VERY IMPORTANT:
YOU NEED TO KNOW HOW TO SOLVE THE 3X3 CUBE BEFORE TRYING TO SOLVE THE 4X4 CUBE.
IF NOT, PLEASE CHECK MY PREVIOUS BLOGS FOR THE 3X3 SOLUTION FIRST.
So, when you were celebrating about
solving the 3x3 cube, you did not know the challenges ahead of you! The 4x4
cube is here, and it will haunt you until you defeat it! But don't worry, this
will help you defeat the 4x4 cube. Are you ready? Here we go!
Symbols
Most symbols will be the same as the 3x3
cube. When I write “R”, that means you twist the right side clockwise. When I
write “L”, that means you twist the left side clockwise. When I write “F”, that
means you twist the front side clockwise. Same thing with “U”(Up), “D”(Down),
and “B”(Back).
But there are a
few different symbols from the 3x3. You can move two layers at a time. For
that, I will put a * at the end of the letter. Unlike the 3x3 tutorial I made,
the counterclockwise symbol is ^.
Quick Summary
So first, you will have to solve the four
middle pieces. After that, you will face a complicated step, which is for
making the 4x4 cube look like a scrambled 3x3 cube, but don't worry, you will
complete that step. After that step, you just solve it like a normal 3x3 cube.
Sometimes, you will face parity, a type of problem that cannot be found on the
3x3 cube. To solve parity, you will have to do a very long algorithm to solve
it.
Two Middle Pieces
The middle pieces are the middle 4 pieces
of each side. Let's solve the green side first. As you become better at this
cube though, you can start with any color. But just start at the green side
this time.
First, you should
get two green rectangles (which are basically two green middle pieces right
next to each other). Since you already mastered the 3x3 cube, you should be
able to get the two green rectangles easily.
After that, you
can put the two rectangles together and finish one middle side as shown in
Figure I.
Figure I
The next step is
to solve the blue side. You should know that the green side and blue side are
opposite of each other. Turn the green side to the bottom. First you will get
all the four blue middle pieces into the front, left, right, or the back side.
You will usually have the pieces already there, but if it is not and the piece(s)
are in the top layer, you will turn the top layer to the front and depending on
if the blue piece is on the left or the right, you will do these algorithms.
Left: L^*, 2U, L*; Right: R*, 2U, R^*. You will keep on doing that until the
piece is on the correct layers. We call this as Algorithm One. After that, you
can turn the cube again so the green side is back on the bottom.
Then, you can
easily put the four blue pieces into two rectangles in vertical positions. If a
rectangle is horizontal, all you need is to twist that layer left or right, it
doesn't matter. After that, you put one of the vertical rectangles in front of
you. We expect to have the other vertical rectangle on the left or the right
side. However, if you are not lucky, i.e., the other rectangle is on the back
side, then you need another trick to put them adjacent. You should mess up one
of the rectangles. Make sure while you are messing it up, you do not break up
the other solved rectangle. To do that, you turn both the rectangles
horizontal: One horizontal rectangle on the top of the middle layers, and one
on the bottom of the middle layers. Then you put them in adjacent sides. Put
them vertical and you are done.
Soon, you are in
the step that puts the rectangles into the top side, or you should say, the
opposite side of green. You need to use Algorithm One taught earlier for each
rectangle. So if the rectangle is on the left side, use the left algorithm.
Same thing for the right side. Just to tell you, after you finish one
rectangle, you need to twist the rectangle in the blue side so it lines up with
the other rectangle as shown in Figure II. And then you do the algorithm. You should now finish both green and blue
middle pieces. Check, the blue and green side must be opposites. If not, then
you should mess only one side up and then start over.
Figure II
The Other Middle Pieces
Now it is time to solve the other sides'
middle pieces. The first step in doing that is to first put the green and blue
side at the sides so that the unsolved sides are in the center wedge. After
that, you will try to get all the middle pieces left into rectangles in
different colors without messing up the green and blue middle pieces. Basically
you can only play with the top layer, the bottom layer and the middle two
vertical layers. The key is that once you get a rectangle, you need to put it
vertical so when you try to finish the other rectangles, you won't mess up the
rectangles you already solved. You might need to do this for a long time, or
really fast, but I believe you will get all the rectangles finished as shown in
Figure III.
Figure III
After you finish
the rectangles, you need to solve one side first by twisting the middle two
vertical layers. But which side to solve first, yellow, or black, or orange, or
red? Try to find a corner piece that has blue (or green) on it and the piece's
blue (or green) side is on its color side, i.e., the blue (or green) side. Then
find the other two colors of that corner piece, say black and red. This corner
piece is shown in Figure III as well. Choose one of the colors as the side you
want to solve first, say red. Then combine the two red vertical rectangles into
one side and twist the layer that has the corner piece so that the red piece is
on this (red) side, as shown in Figure IV.
