2-look OLL turns the whole top face yellow in two steps instead of one. First you make a yellow cross (3 cases), then you twist the corners (7 cases). That's 10 algorithms instead of the 57 of full OLL. It's the usual first step from the beginner method toward CFOP, and most people learn it in a week or two.
Hold the cube with yellow on top and the first two layers solved. Each diagram shows the top face, plus the yellow stickers that show on the sides. Turn the top layer until your cube matches the picture, then do the algorithm. Press Watch to see it animated from exactly that position.
Step 1: Make the Yellow Cross
Look only at the four edge pieces on top (ignore the corners, shown dark gray). You'll see a line, an L, or just the center, called a dot. If you already have a cross, skip to step 2.
- Line: hold it left to right, then do F R U R' U' F'.
- L shape: hold it so the two yellow edges are at the front and right, then do f R U R' U' f'. The lowercase f turns the front two layers.
- Dot: do both, the line algorithm and then the L algorithm, in one go.
Coming from the beginner method? There you hold the L at the back left and do F R U R' U' F' twice. That still works, but the single wide-move algorithm above is shorter. Just remember it uses a different angle: front and right.
Step 2: Orient the Corners
With the yellow cross done, count the corners whose yellow sticker faces up. That narrows it to two or three cases:
- None up: H or Pi. Look at the sides. H has two yellow stickers on each of two opposite sides. Pi has two on one side and one on each side next to it.
- One up: Sune or Antisune. They're mirror images, so the side stickers tell you which.
- Two up: U, T or L.
Turn the top until the pattern matches the diagram exactly, side stickers included, then do the algorithm. These seven are the same cases as OLL 21–27 in full OLL.
How to Learn 2-Look OLL
- Start with step 1. If you came from the beginner method, you already know the line algorithm, so only the L case is new.
- Then learn Sune and Antisune. Many solvers fix any corner case by doing Sune up to three times. It's slow, but it means you can always finish.
- Add H, Pi, U, T and L one or two at a time. Practice each until you can spot the case from the side stickers without searching.
- Move on to 2-look PLL to finish the last layer, and time your progress with the cube timer.
How to Practice One Case
You don't have to wait for a case to come up in a solve. To set one up on purpose, start from a solved cube and do its algorithm backwards: the moves in reverse order, each one turned the other way. For example, the Sune R U R' U R U2 R' backwards is R U2 R' U' R U' R'. Now the algorithm solves it, and you can drill it a few times in a row. The Watch demos start from exactly that position.
Troubleshooting
The first two layers got messed up
None of these 10 algorithms touches the first two layers when it's done correctly, from any angle. If the bottom of your cube is scrambled afterwards, a move went wrong. Most often it's a prime turned the wrong way, or the whole cube rotated in your hands. Go slowly and watch the demo once more.
The yellow cross disappeared during a corner algorithm
That also means a move went wrong, not that you held it wrong. A corner algorithm keeps the cross intact even from the wrong angle. Check that you started with a full cross (step 1 finished), then try the algorithm again more slowly.
I did a corner algorithm and the top still isn't all yellow
If the cross is still there, you probably held it from a different angle than the diagram, or mixed up two similar cases. That's fine. You now simply have another corner case. Count the corners facing up again, find the matching diagram, and continue.
The dot algorithm didn't make a cross
The dot algorithm is two parts. After the first half, F R U R' U' F', you should see an L at the front and right. If you don't, a move in that half went wrong. If you do, the second half, f R U R' U' f', finishes the cross.
FAQ
How many algorithms is 2-look OLL?
Ten: three for the yellow cross and seven for the corners. In a solve you use at most one from each group.
Do I have to learn all seven corner cases?
Not at first. With Sune alone you can finish any corner case. It never takes more than three Sunes, turning the top between them to match the Sune diagram. Learn the other six to save time.
When should I learn full OLL?
Once 2-look OLL and 2-look PLL feel automatic and your solves are under about a minute. Full OLL has 57 cases and replaces both looks with one algorithm, so it pays off most once the rest of your solve is fast.
These are established, widely taught algorithms, not the only good ones. Which feels fastest depends on your hands, so if another version of a case suits you better, use it.
The algorithms are the standard 2-look set as listed by J Perm (each card links to the source). Every one is checked by our cube engine: each diagram is exactly the position its algorithm solves, every algorithm keeps the first two layers intact, and the 10 cases cover every possible top-face pattern. Case names are checked against J Perm and SpeedCubeDB.