How to solve a SQUARE-1 in 6 Steps | Easy to follow Beginners Steps

 

The Square-1 has 3 layers that are all split on the diagonal to enable a "slice" move. The middle layer has two sides.  This means you really only need to solve the Top and Bottom layers.

At a beginner level the Suare-1 is solves in the following 6 Steps:

  1. Get the puzzle into a Cube Shape
  2. Orient Corners (CO)
  3. Orient Edges (EO)
  4. Permute Corners (CP)
  5. Permute Edges (EP)
  6. Fix Parity

All the images are shown in pairs.  The left side shows the TOP and the right side shows the BOTTOM.

STEP 1 - Get the puzzle into a Cube Shape.

  1. Hold your SQ-1 with the middle layer that has two pieces is facing you, with the small square on the left.
  2. By turning the right hand side 180 degrees ("slice") you can move edge pieces from the bottom to the top. The goal is to get all eight edge pieces next to each other.
  3. Here’s the trick: The left side doesn't move, so store your edges there. Rotate the bottom layer to put edges in the right side. Then slice to move the bottom edges to the top alongside the ones you already have.

This step is intuitive; you can do it for sure but it does take a little practice. The following two examples show you how to get the last edges in place:

The following examples guides you to move the last one or two edges.

This first example is if you have seven edges together and one is left between two corners. 

Square-1 cubeshape a
The two example below is when you have five edges together and one edge separate in the top and two edges together in the bottom layer. 
square-1 cube shape b
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square-1 cube shape alg 3
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Once the eight edges are together in the top and six corners in the bottom then hold you puzzle with Middle layer that has two sides facing you, with the small square on the left. Rotate the top layer so that the slice is lined up as the green line indicates.
Perform the following algorithm to turn the Sq-1 into a cube:

Step1 - alg


STEP 2 - Orient Corners (CO)

The goal of this step is to move all the Yellow corners in the TOP face, whilst maintaining the square shape for the top and bottom layers.
Step 2 hold
  1. For this tutorial we are using YELLOW top and WHITE bottom.
  2. Rotate the top layer so that you have a WHITE corner in the front right position.
  3. Rotate the bottom layer so that you have a YELLOW corner in the front right position
  4. Perform the steps below to swap the two corners.

  

Step 2  algRepeat this process until you have ALL four YELLOW corners in the top layer.


STEP 3 - Orient Edges (EO)

The goal of this step is to move all the Yellow edges in the TOP face, whilst maintaining the square shape for the top and bottom layers.

STEP 3
  1. Rotate the top layer so that you have a WHITE edge in the right position.
  2. Rotate the bottom layer so that you have a YELLOW edge in the back position
  3. Perform the algorithm below to swap the two edges

 

 

Square-1 step 3 Algorithm

Repeat this process until you have all four YELLOW edges in the top layer.


STEP 4 - Permute Corners (CP)

The goal of this step is to move all the corners into the correct position relative to each other whist maintaining the square shape for the top and bottom layers.
step 4 hold
  1. This step will swap two corners in the TOP layer until all the corners are in the correct spot.
  2. If you have two corners with matching side colours (”headlights”) in the TOP layer then turn your top layer so that the two corners are on the BACK side.
  3. Perform the steps below to swap the two corners on the FRONT side of the top layer.
If you have no “headlights” then perform the steps below. After this you should have one set of “headlights”. Turn your top layer so that the “headlights” are on the back side.
Once the Top layer is permuted then SWAP the top and bottom layers with this algorithm: / (6,6) / .  Slice, Turn the top and bottom layers 180 degrees, Slice.
Repeat the process above for the bottom layer, which is now on top.


STEP 5 - Permute Edges (EP

step5 holding

  1. This step will swap two edges in the TOP and bottom layer simultaneously
  2. Turn the TOP layer so that the edge on the right matches the corners on the front.
  3. Turn the bottom layer so that the edge on the left matches the corners on the front.
  4. Follow the steps below to swap the edges.

Repeat this process until you have either all edges solved OR only two edges for the whole cube swapped.

STEP 6 - Fix Parity

parity

If you only have two edges swapped then you have edge parity.

Hold the cube with the two swapped edges in the top layer. on the front and right sides.

The steps to swap only two edges is:

 

/ (-3,0) / (0,3) / (0,-3) / (0,3) / (2,0) / (0,2) / (-2,0) / (4,0) / (0,-2) / (0,2) / (-1,4) / (0,-3) /

 

ADDITIONAL - Fix Misaligned middle layer 

To fix the misaligned middle layer of the Square-1 without disturbing the already solved top and bottom layers, you can follow these specific steps. These can be performed at any stage of the solve without affecting the progress you've made in solving the top and bottom.

Square-1 Print Friendly Guide