What counts as a solved D-Cross?
Place the four white edge pieces on the D face and align each side color with its center. Corners and upper-layer pieces are not part of this target, so Cube Lab renders them black in D-Cross mode.
White stickers facing down are not enough. The red, orange, green, and blue side stickers must also match their centers.
Read the state in four steps
- Find the four edges that contain white.
- Check whether each white sticker faces up, down, or sideways.
- Choose insertions that do not remove an edge you already solved.
- Use D or side-face turns to align all four side colors with their centers.
How the minimum is calculated
Cube Lab counts clockwise, counter-clockwise, and double turns of U, D, L, R, F, and B as one HTM move each. Breadth-first search explores only the D-Cross edge state, so the displayed count is minimal under that metric.
A cross with one extra move can still lead to a better F2L start. The minimum is a useful benchmark, not a guarantee of the best full solve.
Four states worth memorizing
- A double turn such as F2 moves an edge far away, yet it counts as one HTM move — and so does its repair.
- A cross rotated by a single D turn keeps every white sticker facing down and is still unsolved: side colors decide, not white.
- An edge moved to the B face hides from the default view. Orbit the camera before you choose a move.
- An edge flipped in its own slot always costs four moves, because it must leave the slot and re-enter from the side.
Each of these states is a playable example in the learning library.
Practice routine
- Estimate the move count before turning.
- Enable step-by-step scramble playback and press Space once per move.
- Compare the first two moves of your route with the minimum solution.
- Save the case link and solve it again the next day.