Before you begin reading the tutorial, be sure to have a grasp of the standard notation for moves, including slice names.

You also need to be familiar with the puzzle. There are 3 types of pieces: edge pieces, corner pieces, and centre pieces. The edge pieces are the ones with 2 stickers and each individual edge piece always has the same 2 stickers. The corner pieces have 3 stickers and they always have the same 3 stickers. There is only one centre piece, even if it looks like 6, but if you looked inside the puzzle you would see that it is connected internally. This means that the order of the centre pieces is always fixed. If you hold the yellow centre on the top and the green centre on the front, red will always be on the left, orange on the right, blue on the back and white on the bottom. Scramble your cube, but as you scramble, focus on the centres just to see how they move about, then repeat for a corner and edge until you have a basic grasp of each of them.

If you are already familiar with the cube and know how to solve it, you will most likely be able to complete the solve from EOLine, or add the cross edges then finish F2L, using your normal last layer. Most commonly LL is solved with OCLL/PLL, COLL/EPLL, or ZBLL, although you only really need OCLL/PLL for a while.

Step 1: EOLine

This step is quite possibly the hardest for beginners to grasp, but with time and effort it will become much more second nature. For beginners, think of it as having 2 substeps: EO then Line. Now, let's get onto EO.

Around the cube, there are 12 edge pieces. To solve an edge, you have to do two things: permute it (put it in the right place) and orientate it (have it the right way round).

The reason we orientate all the edges in the beginning is because it then means we only have to permute them as we solve, making the rest of the solve simpler. The question is though, how do we identify these bad edges, and how do we flip them?

A bad edge is an edge that requires an F or B move to solve from a fixed orientation, but there are ways to make recognition simpler.

1. Choose an orientation. In this tutorial we use green on front, yellow on top.

2. Look at every edge in each of the following 4 places: the U face, the F face but only at the 2 edges on E, the D face, and the B face but only at the 2 edges on E. This is so that we cover all 12 edges once. You can then use this tree to identify if an edge is good or bad:

Go through each edge one by one and, for now, write down on a piece of paper whether it is good or not. This is not allowed in competitions, but it serves as a useful memory aid until you become familiar with the process of orientating edges.

Once you've done that, you should have an even number of bad edges (this is because an F or B move will make 4 edges good or 4 edges bad, never an odd number), but how should you approach orientating them? The most basic case is when you have 4 bad edges. You will want to set them up to either F or B (whichever is easier) by using only <RULDF2B2> (F2 and B2 have the effect of two F/B moves, so they do not affect edge orientation but can move around edges while preserving their orientation). Once all four edges are either all on F or all on B, do a quarter turn of the respective face to orientate them.

Using a bit of common sense, you should now be able to solve 4, 8 and 12 edges, as you just treat them as one 4, two 4s or three 4s respectively. Doing 2, 6 and 10 are a bit harder. Two bad edges can be orientated by setting up only one on F/B. Doing a quarter turn of this face will orientate the bad edge but misorientate the other 3 edges on the face. This will result in 4 bad edges, which can be solved as before. 6 can be done in one of two ways: do 4 and 2 separately, or do 3 and make one good edge bad, then you are left with 4. The second option is slightly better on average, but the first option should also be used when applicable. 10 bad edges can be orientated in many different ways, as either two 4s and a 2, or a 4 and a 6. Try to choose which will be best in inspection.

You should now know how to solve EO. The line bit is easy now. Without rotating or using F or B moves, solve the DF and DB edges. For the orientation that this tutorial uses, those are the white blue and white green edges.

Your cube should look like this:

Now onto the next step - F2L-1!

Step 2: F2L-1

F2L-1 (first 2 layers minus 1 edge) is the second step in this tutorial and (just like in normal ZZ) uses R, U and L moves and you don't rotate. This is again split ino smaller steps, just as EOLine was. This time, the steps are edges then corners and is overall very intuitive with little to no memorisation depending on how experienced you are.

With the edges, you need to firstly solve the DL and DR edges using <RUL>. These are called your cross edges and it should be very easy. If you require help with this step, look at the example solve underneath.

Once they are solved, you then want to solve the three E slice edges that aren't FR (for this tutorial, the green red, blue red and blue orange edges). If you can't do this intuitively, follow this method instead:

1. Choose an edge that you want to solve.

2. If it's in E, use the appropriate algorithm* to take it out. (The same algorithm you would use to something in that slot)

3. Now that it's in U, turn the top layer until it is opposite to where it needs to go. So if it needs to go to the front, move it to the back, but if it needs to go to the back, move it to the front.

