Use the second color of each petal to choose its home.
By the end: finish four white edges with their side colors matching the centers.
Keep yellow up and white down. Pick a white petal and inspect its other sticker on a side face. Turn U until that side sticker sits above a center of the same color. Now turn that side face halfway. The white sticker moves from top to bottom and its other color remains aligned with its center.
For example, a white-green petal must sit above the green center before the green-side half turn. Do not send every petal down merely because it is white. That can produce a white plus with mismatched side colors.
The daisy intentionally put white around yellow. The cross now puts those same white edges beside the white center underneath. Each edge also has to meet its other center, so white-green belongs between the white and green centers, not wherever a white sticker fits. A correct cross has four correctly directed and located edges. Corners are outside this checkpoint. You can leave all four bottom corners wrong while checking the cross, provided the four bottom edges and their side-center matches are correct on every side.
A petal has white on U and another sticker on a side. Look at that side sticker directly above its center. If both are green, the white-green edge is aligned for a half turn of that face. If the sticker is green but the center is red, the edge is above the wrong side. U moves the petal around yellow while keeping white up. It lets you search for the green center without changing the bottom layer or moving any center relative to another center.
On the teaching cube, the aligned front petal has white at the front edge of U and green at the top-middle square of F. The green center sits below that green sticker. After F2, white faces D and green occupies the bottom-middle square of F, still next to its own center. You can check this route from the top and front views without knowing the back face. To verify the white endpoint, use the bottom outside view, which looks upward at D rather than through U.
The half turn does two jobs at once. It carries the edge from the top of the side face to the bottom, and it rotates its white sticker from upward to downward. Its side sticker faces the same side because the turn rotates around that side's center. A quarter turn would leave the edge in the middle layer with white sideways. That intermediate position is useful for seeing the motion, but it is not the cross placement. Complete the whole half turn before checking the result.
The second color is therefore the selection rule, not an extra decoration to inspect after finishing all four edges. If you send a white-green petal down above the red center, white still reaches D. A glance at the white face would suggest success, but green remains beside red on the side. Adding white corners cannot correct that edge-center mismatch. You would have to move the edge again. Matching first avoids building a larger white pattern around an incorrect edge and makes each placement independently checkable before continuing.
Keep white down and yellow up during this transfer. To bring another side into view, rotate your viewing position around the cube or make a deliberate vertical regrip. A regrip changes which face you call F or R while preserving each edge's relationship to its neighboring centers. A top turn changes those relationships for top edges. They are different operations even when the visible petal seems to move leftward in both. Read the actual center before naming the side half turn, especially after any change of grip.
Once one edge is correctly down, leave it alone. U cannot disturb the bottom cross. Each remaining petal has a different side color, so its matched half turn fills a different bottom edge slot. Continue until no white petal remains on U.
The daisy was only a construction aid. The completed target is now a white center with four white edge neighbors underneath, plus four side stickers matching their respective centers. You may regrip around the vertical axis to inspect the sides, but keep white down.
Use the complete daisy made from solved by F2 R2 B2 L2 as a controlled example. White-green starts at top-front, white-red at top-right, white-blue at top-back, and white-orange at top-left. Each side sticker already matches the center below it. F2 puts white-green into the bottom-front home and leaves the other three petals facing up. At that moment the daisy is no longer complete, which is intended. Progress is now the growing collection of correct bottom edges rather than the old number of petals on top.
After that first F2, R2 places white-red at bottom-right. The green bottom-front edge does not move because it is not part of the right layer. B2 then places white-blue at bottom-back without touching either completed edge. Finally L2 places white-orange at bottom-left. The bottom white cross is complete. The corners need not resemble their original arrangement, even though this example began at solved before making the daisy. Four successful edge transfers certify the cross, not every other piece affected by those face turns along the way.
Now offset that same daisy with U. The white-green edge travels from top-front to top-left; its green sticker now faces L above the orange center. On the teaching cube, the four top side stickers read red at F, blue at R, green at L, and orange at B. None matches its center. This is still a complete daisy because all four whites face U. It is not yet a suitable alignment for sending any of these petals directly down. Separate recognizing the daisy from recognizing a matched petal.
For that specific offset, U' returns white-green above the green center and restores all four matches together. Then F2 places white-green correctly. Alternatively, choose another petal and turn U until its side color matches. On an arbitrary daisy, one petal's match need not align every other petal. The relative order of the four edges may differ from this prepared example. After each placement, select a remaining petal and repeat the matching decision rather than assuming that the initial alignment solved every remaining setup automatically afterward.
