Redi Cube Tutorial

You've already been introduced the Redi Cube, whose scramble generator we used for the Dino Cube. Here it is again: a Rubik's Cube variant where each side has four edges, four corners but no center, and where turns pivot around the vertices, taking one corner piece together with the three adjacent edges.

The Redi Cube was invented in 2009 by Oskar van Deventer. It's pretty easy to solve, despite being capable of over 1.5 trillion different configurations. According to Grubiks (which suggests a different approach to solving it, though not following it hasn't particularly hampered me), the unofficial record for fastest solve of this unsanctioned puzzle cube is 3.95 seconds.

Like the Dino Cube, the Redi Cube has its share of spinoffs and adjacent puzzles, such as (below) the Barrel Redi Cube, the Phoenix Cube (which is more edge-turning than vertex-turning), the Tins Cube (which seems to have more layers going one way than another), and the Windmill Cube (also kinda edge-turning, for what it's worth). Finally, there's the Fadi Cube, a.k.a. the Mosaic Cube, a 4x4x4 version of the Redi Cube that also shares the same inventor.

Obviously, if you can use the Redi Cube's scrambler on the Dino Cube, the two puzzles must be somewhat similar. Sure, it's another three-layered puzzle (just see the photo below) whose moves rotate around four axes that cut through diagonally opposite vertices.

Move notation, which I tend to forget about as soon as I'm done scrambling the Redi Cube, is once again best thought of while facing the cube edge-on, starting with white up, green to the left of front and red to the right. So here (clockwise moves only; imagine the "prime" moves for yourself) are examples of ...

F:

D:

L:

R (believe it or not, that's yellow coming up from the bottom):

UL:

UR:

U:

And B (looking down from above):

Now let's get started, after following the scramble pattern below:

STEP 1: Solve the white side. The new wrinkle with the Redi Cube, compared to the Dino Cube, is that in addition to two-colored edge pieces, you also have to contend with three-colored corner pieces. So let's move this red-white edge (at top left) next to the red-white (and green) corner at right:

Now it would be nice to put a white-green edge below this white-red-green corner.

I found it somewhere and maneuvered it into position to dial into that slot.

The blue-white edge and blue-red-white corner are hanging out together below the white-green-red corner.

Though I broke the red-green edge out of its slot to do so, I dialed both those corners (blue-red first, then green-red) onto the same side.

This wasn't just the best option to put those to corners together on the same side; it was the only option. Something you might notice by the time you've gotten this far in solving the Redi Cube is that you can't really make the corners go anywhere. You can change their orientation, but not their position relative to each other. The puzzle, it turns out, is all about swapping edges in and out of the lots between those corners, to line up the right colors in the right orientation. So, confronted with this case – where both the green-white and the orange-white edges are next to the orange-green-white corner – you have to do some critical thinking about which piece needs to be taken out of position and put back on on a different side of the vertex.

Yes, class, that would be the green-white edge. First, let's rotate that corner to put the green-white edge out of danger of messing up the neighboring bit of solved puzzle. Then dial it out of that corner entirely; rotate the corner into position to take green-white back in its correct orientation; dial green-white back in; and restore the corner to show your progress on solving the white side.

Here, the blue-orange-white corner seems to be twisted out of true with relation to the orange-white and blue-white edges. But again, for all practical purposes, The Corner Is Always Right. It's the edges that have to be taken out and put back in facing the right way.

I didn't talk you through those moves; hopefully the photos sufficiently illustrated what I did. And frankly, it isn't about dictating specific formulas or carrying out exact algorithms; it's about thinking which edges need to be swapped out and swapped back in. Oh, look! I found that green-red edge again, and when I dial it back into place, it brings the green-red-yellow edge with it, and we're already started on STEP 2: Solving the yellow side, opposite to white.

Here are a couple of corners (yellow-orange-green and red-blue-yellow) that have drawn some edges meant for each other into their orbit:

A single twist brings the yellow-green edge home.

Then we pivot that corner to match up with the yellow side and reassess:

Oh, look! That orange-yellow edge can dial right into place.

Let's pull that yellow-blue edge off the top and put it next to the yellow-blue-orange corner; then pivot around that same corner to put the orange-green edge where it belongs.

Upon reassessing the situation again, we find there are only three edges out of place – red-blue, yellow-orange and (around the next corner) blue-orange.

Now, let's think about this. The yellow-orange edge in the first picture is where the blue-orange edge in the second picture belongs. Meanwhile, the red-blue edge in the first picture goes where the blue-orange piece is, and the yellow-orange piece goes where the red-blue edge is. Hmm. Let's try to get that red-blue edge out of there. First, I pivot around the yellow-orange-blue corner to bring the red-blue edge closer to the side it belongs on.

Then I dial blue-orange up (from the right) into its correct slot:

Then I pivot the blue-orange-yellow corner again to bring red-blue into place to swap with orange-yellow:

And then I'm just one twist away from a complete solve:

Once again, the Redi Cube is very much like the Dino Cube, in that you're only really moving edge pieces around. The main difference is that you also have to worry about their orientation with respect to the corner pieces. But if you think through what needs to go where, and how, you'll get there with maybe a little trial and error. Or maybe, when you think you're half a dozen moves from the end, you'll make two quick moves and discover with surprise that the puzzle is solved. Yeah, it's one of those. I didn't need a tutorial to learn how to solve this one, either. But I share because I love. And there are times when I find this puzzle particularly satisfying to turn in my hands, to look at, to feel, to scramble and unscramble. For some reason, there's just an endorphin hit when the right piece goes into the right slot. And those corners make it that little bit more interesting than the Dino Cube.