Final Fantasy XIV adds to your weekly chore list once again with the return of old Extreme Trials and a match-up board game, Faux Hollows. While the unenthused Sand Fox doesn’t pose much of a challenge himself, his Unreal Trial requirements can be a real pain.
However, you can spare yourself any wasted effort and spend those Faux Hollows chances wisely. Before jumping in and guessing, take a minute to review our comprehensive guide on unlocking, playing, and spending your rewards currency in Faux Hollows.
How to Unlock Faux Hollows
To unlock Faux Hollows and gain access to the Faux Commander, you’ll need to reach level 80 and finish Shadowbringers MSQ (ending with the quest “Shadowbringers”). In addition to finishing up the Patch 5.0 storyline, you must complete the quest “Keeping Up with the Aliapohs” in Idyllshire (X: 7.0, Y: 5.8).
After cleaning up those loose ends, look for the Painfully Ishgardian Man in Idyllshire (X: 6.9, Y: 5.9). He tasks you with the quest “Fantastic Mr. Faux” which is a quick chore to finish up to unlock both Faux Hollows and Unreal Trials. With the prerequisites complete, the Faux Commander now hangs out in Idyllshire (X: 5.7, Y: 6.1), ready to play his game of luck.
How to Play Faux Hollows
Every week, FFXIV gives you one chance to play Faux Hollows after completing the Unreal Trial. The twice-weekly chance allowance resets every Tuesday at 1:00 am PT, and you don’t need to speak to the Faux Commander to begin the first. Simply queue into the Unreal fight, beat the boss, then head back to Idyllshire to play.
Once the Faux Commander starts the game, you can’t back out — make your selections carefully. Essentially, his challenge is just a scratch-off game of luck, but you can make educated guesses by studying the board and taking it slow.
You’ll have 11 turns to uncover a panel on the 6×6 Faux Hollows board. These panels can be blank or reveal parts of a picture, and you must complete the entire image to obtain rewards. The types of Faux Hollows panels, their sizes, and rewards are as follows:
- Commander [One Panel]
- Rewards 100 Faux Leaves; rarely appears on the board
- Coffer [Four Panels]
- Rewards 35 Faux Leaves; this or the Gift Box always appears on the board
- Gift Box [Four Panels]
- Rewards 25 Faux Leaves; this or the Coffer always appears on the board
- Dual Blades [Six Panels]
- Rewards 15 Faux Leaves and a Retelling; always appears on the board
Before making your first move, inspect the board and establish where these images could emerge based on the free panels. There are always several tiles blocked off, so tiles for the Coffer, Gift Box, and Dual Blades cannot appear where there are not enough panels to reveal the picture.
How to Solve Faux Hollows
For your first Faux Hollows ticket, you’ll always want to obtain one Retelling — what you do with the rest is up to you. A Retelling is a large, six-panel picture revealing Dual Blades and rewarding 15 Faux Leaves. More importantly, it lets you re-challenge the Unreal Trial for another chance to play. If you don’t obtain the Retelling, this will be your first and only time playing Faux Hollows until the weekly reset.
With the remaining panel reveals, you could gamble and select random tiles for the single Commander space, but it may not even be on the board. If playing it safe sounds more appealing, try using four turns to uncover the Coffer or Gift Box.
After scoring a Retelling, beat the Unreal Trial once more and speak to the Faux Commander. He’ll let you play again, but this is the last time you can play for the week — even if you uncover another Retelling.
For your second Faux Hollows chance, aim for a Gift Box or Coffer first. Then, you can go for the Dual Blades and get the guaranteed 15 Faux Leaves with no Retelling, or poke around for the elusive Commander square. Weigh those options wisely, as Faux Leaves take quite some time to collect.
How to Unlock Unreal Trials
When you unlock Faux Hollows, you automatically gain access to Unreal Trials; no need to do anything else, so long as you’ve cleared the original version of whatever Trial is currently in the cycle.
For nostalgic adventurers or newer Warriors of Light, an FFXIV Unreal Trial is the chance to experience old Extreme Trials tailored to today’s difficulty. It’s not the same experience per se, given new Jobs and reworks to mechanics, but it’s far better than using the minimum Item Level functionality in Duty Finder.
The new difficulty debuted in Shadowbringers with Shiva’s beefed-up encounter originally from Patch 2.4, The Akh Afah Amphitheatre (Extreme). FFXIV only makes one Unreal Trial available at a time, rotating these fights out between updates. After reliving the icy hell of Shiva Circles, we’ve also seen updated versions of Titan, Leviathan, and Ultima Weapon Extreme.
In Patch 6.2, Heavensward’s Sephirot from the Warring Triad is back with the Containment Bay S1T7 (Unreal). If you want to farm The Fiend twice weekly, we’ve got an in-depth guide on the revamped Sephirot encounter on the way, so check back for updates soon.
Faux Hollows Rewards
After completing Faux Hollows, speak to the fox again to exchange Faux Leaves for new glamour, mounts, and minions. The irritable auspice offers rewards from old content plus goodies exclusive to his game of mix-and-match.
Thankfully, these rewards remain permanently in the shop, but the Faux Commander gradually adds more with new FFXIV patches. Personally, I’d recommend going for a minion of the guy who’s always thrilled to see you (it’s the Sand Fox).
As of Patch 6.2, here’s every reward available from Faux Hollows:
