Ivy Cube Tutorial

The Ivy Cube is another corner-turning specimen in the vast Rubik's Cube family of 3D puzzle games, roughly akin to the Dino Cube and the Redi Cube. But instead of the Dino Cube's structure, being made up entirely of edge pieces, or the Redi Cube having corners and edges, each of the Ivy Cube's six sides has one center – in the abstract, I suppose, shaped like a leaf, but certainly not an ivy leaf – and two, um, corner-edge pieces that each wrap around two edges of the side. The centers are single-color pieces; the edge-corners are three-colored pieces.

This raises the interesting fact that not all corners of the Ivy Cube have the same turning ability. There are four vertices around which you can pivot a combination of three centers and one corner piece while holding the rest of the cube in place; and then there are four vertices where three of those moving sections intersect and overlap, but that only "move" in and of themselves in the sense of holding the opposite vertex in place and turning around it. The moving sections (each one vertex plus three centers) add up to one-eighth of a sphere – what would be a sphere embedded inside a larger cube made of eight Ivy Cubes, with a diameter the length of one Ivy Cube edge. And the puzzle is ingeniously designed so that four such one-eighth spheres overlap each other from alternating vertices of the Ivy Cube.

It's a strangely beautiful, thought-provoking design – but it also limits the number of ways you can scramble it and the difficulty of unscrambling it. It makes you think about ways it could be improved, such as having those hemi-semi-demispheres dialing around all eight vertices, as in the Super Ivy Cube:

Here are a few more variants, just as a small sample of how many ways Cubedom branches out from the Ivy Cube's curvy-cut concept. First, the Evil Eyes Ivy Cube, with pupil-like dimples inside the admittedly eye-shaped centers, and the Maple Ivy Cube, whose indents don't make the centers look any more like maple leaves than ivy leaves:

Then, the Fisher Ivy Cube, on which the eye shapes wrap around the edges in a larger-scale symmetry:

Which leads us to the Raptor Cube, shown here in a pillowy configuration ...

... and finally, some Raptor variants whose connection to the Ivy Cube is less apparent – namely, the Circle Raptor Cube, the Mastor Raptor Cube, the Raptor Skewb and the Mastor Raptor Skewb.

Of all of these, the only one that makes my mouse-button finger itch to visit Speed Cube Shop is the Super Ivy Cube. Maybe after Christmas, when my finances settle down! Back, addiction, back!

According to Ruwix, the Ivy Cube, also known (duh) as the Eye Cube, was invented by Eitan Cher. The Ruwix wiki also describes the Ivy Cube as a Skewb missing half of its corners, or a cube Pyraminx, and calculates that it can be scrambled into 29,160 different configurations. In searching for fastest-solve records, I found some evidence that a certain Gunner Jeppson solved the Ivy Cube in just under 13 seconds; however, another source (albeit AI) claims a Malaysian cuber solved it blindfolded in under 6 seconds. I give up. It doesn't take me seconds to solve it; it only takes me minutes. And I didn't need algorithms or a solution guide or a tutorial; again, like the Dino and the Redi, I picked it up, scrambled it and messed around with it for a bit, before solving it almost by accident.

There isn't a sanctioned speed-cubing event for the Ivy Cube, and so there also isn't an online scramble generator for it, or anything close enough to it (because of that limitation on the vertices that you can turn) to be able to apply a different puzzle's scrambler. So, what I do is just fiddle around until it's about as scrambled as I can get it, more or less aiming to have three different colors on each side, or close to that. Vexingly, it seems to start trying to solve itself the longer you continue trying to scramble it. So it really doesn't pay to overwork this thing. Here's the result of my best effort:

The step-by-step procedure really only has one step: You solve one side at a time. Here I took an opportunity (above) to match the green center with its edge on the adjacent side.

Then I dialed the other green edge around until it came into position to complete the green side.

In this next series of photos, try to follow along as I do a similar procedure on the yellow side.

Taking stock of the remaining pieces of the puzzle, I find the blue side easy to complete.

Now let's work on white for a bit.

But wait a minute! Hold that thought! With the orange center over here ...

... I'm only two moves away from solving orange, green and yellow!

Which puts me within one counterclockwise twist of completing the solve:

Basically, the only trick to this is figuring out how those one-eighth-sphere sections move and what it takes to dial a center in with its desired edge. And because those corner pieces are also edge pieces wrapping around three sides of the cube, once you've brought one center in line with its corner-edge, you've gone a good way toward solving even more of the puzzle. You'll be wondering how to bring this bit over to that side when, all of a sudden, you'll realize you're two moves away from solving the whole cube.

So, why is this even fun? Well, besides the fact that having a cube you can solve in just a few turns without mastering algorithms or strategies – which may be just the boost that a reluctant cuber needs – and those old chestnuts, the interesting feel in the hands and satisfying clicking-sound – the ivy Cube is just an opportunity to admire a beautiful, functional, geometrically sexy design. And also, as I've shown, it's a gateway to even more interesting puzzles. Also, look into its eye. Let its eye look into you. You will acquire the Ivy Cube. And on the count of three, you will wake up and remember nothing. One. Two ...