There is apparently zero documentation anywhere for this puzzle. There is a Youtube video of someone solving it, but with no explanation of strategy or algorithms. I recently got one, and I’ve added it to my body count of “puzzles I’ve solved with zero help.” If I ever solve it with jumbling, I’ll post a solution for that option as well. Note that there is also an “ultimate” version with split face petal pieces. I don’t own one and won’t be covering it here.

Before you read this, I should say this is an ideal puzzle to figure out on your own. So stop here if you want to do that and feel like a boss. If you’re getting stuck, here is the solution.

Take note that this is an edge turner. Edges turn 180 degrees while staying fixed in place and that’s literally the only legal move (unless you do jumbling, which again I’m not going to cover here). This severely restricts the movement of petal pieces, which have to stay in their orbits. In this senses of “orbit tracking of face petals” it feels like a curvy copter. There is no need to remember or figure out the face color scheme, because edges are fixed and you can trivially turn them until all edges on a face match in color.

The first algorithm is a petal 3-cycle on adjacent edges by doing RLRL or LRLR. It’s a classic “edge-style 3-cycle”, as in the pyraminx, dino cube, master skewb, super ivy and probably literally every other puzzle. This is basically “down down up up on adjacent edges”, except in this case it’s an 180 degree edge turner and there’s no difference between “down” and “up”. Ignore the movement of centers, those can be fixed later. You can do and undo setup moves to get a petal into place to take part in the 3-cycle, and it’s super easy to undo the setups because they’re all 180-degree turns of edges. It’s obvious which edges you moved for your setup, since they’re all oriented wrong. You simply have to turn them back. (It is possible that you flip an edge twice for a setup move and have to retrace flips in order, but that’s often not the most efficient way to solve.)

Next is a centers double 2-swap non-adjacent face centers. Take three edges that share a vertex, designate a Right, Middle, and Left. Doing “Right-Middle-Left” six times leaves all the petals in their original position but swaps the centers in a way that causes them to skip one face, see below. Since this is a pure commutator, you can do setup-algorithm-undo setup, and it will just double-swap centers without bothering any petal pieces. This is identical to doing “Left-Middle-Right” X 6.

Center double 2-swap, adjacent centers. Note that this is the same as the prior algorithm but with setup-algorithm-undo setup flipping the middle edge.

Center double 2-swap of adjacent centers and distant centers. Similar to the above algorithms, but it starts in the middle.

As a general strategy, try to keep a central mass of solved petals (and centers) and keep adding an additional solved piece to the outer border of that mass. It’s harder when you have an isolated unsolved slot in the middle of a group of solved pieces, but you can move unsolved pieces to be part of the 3-cycle and avoid breaking your progress. Again, just remember your setup moves and undo them in the correct order. I have not seen a “parity case” or a difficult final layer case. The very last petal 3-cycle or center double-swap should seamlessly fall into place. The edges turn very well on this puzzle, with the petals only occasionally getting stuck on a corner.

It’s superficially similar to the AJ Clover Icosahedron in appearance, which is a face turner with no fixed face pieces. On the Clover, you have to reconstruct faces by memorizing the color scheme for an initial face (and then figure out other faces by induction based on logical placement of edges). In my opinion the Clover is a deeper puzzle in terms of strategy and look-ahead. I slightly prefer it, though perhaps jumbling makes the YuXin Petal Icosahedron feel deeper. Make sure you’re selecting the right one, because they’re totally different puzzles. They are both fun, though. And I love the shape.

Happy puzzling!