Eitan's Star

Eitan's Star is a beautiful and complex twisty puzzle which is a 20-coloured 20-faced solid. It is the first mass-produced icosahedron.

The Basic Plot

1. Solve lower half.
2. Solve upper half triangles.
3. Solve upper half corners.
4. Solve upper half edges.
5. Solve centers.

Step 1: Solve Lower Half

This section is a fairly long section of the solve.


Stage 1: Bottom corner + Surrounding Edges and Triangles

First we place 5 edges around the chosen corners. These turn up with simple turns. After the 1st edge, we simply push the corner back before turning up the others, so as not to disturb our work.

Once the edges are placed, we place the wide triangles between them. These can be turned up from below, or turned into position when on the same face. We turn the corner+edges to the back of the puzzle before placing the triangles. It's super-simple.

Stage 2: Center + 2 Triangles Below Lower Equator

The general idea is to find the center and put it in its position. Then turn it up so that we can put the correct two triangles around it. When we then return it to its position, we will have completed the triangles as well as the center.

Stage 3: Lower Equator Edges

We use edge piece series to move an edge down into position. Place the edge directly above the corners which is above its position. Then use an edge piece series to place it.


Stage 4: 2 Triangles above Lower Equator Edges

These are especially easy to place. Place the desired triangle so it can turn down into its position, but so that it remains fixed when its position is turned up. Turn up the position, rotate the face, and return it. (Honestly, this is hard to describe, but ridiculously easy to do.)

Stage 5: Corner + 3 Edges + Triangles

This last part involves making a edge-corner-edge triplet, then making a triangle-edge pair, then bringing these together, and finally placing the whole group into position. The technique is to join pieces together bit by bit. It's a fairly difficult process, and probably the most time-consuming part of the lower half.


Stage 6: Final Center+ Triangle

This last part involves making a center-triangle pair, then turning it into its position using edge piece series.

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The video below will take you through the entire process outlined above from start to finish, and convince you that it's logical, doable, and fun.

Step 2: Solve Upper Half Triangles

At this point, the entire lower half of the puzzle is complete.

From here, we can place all the remaining triangles using edge piece series. We may need to think carefully about how to complete the last few, and setup moves are often involved.

I have found there is a nice order to these, and will demonstrate this order in the video below.

Step 3: Solve Upper Half Corners

We use the corner piece series to accomplish this. Hold the puzzle so the "Up" face is a downward pointing triangle. Then perform

U UR U' UL  U UR' U' UL

The most annoying thing about the corners is the setup moves required to orient them correctly.

Note that cycling corners will sometimes displace one or two edges from the lower half. 

Step 4: Solve Upper Half Edges

The next part of the solve is by far the longest and most annoying. The edges must (almost always) be placed one by one. There are 30 of them, but had we not placed the lower half edges there would have been 60...


We use the following algorithm to accomplish this. Hold the puzzle so the "Front" face is an upward pointing triangle. Then perform

[FDL'  FL' FR FL FR'    FDL  FL' FR FL FR' ] x 2


The difficult part of the process is almost always the setup moves required to position the edges before cycling them. The sequence itself is very simple and easy to keep track of.

Rather than attempting to explain the description of the piece locations involved etc, I'll leave that to the video. After watching it, you'll have enough examples to show how to complete your edges.

Note that cycling edges will displace some centers from the lower half. You may therefore wish to not bother with centers during the lower half solve, but I've found it's required simply for feeling good about the solve!

Step 5: Solve Centers

The final part of the solve is pure relief. The centers are done last because cycling the edges also displaces centers.


We use the corner piece series to accomplish this. Hold the puzzle so the "Front" face is an upward pointing triangle. Then perform

F FDR F' FDL'   F FDR' F' FDL.

It's super simple and almost impossible for things to go wrong. Even the setups are straightforward.

And that's it. Your Eitan's Star is now solved. I trust this site has been helpful. If you have any questions or want some clarifications, please use the comments to do so.

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My Adventures With Eitan's Star

The Prologue

"Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!!! It must be Eitan's Star!"

Now, to be fair to myself and my reputation as a funky dude, I don't think I actually said the words above, but I'm pretty sure they're what I thought. My wife had emailed me to say there was a pink slip in the mail. 

