A corner has three colours, and one of them is white. The other two tell you where it lives. Find the two middles with those colours. The corner belongs at the bottom, right between them.

Find a white corner in the TOP layer. Read its other two colours: they name its slot. Turn the top until the corner floats right above that slot. Then turn the whole cube (a y turn) so that slot is at the front-right. A y turn means spin the whole cube like a merry-go-round, keeping yellow on top. You are not turning a face here. You are turning yourself.

These four moves always come as a set: R U R′ U′. Cubers call a short set like this a trigger, because you fire the whole thing or none of it. You will also see this one called the sexy move. Same four moves. Never stop in the middle of one.

Now run those four moves again and again, until the corner drops into the bottom with white underneath. Look after each full set, never inside one. You can guess the number before you start. White pointing right takes 1 set. White pointing up takes 3. White pointing at you takes 5. It is never any other number. Lost count? Just keep going in whole sets. Six full sets bring the cube back to exactly where it was, so a miscount costs you turns, never the solve.

Halfway through a set the bottom looks wrecked. It always does. Every full set of four puts it back. Finish the set. One corner can take twenty turns, and that is normal.

Very often a white corner is already down in the bottom, in the wrong slot or twisted the wrong way. That is normal, not a mistake. Most solves start that way. Hold that slot at the front-right and run the four moves once. The corner pops out to the top. Now put it in properly.

Done-check. Turn the cube over and look at the bottom. It should be one solid block of white. Turn it back. Now walk your eyes round all four sides. The bottom row of each side has to be one colour, and it has to match that side’s middle. All four? The first layer is done.

Those four moves are the most useful four moves in cubing. You own them now. You will meet them again in the next step. And two steps after that. And in the very last one. Sometimes backwards, sometimes mirrored, sometimes upside down. Learn them well here. Most of what is left is already in your hands.

First, learn the four moves

This step is one four-move trigger, R U R' U', repeated until a corner drops into place. The same four moves come back in steps 4, 5 and 8 — backwards, mirrored, or upside down. So learn the motion here first, on a solved cube, where there is nothing to get wrong: six sets put the cube back exactly where it started, so you can keep going until it feels automatic.

Open this drill on its own page →

Watch it happen

Stuck? The corner is already down there

Very often a white corner is already in the bottom layer — in the wrong slot, or twisted so its white faces sideways. That is normal, not a mistake. You cannot fix it down there: it has to come out through the top first. Hold that slot at the front-right and run the trigger once. The corner pops up to the top, and from there you place it the usual way.

See the states

White facing right — the white sticker points at the right face. One full set.

White facing up — the white sticker is on top. Three full sets.

White facing you — the white sticker points at the front. Five full sets.

Try it yourself

Drop the four white corners into place with one short set of moves, and the first layer is done.

You get a cube with everything before this step already done — only this step is left.

The algorithms

The trigger

RUR'U'

A corner floats above its slot at the front-right. Run the set again and again until it drops home. White pointing right takes 1 set, white pointing up takes 3, white pointing at you takes 5. Never stop in the middle of a set.

Quick insert

RUR'

The short version, for when white faces right.

Eject a stuck corner

RUR'U'

A white corner sits in the wrong bottom slot, or twisted in place. Hold that slot at the front-right and run the set once. The corner pops up to the top, where you can put it in properly.