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White Cross Tutorial — Rubik's Cube (LBL)

Recap

Daisy placed the four white petals on the top face, around the yellow center. This step flips them down to the bottom, each aligned with its center, to form the white cross — the entire first layer, and everything after, is built on it.

Notation is the same as Daisy: U / U' / U2 (top face) and half-turns R2 / L2 / F2 / B2. If any is unfamiliar, see the Fundamentals course; this step assumes you can already form the daisy (daisy tutorial).

Goal

Daisy: four white petals on top
White cross: four whites on the bottom, each side color matched to its center

The white cross = four white edges on the bottom (white facing down), and each one's side color matched to its same-color center. Just flipping the whites down is not enough — if a side color isn't matched, the cross is wrong and everything after falls apart.

How

One move, repeated for each petal: find its home (the center its side color matches), turn U to align it, then half-turn that face to flip it down. The four petals are independent — a placed one sits in the bottom layer and is untouched by the rest.

Every white petal is on the top face, white facing up. The side color it shows is its home — the face with the same-color center. Two steps: ① turn U until the petal's side color is aligned with its same-color center; ② half-turn that face (e.g. R2 / F2) — the petal flips 180° over the top edge down to the bottom, white facing down, side color touching the center.

One petal, three steps

  1. ① Unaligned: the petal is on top; its side color isn't yet matched to its center.U'
  2. ② Aligned: turn U until the side color faces its matching center.B2
  3. ③ Inserted: half-turn that face — the petal flips to the bottom, white down, side color matched. One done.
However many steps this petal was off, it's always the same move — turn U to align, then half-turn. Do the same for the other three: they're independent, and the placed ones sit in the bottom layer, untouched.
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Animation: press play to step through this petal's U-align, then the half-turn flip-down.

Recognition: finding home

The real skill in this step is finding home: each petal's side color corresponds to the face with the same-color center. One glance at the side color and you know where it goes. Unlike Daisy — which classified edges by layer + facing — cross is a color match, a single step. The most common mistake: half-turning without finding home, so the petal drops under the wrong center and the cross is broken. Sort out each petal's home before you turn anything.

Four petals, four homes: each same-color pair is marked in one color. Rotate the cube to find all four.

Pitfalls

A few common traps:

  • Flipping without finding home: the petal reaches the bottom but its side color is on the wrong center — the cross is skewed and everything after breaks. Align with U first, then half-turn.
  • Half-turning the wrong face: you half-turn the face the petal's side color just aligned with — not any arbitrary face.
  • Worrying about placed edges: placed cross edges are in the bottom layer; doing the next petal only uses U (top) and the target face, so it can't reach them. If one moved, you turned the wrong face.

Practice

Take a scrambled cube, form the daisy, then flip the petals into the white cross one by one. Focus on finding home and aligning — with practice this step takes seconds.

Practice the white cross