Find The Needle drops you into a barn with an enormous Haystack and one job: sell hay fast enough to fund machines that dig out every needle. The gameplay loop is simple, but the layout you build decides whether you clear the barn in an hour or grind for an afternoon. The right combination of tools, power, and detection turns a slow manual dig into a hands-off production line.
Quick answer: Set a Conveyor Belt right against the Haystack and feed it with the Pitchfork to push past $120/min, then add Compressors, a Generator, and Scanners once cash allows.
Fastest early money: Pitchfork, Wheelbarrow, and the Conveyor Belt
Early income comes from moving hay quickly, not from carrying more of it. Buy the Pitchfork and the Wheelbarrow first, and spend a few points on stamina consumption and quantity picked for comfort. Use the Wheelbarrow with the Pitchfork only until you can afford the Conveyor Belt, after which the hauler becomes unnecessary.
Place the Conveyor Belt directly beside the Haystack. This lets you pick up and drop hay without walking back and forth, and the Pitchfork-and-belt pairing is the quickest route to clearing $120/min. The Vacuum holds more hay, but it is much slower to unload onto the belt, which drags your money-per-minute down.
- Pitchfork — scoops multiple pieces at once for fast pickup.
- Wheelbarrow — early hauling only, until the belt is unlocked.
- Conveyor Belt — placed beside the Haystack, it removes all backtracking.
You will know the setup is working when your income counter holds steady above the $120/min mark without you leaving the Haystack.
Power and processing: Generators, Compressors, and bale presses
Loose hay sells for little. As soon as you have the cash, unlock the Compressor plans so you can turn hay into bales, which sell for far more than plain twigs. Bale production is slow, so build several bale presses and take the Faster Bale Press node on the Tech Tree to speed the conversion.
Every machine needs power, and power comes from the Generator. You feed it hay and it produces electricity, which travels through Power Poles built from the adjacent Tech Tree node. The poles are cheap and mandatory for machines to run, so lay them early and expand your setup from there.
Put the Generator in the middle of your build and branch Power Poles outward, so wiring never blocks space you need for other machines.
Managing belts with Splitters, Jointers, and modular sections
Alongside the standard Conveyor Belt you get Splitter and Jointer belts. Splitters divide a line into multiple lanes and Jointers merge lanes back together, which is essential for changing direction and feeding several slow machines at once. Because the machinery is slow, running multiple lane splitters keeps hay flowing instead of piling up. You can also route a lane into the Generator to keep power topped up across the whole floor.
Do not build one long, unbroken belt. Break the line into smaller pieces instead. Each machine has a different footprint and you cannot swap one directly for another, so a belt made of mixed small and large sections is far easier to edit. You can delete a single section without collapsing the whole line, and you can flip the travel direction of just one segment rather than tearing up the entire route.
Collecting needles automatically with Scanners
The needles are what actually finish the run, and Scanners are how you catch them without hunting by hand. Place a Scanner on every lane after each machine so hay is checked before it sells. Scanning slows the flow, so add these last, once the rest of your production line is running smoothly. Any needle hidden in the hay you sell gets pulled out for you.
There is a Metal Detector you can carry yourself, and a quick patrol around the Haystack can hint at which section holds needles. But as the pile grows it becomes impossible to check everything manually, and most needles sit deep in the hay. Leaving detection to the Scanners while you focus on clearing the Haystack is the reliable way to collect them all and complete the barn.
