Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask Puzzle 022: Poke 'Em Totems Hints and Answer

Puzzle 022 is Poke 'Em Totems, a 30-picarat Arrange puzzle hidden in the chest of drawers in Hershel's Room, during the Chapter 2 flashback to Hershel Layton's school days. Four columns of stone totem blocks have been knocked out of shape. Each column should be three plain blocks high with a totem head on top, and the heads should read yellow, blue, green and red from left to right. You put them back by hitting blocks sideways with a mallet, but you can never hit the top block of a column, so the order of your hits is the whole puzzle.

Video: Poke 'Em Totems solved. It shows the answer, so skip it if you only want the hints.

This page covers story Puzzle 022 in Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask on Nintendo 3DS, using the North American text, with pictures rebuilt from the game's own art. If you're after Daily Puzzle 022 or Puzzle 22 from another Layton game, see Wrong Puzzle 022? below.

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask Puzzle 022 Poke 'Em Totems: three uneven columns of grey stone blocks with yellow, blue, green and red totem heads between two carved side totems, green arrows beside the blocks, an orange arrow and a mallet at the left, a small board at the top right showing the four heads in a row, and the mallet pad on the touch screen below — Illustration of the jumbled totems on the top screen and the mallet pad on the touch screen, rebuilt from the game's art.

What Puzzle 022 is

Puzzle 022 at a glance
Name	Poke 'Em Totems (written Poke 'em Totems in the UK English version)
Type	Arrange (you hit blocks with a mallet; there's no answer to write or submit)
Picarats	30
Location	Hershel's Room, in the Layton family home in Stansbury
Chapter	Chapter 2
When	Hershel's school days
How you find it	A hidden puzzle: search the yellow chest of drawers to the right of the desk
Solved by	Hershel
Previous puzzle number	Puzzle 021, A Lick of Paint (Old Towne)
Next puzzle number	Puzzle 023, Fairway Fibber (Living Room)

The question reads: "Who's responsible for this mess?! Each of these columns should be three blocks high and have a totem head on top! The heads were arranged from left to right in the order: yellow, blue, green, red. Can you use the mallet to shunt the blocks around and restore the columns to their original grandeur? Be careful, though: you can never hit the top block in a column. Think carefully about which order to hit the blocks in." The objective bar sums it up as "Arrange the totem blocks!"

The game's control help explains the mallet: "Slide the stylus on the Touch Screen to move the mallet on the top screen." Then: "Move the mallet over an arrow next to a block to highlight the arrow, then tap the Touch Screen to hit the block and slide it over." The small board in the top-right corner of the top screen shows the finished shape: four heads in a row, each on three plain blocks.

How the mallet moves the blocks

The question only states the rule about top blocks. The game doesn't spell out the rest, but the mallet seems to work like this.

The mallet needs room to swing. It strikes from an empty space beside a block, or from outside the edge of the board. The green arrows show every strike that's possible right now.
A hit pushes a whole row segment. The block you hit moves one column across, and so does every block touching it on that side at the same height. The last block in the line slides into the next empty space and drops down as far as it can.
Everything above falls. When a block leaves a column, the blocks above it drop by one.
Nothing ever goes up. Blocks only move sideways or fall. A head that falls below the fourth row from the bottom can't get back up, so that attempt is a dead end.
The top block stays put. No column's top block can be hit, which is why every head needs something under it to be knocked out instead.

The jumbled totem blocks with gold badges numbering the columns 1 to 4 from left to right and the rows 1 to 7 from the bottom, and a dashed teal line along the bottom of row 4, where every totem head has to end up — Illustration of columns 1 to 4 and rows 1 to 7, as the hints and the answer on this page count them, rebuilt from the game's art. Every head has to finish in row 4, above the dashed line.

At the start, column 1 has three plain blocks with the blue head and then the yellow head on top. Column 2 is empty. Column 3 has four plain blocks, the green head, one more plain block and the red head on top. Column 4 has four plain blocks.

Puzzle names

Puzzle 022 names
Version	Puzzle name
North America	Poke 'Em Totems
UK	Poke 'em Totems
Japanese	古代の石像 ("ancient stone statues")

The Japanese title is 古代の石像. The North American version carries a different Japanese label for it, 石像のナゾ.

The UK name is written with a lower-case "em." The blocks, the rule and the solution are the same in the US and UK English versions.

Wrong Puzzle 022?

Daily Puzzle 022 in Miracle Mask is a different puzzle: Sailing 03, from the Perilous Voyage set. It has nothing to do with totems.
Poke 'Em Totems 2 is Puzzle 053, a 35-picarat follow-up in Randall's Room, and Poke 'Em Totems 3 is Puzzle 138, worth 60 picarats, in Layton's Challenges. They use the same mallet with different starting blocks, so the answer on this page won't solve them.
Puzzle 22 in another Layton game is a different puzzle. If yours doesn't show stacked totem blocks and a mallet, you're in the wrong game.

