Solving A 4x4 Rubix Cube

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To solve the 4x4 cube you need to reduce it to a 3x3 cube. You do this by solving the 2x2 centers on each face first. Then pair up the edges in 2x1 strips so you can treat them like a single edge on the 3x3. After that the entire thing feels like solving the 3x3. The one caveat is that you may have parity errors going into the “yellow cross” stage.

Below are the additional algorithms needed for the edges and parity.

Edges

To solve the last two edges, make sure they are both facing you and are lined up (not diagonal from their pair):

Dd  R   F'  U
R'  F   Dd'

Parity

There are tons of parity issues that you can encounter. And then there are tons of sequences to correct each one. I’m just listing the ones I use to fix the scenarios that I encounter. SpeedCubing.com has an exhaustive list.

Edge Parity

This algorithm will flip the top two edge pieces on the front face without moving any other pieces

r'  U2  l   F2
l'  F2  r2  U2
r   U2  r'  U2
F2  r2  F2

Corner Parity

This sequence will swap the two front most top corners.

F2  R2  B'  D'
B   R2  F'  U
Ff2 F   L2  f2
Ll2 f2  l2  U'

A note on notation

Most of the notation is the same as the 3x3 cube notation, for example F means rotate the front face clockwise. F' means rotate the front face counter-clockwise. Some additions just for the 4x4 are:

  • l (lower case L): rotate the column second from the left clockwise
  • r: rotate the column second from the right clockwise
  • Dd: the equivalent of doing a D and then a d. It basically means rotate the entire bottom half.

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