(This may come as a surprise to some of you. Not that there was a pink slip in the mail, but that I still have a wife. I assure you it's true. She is without a doubt the most longsuffering wife in the world. I've had more than my fair share of eye-rolling, and have been asked more than once "How many is enough?" [This was when we were talking about puzzles, not children.] But to her credit she did make me a Rubik's cube cake for my most recent birthday. She's a good woman and she knows I have issues. But enough about her...)

In Australia, a pink slip means there's a parcel waiting at the post office. There was only one thing on its way, so it had to be Eitan's Star.

This was way cool. It was Friday. A Friday parcel means the weekend can legitimately be devoted to puzzle solving. After all, what else is there in life?

So, down I went to the post office to collect the thing. Took it home in my car. Here's a picture of me driving home.

If memory serves, I think my exact words were: 

"Excuse me, I'd be ever-so-grateful if you'd speed up a little or remove yourself from the road. I have a  most important matter to attend to."

Home at Last

Finally, after the longest 5 minutes of travelling ever, I was home. In my rush to get inside and unwrap the box, I knocked over 3 of my 17 children (figures used for illustrative purposes only; may not be exact), dislocated my own shoulder, and stepped on the cat. But what did it matter? I was home. With the box. With the puzzle in the box. And the cat outside.

The thing was so well wrapped I had to get my wife to open it. I don't like to admit that sort of thing, but I'm not particularly good with scissors. I took it out, held it up and this is what I saw.

Stickering the Monster

There's no getting around it. Eitan's Star is a monster of a puzzle. It's a complex, mind-numbing and incredible achievement. Only one problem. I had to sticker it. So, I did what any self-respecting parent would do: I asked my daughter to do it. She declined. (Actually, she did do a face or two, but there was something about her having to get ready for some school dance or something that night. What is the world coming to when a once-a-year school dance takes precedence over stickering a puzzle?)

To be honest, I wasn't particularly happy with some of the stickers. I think mf8 (the company which produced the puzzle) could have taken a little more care with them, but that's no reflection on the puzzle itself.

By the time I was done stickering, I had some serious neck issues, completely glazed eyes, and a puzzle which looked like this.

The Unboxing

Every newish puzzle deserves an unboxing video, so that's what I did next. If you've seen it, feel free to skip ahead. If not, have a look. I think it gives a nice overview of the puzzle.

Beginning the Solve

What I like to do with a puzzle is to try some known sequences out on it without scrambling. That's what I like to do. What I normally end up doing is try some sequences out and accidentally scramble it. And so of course that's exactly what I did. That's not so bad with a Rubik's cube, but this thing? My world consumed itself. 

This was not how things should have gone. I was supposed to discover all required sequences for moving around the pieces, note them down, then scramble and efficiently solve the puzzle, all within the following hour if possible.

And by the way, what about the different pieces? There are four piece types.

1. Centers (the equilateral triangles with a single colour)
2. Corners (the bits that stick out, each with 5 colours)
3. Wide triangles (those thin triangles with a single colour)
4. Edges (2 colours each)

Pretty simple, I'm sure you'll agree.

Maybe not.

So by this point, I had a partially scrambled puzzle and a giant headache. What to do? Scramble it properly, of course! If I was ever going to get it solved again, I didn't want to have a "half-solve" under my belt.

So that's what I did: scrambled it well and good.

And now I had a visual nightmare. Trust me: the solved puzzle does not prepare you for what happens when the pieces are all over the place. There are 20 faces and therefore 20 different colours. Some of the colours are extremely similar. When everything's mixed up, it's simply bamboozling.

And that's how I felt...bamboozled.

I decided to start by attempting all the wide triangles. You see, I had a fair idea that the edges would need to be solved last, or close to last. Before I scrambled it, I had found a nice sequence to move around centers without moving anything else. So I knew I could leave them till the end. I'd also found another nice sequence to move around corners. This sequence took some edges with the corners, but no triangles. And so triangles were first.

After 5 minutes, I gave up. I literally had no idea how to even start placing them. Honestly, at that point, I was incredibly close to putting the puzzle away never to touch it again.