Figure IV
Next we will
solve the other color side, i.e., the black side in our example, which is
indicated by the corner piece already. You can line up the two black rectangles
as shown in Figure V, and use Algorithm One just as in the step we solved the
blue middle pieces. Please be careful that you need to put the black side on
the top and the other black rectangle on the front (as shown in Figure V), when
using the algorithm.
Figure V
As you finish
your fourth middle part, there will be only two more middle parts unfinished. Just
line up the rectangles and use the same algorithm. To figure out which side is
which, just look on the opposite side. Opposites: Black (or White if White is
in your cube)-Yellow, Orange-Red, and Blue-Green. So when you try to solve the
side for example, you know which side should be on the top.
And...congrats! You finished all the
middle pieces in the 4x4 cube!
Make it 3x3!
Now the next step is to make the
scrambled 4x4 into a scrambled 3x3! You will have to get two edge pieces of the
same color together (an edge piece is a piece on the edge but excluding the
corner pieces). Then, you will pretend that two edge pieces that are together are
one piece on the 3x3 cube. Therefore one finished middle side can be treated as
one piece, the middle piece on the 3x3 cube.
Basically, you
will first find two edge pieces of the same color, which are not together yet.
You might be wondering: Wait, there are two same edge pieces on the cube? Well
yes, there are. Unlike the 3x3 cube, the 4x4 cube has two same edge pieces. So
anyway, you find the two same edge pieces. Twist the cube around without
breaking up the middle solved pieces until the two same edge pieces are on opposite
sides and on different layers, as shown in Figure VI.
Figure VI
Then check that
the top layer has at least two unsolved edge pairs. If not, bring other
unsolved edge pairs to the top layer. If you can't find another two unsolved
edge pairs, I will have an algorithm later to solve that, which will be
introduced later.
If the left side
piece is in a higher layer than the right side piece, as shown in Figure VI, you
do this algorithm: U*^, F^, and then turn the right side to the front. Next,
you turn the upper layer until an unsolved edge pair is on the left side of the
upper layer. Then you do F, D*, and you are done.
If the right side
piece is in a higher layer, as shown in Figure VII, use this algorithm: D*, F^,
then turn the right face to the front face, flip the top layer until an
unsolved edge pair replaces the edge pair you are trying to solve. Then do L,
D*^.
Figure VII
Sometimes, you
might see the right side piece is in a same layer as the left side piece, as
shown in Figure VIII. In this case, you need to do L^, R, U, F, U^, L. Then the
two pieces will be in different layers, and you can use the previous algorithms
to solve it.
Figure VIII
Do the same
things for all the edge pieces. Sometimes, the last two edge pairs are not
solved yet. Using the above algorithms will not get it solved. For the last two
edge pairs, put them on the left and right sides separately. Once you do that,
make sure that the two pieces of the same color are in the same layer. If
not, you can use the algorithm
introduced for Figure VIII. Then you will have to do this algorithm: D*, R, F^,
U, R^, F, D*^. Sometimes, you might not need this algorithm, but usually, you
do. After this, you should be able to pair up the edge pairs. Each edge pair is
one piece on the 3x3 cube. The other pieces are one piece on the 3x3 cube. Then
you solve it as a 3x3 cube, and you should be finished!
Parities
Parities are a problem on the cube that
cannot happen on the 3x3. To solve parities, you need a very long algorithm to
solve each. There are 4 kinds of parities in all. Remember: you only need to do
the parity algorithm when all the other parts of the cube has been solved.
Parity 1: When an
edge pair is switched around
2R*, 2B, 2U, L*, 2U, R^*, 2U, R*, 2U, 2F, R*, 2F,
L^*, 2B, 2R
Parity 2: When
opposite corners are in the wrong position.
2U*, 2L*, 2U, 2L*, 2L, 2U, 2L*, 2U*, R, U^, L, 2U,
R^, U, R, L^, U^, L, 2U, R^, U, L^, U
Parity 3: When
two edge pairs opposite of each other is switched around.
2r, 2U, 2r, 2U*, 2r, 2u
Parity 4: When
two corners on the same side are in the wrong position.
2U*, 2L*, 2U, 2l, 2U, 2L*, 2U* F', U', F, U, F, R', 2F, U, F, U, F', U',
F, R
Congratulations! You are finished!
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