FFXIV Faux Hollows: unlock, rewards and which panel to turn

Faux Hollows is a 6 by 6 board of panels that the faux commander in Idyllshire lets you play once a week after you complete an unreal trial. You turn panels to uncover hidden illustrations, and every complete illustration pays faux leaves. The Faux Hollows solver keeps your board and tells you which panel to turn next.

How do I unlock Faux Hollows?

Complete the level 80 quest Fantastic Mr. Faux in Idyllshire. After that, complete the unreal trial of the current patch through the Raid Finder and speak to the faux commander. Access resets once a week; the Raid Finder entry of the unreal trial shows whether you can still play this week.

What is hidden on the board?

Every board has five panels that cannot be turned. Under the others the game always hides the Dual Blades, a large illustration of 2 by 3 panels, and one medium illustration of 2 by 2 panels, which is either a Coffer or a Gift Box. The Commander, a single panel, appears only rarely. An illustration pays only when all of its panels are turned:

Uncovering the Dual Blades also grants a retelling: complete the unreal trial again and you may play Faux Hollows once more in the same week. You can hold at most 1,000 faux leaves; the faux commander exchanges them for rewards.

How many panels can I turn?

Eleven. The Dual Blades and the medium illustration need ten panels between them, so finding both leaves room for at most one panel that shows nothing. That is why the first turns matter: each one should rule out as many layouts as possible.

How does the solver choose the next panel?

The game uses a fixed set of layouts. Players have recorded them: each arrangement of blocked panels comes with a known list of places for the Dual Blades, the medium illustration and the Commander. The solver keeps every recorded layout that matches the panels you have marked. For each panel you could turn next it counts what the remaining layouts hide there, and it picks the panel that leaves the most layouts in which you can still complete the Dual Blades and the medium illustration within your remaining turns.

When a turned panel shows part of an illustration, the picture fragment tells you which part it is. The solver then shows the placements that are still possible as small boards; pick the one that matches the picture and the rest of the illustration fills in without using a turn.

Worked example

Open the board with two blocked panels already marked: row 1, column 6 and row 2, column 2. Only one arrangement of blocked panels contains both, so the other three blocked panels fill in by themselves and 16 layouts remain.

Mark each panel you turn in the game with the same illustration, or Empty when it shows nothing. On one recorded board of this layout the solver first sends you to panels that split the 16 layouts; the first Dual Blades panel narrows them sharply, and picking its placement from the small boards leaves a single layout. From there the solver lists the Coffer's remaining panels, then the Dual Blades, and the board finishes with 50 faux leaves and a retelling inside eleven turns.

Over all recorded layouts, following the solver completes both the Dual Blades and the medium illustration within eleven turns on 224 of 252 boards.