Contrast the wrong choice on the offset daisy. Immediate F2 puts the white-red edge into the bottom-front slot. White faces down, but red appears below the green center. White-green stays on top-left, so the edge you intended to solve has not even reached the bottom. Undo F2 before making the U' correction and then F2. The repaired result has white-green underneath and green below green. This comparison shows two separate failures in the bad attempt, the wrong destination and the wrong tracked piece, despite a plausible white endpoint.
A physical cube does not display a permanent label for the selected piece. Say its color pair before the alignment turn, then find that same pair afterward. For instance, naming white-green prevents you from following whichever white sticker happens to appear at top-front after U. All four petals look identical if you look only at U. Inspect their side stickers to keep the intended edge identifiable. The correct route follows one two-color piece until it reaches its two-center home; it does not follow a fixed screen square between turns.
Inspect all four side faces. Each center should have a same-colored edge sticker directly below it. If not, the cross is not finished. Revisit the incorrect edges rather than trying to hide the mismatch with white corners.
If you already have a correctly aligned white cross on a future scramble, skip the daisy. The goal matters; a temporary construction step is not an obligation.
U turns only the upper layer, so a correctly placed white edge underneath cannot move during the next alignment. This is why these daisy transfers are manageable for absolute beginners. You can turn U repeatedly while searching for a match without reopening the bottom edges already solved. The upper corners and remaining petals do move, so their earlier position names become stale. Reinspect the selected petal after each top turn, but you do not need to repair completed bottom edges because the top arrangement changed.
Why does the next side half turn also spare completed cross edges? Every white edge has a different second color. Once white-green is placed at the green side, that identity is no longer among the remaining petals. A correctly matched remaining petal must therefore use some other side center. The bottom edge slot touched by that new side half turn is a different slot. Other bottom edge positions do not belong to its turning layer. This protection follows the selection rule; an arbitrary repeated side turn would not provide it.
The word already matters here. During F2, the edge previously occupying bottom-front travels upward, away from its temporary position. That is allowed because the white-green home was not yet solved. You are replacing an unsolved occupant with its correct edge. If you knowingly turn the green side again after placing white-green, you send that completed edge back out. Thus this method does not promise that all face turns preserve the cross. It explains why the particular matched transfers avoid disturbing the edges established by earlier transfers.
A single side quarter turn puts the selected target in the middle. The complete half turn has the desired bottom endpoint. When watching animation, do not interpret every intermediate view as a new decision point. In the practice controls, choose the side's 2 button for the whole placement and wait for completion. If you use two quarter turns to study the route, remember that the first is only halfway through. Other solved cross edges stay protected, but the selected edge is not down after one.
With a genuine four-petal daisy, there are four white edges available to transfer. Each matched placement removes one petal and adds one correct bottom edge. A U alignment removes none. Consequently, after four matched placements no white petals remain and all four bottom edges are correct. The number of U turns can vary, and you need not pick the same order of colors as the example. This count describes transfers from the daisy setup, not a universal move total or a claim of the shortest solution.
| Next action | What moves | Why correct bottom edges survive |
|---|---|---|
| Align with U | Only upper-layer pieces | Bottom edges are outside U |
| Place a matched remaining petal | One side layer through 180 degrees | Its distinct second color selects a different bottom slot |
| Repeat a completed side half turn | That side layer again | Not protected: it removes the completed edge |
No petals on top is not by itself a general cross test. On another scramble, white edges may face sideways or sit in the middle, leaving U without white. Even after careless transfers, white may face down in wrong homes. The four-placement argument depends on starting with a complete daisy and matching every selected edge before its half turn. When that history is unknown, inspect the actual bottom cross and side matches. A checkpoint is a property of the present pieces, not something a remembered move count can establish.
In the demonstration, choose Matched petal and pause before stepping. Predict the bottom-front result of its first F2 using both colors, then choose Next step. Inspect green below the front center and white in the bottom view. Continue through R2, B2, and L2, naming the edge each move places. The starting and current nets let you compare the whole transfer without remembering hidden stickers. Do not read the four-move sequence as the solution to every daisy; here the initial matches are part of the setup.
Select Top is offset next. This replaces the demonstration with a different starting state and resets its playback. Before stepping, locate white-green at top-left and inspect its green side sticker over orange. The first U' supplies the missing alignment, not a bottom placement. Only the following F2 places white-green correctly. Distinguish these outcomes when reading the completed-move count. One move may prepare the case while another reaches the local goal. The count cannot tell whether an edge matches both centers or remains above yellow awaiting transfer.
