat again if it is not correct. If you still don’t have all four bottom corners solved, search for another corner, starting with the top layer, since the remaining corner could be in either the top or bottom.
Repeat until all four corners are solved. You’ve now completed the first layer!
If you feel the entire bottom side of the cube, it should all be the same texture. If you feel the bottom of the front, right, back, and left sides, all three pieces should match each other as well as the center piece of their side. Only move on if this is correct for you. Otherwise, you need to go back and redo previous steps. If it is correct, you’ve now got fourteen out of the twenty-six pieces solved already! More than halfway! And we can move on to the middle layer.
The middle layer just has four pieces that still need to be solved, the four edges: front right, front left, back left, and back right. Since we already solved the bottom edges, these four middle edges can only be in the top or middle layer, so eight potential locations. First, we’ll check if there are any in the top layer. We’re looking for middle edges, so both of the two textures on the two sides will be middle textures, none with our ending texture, which is spheres for me, since that’s the opposite of my starting texture. If you don’t remember what your ending texture is, just feel the top center piece. So to search for a middle edge, feel the top edges and target an edge that does NOT contain ending texture. If they all contain ending texture, skip to searching the middle layer. If you do find one, either rotate the cube or do U moves until your target edge is in the top front edge slot. Then, turn the bottom two layers together until the front center piece matches the front of your top front edge, similar to what we did to transfer the daisy to the bottom. So if you feel the front center piece and move your finger up, the texture is consistent.
Before we start the algorithm, remember that L is the same direction as R prime (towards yourself), and L prime is the same direction as R ( away from yourself). Do you remember which is F and which is F prime? F is clockwise, like a right turn, and moves the top front edge to the front right. F prime is counterclockwise, like a left turn, and moves the top front to the front left.
We’re trying to move the top front edge into either the front left or the front right slot, depending on the case. You can tell which case you have by feeling the top of the top front edge, your target edge, and feel which middle texture is there. Then, feel the right center and the left center. If the right center matches, you want to move your target into the front right slot, which you can do with this algorithm: U, R, U prime, R prime, U prime, F prime, U, F . If the left center is the one that matches the top of the top front edge, then you want to move it to the front left, with this algorithm, which is the same but mirrored left to right: U prime, L prime, U, L, U, F, U prime, F prime. Feel free to track the target edge with your finger to understand better what the algorithm is doing, which is basically taking out your corner that you already solved, matching it up with your edge, then putting them both back in together. One way to remember which algorithm goes to the left and which goes to the right is to remember that you always start the algorithm by moving your target edge to the opposite side of its destination. So if you’re trying to move your target edge from top front to front right, you’ll start with a U move, which moves the top front edge to the top left. If you’re trying to move your edge to the front left, you start with U prime which moves it to the top right.
Now, all you have to do is repeat this process until all your edges are done. If you don’t have any middle edges left in the top layer, but you’re not finished with all four edges, then you have to take an unsolved middle edge from the middle layer and put it into the top. You can do this by just doing the same algorithm that we just did to put the top front edge into the front left or right. First, rotate the cube so your target edge, which is an unsolved middle edge in the middle layer, is in the front right edge slot. Then, do U, R, U prime, R prime, U prime, F prime, U, F, which will displace that front right edge into the top layer, so now you can solve it as usual using the steps we did before.
Once you solve all four middle edges, you’ve got two layers done! Almost there! This means if you feel your cube, it should be completely solved except for the top layer. Don’t move on if this isn’t the case. If it is, we will now do what’s called orienting the last layer, or OLL. This means taking your nine top-layer pieces and moving them so that they all have ending texture facing up. The center is already solved, of course. We have four edges and four corners, and they’re all already in the top layer. Unlike when we solved the first layer, we are not going to pay attention to the other side of each piece, the one with the middle texture. We first just want all eight pieces to have that ending texture facing up. We only care about the side facing up for now.
We’ll start with the edges, which will make our ending texture cross on top. Read the cases first, then go back and follow along with your cube. Feel the top of your four edges. You either have zero, two, or all four edges with ending texture facing up. If you have all four, you can skip this step. If you have zero, do this algorithm: F, R, U, R prime, U prime, F prime. This will make it so you now have two edges correct. If you have two edges correct, or you had zero but now you have two, you need to evaluate which of the following two cases you have. Either the edges are opposite one another, or they’re adjacent. If they are opposite, then they are either top front and top back, or top right and top left. If they are top front and top back, rotate the cube once or do a U move to make them top right and top left. Now, do the same algorithm: F, R, U, R prime, U prime, F prime. Now all four edges are solved! If your two edges are adjacent, rotate the cube or do U moves until your two correct edges, the two that have ending texture facing up, are in the top left and top back. So feeling the top of the cube, the ending texture pieces form a Braille J shape, or a backwards letter L . Then do the same algorithm, but twice. Again, the algorithm is F, R, U, R prime, U prime, F prime. (You may notice there is a redundant step when you do the algorithm twice. You can remove that eventually if you want.)
