Step 3 of 8
Edges: what to memorise
The goal
Looking at a scrambled cube, make the list of edge letters. No turning the faces while you do it.
How to do it
- First cycle. Look at the sticker in the buffer and name its place. Look at what lies in that place and name its place. Carry on until you meet the buffer's own piece, whose letter you do not memorise.
- New cycle. Edges still out of place? Memorise a sticker of any of them and go the same way until you get back to that piece. The first and last letters may be different stickers of one edge.
- Flipped. An edge in its place but flipped? Memorise any of its stickers and the one lying on it: two letters.
- Edges already home are not memorised at all, and B and M never are.
An example step by step
On the diagram a letter names a place, and the colour shows what lies there now. Press Next and follow the arrow: this is a real worked example from the J Perm guide.
Letters
Scramble (white on top, green towards you)
B2 R2 B2 L U2 R' B2 R2 B2 R' U' B' F L' B D R B2 D B' D' U
Step 1 of 14
Look at the sticker in the buffer B: blue, other side: white. It belongs at Q. Memorise Q.
MemorisedQ
All the edge lettersQUSRNXIVPRDE
Why this list solves the edges
Now do these same letters and watch what happens to the cube. The setups are not shown here, only the result of each swap. Note what lies in the buffer after each step.
Step 1 of 13
The cube is scrambled and the buffer holds Q, which is the first letter of the list. Stickers that reach their places will light up green.
Done—
If it does not work
›Do the colours confuse you? Always read in one order: first the sticker on this place, then the other side of the piece.
›You can see the back and bottom by turning the cube in your hands, but always go back to the grip: white on top, green towards you. No turning the faces.
›At the end of the first cycle the buffer got its own piece back, but flipped? Do not memorise the letter anyway. A buffer like that fixes itself: a new cycle that closes on the other sticker does it, or the two letters of a flipped edge. Each such pair also flips the buffer.
›At first just write the letters on paper: for now the aim is to find the right list.