The first four centers

Goal

Solve the first four 3x3 centers: white, yellow, orange, blue. The last two centers have their own lessons.

How the 5x5 differs from the 4x4

Each center has 9 pieces. The very middle one is fixed, so each face's color is known and the order cannot go wrong as on a 4x4. The eight around it move all over the cube when you turn the inner slices.

How to do it

1. Join matching pieces into a 1x3 bar in the right column of the front.
2. r lifts the bar to the top.
3. One U (or U', U2) turns the top's wrong pieces into the right column. r' sends them down to the front.

The final r' puts everything else back, so a solved center below is not broken.

Order

1. White on top.
2. Yellow, with the cube flipped so white is on the bottom.
3. Orange, holding white and yellow on the left and right.
4. Blue on top, orange at the back. The fourth center must sit next to the third so the last two are neighbors.

Another way: one piece at a time

The vebimo 5x5 guide places one piece at a time: the four cross pieces first, then the four corner pieces. Each move only swaps pieces between two faces, so never take pieces from a finished center.

Turn the top to bring the gap to the right spot, then pick by where the piece is:

• Cross piece in the middle of the front's right column. Gap in the middle of the top's front row. Do r U' r', as in Center 1: bring up a bar of two.
• Corner piece at the top right of the front center. Gap at the top's front right corner. Do r U r' U r U2 r', as in One corner piece in Last two centers: one or two pieces.
• Piece on the bottom: the two opposite face cases of this lesson.

r U' r' also swaps the top's front left corner spot. That is why the cross comes first.

Common mistakes

• Forgetting the final r' and breaking the center below.
• Solving the fourth center opposite the third. Then the last two are opposite, and the next algorithms do not work.

Next lesson

Go to Last two centers: full column.