I'm glad I didn't.

Eitan's Star = Bauhinia Dodecahedron...Sort Of

I'd remembered reading on one of the threads on the Twisty Puzzles forum, that Eitan's Star was the "logical" equivalent of the Bauhinia Dodecahedron, whatever that meant. It was Konrad I think who made this point, and I'm not surprised. Konrad has often provided something - a picture, some encouragement - to help me through. I wondered, therefore, whether that meant it might be solved in a similar manner.

So I thought about how I'd solved the Bauhinia. A block-building method. Maybe that would work here too. (If you've not seen my Bauhinia method, have a look here.)

And so a block-building method is what I tried.

Things began looking up. After a while, I ended up with this

Believe me...This was a giant step for me. Around this time, I think I started believing I might even be able to solve this thing.

You can see that since the centers on the Bauhinia corresponded to the corners on the Star, and since I built my block around the centers on the Bauhinia, I should try building my first block around the corners of the Star. 

It's nice when things work out.

Nice, yes, but still a long way from getting the whole of the lower half solved.

Next, I added in the lower equator edges. (Keep in mind that although you're looking from above, the part of the puzzle you're looking at is what I'm referring to as the lower half. This is because eventually I'll turn it over.)

From there, it seemed logical to continue on and add in some triangles. This was one of the more straightforward parts of the process. It was easy enough to include the centers, so I did them too. The dark green part on the central right of the picture below shows the new bits added.

After this, the next obvious thing seemed to be the equatorial corners.

The most difficult part of this lower half was finding a way to complete it. On the picture above, you'll notice the corner on the left (white-purple-light blue-green-dark blue). This corner has its correct edge in the white-blue position, but it still needs the blue triangle along with the blue-green edge to make it complete.

Figuring this out took a long time, and I'd say it's one of the most annoying parts of the solve. However, once I did, this is what I had.

I admit, it's impossible to verify that the rest of the lower half is complete, but trust me, it is! Completing it was one of the great moments of my life. (And no, that doesn't bode well for the rest of my life.)

Tackling the Upper Half

In any kind of block-building method, the more stuff you build, the less room you have left to play with. And so with the whole of the lower half complete, I needed to figure out the best way to proceed. I decided to tackle the centers first, mainly because it was an easy algorithm, but also for a visual aid. 

But as I started, I realised that due to the way the faces turned, I could, and should, place one particular set of edges first. These were the 5 edges above the triangles touching the equator. It was fairly quick, and ended up looking like this. (In the picture below, it's the green and white triangles which I'm talking about.)

So, on to the centers. As I said above, the centers were fairly easily done. My longtime readers will be happy to know this was by nothing more than the Corner Piece Series. Love the CPS!

I worked out which centers should go where by looking at the corners. You can see on the picture below that the bottom right corner shows that the centers are correct, even though it's difficult to tell whether the other centers are correct. (They are!)

From here, I decided to do the wide triangles. This was because I knew I should do edges last, and that the corners would take edges with them. 

But as I began, it became obvious that moving triangles moved centers. My precious in-place centers.

What to do?

Abandon the centers, of course. Count my losses and move on.

The bottom row of triangles (speaking of the upper half of the puzzle, now) were not too hard. Once they were done, the other triangles were significantly harder. Setup moves were often involved, and it took much longer than I'd like.

On the picture below, you can see all triangles complete, but my centers abandoned.

Next, it was time to re-do the centers. Things looked better with the triangles also done.

Now I felt good! Life was looking up. (Mind you, I'd spent most of Saturday doing this puzzle).

Corners were next and I was on a roll. I did the corners using, you guessed it, the Corner Piece Series. I held the puzzle slightly differently from when I did the centers, but it was the same set of moves.

I have to say that placing the last 3 wasn't easy. But once they were done, the puzzle looked great. Here it is.

The last pieces to place were the edges. I started trying to place the edges using the analgous sequence to the one I used for the Bauhinia. This was a [4,3] commutator. For all the Cuba Gooding jrs out there (...think "Show me the Algorithm!!!") it  looks like this:

(UL' UR UL UR')    (UFL  L  UFL')    (UR UL' UR' UL)    (UFL  L'  UFL)

I managed to place maybe one or two edges, but this sequence drove me mad. The 3 pieces which cycled were nowhere near each other, and the setups were killing me. I knew there had to be a better way.