4. Use the corresponding algorithm*.

5. Repeat for the other 2 edges.

*Here are the algorithms (they are all 4 moves long and are mirrors of each other):

• FR=R U R' U'

• BR=R' U' R U

• FL=L' U' L U

• BL=L U L' U'

With this step, you will want to try to understand how it works intuitively.

If done correctly, you should have all of the edges in the first two layers apart from the FR edge solved.

For corners, you want to solve all the corners of the D layer apart from the DFR corner (the white green orange corner). You will need to use the algorithm for FR (also known as "sexy") and the D layer. You will use a technique called keyhole, which is where you use an empty slot to solve the rest of F2L.

Here are the steps:

1. Choose a D layer corner that isn't DFR.

2. If it isn't in U, turn the D layer until it is in DFR (underneath the unsolved edge) then do sexy once, before undoing that D move. That will move it into the U layer.

3. Now that it is in U, make sure that the corner is in UFR (above the empty edge slot) and move the D layer so that the 2 cross edges that correspond to the corner are in DF and DR. Repeat the sexy move until that corner is solved relative to the 2 edges, then completely solve the corner by turning the D layer.

4. Repeat for the other 2 corners.

If you've followed this correctly, F2L-1 should be solved and your cube should look like this:

Onto the next step, L5E.

Step 3: L5E

Last 5 edges is the second to last step, and unlike all other steps in this tutorial, there are no substeps!

This whole step will be done by doing R, U/U', R' until you're done. Here are the steps:

1. Firstly check if the FR edge is solved. If it is, do R, U/U', R'. (If you're here from step 4, make sure you don't destroy what you've already made.)

2. Choose a U layer edge in U. This edge will be your reference edge.

3. You now want to look at the edge in FR and note where it belongs in relation to the reference edge (left, right or opposite). Turn the top layer so that when you do an R move, that edge will be solved in relation to it.

4. Do that R move, turn the top to replace the edge that was in FR with an unsolved edge and repeat until you have two edges left.

After solving 3 edges, there will be 2 possible positions:

• All edges are solved. If so, go onto the next step.

• 2 edges are left.

When you get the second case, do this:

1. Choose a new reference edge. This edge must be one of the unsolved ones and must be a U edge on U. If not possible, just do sexy from anywhere and repeat this step.

2. Go back to solving the edges normally. This should result in all 5 edges being solved!

Just to check, your cube should now look like this:

Now you just have the last 5 corners to solve.

Step 4: L5C

Last 5 corners is the last step, but is very similar to how you solve the corners in F2L. Just follow these steps and your cube should end up solved! As a prewarning, during this step it will seem like you are messing up the first two layers, but they will solve themselves.

1. Turn the cube 180º so that the top becomes the bottom and the bottom becomes the top, then rotate the cube so that the unsolved corner in the first layer comes to UFR.

2. Look at where that corner belongs: if it is the UFR corner, turn the D layer so that an unsolved corner is underneath it at DFR and do the sexy move once, then carry on. If it belongs in the D layer, turn the D layer so that the edges which correspond to that corner are at DR and DF (just like in F2L), then repeat sexy until that corner solves. This will mess up the first 2 layers, but don't be alarmed, they will be resolved.

3. Repeat step 2 until you have solved the D layer.

You will now have one of two cases:

• The whole cube is solved: if so, well done! This happens around 1 in 3 solves.

• The bottom layer is solved, but the top 2 layers are messed up.

If you have the second case, just follow these steps:

1. Do the sexy move until you have 2 corners left to solve (they will be twisted in place).

2. Rotate so that they are both on D and one of them is at DFR.

3. Do the sexy move until the one at DFR is solved, turn the D layer to move the unsolved one to DFR, then repeat.

4. Your cube will be solved!

If this is your first time solving a cube, well done! If this is your first time solving a cube with ZZ specifically, also well done! Make sure to look at the example solve so that you can fully understand the method, then when you're ready, move on to a more advanced version of ZZ.

EXAMPLE SOLVE

L D R U L2 B L2 U' F2 R2 F' U2 L2 U B L' D2 B2 L U

Visual aid for the scramble

EOLine:

Green front white top: z2

This moves the cube into the orientation for the solve.

