How to solve a Double Cube V1.

Important considerations:

A Double Cube V1 consistes of 2 3x3s which have been joined together by 2 corners and one edge, the edge has been flipped and then glued imbetween the two corners, so two corners are attached to one cube and the edge is attached to the other.

This attachment creates bandaging on both cubes, significantly reducing the number of allowable moves, this guide assumes you can already solve an ordinary 3x3 cube. My standard Double Cube V1 consists of the cubes being joined by the red-green corner-edge triplet, however, your Double Cube V1 may be joined another way.

Step 1: solve the ‘cross’

You first need to identify which colours are on the corner-edge triplet that joins the cubes together, I then recommend starting with the cube that attaches to the corners, for the first part of this guide I will only show images of the first cube but with the bandaging shown.

Here we have the fixed edge-corner triplet shown, with the red-green edge in the middle, just like on a 3x3, we need to solve the cross but one piece is already fixed in the solved position, first make sure to line up all the centres correctly.

Now you need to find the remaining red edges, there are only 3 of them of course. This will be your first introduction to the slight challenges of the double cubes bandaging.

Here are a few examples:

You may think of the solution to this as turning the left side followed by the front side but you can’t turn the left side, you have to do the following:

 

In the same way, in this case you can’t just turn the front face twice, you have to first move the two right layers up and turn the top face instead:

Some fiddling around with these various techniques should allow you to solve the white and yellow edges of the red cross and similar techniques can be implemented for the red-blue edge

For example, in this case, we can’t just turn the front face and then right face, we must do

Once you have solved the cross, you can then move onto the next step, however, I would recommend doing things slightly differently to a normal beginner 3x3 method

Step 2: solve the two locked edges

There will be two edge that are sort of locked, in the case of this guide they will be the green-white and green-yellow edges, these cannot be solved with normal 2nd layer algorithms as they are connected to the fixed corners, they must be solved via pseudo-slotting. Pseudo-slotting is an advanced technique for F2L used by top speedcubers where they solve the First Two Layers without first aligning the cross.

In this case here, you can insert the pair by doing the following:

If the piece is flipped the other way up, then you can insert it from the back, for example this case can be solved by doing this:

The same ideas can be applied to the green-yellow edge at the back, if the edge is already in the slot but flipped (as shown) then you have to treat it like the first case to take it out and then like the second case to put it back in

Step 3: solve the two first layer corners

This can be solved the exact same way as on a 3x3 but with a slight twist: the back one has to be solved from the back, you can’t rotate and do it the same way.

The first case can be solved the same way by repeating the algorithm until it goes in the right way:

But you can’t rotate to solve the back corner, so you must do the same thing but from a different angle:

The red corner is at the back and needs to go at the back, so instead repeat this algorithm until it goes in:

Step 4: solve the first two layers

The regular algorithm for inserting the first two layer edges won’t work here due to the bandaging so you will have to do it differently, both at the front and back.

This case can be solved by doing the following algorithm:

If it is flipped another way then you will need to do a different algorithm:

 

Likewise, for the other edge at the back, you will have to do different algorithms

If it is flipped like this then you can do a very similar algorithm:

And if it is flipped the other way, you can do the following:

Step 5: orient the last layer

Solving the last layer is very similar, for the first step, we just need to use a different algorithm, the places we implement it are the same:

There are 3 possible cases you can have:

If you have a line then do the algorithm once from here:

If you have a triangle then repeat it twice from here:

If you have a dot then you need to do the algorithm once first, you will then have a triangle

Then you can do the corners with the exact same algorithm and the exact same cases:

If you have one corner solved, then turn the top layer so that it in the front left as shown:

If you have two corners solved then hold them on the right as shown (if the two corners are not next to each other then just do the algorithm anyway so you get a different case):

If you have no corners solved then there will be two corners that you can hold facing to the left as shown, do the algorithm from this position.

Repeat this stuff until you solve the layer:

Step 6: permute the last layer

You will always have the corners solved, as the restrictive bandaging makes it impossible for them not to be, if the corners are not all permuted correctly then you must have reassembled the cube wrong at some point.

This algorithm cycles 3 edges so if you have one edge already solved (as shown) then you need to turn the top layer so that it it at the back, you can then repeat the algorithm once or twice and the cube will solve.

If you don’t have any of the 4 edges already solved then just do the algorithm once anyway and you will then have one solved.

Once you have solved the first cube, you have to rotate the whole cube 180° and start over again on the other cube, remember that the cross will be the same colour as the bottom face on the first cube you solved, if you solved a red cross first, like in this guide, then you will need to solve the orange cross first on the 2nd cube, the same techniques can then be used for that cube.

Congratulations on solving the double cube V1, you may be very happy that you were able to solve it for the first time but the fun doesn’t stop there!

How fast can you solve it? The joy of speedcubing comes from seeing your times go down, there is a worldwide community of speedcubers trying to solve cubes as fast as possible, the World Cube Association hosts competitions all around the world.

The 3x3 cube is definitely the most famous twisty puzzle out there but there are many others to try, if you are looking for a harder challenge then why not try a bigger cube or some other shape:

4x4x4 5x5x5 Megaminx

Or why not try an easier twisty puzzle? The World Cube Association has competitions for all these events too:

2x2x2 Pyraminx Skewb

You can buy all these puzzles directly from speedcubing.org in the UK and get them shipped to you quickly all around the country.