As is often the case, Burgo (from the Twisty Puzzle forums) provided the spark. Back on the Bauhinia thread, he'd presented a beautiful 3-cycle for the little triangles, which were done last. It was 20 moves long, so most people didn't care for it, but I loved it! And I wondered whether it might come in handy here.

Wow! 

I basically transposed the sequence onto the Star, and found that it cycled 3 edges and the edges were all close together. In fact, 2 of them were next to each other. Even better, it's a super-easy sequence to remember.

Again, here's the algorithm:

[FDL'   FL' FR FL FR'   FDL   FL' FR FL FR' ] x 2

For my long-time readers, you'll easily recognise the Edge Piece Series there. Love the EPS!

The only thing I'll add about this edge-cycling sequence is that it does move centers around. That's ok, though. Centers are the easiest part to deal with so they can be fixed at the end.

A Disaster of Epic Proportions!!!

But just when you thought the end was nigh, think again. Not even close. Little did I know what horrors awaited me.

Even though it's a super-easy sequence to move edges, I must have done an FR instead of an FR' somewhere along the way, because while solving the next edge, it all went wrong. I finished the sequence and everything was different. instead of being able to post about my success, I knew I'd have to wait for another day.

My puzzle ended up like this

and I ended up like this

You may notice I had aged quite a bit during the solve. This has not been photoshopped!!! This is really me! When the solve was going well, I was stressed, but this...the puzzle largely destroyed because of one wrong move...This pushed me into old age.

Take note: if you want to solve Eitan's Star, expect some severe changes in your appearance, wrinkles and fashion sense. Take out your life insurance and thank your wife for the many (too few) wonderful years you've had together.

Eitan's Star is particularly unforgiving on wrong moves. It's incredibly difficult to see what to "undo" if you turn the wrong face or turn the right face the wrong way.


Back to the Grind


What could I do? I did what any self-respecting solver would do: I sat there and thought how terrible my life had become, and how I should have known this puzzle was trouble right from the start. I went to bed and cried myself to sleep.

The next day, I awoke, as you do, with a new sense of determination. I was going to beat this thing. Sure, yesterday was consigned to the history books, but today was a new day.

Onwards and upwards.

I re-solved the triangles, then re-solved the corners, then took photographic evidence.

It felt good to be back to the point I was at 24 hours earlier...

A Disaster Which Puts the Last Disaster into the "Fun" Category

But just when you thought the end was nigh, think again. Not even close. Little did I know what horrors awaited me.

What? Am I repeating myself? De ja vu?

Yes!!!!!!!!!

Once again, one wrong move, and it was destroyed. I thought about covering this one up, and pretending it never happened, but I know I could never live with myself.

The concentration required to complete this puzzle is amazing. I solved enough of the remaining edges that I had 12 to go.

Only 12!!!


Remember how I talked about aging?

Here's me, alongside the puzzle after this 2nd disaster.

    

Sure, I'm smiling, but that's because I now no longer had any concept of my life or the world around me. 

My wife looked at me and said "You're going to have a brain aneurysm!" I sure felt like I could.

If you look not-overly-carefully, you'll see that this time the puzzle looks really messed up. That also isn't photoshopped...

Back to Square 1

And so I had no real alternative than to go back to the start and begin again.

Yep. That's what I did.

First I re-did the lower half.

Next came the upper half triangles.

I was on a roll now. Corners followed soon after.

The End Is Nigh!!!



As far as I was concerned, I was on the home stretch. I knew I could deal with centers easily enough and there wasn't a whole lot of danger of messing up the puzzle while solving them. The real problem was these edges.

So while I solved edges this time, I concentrated. I mean, really concentrated. I was like some religious person repeating a mantra for my algorithm. 

Up...Down...Up...Down

(That's me remembering an algorithm; doing it by direction rather than face names.)

It wasn't easy, and at times I wondered whether they were actually diminishing. But they were. I kept working my way through, until I had only 3 edges to go.

Can you spot them?