Where you get it

Puzzle 022 is a hidden puzzle in Chapter 2, the flashback to Hershel's time in Stansbury. You can go into Hershel's Room when he heads up to his room before dinner and the objective becomes "Do Some Studying before Dinner!" Search the lower drawers of the yellow chest of drawers to the right of his desk, the one with a little potted tree on top. Hershel says, "There's a puzzle hidden here," and adds, "Hmm. Randall must have put it here the last time he was over."

Hershel's Room in Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask: a bed on the left, a desk under a curtained window, a yellow chest of drawers with a potted tree marked with a gold ring, and three numbered teal rings marking the hint coin spots: 1 on a small framed picture above the bed, 2 on the wall clock and 3 on the globe on top of the tall cabinet at the right — Illustration of Hershel's Room, with the chest of drawers ringed in gold and the three hint coin spots numbered, rebuilt from the game's art.

It doesn't look like a puzzle the story needs. Solving it doesn't appear to open anything new. The drawers probably keep offering the puzzle whenever you're in Hershel's Room until you solve it.

Left Hershel's Room without it?

A missed copy probably turns up with Nanna Grams (known as Elizabeth in the UK version), who keeps the puzzles you missed, from the start of Chapter 5, when the objective becomes "Continue the Investigation!" Missing it doesn't block the story.

Hint coins in Hershel's Room

Hershel's Room has three hint coins, all in the normal view, with no zoomed-in view to search. The room is wider than the screen, so slide the view to see both ends. The coins are on the small green-framed picture on the wall above the bed, on the wall clock, and on the globe on top of the tall cabinet at the far right. Three coins pay for the first three hints, but not the Super Hint as well.

Hints, one at a time

These follow the game's own hints, in the same order, with a little more explanation. Columns are numbered 1 to 4 from the left and rows from the bottom, as in the picture above. Open only the next one you need. In the game, Hints 1 to 3 cost one hint coin each and the Super Hint costs two.

Hint 1: Where to begin

Start by filling column 2, the empty one. Blocks never move up, so keep an eye on the heads: none of them may ever drop below row 4, their final height. The game's hint puts it as "Make sure the totem heads never fall below their final position, fourth from the bottom."

Hint 2: Which column to leave alone

Hitting any block in column 1 now would drop the blue head below row 4, so leave column 1 for later. Swing the mallet from the right-hand side and push three blocks from the right into column 2.

Hint 3: One way through

There's more than one route. The game suggests hitting wherever the lowest arrow on the right points, three times. After that, column 4 has two blocks. Then push the plain block under the red head one column to the right. From there, only the heads are left to sort out.

Super Hint: The last few hits

Following Hint 3, you should now have the yellow head on top of the blue one in column 1, and the red head on top of the green one in column 3. Hit the green head from the right, and the rest falls into place with one more hit.

Answer and full solution

The answer below covers every hit, with pictures of the hit order and the finished totems. Open it when you're ready.

Show the answer

The puzzle can be solved in five hits. Columns are numbered 1 to 4 from the left and rows from the bottom. "From the right" means the mallet stands on the right of the block and knocks it to the left.

The five hits
Hit	Block to hit	Swing from	What happens
1	Column 4, row 3 (second from the top)	The right	Column 4's and column 3's row-3 blocks both shift left, and a plain block drops into column 2
2	The plain block under the green head (column 3, row 4)	The right	It drops into column 2, and the green head falls to row 4
3	The plain block under the red head (column 3, row 5)	The right	It drops into column 2, which is now three blocks high, and the red head lands on the green one
4	The green head (column 3, row 4)	The right	The green head slides onto column 2, and the red head drops to row 4 of column 3
5	The blue head (column 1, row 4)	The left	Blue, green and red each move one column right, and the yellow head drops into row 4 of column 1

Six small pictures of the totem blocks labelled Hit 1 to Hit 5 and Finished, each with an orange arrow and the mallet beside the block to hit, ending with four columns of three plain blocks topped by the yellow, blue, green and red heads — Illustration of the five hits in order, with the mallet beside each block.

Step by step:

Hit column 4, row 3, from the right. The mallet swings in from outside the board. The row-3 block of column 3 is pushed into column 2 and falls to the bottom, column 4's block takes its place, and column 4 drops to three blocks.
Hit the plain block under the green head, from the right. It goes into column 2, which is now two high, and the green head falls into row 4.
Hit the plain block under the red head, from the right. Column 2 is now three blocks high, and the red head sits on the green one in column 3.
Hit the green head from the right. It slides onto column 2 at row 4, and the red head drops to row 4 of column 3. Column 4 still has three plain blocks and no head.
Hit the blue head from the left. The mallet swings from outside the board, and blue, green and red all shift one column right, so red lands on column 4. The yellow head drops onto column 1, and the heads read yellow, blue, green, red.