Now you’ve got the edges done, your last layer cross! Feel your cube and make sure your first two layers are still solved and that you have the last layer cross on top. If you have this, we can move on to the corners. Once again, we have one algorithm to memorize, but you need to evaluate what case you have to figure out how to orient the cube before you do the algorithm. Listen to the cases first, and then go back and follow along on your cube. Check the tops of your top corners, and see how many are ending texture. You either have zero, one, two, or four. If you ever have a case where you have three corners solved, and the first two layers are still completely correct, it means an individual corner has gotten twisted at some point and needs to be twisted back. Obviously, if you have four corners correct, skip this entire paragraph. Otherwise, we just have one algorithm, but we’re going to orient the cube differently depending on the number of corners facing up. If you have zero corners, do U moves or rotate the cube so that the top front left corner has ending texture facing left. If you have one corner facing up, do U moves or rotate the cube so that the one corner with ending texture facing up is in the top front left. If you have two corners, do U moves or rotate the cube so that the top front left has ending texture facing front. In all three cases, you’re going to do this algorithm: R, U, R prime, U, R, U, U, R prime. Then, repeat by counting your corners again. If you have all four, you’re done with this step. Otherwise, again orient the cube so that the top front left has ending texture facing the proper direction depending on the number of correct corners. If there’s two, it should face front. If it’s one, it should face up. If there’s zero, it should face left. Then, perform the algorithm: R, U, R prime, U, R, U, U, R prime. Keep repeating the process until all four are solved. This will only take three repetitions maximum if you’re doing it correctly.
Now feel your top layer. It should all be a consistent texture on top! Also, double-check to make sure your first two layers are still solved. Now all that’s left is for the other sides of the edges and corners of the top layer to be on their correct sides.
Permuting the last layer, or PLL, is the final step. We will solve the corners first, then the edges. These algorithms are the most difficult. Bcause so much of the cube is already solved, we have to do a lot of moves to move the pieces we want to move without messing up the rest of the cube. So these are long algorithms, but there’s just one you need for corners, and one for edges. In advanced OLL and PLL, you can learn lots of different algorithms for different cases so you only have to do one algorithm for OLL, and one for PLL. For now, we’ll just learn these two PLL algorithms and repeat as necessary.
First, the corners. Listen to the cases first, then follow along on your cube. Before we do the algorithm, let’s refresh that B means back, so you’re turning the back layer. In this case, we’re doing two B moves in a row, so it doesn’t matter if you do it clockwise or counterclockwise. Now, to orient the cube, feel the outside of your corners. That means of the four top corners, feel all the sides except for the top. We’re done with the top and don’t need to feel it anymore. Feel the backs of both top back corners, top back left and top back right, and see if they match. Then, feel the right side of the top front right and top back right. Do this for every side, and see how many sides have both corners matching. These matching pairs are sometimes called headlights. There will be a headlights match on zero, one, or all four sides. If it’s all four, skip this step. If it’s zero, do this algorithm: R prime, F, R prime, B, B, R, F prime, R prime, B, B, R, R . This will make it so you now have one pair of headlights. If you have one, or you had zero and now you have one, do U moves or rotate the cube so that the headlights are in the back. Now, the top back left and top back right both have the same middle texture facing back. Then, do that same algorithm again: R prime, F, R prime, B, B, R, F prime, R prime, B, B, R, R .
Now, all four sides should have headlights, and you can do U moves until the texture of the headlights matches the center piece of that side. Now, if you feel your cube, it should be mostly all solved, just with the top edges possibly swapped around. Feel the outside of your four edges: the front of top front, the right of top right, the left of top left, and the back of top back. Feel if any edge matches the rest of its side. Either zero, one, or all four will match. If all four match, then you can skip this step, and congratulations, you have solved the cube! Otherwise, listen to the cases first, then follow along on your cube for one final algorithm. Remember that L moves the top-left to the front-left, moving the left layer toward yourself, like an R prime, and L prime is the same direction as R. If zero edges match the rest of their side, do this algorithm: F, F, U, L, R prime, F, F, R, L prime, U, F, F . Now, whether you started with zero or one, you now have one edge that matches the rest of its side. Now that you have one edge correct, rotate the cube so your correct edge is in the top back. So the only pieces that remain unsolved are top left, top front, and top right. Now, do that algorithm again: F, F, U, L, R prime, F, F, R, L prime, U, F, F . Now, check your three unsolved edges again. If they are still incorrect, do the algorithm one more time.
And that’s it– your cube is solved! Give yourself some credit for sticking through to the end, and happy cubing!
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