2 of 7 in Phase 1 — Beginner
Step 4 of 25

Step 2: White Corners

One trigger, three cases — read where the white sticker points and righty does the rest.

≈ 12 minAfter: Step 1: The White Cross

What you'll learn

Goal state: white face down with the first layer's side colors matching their centers
The goal: a finished first layer.

Cross done, cube flipped (x2): white on the bottom, yellow on top, and it stays that way for the rest of the solve. Now place the four white corners. Each belongs in the bottom layer between the two centers that match its side colors — all four in, and the first layer is complete.

The righty trigger

R U R' U'

Four moves you will use in every phase of this course — learn it as one motion, not four letters. R lifts the front-right corner slot into the top layer, U feeds a corner in (or swings one out of the way), R' U' puts everything back. Watch it run:

Righty, from a solved cube. Watch the front-right corner leave and come back.

Fetch a corner

Find any corner in the top layer with a white sticker. Its other two colors name its home — white-red-green lives between the red and green centers. Turn only U until the corner sits directly above that slot, then turn the whole cube so corner and slot are at the front-right.

Three cases

Look at where the white sticker points:

Corner at front-right with the white sticker facing right
White right — righty ×1
Corner at front-right with the white sticker facing front
White front — y, then lefty ×1
Corner at front-right with the white sticker facing up
White up — righty ×3

Lefty is righty in the mirror, run with the left hand:

L' U' L U

The loop

Can’t recall the cases? Repeat righty until the corner drops in with white facing down — it always does. Each pass swaps the corner between the slot and the top layer, twisting it as it goes, which is where the counts above come from: white-right lands in one pass, white-up in three, white-front in five (which is why the y + lefty shortcut exists). Then turn only U to bring the next white corner above its slot, and go again until all four are in.

Done when the bottom face is solid white and each side face’s bottom row matches its center.

Cases in this lesson

Practice

Set the trainer to Full solve and take it as far as the first layer — ten scrambles, cross plus four corners, no lookups.