Mirror Cube Solver (3x3 Mirror Blocks)

The depth palette: reading a colorless cube

A mirror cube has no colored stickers: every piece wears the same reflective finish, and only its size tells it apart. Each of the six outer layers has its own thickness, so the palette numbers them from 1, the thinnest, to 6, the thickest. A swatch shows a slab whose height matches the depth, a label such as U · 1, and how many stickers of that depth are left. The number printed on a swatch is its key, not its depth:

Opposite layers add up to seven, like the spots on a die: 1 faces 6, 2 faces 5 and 3 faces 4. Keep the last column in mind, because error messages and the replay speak in those colors.

Why the mirror cube is a 3x3 underneath

Inside, a mirror cube is an ordinary 3x3: 8 corners, 12 edges and 6 centers around one core. The cuts between the layers just sit off center, so the pieces differ in size and a scrambled puzzle becomes a jumble of steps. Solved, the outline is a cube again.

It therefore has the same 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 positions, none more than 20 moves from solved, and the solver on this page relies on exactly that. Each depth stands for one face of a regular cube, so your marks become a plain 3x3 position for the same engine as the Rubik’s cube solver on the home page, which runs in your browser.

Entering your Mirror Blocks: 3D view, flat net or scramble

The mirror cube solver opens on the 3D cube tab: tap a sticker to give it the selected depth, right-click or press and hold to erase, and drag to turn the cube round. The Flat net tab shows all 54 stickers as a cross, handy for a final check. Both tabs edit the same cube, and the six centers start filled in.

If you mixed your Mirror Blocks from solved with a written sequence, open the Scramble tab, type it in 3x3 notation, for example R U2 F' L D, and press Apply scramble. It is applied to a solved cube with depth 1 on top and depth 3 in front; slice moves and rotations are refused. Fill solved marks a solved cube in one go, and Clear colors empties all but the centers.

When your depth marks cannot be right

Once the last sticker is marked, the solver checks the cube, outlines the stickers to recheck in red and keeps Solve disabled until it makes sense. The messages name colors, so translate them with the table: “too many red” means too many stickers marked 5.

• A depth used more or less than nine times Each depth covers one face.
• A piece that cannot exist Opposite depths never share a piece, so a corner or edge marked 1 and 6, 2 and 5, or 3 and 4 is a slip.
• Two identical pieces One of them was misjudged.
• A twisted corner, a flipped edge or two swapped pieces No sequence of turns reaches this position. If the outlined stickers are right, the puzzle was reassembled wrongly.

Solutions drawn in color while your Mirror Blocks change shape

Fast (≈20 moves) uses a two-phase search and returns 21 moves at most; keep the cube as you marked it, depth 1 on top and depth 3 toward you. Beginner, step by step takes around 120 moves on average, split into the seven stages of the layer-by-layer method, each explained.

The replay and move tiles draw your puzzle in the standard colors, since identical silver pieces would be impossible to follow. Read the colors back as depths: in Beginner mode, “Hold the cube with yellow on top and blue in front” means the thickest layer on top and depth 4 toward you. Halfway through, the cube can look messier than when you started, because the pieces only settle into a cube near the end. Trust the move count, not the outline, and never regrip by shape. Full screen shows one move at a time, and Copy share link saves an address that reopens this exact cube.

How to solve a mirror cube yourself

A mirror cube is a 3x3 in disguise: any 3x3 method works, move for move, and only recognition changes. Where a normal cube asks “is this the right color?”, a mirror cube asks “does this surface sit flush with its neighbor?”. The seven stages in how to solve a Rubik’s cube apply unchanged:

1. Pick your “white”. Treat the thinnest layer as the first face, as Beginner mode does, and hold it on top while you build the cross.
2. The cross. An edge is right when both of its sides sit flush with the two centers beside it and the step between them disappears.
3. First-layer corners. A corner is placed when all three of its surfaces line up with the three faces around it.
4. Middle layer. Insert the four middle edges with the usual pair of algorithms; a wrong edge shows as a step in the middle of a side.
5. Last layer. Orient, then place. A flipped edge shows as two surfaces that should be level but are not.

The hard part is spotting a piece that is in its slot but turned wrongly, which on a colored cube would be obvious. Learn the moves on a colored cube first: the Rubik’s cube simulator turns exactly like your Mirror Blocks.