ZZ Method

ZZ (after Zbigniew Zborowski) starts by orienting every edge while placing two bottom edges, a step called EOLine. From then on the whole cube can be solved with just R, U and L turns: no F or B moves and no rotations. The last layer's edges come out already oriented.

Pictures use the CFOP colours (white bottom, yellow top, blue front, red right) and the same notation.

Step 1: EOLine

Orient all twelve edges, and place the white–blue and white–green edges at the front and back of the bottom, so they form a line along the white centre.

Spotting bad edges

An edge is oriented (good) if it can be solved without F or B quarter turns. Holding yellow on top and blue at the front:

• For an edge in the top or bottom layer, look at its sticker on the top or bottom face. For an edge in the middle layer, look at its sticker on the front or back face.
• The edge is good if that sticker is yellow or white, or if it's blue or green and the edge's other sticker is red or orange.
• Otherwise it's bad.

There's always an even number of bad edges: 0, 2, 4 and so on up to 12.

Fixing them

R, L, U and D turns, and half turns of any face, never change edge orientation. A quarter turn of F or B flips the four edges on that face. So:

1. Using R, L, U and D turns, move bad edges onto the front (or back) face until it holds exactly four bad edges, then turn it a quarter turn. That fixes all four at once.
2. With two bad edges, put one of them on the front face along with three good edges and turn it. That leaves four bad edges (the three just flipped plus the other one), which you then fix as in step 1. With six, fix four and then handle the last two the same way.
3. Place the white–blue and white–green edges at the front and back of the bottom. Half turns such as F2 are safe, since they don't change orientation.

Plan the whole EOLine in inspection. It usually takes about 6–9 moves. Some solvers instead place all four white edges (EOCross), which makes F2L more like CFOP.

Step 2: F2L

Build the first two layers on each side of the line: a 1×2×3 block on the left, then another on the right. Because every edge is oriented, pieces pair up with R, U and L alone, which keeps F2L fast and easy to look ahead in.

• Left block first. Build it with L, U and R moves. R and U turns don't disturb it later, so you can do the rest with them alone.
• Then the right block with R and U: the white–red edge and centre columns, then the two pairs.
• The last pair is where the algorithms are. The ZZ F2L page lists every front-right case with edges oriented. There are only 20, because edge orientation removes half the usual F2L cases.

ZZ F2L20 cases →

Step 3: The last layer

The last layer's edges are already oriented, so the yellow cross is done. Choose one of two routes.

OCLL then PLL. Orient the corners (7 algorithms), then permute everything with one of 21 PLL algorithms. It's the easiest route if you already know CFOP.

OCLL7 cases →

PLL21 cases →

COLL then EPLL. Orient and permute the corners in one algorithm (42 cases), leaving only an edge cycle (4 cases). More algorithms to learn, but the second step is always short and quick to recognise.

COLL42 cases →

EPLL4 cases →

Tips

• Don't rotate after EOLine. A y or y' rotation turns the oriented edges into bad ones from your new point of view. A y2 is harmless, but it's rarely needed; stick to R, U and L.
• EOLine is the hard part to learn. Practise just EOLine (and checking your edges afterwards) until you can plan it in inspection.
• Later, ZBLL (493 algorithms) solves the whole last layer in one step, since the edges are always oriented.