Welcome back! Now that you’ve mastered the 2×2, it’s time for your next challenge. Enter the Skewb — a cube-shaped puzzle with a twist (literally). Instead of turning on flat faces like the Rubik’s Cube, the Skewb rotates around its corners. That makes it feel very different, but the solution is actually easier than you might think.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you step-by-step how to solve the Skewb using a simple beginner method.

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How to Solve a Skewb Puzzle

Prefer to watch a tutorial video? We love this one by Noble Cubes!

Step 1: Know the Basics

The Skewb has:

• 6 centers (one fixed on each face)

• 8 corners (the movable pieces)

Unlike the Rubik’s Cube, the centers don’t move around — they just rotate. That means your job is to position and orient the corners relative to those centers.

Notation is also simpler:

• R = Rotate the right corner clockwise

• R’ = Rotate the right corner counterclockwise

• L = Rotate the left corner clockwise

• L’ = Rotate the left corner counterclockwise

Each move rotates an entire half of the cube around a diagonal axis through one corner.

Step 2: Solve the First Face

Pick a color to start with (most people choose white).

Your goal is to put all 4 white corners around the white center. Don’t worry about the other colors yet — just make one complete face.

👉 Because the Skewb turns around corners, sometimes you’ll need to experiment with different rotations until the pieces line up. This part is intuitive and doesn’t need algorithms.

Step 3: Solve the First Layer Corners

Now, check that the side colors of your white layer corners match the adjacent centers. If a piece is in the wrong place:

• Use this algorithm until it’s correctly placed:

R’ L R L’

This cycles three corners without messing up your solved white face.

Repeat until all 4 corners on the first layer are correctly aligned with their centers.

Step 4: Orient the Last Layer

Flip the puzzle over so your solved side is on the bottom.

Now, you need to orient the top layer corners so the top face is all one color.

• If only one top corner is the right color, hold it in the top-front-left position.

• Perform this algorithm:

R L’ R’ L

Each time you do it, more of the top layer will fix itself. Repeat until the top face is solved.

Step 5: Permute the Last Layer

At this point, the top color is correct, but the corners may be in the wrong spots.

To fix this, hold the cube so one solved corner is in the back-right and perform:

R L’ R L’ R L’ R L’

This cycles the top corners until everything is solved.

Step 6: Done! 🎉

Congratulations — you’ve solved the Skewb! It looks complicated because of the unusual rotations, but it only takes two main algorithms to finish it.

Final Tips

• Always check that you’re holding the cube with the correct orientation before starting an algorithm.

• If something looks wrong, backtrack and make sure your first face and first layer are solved correctly.

• With practice, you’ll be able to solve the Skewb in under a minute.

We’ll see you next month for your next challenge!