Rubik's Cube Tutorial - all you need to know

Fridrich Method

My goal is to give fellow users insight on how exactly to solve a Rubik's Cube. The number of pictures is misleading, as I showed almost every move needed for the solve. Hang in there reading the theory, I am not putting any useless information into this post.

The Fridrich Method is the most common way to solve a Rubik's Cube.
There are variations - one of which I use to speedsolve (my record is 25s) - but this is the way I prefer to teach people how to solve a Rubik's Cube for the first time. I like to emphasize a little intuition opposed to straight memorization, because it is much more enjoyable to play with when you have an idea of what's going on. How this method works is you solve the cube by layers. The first layer is the hardest to learn, but also very easy once you get the hang of it. Then you solve the second layer, and finally the third, and then you have a solved Rubik's Cube!

Cross - First Layer

The first step is to get the "cross," which means aligning four (white) edge pieces on the white side. Something to note, there are three different types of pieces; center, edge, and corner.
The center pieces of the cube NEVER move, and contain only one color. White will always be opposite yellow, green will be opposite blue, orange will be opposite red.
Edge pieces do move, and are two colors. If you have a cube with you, you can see that edge pieces can be moved two directions. That is, there are two faces of the cube you can turn to physically move the edge piece.
Corner pieces are three colors, and can be moved by rotating three different faces of the cube.

Along with creating the "cross" pattern on the white face, you must also place each edge piece next to its corresponding center piece. As you can see, I have the white-green and white-orange edge pieces aligned to the proper sides.
*Note: When doing the First Layer, do not give a fuck about messing up the other colors. Only look at white. When solving the Cross, do not give a fuck about the corner pieces with white (you can see a white-red-blue corner piece chilling there). This is an incremental process and almost anyone who picks up a Rubik's Cube will try not to "mess everything up" when they attempt to solve it.

Notation

This is the final section before we get solving. After you understand this, you will have all the tools you need to be able to enjoy the Rubik's Cube to its full potential.
As I mentioned before, I like to keep things intuitive. But learning how the notation works is imperative for performing algorithms and for me to explain what is going on in the following pictures. Here you see 6 letters corresponding to the 6 sides of the cube: U,L,F,R,B, and D. These refer to: Up, Left, Front, Right, Back, and Down. If I were to tell you to perform U,R you would first rotate the "up" face 90 degrees clockwise, then the "right" face 90 degrees clockwise (as you look at the particular face). If I said U,R' (R prime) you would rotate the "up" face clockwise and the "right" face counterclockwise.
This notation is very simple, but takes practice and patience to know which direction to turn each face when confronted with an algorithm.

Solve the Cross

Here is a scrambled cube. I scrambled it purposefully to show a few points. You can see 3 white edge pieces in this picture, the fourth is on the bottom side. The ONLY WAY to get the edge piece to the white side (I recommend holding the cube with white on top) is to get an edge piece oriented vertically like the white-green one shown.

View of the bottom face

Inserting an edge piece

The only move I did to get this white piece on top was R. Notice the two other white edge pieces. I cannot get them to the "U" face before moving them at least once, because they are not in the vertical position.

Here is where people get stuck

Remember when I said the edge pieces can only be moved 2 directions? Use this to your advantage. A lot of times a beginner will randomly turn faces until the desired vertical edge piece is available. This oftentimes ends in frustration. I performed an F' turn to align these edge pieces vertically. (F would have also worked, but I wanted to show the white-blue edge piece).

Now I have 2 more edge pieces I can easily insert into the "U" face. Here is where I pay attention to the colors next to the white on the edge pieces. The first one I put up top was white-green. Shown here is a white-blue piece. I automatically know that the blue face is opposite the green face, so I performed a U2 (rotated "U" 180 degrees) and now I can easily insert the white-blue opposite the white-green with an R turn.

R

Here I aligned my two white edge pieces on top to the correct position by doing U' to align the white-green with the green face. I just did this to see my progress and clean up the look a little.

Now for my white edge piece that has been on the left. I can see here that it is a white-orange piece, and that it is already on the correct face.

Perform L' to insert the white-orange. Note that the white-red piece that was on bottom is now in front of me.

It is easy to see where this last piece must go, so I did U2 to align the edge to its spot, and did L' to insert it.

L'

The cross properly oriented, with a bonus corner piece that randomly got in there

Congratulations! The first part is always the most difficult. From here it will get easier. Keep in mind that the cross can ALWAYS be made with less than 10 moves, but this is difficult. Aim for at most 15 moves, and you will become better.

Solve Corners

The ONLY WAY to insert a corner piece is to first orient it on the bottom row with white facing out. Then place it beneath the spot it belongs. Here I just did D to put this white-green-(red) corner piece beneath its spot.

