Bram & Oskar Gear 2x2 Cube PLUS - Black Body (6-Color Stickers) | 2x2

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★★★★
Thursday August 22nd 3J2MB wrote,
Minor spoilers ahead! The puzzle is solved if two conditions are met: 1) The gears are flattened and 2) Each face has a solid colour. I solve these puzzles by doing these steps in order: Flattening Gears --> Matching Gear Pairs --> Solving the Two Non-Geared Faces and then aligning them with each other --> Moving Gear Pairs to their required faces. I found this puzzle EASIER than the Non-PLUS version. The vertical slider pieces on each gear face adds no complexity since they can't even be separated from the gear beside them. But what makes it easier is the fact that on this puzzle due to the number of gear teeth (6) and their size, the gears can only be flat on a face by making an even number of turns from it's solve state, e.g. U12*N. On the non-PLUS version with 7 gear teeth, you can have flattened gears with both an EVEN AND ODD number of turns, e.g. U7*N. The implications are that on this puzzle, you cannot have solve condition #1 occur while being a U or a U' turn away from a solved puzzle (where performing such a turn will unflatten the gears, hence keeping the puzzle unsolved). On the non-plus version you can, and I will (perhaps incorrect) refer to this as "parity". Note that on both puzzles, you can have solve condition #1 occur while being an EVEN number of U turns (e.g. U2 * N) from a solved puzzle, which is easy to resolve. What is difficult to resolve is having solve condition #1 occur while being an ODD number of U turns away from a solve, which does not happen on this puzzle. Both are excellent puzzles though, but this puzzle turns less smoothly than the original version. TLDR: The non-plus version of this puzzle is the harder than this puzzle due to parity, and also turns better. Get that one instead if you plan to only get one as it represents a more complete solve.