Rubik's Solver

Skewb Solver — 3D

Paint the 3D Skewb below to match your real puzzle: drag to rotate the view, pick a colour and click the stickers — corner triangles and centre squares — then hit Solve!. The solver finds a shortest possible solution — never more than 11 twists — and animates every half-puzzle turn.

Entry instructions · Try a worked example · Position rejected?

Loading the puzzle…

 

A guide for your physical puzzle

How to solve your Skewb

When this tool helps

Use the Skewb solver when the square centres and corner stickers are mixed, or when a cube-style move description is making the puzzle harder to follow. The answer is tied to the Skewb’s diagonal turning axes. It can also help you compare a centre’s route with the corners that move alongside it.

Check which puzzle you have

A cube whose faces each have one square centre and four triangular corner stickers. Turns pass diagonally through the cube around a corner, rather than turning one square face like a 3×3.

Before you press Solve

  1. Enter the five stickers on each of the six faces: 30 stickers in total. The square centres move on a Skewb, so copy their current colours instead of treating them as fixed face labels.
  2. Inspect the three stickers meeting at each physical corner together. This is more reliable than copying six isolated face pictures and accidentally reflecting a hidden face.
  3. Keep your starting grip while following the corner-axis names. The on-screen animation identifies the moving part; the square face nearest your thumb is not necessarily a turnable layer.

Read the moves

URF, ULB, DLF and DRB identify corners using Up/Down, Right/Left and Front/Back. A move is a 120° twist around that corner axis; an apostrophe means the inverse. These names are the convention used by this solver, so do not substitute an R from a different Skewb tutorial without checking its grip.

    Follow the answer on your physical puzzle

    1. After entering the stickers, check the location of every square centre. Unlike on a 3×3, these are moving pieces. A correct-looking set of corner colours cannot compensate for centres entered in their solved positions instead of their actual positions.
    2. Read the first corner-axis name and use Next once. Match the diagonal moving section on screen to your physical puzzle, then make the 120° turn in your original grip. Do not translate the move into a face turn or a different tutorial’s notation by letter alone.
    3. At the final step, check each square centre against the four triangular stickers around it. All five must match on every face. If only the centres appear wrong, inspect the original entry and the first move at which the screen and toy diverged.

    Turn the result into practice

    Use the illustrated two-turn example to follow one square centre through both moves and back again. Predict its next face before revealing the next diagram. This gives a concrete way to learn the diagonal mechanism: you are tracking a piece, not just trying to remember a string of corner names.

    Practise with a reproducible setup and illustrated undo sequence below.

    Worked example · checked 22 September 2026

    Watch the centres move with a corner turn

    Start with a solved Skewb. Turn the top-front-right corner section (URF) by 120°, then the top-back-left section (ULB) by 120°. Keep your original grip. These are diagonal turns through the cube, not turns of its square faces.

    For this exercise, begin with a solved physical puzzle. Make the setup moves below before following the undo sequence. The example replaces the model’s colours; it cannot change the puzzle in your hands.

    Match the diagram’s reference colours

    Up: white; Down: yellow; Front: green; Back: blue; Right: red; Left: orange. Your toy may use a different scheme. Match the face positions and move directions rather than re-sticking the toy to match these colours. Each face is shown from outside; the diagrams are face maps, not cut-out assembly instructions.

    Set up: URF ULB

    1. URF: Twist the corner section at the top-front-right corner 120° CLOCKWISE, looking straight at that corner (half of the puzzle turns with it).
    2. ULB: Twist the corner section at the top-back-left corner 120° CLOCKWISE, looking straight at that corner (half of the puzzle turns with it).

    Look at the square centre stickers as well as the triangular corners. A centre that has left its solved face is part of the scrambled position. Painting all centres back to their solved colours would describe a different puzzle, even if the corner stickers were entered correctly.

    Undo: ULB' URF'

    1. ULB': Twist the corner section at the top-back-left corner 120° COUNTER-CLOCKWISE, looking straight at that corner (half of the puzzle turns with it).
    2. URF': Twist the corner section at the top-front-right corner 120° COUNTER-CLOCKWISE, looking straight at that corner (half of the puzzle turns with it).
    Starting position after the setup Up: green G Up: blue B Up: orange O Up: blue B Up: blue B Down: yellow Y Down: yellow Y Down: blue B Down: red R Down: yellow Y Right: white W Right: red R Right: yellow Y Right: white W Right: white W Left: white W Left: orange O Left: green G Left: green G Left: green G Front: red R Front: green G Front: white W Front: red R Front: red R Back: orange O Back: blue B Back: orange O Back: yellow Y Back: orange O UpDownRightLeftFrontBack
    0. Starting position after the setup
    After ULB' Up: green G Up: white W Up: green G Up: green G Up: green G Down: yellow Y Down: yellow Y Down: blue B Down: yellow Y Down: yellow Y Right: white W Right: red R Right: white W Right: white W Right: white W Left: orange O Left: orange O Left: yellow Y Left: orange O Left: orange O Front: red R Front: green G Front: red R Front: red R Front: red R Back: blue B Back: blue B Back: orange O Back: blue B Back: blue B UpDownRightLeftFrontBack
    1. After ULB'
    After URF' Up: white W Up: white W Up: white W Up: white W Up: white W Down: yellow Y Down: yellow Y Down: yellow Y Down: yellow Y Down: yellow Y Right: red R Right: red R Right: red R Right: red R Right: red R Left: orange O Left: orange O Left: orange O Left: orange O Left: orange O Front: green G Front: green G Front: green G Front: green G Front: green G Back: blue B Back: blue B Back: blue B Back: blue B Back: blue B UpDownRightLeftFrontBack
    2. After URF'

    Sticker letters: W white · Y yellow · G green · B blue · R red · O orange.

    ULB' returns to the position after the first corner turn. URF' restores both corners and centres. If you recognize a move called R from another tutorial, check its pivot and grip before substituting it for either move here.

    This undo sequence is guaranteed to reverse this setup. It is not a general recipe for every scramble or a promise of the shortest route. The automatic solver may find a different valid answer.

    Then press Solve and compare its answer with the worked route. The diagrams and written steps above remain available without JavaScript or WebGL.

    When something does not match

    I entered the centres as if this were a 3×3.

    Clear the painting and copy where the centres are now. On a Skewb, centres are mobile pieces; assuming a solved centre arrangement changes the position you are asking the solver to solve.

    The colour counts are right, but the position is rejected.

    The relative orientations and permutations of the corners are constrained. Recheck the highlighted corner stickers and the centre locations. Reassembled or re-stickered puzzles can have configurations that legal turns cannot reach.

    The move looks larger than I expected.

    A corner turn moves a substantial diagonal portion of the cube. Follow the animated pivot rather than attempting a conventional face turn. Use Back if your physical turn and the displayed turn differ.

    For help with colour entry, grip and playback, read the solving guide. See three illustrated positions with correct counts that still cannot be solved. If the result still looks wrong, send a reproducible bug report.

    What this solver guarantees

    The engine’s exhaustive tests enumerate 3,149,280 reachable states and reproduce a maximum shortest distance of 11 corner twists. That bound counts a 120° twist or its inverse as one move.

    Mathematical reference: Jaap Scherphuis’s Skewb position counts and distances. The instructions above describe this site’s controls and conventions.

    Read about our verification methods or choose another puzzle.