How To Solve the 4x4 Rubik's Cube | Solve Like a Pro: Rubik Cube Tutorials - Class 6 PDF Download

Solving the 4x4 Rubik's Cube is not too much harder than solving a 3x3. The concepts of the steps are as follows:

• Solve the center pieces
• Pair similar edge pieces
• Turn only the outer layers, and solve it like a 3x3!

Step 1. White Center

• Pair up 2 white center pieces to form a bar.

• Make another white center bar somewhere else on the cube, and then join the 2 bars together.

• This step should be completely intuitive, although you may need to experiment a bit to get used to how pieces move.

Step 2. Yellow Center

• Hold the white center on the bottom, and make a yellow center bar anywhere on the cube.
• Make sure to fix the white center if you ever destroy it. Examples:
  

• If the yellow bar is not on the top face, move it onto the top by doing this:

• Make another yellow bar, and then place it under the first bar to move it to the top:

Step 3. Partial White Cross

• This step completes 3 out of the 4 cross pieces in the correct color order.
• Hold the white center on the left.
• The correct color order going upwards is Blue, Orange, Green, Red (BOGR)

Example of a finished cross and centers:

• Find 2 white edge pieces that have the same colors on them.
• Put one in the left slice layer, and one in the right slice layer (the slice layers are the middle 2 layers).
• Join them, and add it to the cross.

• Repeat this step for a total of 3 (not 4) cross pieces solved, and follow the color scheme shown above.
• Be careful not to destroy other cross pieces or the 2 solved centers.

Step 4. Centers

• Make 1 center bar of any color, and turn it to be vertical.
• Be careful not to destroy the partial cross (tips explained in the video tutorial).
• If you have completed any other centers already, make sure you also fix them any time you break them (just like fixing the white center when making the yellow center).

• Make another center bar of the same color.
• If this is the first center you've made, you can just join them together.

• If other centers have already been made, put the 2 bars on the same side to join them:

• Solve the rest of the centers.
• Some trickier cases for the last 2 centers are shown in the example solve video above.

Step 5. Edge Pairing

• Hold the cross on the bottom, with the unsolved part at the front.
• Look for the last 2 white edge pieces. If one is in the bottom, turn the front so that it's not.
• Put both white pieces in the front/left and front/right without breaking the partial cross.

• Each piece is either on the top or bottom slice layer.

Case 1: If they are in different slices:

• Join the pieces
• Replace it with an unsolved edge pair
• Fix the centers

Case 2: If they are in the same slice:

• Slice piece 1 towards piece 2.
• Flip piece 1 (with the flipping algorithm: R U R' F R' F' R)
• Fix the centers

The flipping algorithm R U R' F R' F' R is written in move notation. Make sure you hold the piece you want to flip at the front/right.

• Insert the cross edge into the bottom layer to complete the cross.
• Solve the rest of the edge pairs one at a time using the same method as for the first edge. If you are ever confused, you can watch the example solve video above as it shows the full process.

Step 6. Solve Like a 3x3! (mostly)

• If you only turn the outer layers, the cube acts like a 3x3 with corner pieces, edge pieces, and center pieces.

From here you can solve the cube like a 3x3, but there are a few problems you might run into:

OLL Parity is when you have a flipped edge that is impossible on a 3x3, and happens on 50% of solves. You can flip the front/top edge to fix this, by doing the OLL Parity Algorithm:

• Rw U2 x Rw U2 Rw U2 Rw' U2 Lw U2 Rw' U2 Rw U2 Rw' U2 Rw'

• Incorrect centers can lead to a weird situation shown below. Even if you follow this tutorial correctly, it's possible that your cube has a different color scheme. You can look at any corner piece to determine how the center colors should be positioned relative to other centers.

• To swap the U/F centers: Rw' F2 Rw2 U2 Rw'
• To swap the U/D centers: Rw2 U2 D2 Rw2
•