The beginner method, step by step
Layer by layer, with the picture of each case and the motion that solves it.
The beginner method solves the cube in layers: the bottom layer, the middle layer, then the top. Each layer is finished completely before the next layer starts, and nothing you have already finished is taken apart again. That is what makes it easy to follow: only the current layer is ever in play.
It needs very few algorithms, because it leans on a trigger: `U R U' R'`, with the slot you are filling in front of you, drops a corner or an edge into place. Turn the cube so that slot faces you, and the same trigger does the work at every stage.
The cross
Hold the cube with yellow on top. The first job is the daisy: the white edges around the yellow centre, each with a half turn of its side face. Then each edge turns down beside the centre of its side colour, and the cross is finished on the bottom.
- •Keep the cross on the bottom from here on: everything else is easier to see.
- •Check the side colour before turning an edge down. A white edge above the wrong centre breaks the cross.
- •An edge stuck in the middle layer comes up to the daisy with a half turn of its side face.
First-layer corners
Turn the cube over, so the cross is on the bottom and yellow on top. Bring a corner with white on it above the slot it belongs in, with its edge beside it, then insert the pair with `U R U' R'`. A corner that arrives split from its edge needs the same trigger to bring them together first, and a twisted corner needs another look: the trigger turns it as it goes in.
A corner and its edge sitting above the front-right slot.
Checked by the engine: F2L 1
F R' F' R
Middle-layer edges
The finished layer stays on the bottom. Find an edge in the top layer with no yellow on it, turn the top until it stands above the slot whose side colour it matches, and use the trigger on the face it is against: `U R U' R' U' F' U F` sends it into the front-right slot, and the same idea mirrored sends it left.
The first layer is done, and the front-right edge is out of its slot.
Checked by the engine: F2 U2 F U2 F2 → f2l-slot(FR)
F' U' F U R U R' U'
An edge that is already in the slot but flipped comes out with the same trigger from another side, and then goes back in properly.
The yellow cross
Yellow on top. The top layer shows a dot, a line, or an L. The line case takes `F R U R' U' F'`; the L case takes `f R U R' U' f'`, held so the L points back-left; the dot case takes the line algorithm, then a second look at what appeared.
The line: a bar of yellow through the centre.
Checked by the engine: EO (2-look) Line
F U R U' R' F'
The yellow face
Every top edge now shows yellow; the corners still need turning. Sune, `R U R' U R U2 R'`, turns them, and its mirror does the same job. The seven OCLL cases below cover every possibility, and some of them need the algorithm applied again.
Sune: the case, with the top edges already yellow.
Checked by the engine: OLL 27
Top corners into place
The top face is one colour. Look for a side whose two corner stickers match (headlights) and hold that side at the back; with none, hold any side and expect to look again afterwards. `R U R' U' R' F R2 U' R' U' R U R' F'` then swaps the corners into place, and a final `U` turn lines them up.
The adjacent corner swap: the T-perm.
Checked by the engine: CPLL (2-look) Adjacent corner swap
Top edges into place
Only the edges are left, and they can only be cycled round the top. When a bar of edges is already solved, hold it at the back: `M2 U M U2 M' U M2` cycles the rest clockwise, and its inverse cycles them the other way. When no bar exists the case is H or Z, which the algorithms below finish.
H: opposite edges swap.
Checked by the engine: PLL H
Where to go next
The last-layer steps are where the algorithms live. Learn them case by case from the sets below, and drill them on a smart cube until recognition is quick: the beginner coach on the solve desk names the case you are holding and offers the algorithm while you solve.
EO (2-look)
3 cases · Make a cross on top: three cases (dot, line, L).
OCLL (2-look OLL, step 2)
7 cases · The seven cases with the edges already oriented: the second look of 2-look OLL.
CPLL (2-look)
2 cases · Put the corners in place: an adjacent swap or a diagonal swap.
EPLL (2-look PLL, step 2)
4 cases · Edges only: Ua, Ub, H and Z.
The beginner method, step by step: the whole walkthrough
The cross
First-layer corners
Middle-layer edges
The yellow cross
The yellow face
Top corners into place
Top edges into place
Where to go next
This guide covers the beginner's method only on 3x3. Faster systems are complete alternatives, each with its own documentation: CFOP, ZZ, Roux.
All systems