Now I was 20 moves away (plus setups) from overcoming this problem of these edges. Nothing was going to make this go wrong. I had been writing down my setup moves because it was too risky not to. Each time I completeed a sequence, I'd cross it out to avoid the risk of looking at the wrong one. 

Here's a historical document showing it.

I know, I know, I could have been a doctor. My writing's terrible, but remember, I'd aged to about 103 by this stage...

And so passed the longest 30 seconds of my life. If I mucked this up, I'd probably have to give up twisty puzzling.

Up...down...up...down...

Yeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This baby was so close to being solved, I was already celebrating!

I didn't care about the eye-rolling wife. She didn't know the pain I'd been through and the reason she now looked at me and felt 50 years younger.

I was about to conquer this beast.

But enough talk. Onto the centers.

............

And...

Oh my goodness. 

The relief. 

The joy. 

The welling up of the tears of my soul.

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What a marvellous, complex, horrendous and beautiful puzzle. Lots of kudos to Eitan Cher and to MF8.

Could anything top this experience???

Well, yeah...Maybe I could solve it a second time.

The Aftermath

And that's it. I hope this has been an informative read. I hope you don't commit road rage when you pick up your own Eitan's Star. If you have any questions about my sanity, or want some clarifications on the reliability of information, please use the comments to do so.

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6x6x4

The 6x6x4 is a twisty puzzle which is a cuboid when solved, but which can shapeshift when scrambled. The one I'm using is a beautiful handmade version made by Traiphum. It is an absolutely superb puzzle.

The original site has nothing to say about this puzzle, so everything from here on is from me, along with bits and pieces from others that I've picked up along the way.

The Basic Plot

1. Return to Cuboid Shape
2. Solve the Centers
3. Reduce the Edges
4. Solve the Reduced Cuboid

Step 1: Return to Cuboid Shape

The first stage in solving this puzzle is to return it to a cuboid form, rather than shapeshifted form. To do this simply, we will make use of the corner piece series for cuboids. This sequence is (U R2 U' L2) x 2, but it has many variants according to which slices are turned.

Here are the steps which form the basic solve outline...

1. Solve the 2x2 centers on the white/yellow faces.

2. Make white/yellow edge pairs according to piece type, not colour.

3. Place these pairs on the top and bottom faces so that those faces have flat edges.

4. Flatten the 2nd slice pieces.

5. Flatten the outer slice pieces.

6. Move middle layer pieces on the top and bottom faces into the middle layer.

By now, the puzzle will be in correctly reduced cuboid form.

If the above steps seem difficult, they are not. Please watch the video below where I go through all the above and (hopefully) make things very clear and simple.

Step 2: Solve Centers

We now have a scrambled but non-shapeshifted 6x6x4. The next step is to solve the centers. 

To solve the middle centers, make quartets of inner layer "edges". This is done just as we'll do it for the outer edges later. Once they're made, the white/yellow centers will be disrupted. So we move the newly made middle layer quintets onto another face, then return centers. The process is analogous to that done on a 6x6x6.

Then solve the white/yellow centers, with as many simple turns as possible, but also using the corner piece series variants to place the different piece types.

Step 3: Reduce Edges

To reduce the edges, follow the same procedure as above, but this time turn the outer face only on top and bottom.

The interesting part of this solve is the parity case which can occur. This will only occur when the puzzle has returned from a shapeshifted form. It shows up when the final two edge pieces need to swap. It is not possible to fix this without either a long-and-hard-to-memorise algorithm, or else a way of understanding what's going on and working from there. I choose to avoid the algorithm.

We have a single swap of edges. But in fact we can create an edge 3-cycle, which we can then deal with using the corner piece series. Creating the edge 3-cycle requires placing another edge of the same colour into the correct position, which will require the cuboid going into shapeshifted form briefly. It will return to cuboid form after we've carried out the edge 3-cycle.

The video below will help you to reduce all edges easily and to understand how to deal with the edge swap parity.

Step 4: Solve the Reduced Cuboid

At this point, we have reduced the puzzle to what is essentially a 3x3x2. To complete the solve, we

1. Place the middle centers

2. Place the middle outer edges.

3. Place the reduced edge quartets.

4. Place the corners.

All of this is done using simple turns and of course, the corner piece series. It's pure relief after the slog to get to this point.

