Get a solution you can follow.

1. Identify the mechanism, not just the outline

Two triangular puzzles can need completely different moves. Count the stickers on one face and check whether the tips turn independently. For cubes, check whether a square face turns or the puzzle twists around a corner.

A 4×4, 5×5, Megaminx or Square-1 is not supported. Entering only part of one into the 3×3 model will not produce a usable solution.

2. Keep a reference while entering colours

Choose a front face and an upper face. Keep that grip while copying stickers. Drag the on-screen model to see the hidden faces; dragging changes the camera, not the puzzle itself. When you physically inspect the back, return to your original grip before copying the next face.

On a 3×3, start with the six centre stickers: their colours define the scheme. On a 2×2, use the three-colour reference corner instead. On a Skewb, the centres move, so copy their current positions. Each solver’s own guide explains its grip and move names.

Clear empties the painting so you can enter every sticker deliberately. Reset paints a solved model. Scramble replaces the current entry with a randomly generated, valid position; it does not describe your physical puzzle. Use it to practise, not as an extra step after copying your own colours.

The solver validates both the colour totals and the pieces they describe. A red–blue–white corner with its stickers in the wrong order is a different object, even when all three colours are present. Check pieces as groups instead of checking only that every face has the right number of stickers.

3. Learn one turn before playing the sequence

After Solve, read the first instruction and press Next once. Identify which section moves and which section remains in your hand. Make that same physical turn, then compare the puzzle with the screen. Back reverses one displayed step; you must undo the corresponding physical move yourself.

For a cube, clockwise is judged by looking directly at the named face from outside. A back-face turn can therefore look reversed from your normal front view. An apostrophe means the inverse; a 2 means a half turn. Pyraminx and Skewb turns use 120° corner axes instead, so the cube’s quarter-turn rule does not apply.

Use Play once you can comfortably follow individual moves. If you need to change an entered sticker, choose Edit colours and solve the corrected position again. A solution belongs to its starting position; it cannot be reused after arbitrary extra turns.

4. Recover when the screen and toy disagree

1. Stop at the first mismatch. More turns usually make it harder to identify the mistake.
2. Undo your last physical move and press Back once. Check the named face, turn direction and whether you accidentally changed your grip.
3. If the starting positions already differ, return to Edit colours and re-enter what you see now. Inspect the hidden faces and the highlighted stickers.
4. If the colouring is rejected, check whole pieces. One flipped edge, one twisted corner or a swapped pair of pieces can be impossible under normal turns even when the counts are correct.

If a puzzle was dismantled or a corner was twisted by hand, tell us that in a support report. Do not force the mechanism to match the animation. For the Snake, collision checks cover resting folds between notches, not continuous physical clearance through a tight turn.

What “shortest” means here

A move count needs a move rule. On our 2×2 and Pyramorphix solvers, a half turn counts as one move. On the Pyraminx, the main-layer solution is optimized separately from the final tip adjustments. That is why “11 layer moves plus tips” can contain more than eleven displayed steps.

The 3×3 uses a two-phase algorithm that favors a short answer over a proof that no shorter answer exists. The Snake uses bounded searches and reports when a path was proved minimal, when a fallback found a longer path, or when the search limit was reached. A search limit is not proof of impossibility.

Our methodology explains how we test those claims. Each puzzle page also links its mathematical reference where applicable.