Try the same contrast in the independent practice area. Select Top is offset, leave the recall cue closed, and inspect all four side centers in the net. Deliberately choose F2 before alignment and look for red below green. Check my progress should not accept the cross. Use Undo last turn, choose U', then F2 and verify the corrected edge. The check still requires the remaining white edges. Finish those transfers by matching the remaining petals, not by treating the first corrected edge as the entire goal.
After the final transfer, check white underneath at the four edge positions around its center. Then inspect the bottom-middle square of every side. Front and right are visible in the solid view; back and left require the net or a deliberate change of viewpoint. Each square must match the center directly above it. Do not judge a whole bottom row yet because its corner squares belong to the next lesson. This inspection distinguishes a correct cross with unfinished corners from an unfinished cross hidden inside a large white patch.
If one bottom edge has white down but its side color is wrong, identify its home before moving it. A half turn of its current side lifts it back into a white-up petal. U can then align its side color with its own center. If that destination holds a correct cross edge, something is misidentified, since the same two-color edge cannot exist twice. Inspect both pieces again. If the destination is simply unsolved, its matched half turn places the recovered edge without touching the other correct slots.
| State or move | White-green position | What to inspect |
|---|---|---|
| D from solved | Bottom-right; white down | Green sits below the red right center |
| R2 | Top-right; white up | Green faces right above red |
| U | Top-front; white up | Green now faces front above green |
| F2 | Bottom-front; white down | Green matches green; this edge is repaired |
On a later scramble, inspect the cross before constructing a daisy. If all four bottom edges already satisfy both color matches, proceed to white corners. If only some are correct, a complete daisy is still a beginner construction option, but it temporarily lifts those edges out of their finished homes. You need not preserve this construction aid. For recall, state the selected petal's other color, the matching center, and the half turn before acting. Stop at the verified cross, even if your remembered example contains further moves.
Prepared states isolate one task. Some examples happen to finish the whole cube; on a general scramble, stop at the stated checkpoint and continue with the next unfinished step.
Match the side sticker to its center before each half turn.
Next: F2. front face: half turn, 180°, viewed directly from outside that face. Completed 0 of 4 moves.
F2R2B2L2
Sticker letters are colors: W white, Y yellow, G green, B blue, R red, O orange. Face names are positions: U top, D bottom, F front, B back, R right, L left. Read B and R in context.
The net shows the last completed turn; the solid view shows the turn in progress. Presets replace the starting state and reset playback. Reset keeps the selected example. Do not copy an autoplay demonstration onto your cube unless your starting state and grip match. Use manual steps for following along.
Start from a prepared state. These controls change this practice cube only. They do not control the demonstration above or your physical cube. Goal: Make the white cross with matching side colors.
0 moves in this attempt. Limit 500; undo or restart if reached.
Match the other petal sticker to its side center, then turn that side halfway.
A cue is help, not a failure. After using it, restart the prepared state and attempt the same task without reopening it.
Sticker letters are colors: W white, Y yellow, G green, B blue, R red, O orange. Face names are positions: U top, D bottom, F front, B back, R right, L left. Read B and R in context.
Face turns and whole-cube regrips animate in the solid view; the net updates when the turn finishes. Reduced motion shows the result immediately. Wait for a turn to finish before starting another. Undo can cancel the current turn. A new preset or Restart cancels motion, replaces the entire attempt and clears its history. Undo reverses only the last practice turn. Check does not move pieces or reveal an automatic solution. State is local to this page and is not saved after reload.
A petal is white-green, but its green sticker sits over the red center. Should you do a side half turn now?
Find the center that tells you this edge’s home.
No. Turn only U until the green sticker sits over the green center. Then turn that side halfway. A white cross with incorrect side colors would fail this checkpoint.
Your cube already has a correct white cross. Should you rebuild a daisy anyway?
Distinguish the checkpoint from one way of reaching it.
No. Confirm that all four side stickers match, then continue with white corners. The daisy is a beginner construction tool, not a required detour.
The explanations, simulator, and diagrams are original. These references support standard notation and beginner procedures. The course keeps white down, including the final twisting stage. Do not mix its final sequence with a tutorial that flips the cube over.
These examples use states produced by legal turns. The simulator has no sticker-painting input and does not diagnose physically twisted, reassembled, or damaged cubes. Successful model checks do not establish physical-device usability or long-term recall.