The game's hints describe a different, six-hit route: hit the lowest right-hand arrow three times (column 4, row 1, then column 4, row 2, both from the right, then column 3, row 3, from the right), push the plain block under the red head to the right, hit the green head from the right, and finish with the blue head from the left. Both routes work. Five hits appears to be the fewest possible.

The totems put back together: four columns of three grey plain blocks with the yellow, blue, green and red heads on top from left to right, between the two carved side totems, with white sparkles around them and the small board at the top right — Illustration of the finished totems on the top screen.

When the last head drops into place, the game says, "Well done! Even the totem heads themselves seem happy to be back in their places... Or do they?" Hershel adds, "He must have sneaked this in while I wasn't looking," and then, "Wow. Randall is really serious about getting me into these puzzles!"

If your answer keeps failing:

A head fell below row 4. It can't come back up, so that attempt can't be finished. Start again and check which heads sit above the block before you hit it.
The arrow you want isn't there. The mallet needs an empty space beside the block, or the edge of the board, to swing from, and it can't hit a column's top block. In Hit 4, column 4 has to be down to three blocks so that the mallet can stand at row 4 to the right of the green head.
You started with column 1. Any hit there at the start drops the blue head too low. Column 1 is only hit once, last of all.
The heads are in the wrong order. The goal is yellow, blue, green, red from left to right, as on the small board at the top right.

Picarats, hints and hint coins

Poke 'Em Totems shows 30 picarats when it starts. It may stay at 30 even if you go wrong. The puzzle has a "Too bad" message, "Watch where you swing that mallet!", but you may not be able to fail this puzzle, so it isn't clear when that message appears. If you back out of the puzzle, Hershel says, "Hmm. This is a tricky one," and when you come back to it he says, "Oh, Randall hid a puzzle here, didn't he?"

Hints cost hint coins, not picarats. The costs are one coin each for the first three hints and two for the Super Hint, five in total. The three coins in Hershel's Room cover the first three hints, so you'd need two coins saved from elsewhere for the Super Hint. Or use the free hints on this page and save your coins.

Versions

Nintendo 3DS family: this page covers the 3DS game. You move the mallet with the stylus on the touch screen and tap to swing.
US and UK English versions: the same puzzle, the same blocks and the same solution. The UK name is written Poke 'em Totems.

The scene around the puzzle

Hershel has been sent to his room until dinner, and he finds the totems in his own chest of drawers. He blames his friend Randall, who's been trying to get him interested in puzzles: "Hmm. Randall must have put it here the last time he was over." Solving it doesn't appear to open anything new, but it's a nice early look at how hard Randall worked to win Hershel over to puzzles.

If you like the mallet, Randall has another set waiting in his own room, Puzzle 053, Poke 'Em Totems 2. There's a third, Puzzle 138, Poke 'Em Totems 3, in Layton's Challenges.

FAQ

Where is the answer to Puzzle 022?

It's in the Answer and full solution section above, hidden until you open it. If you only want a push, open the hints one at a time first.

What is Puzzle 022 called?

Poke 'Em Totems in the North American version and Poke 'em Totems in the UK version. In Japanese it's 古代の石像.

Where is Puzzle 022?

In Hershel's Room, during Chapter 2. It's hidden in the yellow chest of drawers to the right of the desk, so you have to search the drawers to find it.

Why can't I hit some blocks?

The question says you can never hit the top block in a column. The mallet also seems to need an empty space beside the block, or the edge of the board, to swing from. Only the blocks with green arrows next to them can be hit.

What if a totem head falls too low?

Blocks never move up, so a head below row 4 can't get back to its place. You'll need to start the board again.

Do I have to solve Puzzle 022?

Probably not. Solving it doesn't appear to open anything new.

I left Hershel's Room without solving it. Is it gone?

Probably not for good. A missed copy probably goes to Nanna Grams from the start of Chapter 5.

How many picarats is Puzzle 022 worth?

It shows 30 picarats when it starts. It may stay at 30 even if you go wrong.

Is Daily Puzzle 022 the same as Puzzle 022?

No. Daily Puzzle 022 is Sailing 03, from the Perilous Voyage set. Story Puzzle 022 is the totem puzzle in Hershel's Room.

Does the same answer work for Poke 'Em Totems 2 and 3?

No. Puzzle 053, Poke 'Em Totems 2, and Puzzle 138, Poke 'Em Totems 3, use the same mallet rules with different blocks, so they need their own solutions.

More Miracle Mask puzzles

For the rest of the game's puzzles, see the Miracle Mask puzzle index.