From now on you work only on the top. This step makes all four top EDGES show yellow, in a cross. Ignore the corners. Ignore the side colours of the edges too. Only the yellow on top counts.

Look down at the yellow edge stickers. You will see one of four shapes. A dot means no yellow edges at all. An L means two next to each other. A line means two opposite. The fourth shape is the cross itself.

One set of moves fixes all three shapes, and most of it you know already. Do an F. Then your trigger, just as you learned it. Then undo the F. That is it: F, trigger, F back. Six moves, and only one of them is new. What you have to get right is how you HOLD the cube first.

The L: two yellow edges next to each other. Look straight down at the top. They make a corner shape, like the letter L. Turn the top until that corner points away from you and to your left. Run the moves once and the L becomes a line. The line: two yellow edges opposite each other. Look down again and turn the top until the line runs left to right across your view, not towards you and away. Run the moves once and the cross turns up. The dot: no yellow edges at all. Run the moves once from any angle and an L turns up. Hold it back and left, then carry on.

So the worst case is a dot, and that is three runs, reading the shape again between each one. The moves never touch the bottom two layers.

Corners may twist and jump about while you do this. That is fine. They are the next two steps.

Done-check: look straight down at the top. Four yellow edges make a plus sign around the yellow middle. The four corners up there can be any colour at all. Do not let them worry you.

Six moves, and four of them are the trigger

This step's algorithm is F R U R' U' F'. Look at the middle of it: R U R' U' is your trigger, untouched. All that is new is the F before it and the F back after it — a wrapper that carries the motion up to the top edges and then puts the front face back. Warm the trigger up here, and the only thing left to get right is how you hold the cube before you start.

Open this drill on its own page →

Watch it happen

See the states

Dot: no yellow edges up

L shape: hold it pointing back and left

Line: hold it running left to right

The goal: a yellow cross. The corners are still a mess, and that is fine.

From a line: one run finishes the cross

From an L held back and left: two runs

From a dot: three runs, re-holding between them

Try it yourself

Turn the top edges yellow side up: dot, then L, then line, then cross. One short set of moves does all of it.

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

The algorithm

Yellow cross

FRUR'U'F'

Dot: run it from any angle and an L turns up. L: hold the two yellow edges pointing back and left, run it once, and a line turns up. Line: hold it running left to right, run it once, and the cross is done.