In my final blog entry, I will be going over solving my most challenging puzzle, the ghost cube. Just looking at the puzzle can be confusing: every side is the same color so how do you solve it, or mix it up? In practice, the ghost cube is actually just a standard 3×3, but the axes by which you turn on are offset. Essentially, you have to line up the layers correctly to be able to turn the puzzle, as then you can see the standard lines in between the pieces.

Axes by which you turn the puzzle are highlighted

Now, we will scramble the cube!

As usual, the first step is to solve the cross, but it is difficult to figure out how to start that on the ghost cube. I find it easiest to start with matching the edge that has the logo for the puzzle onto its appropriate center and then solving the other edges from there. From here, it should look like:

Next, we will fill in the corner pieces to finish the first layer. Essentially, just try slotting in corners that seem like they are the correct shape, and if it isn’t then you can just substitute another piece until the layer solidifies. Again, it is easiest to start by matching the pieces with the logo.

After the first layer, we have to solve the middle layer by orienting the centers and middle edges. Again, because the pieces have similar shapes you just have to try each combination until the full shape of the layer is formed.

Now, only the last layer has to be solved. We start by making the cross with the center and edges.

The last step is to solve and orientate the last corners, which brings the puzzle back to a solved, cubic state!

The reason this puzzle is so difficult is that is is very hard to keep track of pieces and figure out where they go because you have to rely on examining the shape of each piece, which is harder to track than a color. If anything, the ghost cube would be much easier to solve if each side was a different color, as it would be much simpler to figure out where to slot each piece.

That wraps up the final blog entry, thanks for reading about me solve all different kinds of Rubik’s Cubes!

In this blog entry, we will go over solving my favorite puzzle, the 2×2, and then my second favorite the Pyraminx!

The 2×2 is unique since it is the only standard cubic puzzle without any center pieces; it is composed of 8 corner blocks! Now, we will scramble the cube!

Normally, the first step of a cube is to solve the center cross, but since the puzzle is all centers we simply have to orientate the centers in one layer, and then flip the puzzle upside dow. When starting with the white face, the puzzle should look as follows:

Next, we make the face that is opposite from the layer that we started a solid color. Since we started on the white face, we now solve the opposite yellow side:

Finally, the last step is to orientate the last two corners that are out of position with a single algorithm, which finishes the 2×2!

The pieces on the Pyraminx will be referred to as follows:

Now, let’s scramble the puzzle!

First, we rotate the outer pieces of the pyramid to match all the pieces it is adjacent to; this is extremely simple to do, as rotating these pieces does not move any other pieces.

Next, we choose a color and rotate all of the inner pieces of that color onto one face; in this case, we use the green pieces.

Now, we slot in the edge pieces of the chosen color to finish the side and put the completed side at the bottom.

After that layer is completed, we have to solve the upper half using a single algorithm to rotate the edge pieces, and then the Pyraminx is solved!

The reason that these two are my favorite puzzles is because of how quick and simple they are to solve! For example, using the methods that I describe here, I can solve each of them in under 10 seconds pretty consistently. Also, because there are so few pieces in each, you can often get lucky and skip steps, which can lead to some impressive times, such as my record of 0.69 seconds on the 2×2! In the next and (final?) entry we will go over my most difficult puzzle, the shapeshifting Ghost Cube!