However, as this is an even numbered cuboid, there is of course the chance that 2 corners will need swapping. This cannot be achieved using the ordinary corner piece series. 

To swap the corners, we need only 

1. Turn the upper face one turn

2. Re-solve middle outer edges

3. Re-solve corners


This video will show the entire process, including how to easily swap corners.

And that's it. Your 6x6x4 is now solved. I trust this site has been helpful. If you have any questions or want some clarifications, please use the comments to do so.

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7x7x5

 The 7x7x5 is a twisty puzzle which is a cuboid when solved, but which can shapeshift when scrambled. The one I'm using is a beautiful handmade version made by Traiphum. It is an absolutely superb puzzle.

The original site has nothing to say about this puzzle, so everything from here on is from me, along with bits and pieces from others that I've picked up along the way.

The Basic Plot

1. Return to Cuboid Shape
2. Solve the Centers
3. Reduce the Edges
4. Solve the Reduced Cuboid

Step 1: Reduce to Cuboid Shape

The first stage in solving this puzzle is to return it to a cuboid form, rather than shapeshifted form. To do this simply, we will make use of the corner piece series for cuboids. This sequence is (U R2 U' L2) x 2, but it has many variants according to which slices are turned.

Here are the steps which form the basic solve outline...

1. Solve the 3x3 centers on the white/yellow faces.

2. Make white/yellow edge triplets according to piece type, not colour.

3. Make a horizontal row of middle face center triplets.

4. Flatten the 2nd slice pieces.

5. Flatten the outer slice pieces.

6. Move middle layer pieces on the top and bottom faces into the middle layer.

7. Check that all middle layer edges are correctly oriented. If not, flip them, using a double EPS.

By now, the puzzle will be in correctly reduced cuboid form.

If the above steps seem difficult, they are not. Please watch the video below where I go through all the above and (hopefully) make things very clear and simple.

Step 2: Solve Centers

We now have a scrambled but non-shapeshifted 7x7x5.

The next step is to solve the centers. Start with the white/yellow centers, using the corner piece series variants to place the different piece types.

To solve the middle centers, make quintets of inner layer "edges". This is done just as we'll do it for the outer edges later. Once they're made, the white/yellow centers will be disrupted. So we move the newly made middle layer quintets onto another face, then return centers. The process is analogous to that done on a 7x7x7.

Step 3: Reduce Edges

To reduce the edges, follow the same procedure as above, but this time turn the outer face only on top and bottom.

The interesting part of this solve is the parity case which often occurs. This will only occur when the puzzle has returned from a shapeshifted form. It shows up when the final two edge pieces need to swap. It is not possible to fix this without either a long-and-hard-to-memorise algorithm, or else a way of understanding what's going on and working from there. I choose to avoid the algorithm.

Step 4: Solve the Reduced Cuboid

At this point, we have reduced the puzzle to what is essentially a 3x3x2. To complete the solve, we

1. Place the middle outer edges.

2. Place the middle outer "corners".

3. Place the edge quintets.

4. Place the corners.

All of this is done using simple turns and of course, the corner piece series. It's pure relief after the slog to get to this point.

This video will show the process.

And that's it. Your 7x7x5 is now solved. I trust this site has been helpful. If you have any questions or want some clarifications, please use the comments to do so.

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Curvy Copter with Jumbling

The Curvy Copter is a twisty puzzle which is a cube when solved, but which can shapeshift when scrambled and jumbled. This tutorial will involve jumbling, which is a complex theoretical topic. Its effects are fairly straightforward on this puzzle though.

The original site has nothing to say about this puzzle, so everything from here on is from me, along with bits and pieces from others that I've picked up along the way.

The Basic Plot

1. Return to Cube Shape
2. Solve Bottom Half
3. Solve Top Half

Step 1: Return to Cube Shape

A normal scramble of this cube involves turning the edges 180°. If, however, we turn an edge part way, we can jumble this puzzle. This essentially means that a center piece will change its orbit. This is clearly explained in the video.