R U' D F' D L' D'

In the orientation, there are 4 bad edges, UR, DL, FR, and DR. We can group these on either the front face or the back face, but because one is already on the front face this will be easier. We start by placing the DR edge on the F face by an R. This leaves the remaining two edges to be placed by a U' D. Had we tried to place the UR/DR edges first, it would have made it difficult to place the final edge, so be sure to consider the order in which you gather edges during this step. F/F' gets them oriented, but F' is more efficient and here's why :

IF you did F, the White Green edge is now on the top, leaving the two line edges into an awkward position, an L makes the White Blue edge go down and an U' R2 leaves both the line edges opposite of each other, so you can use a D' to align them.

IF you did F', the White Green edge is in the bottom, while the blue is in the B face, a simple D makes them opposite of one another. and an L' makes both of them on the bottom, and to align them, do a D'

F2L-1:

There is a lot of room for freedom in this step, and a lot of choices were made here for demonstration purposes. Feel free to choose whatever is easiest/whatever you see first during an actual solve.

Cross edges: U L2 U2 R2

Looking at the cube, we see that the white-red cross edge is in the U layer. Place it by moving it above its spot and turning that face twice, so U L2. The same process follows for the white-orange cross edge: it is moved above its spot with U2 and placed with R2. If a cross edge is trapped in a slot after placing one, you can take it out using the algorithm for that slot (see the next example solve).

E slice edges: (L' U' L U) U' (R' U' R U)

Looking at the U layer, the only edge which does not have yellow on it is the green-orange edge, which belongs at FR. Because there are no edges to solve in the top layer (remember we leave FR unsolved for now), we have to take out an edge using an algorithm. In this case, we took out the FL edge using (L' U' L U). Any edge can be taken out, as long as it does not have yellow on it (because we only want to solve the E slice edges right now). The blue-orange edge was taken out. Because it needs to go to the back (BR slot), we move it the front by a U' turn, then do the BR algorithm: (R' U' R U).

(R U R' U') U (L U L' U')

Again, there are no E-slice edges to solve in the top layer. Notice that taking out the FL slot would not help us either because it contains the FR edge, which does not need to be solved. So, we take out the FR slot using its algorithm (R U R' U'). It contained the blue-red edge which needs to go to the back, so move it to the front by a U move, then do the BL algorithm: (L U L' U').

U (L' U' L U)

The final edge to solve (green-red edge) is already in the U-layer. Because it belongs at the front (FL slot), move it to the back by a U move, then insert it by doing the FL algorithm (L' U' L U).

Corners: D2 (sexy) D (sexy 5 times)

Remember that sexy simply refers to the FR algorithm (R U R' U'). For this step, the first corner chosen was the white-blue-orange corner at DBL*. Because it is in the D layer, move it to the DFR spot by a D2 move, then take it out by doing sexy once. Then, because it belongs between the blue and orange cross pieces, move this spot to DFR by doing a D move, then repeat sexy until it is solved (in this case, 5 times).

*This was to demonstrate how you remove a corner that is trapped in D. In an actual solve, the better corner to solve would be the corner in UFR.

D2 (sexy 3 times)

The next corner we see is the white-green-red corner. It is already above the FR slot, so move the red and green cross pieces to the front and right by doing a D2 move, then repeat sexy 3 times to place the corner.

D (sexy 4 times)

The final corner is already in its spot, but is twisted incorrectly. Move the white-blue-red corner to DFR by doing a D move, then repeat sexy until it is solved. You may also consider the first sexy as being to take it out, and the remaining three to place it twisted correctly.

D2

When you have finished all of the corners, realign the bottom layer so that all of the F2L is solved except for the FR slot.

L5E

Last 5 Edges: U2 (R U R') U (R U' R') U2

In this case, we chose the yellow-orange edge as our reference edge.

L5C

Yellow corners: z2 y'

Rotate so that the white face is now on top with the unsolved corner at UFR. This will allow you to solve the yellow corners in a similar manner to how you solved the white corners.

D2 (sexy)

The corner belongs in-between the 2 edges in DL and DB. D2 puts them in DF and DR, then sexy solves it.

D (sexy)

As there is no D corner in UFR, we need to replace it with one. D puts an unsolved D corner in DFR, then sexy swaps them around.

D (sexy)

Same as the first step.

D' (sexy)

Same as the first step.

D

This aligns the D layer.

(sexy 2 times)

This restores the top 2 layers and leaves just 2 corners unsolved.

z

This puts the 2 unsolved corners on D, ready to be solved just like any other corner on D.

(sexy 2 times) D (sexy 4 times) D'

This twists the corner in DFR then replaces it with the other corner, which is twisted then the D layer is restored.