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I recently bought this cube. Currently, it is jumbled. How do I solve it? enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ Do you know how to solve a normal 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube? $\endgroup$ Sep 7, 2020 at 6:51
  • $\begingroup$ Depends on what you have solved before $\endgroup$
    – Arjun
    Sep 7, 2020 at 7:01
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    $\begingroup$ This is mechanically identical to a 3x3x3 cube. The pieces look different, but the same methods for placing the normal cube's pieces correctly also apply to this puzzle. The only extra complication is that you have to orient four "face centres", but this can be done when you solve the first layer cross. Where are you stuck when solving this? $\endgroup$ Sep 7, 2020 at 7:20
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    $\begingroup$ Given that cube is mechanically identical to regular rubiks cube, perhaps this is a duplicate of some other "how to solve a rubiks cube" question such as puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/54060/… ? $\endgroup$
    – Steve
    Sep 30, 2020 at 12:17
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    $\begingroup$ @Steve I think this is not a duplicate. What puzzles the OP is why this cube is mechanically identical to a regular rubik's cube. Some of the commenters above should consider posting a more detailed explanation on that. $\endgroup$
    – WhatsUp
    Oct 7, 2020 at 3:21

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Several people commented that is mechanically identical to a regular 3x3x3 Rubiks cube.

Assuming this to be correct, this imagined re-stickering of the cube could perhaps let you visualise how it is identical:

Irregular cube, restickered

The pieces that would normally be edge pieces sharing an edge with the white face are unusually large (reaching to the actual corners of this cube), and the blue-white corner piece (also including orange on this re-colouring) is huge (reaching 2 actual corners of this cube), whilst the orange-white corner (also including green on this re-colouring) is truncated.

On the actual cube, the pieces that mechanically correspond to the orange and green centre pieces are both stickered as orange, so you'd need to figure out which was which (referring to the edge pieces). They also need to be rotated to the correct position (just as with a cube that is stickered with pictures on each face rather than plain colours). Algorithms for rotating faces can be found in an answer to a different question.

The pieces that mechanically correspond to 4 edges pieces, however, have the same colour stickers on both sides, so 4 edge pieces can be rotated 180 degrees with no effect on the appearance of the cube.

The rest of the solution is the same as a regular 3x3x3 Rubiks cube, although you might need to make a chart mapping which pieces on your cube correspond to which "normal" pieces.

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  • $\begingroup$ You could add large white stickers to join the pieces that are actually a single piece. $\endgroup$
    – Florian F
    Oct 7, 2020 at 14:14
  • $\begingroup$ @FlorianF I tried something like that on the image, but (at least to my mind) it made it harder to "see" where the normal cube in the middle was... for me, "stare at the middle of the white face and look for a normal 3x3x3 cube" was the key to understanding it, and big stickers make it look less like a normal cube to me. $\endgroup$
    – Steve
    Oct 7, 2020 at 15:13
  • $\begingroup$ @FlorianF in a second attempt, I got the connections indicated without completely destroying the visual image of a 3x3x3 in the middle. $\endgroup$
    – Steve
    Oct 8, 2020 at 8:53

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