To return the puzzle to cube shape, we need to isolate two corners which are "sticking out" and apply a jumbling type move to put both of them back. As is often the case, this is far far easier to see in action than to explain. The video  below will help return your cube to its correct shape.

Step 2: Solve Bottom Half

To begin with, solve the white face edges and centers. (Any colour face will do but I prefer to start with white.) The edges cannot move, but only rotate in position. Therefore, move the white centers by turning adjacent edges, until they are positioned next to the white edge. 

Since the cube was jumbled, it's almost certain that some of the white centers will not be in their correct orbits. To fix this, swap the white center with any other unused center, by using the jumbling move. Then turn it into its position.

Once the white face is solved (apart from corners), turn the cube so that the white face is on the bottom.

Now, for each of the four middle edges,

• Ensure the middle edge is "upside-down" or "backwards".
• Place the desired corner by turning it around the top face until the white is facing upwards.
• Move each of the correct colour centers into place by turning edges.
• If a center is not in its correct orbit, transfer it into its orbit via the jumbling move.

This video will show how simple this all is.

Step 3: Solve Top Half

At this point, turn the yellow (top face) edges into place. Look for any middle face centers which can be placed using any convenient 3-cycle, for example FRFR.

Almost certainly, some centers will not be able to be cycled home simply. This is due to the jumbling. The goal from here is to unjumble these centers one by one until all are placed.

The only potentially tricky situation is where you are left with a yellow center and a non-yellow center needing to swap places. This can be accomplished by swapping two other yellow centers via the jumbling move. This essentially creates a 3-cycle with the two centers needing to be swapped.

Once all centers are placed, it's time to deal with the yellow corners.

To place corners, use the cycle LBRF R FRBL R (or its mirror). This moves 3 corners around the top face.

To orient corners, use the cycle (LBRF)x6 or its mirror.

Again, all will be made clear in the following video.

And that's it. Your Curvy Copter is now solved. I trust this site has been helpful. If you have any questions or want some clarifications, please use the comments to do so.

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5x5x3

The 5x5x3 is a twisty puzzle which is a cuboid when solved, but which can shapeshift when scrambled. The one I'm using is a handmade, pillowed version made by Hunter Palshook. It is an absolutely superb puzzle.

The Basic Plot

1. Reduce to Cuboid Shape
2. Solve the Reduced Cuboid

Step 1: Reduce to Cuboid Shape

The first stage in solving this puzzle is to return it to a cuboid form, rather than shapeshifted form. To do this simply, we will make use of the corner piece series for standard cubes and cuboids.

Here are the steps which form the basic solve outline...

1. Place 4 white/yellow edges in correct orientation onto either the white or yellow face. Call this the top face.

2. Place 3 middle edges.

3. Place the remaining 4 white/yellow edges along with the 4th middle edge.

(The above is basically the same as placing edges on a Rubik's cube).

4. Place the 8 white/yellow center-corners by using the CPS.

5. Move the protruding outer corners around until there are freely moving side faces. Then, use the CPS for cuboids to flatten these corners.

(At this stage, the puzzle will be in cuboid form but will have bits sticking out.)

6. Swap any top face center-edges with middle layer center-edges and then re-flatten corners using CPS.

7. Check that all middle layer edges are correctly oriented. If not, flip them, using a double EPS.

By now, the puzzle will be in correctly reduced cuboid form.

If the above steps seem difficult, they are not. Please watch the video below where I go through all the above and (hopefully) make things very clear and simple.

Step 2: Solve the Reduced Cuboid

We now have a scrambled but non-shapeshifted 5x5x3.

From here, we reduce the puzzle to what is essentially a 3x3x2. To do this,

1. Solve the white/yellow and middle layer centers.

2. Create edge triplets in the same way as for a 5x5x5 cube.

3. Deal with the possible parity problem where two edges are swapped. My method for doing this does not require long algorithms. It is simple, and I believe, quite unique. It is quite difficult to explain in words though, so I'll show it in the video.

4. Place the edge triplets.

5. Place the corners using CPS.

This video will show the whole process.

And that's it. Your 5x5x3 is now solved. I trust this site has been helpful. If you have any questions or want some clarifications, please use the comments to do so.

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