5 · Placing the yellow edges

You have a yellow cross, but its arms are probably not in front of the right faces. We are going to place them without touching anything else.

Check what you have

Turn U slowly and watch the sides of the four cross edges. Look for a position where at least two edges match the centre of their face.

• Two edges correctly placed → that is the normal case, carry on below.
• All four correctly placed → this step is already done, go to the next one.

The algorithm

R U' R U R U R U' R' U' R2

It cycles three edges among themselves and leaves the fourth alone. The corners do not move.

How to position it

1. Find the two edges that are already correct.
2. If they are next to each other (adjacent): turn the cube so they are at the back and on the right. Apply the algorithm once.
3. If they are opposite (facing each other): apply the algorithm from any position. You land on the "next to each other" case. Go back to point 2.

Turn the cube, not the top face

At this step you may rotate the whole cube around the vertical axis (yellow stays on top) — that breaks nothing. What breaks everything is turning the cube over so yellow ends up somewhere else.

Check

The four top edges match the centres of their faces. You see a small single-colour T on each of the four side faces. Only the corners are left.