Step 1 of 6
Edge orientation
What you should end up with
All 12 edges become good: such an edge can be placed without a quarter turn of F or B. Those two moves are not needed after this, so the cube never has to be rotated.
How to do it
- Hold the cube with yellow on top and green towards you. Look at the edges in four places: on top, on the bottom, and in the middle layer at the front and back. On top and on the bottom take the sticker on that face; in the middle layer take the sticker at the front or back.
- A red or orange sticker means the edge is bad. Yellow or white means it is good. If it is green or blue, look at the edge's other sticker: yellow or white means bad, otherwise good.
- The number of bad edges is always even, because F or B changes four at once. Put four bad edges on one face, F or B, using R, U, L, D, F2 and B2, then do a quarter turn of that face.
- Two bad: put one on F or B and turn that face. Now there are four, and it goes as usual. Solve six as four and two, eight as two fours, and ten as two fours and a two. The diagrams show the top, middle layer and bottom; bad edges are purple.
Four bad edges
3D
F
3D
B
3D
R F
Two bad edges
3D
F R' F'
A whole example, with the line
3D
R U' D F' D L' D'
Tips
›First orient the edges and only then place the line. In time try to do both at once: the best solution takes just over 6 moves on average, and a good target is 8.
›If all 12 edges are bad, solve them as three fours. It is rare.