Insert Corner - R'

To insert this corner, I did R',D',R. If the white face of the corner piece was where the green face is on the previous picture, I would do L,D,L' to insert it. There is another way to accomplish this with 4 moves, but I'll let you figure that out :)

D'

R

Last two corners

I chose to insert the white-orange-green corner first

Bring corner to bottom row from D face

To insert the corner, I need the white face of it to be on the bottom row. To do this I must do either R' or L. To prevent myself from messing up a previous corner, I placed it directly opposite an open spot on the white face. (you can see the red-yellow-blue corner on top. Idgaf about it because I am solving white.)

R'

You can see my white-orange-green corner in the bottom right now.

A look from the back

This is still immediately after doing R'. As you can see, the white face of the corner piece is on the bottom row. The goal is to do R again so I don't mess up my previous white pieces. But before I do that, I do D to get the white corner out of the way.

D. View from back

Now my white-orange-green corner is on the lower right of the screen. I will be rotating R (the left face here), and my corner piece is well out of the way.

R

Now my white face is how it was before, but I have a white corner in the bottom row off screen.

Insert Corner

Same thing on this corner piece. R',D',R. If the white face were where the orange face is, I would do L,D,L'.

R'

*Note: Most right handed people will prefer doing the majority of rotations with the right hand, especially if you're using a shitty, overpriced Rubik's brand cube. The cube I use is a Dayan Guhong. It's much cheaper and 100x easier to turn compared to a Rubik's brand. You can argue "breaking in a cube" as much as you want, but this sucker cuts corners about halfway to 45 degrees, making things much easier.

D'

R

Last corner

Do you know what to do? The white face of the corner needs to be in the bottom row. So I will do R',D,R again.

R'

D

R

Here is where the corner piece ended up

FINISH HIM

D2 gets my corner beneath its spot. R',D',R inserts the corner.

First Layer Complete

bitches

Second Layer - easy mode

After RKOing the first layer, the cube is now flipped upside-down. The second layer only consists of center pieces and edge pieces. The center pieces are always correct, so all that has to be done is insert the edge pieces. The key is to recognize which pieces to look for, like the orange-blue piece there. (The orange-green just happened to end up there after solving the FL. Shit crazy.) Therefore no yellow (or white) will be in the second layer.

ALGORITHM #1

Here's the first real algorithm. It makes sense after learning more about the cube, but for now it will probably be a mystery as to how it works. The edge piece you want must be put on the side it belongs (I have my orange-blue piece on the orange side). In this case I want to teleport this piece to the spot with the yellow-blue edge. I think of it as moving right.

U,R,U',R',U',F',U,F

To do this you need to use the algorithm: U,R,U',R',U',F',U,F
You'll probably mess it up a few times, causing you to have to redo the first layer. But with repetition comes muscle memory and visual cues as to how it should look, say, halfway through the algorithm.

Second Layer cont

Now I have a dilemma. There are no edge pieces on the U face that will help me, they all have yellow. I will just redo #1 to place the yellow-blue edge where the red-blue edge is.

Algorithm #1 completed

You can see my red-blue edge on the back-top face.

#1 again

Now I can place this piece into the correct spot using #1.

#1 again

Same thing. Told you second layer is easy!
I just happened to not have to move a piece left, or the opposite of what #1 does.
To do this use the algorithm: U',L',U,L,U,F,U',F'
It is the mirror image of #1: U,R,U',R',U',F',U,F

Third Layer - 3 more algorithms

Now all that's left is to solve the third layer. At this point, things get confusing so I let the algorithms do the talking.

F,R,U,R',U',F'

For now, only look at the yellow edges. The corners will get solved last. There will be: no edges showing, two adjacent edges, two opposite edges, or a cross when you look at the yellow face. This order is also the order taken when doing algorithm #2. After doing #2: 3 times, two times, one time, or zero times, you will have the cross. F is the side my thumb is on for reference.

Algorithm #2 again

Orient it like this, with F being the face my thumb is on, and do it again.

Now I have a cross, and then some. But only pay attention to the edge pieces.

Orient edges

Algorithm #3 works the same as #2. Basically just keep doing it until you achieve the desired result. Once you have two adjacent edges that are in the correct position, hold the cube like in the next picture and do #3.

R,U,R',U,R,U2,R' completed

Now all the yellow edge pieces are in the correct places.
Orient corners:
If you're lucky, the corner pieces will be in the "correct" spots. Here you see my yellow-blue-red corner is in the right spot, it's just flipped around. However; it is the only piece in the correct spot. Hold the cube like shown, and do Algorithm #4: U,R,U',L',U,R',U',L. I recommend looking at the cube while doing this one, because it is an easy visual to remember.

Algorithm #5

Now that the corners are all in the correct places, it's time for the scary part. Algorithm #5 is simple: R',D',R,D. It's very similar to what we used to insert corners in the First Layer. Turn the U face until an unaligned corner is in the bottom right of the yellow face, and repeat the algorithm until the piece is aligned correctly (2 or 4 times). If I remember correctly, sometimes I would forget the last D when I was learning, so watch out for that.

First corner fixed

Here is the product of doing Algorithm #5 four times. Next, turn the U face until the next unaligned corner.

Algorithm #5 - another four times

Corner fixed

Turn U, Algorithm #5

Magical

Solved.