How to find the needle

Where the needle hides

The haystack is a dome about 21 metres across and almost 10 metres tall. When a new stack is made, the needle is placed at a random spot where the hay is packed solid, so it is always well inside the stack rather than near its skin. Valuables like coins and rings are scattered through the rest of it. A new stack puts the needle somewhere new, so there's no fixed spot to memorise.

Step by step

1. Dig with your gloves and grab everything. Every nail, cap and coin sells at the Trading Post. Fill your 12-slot backpack, walk over and sell.
2. Buy the Hay Hook ($150), then a bigger Backpack ($200). The hook digs almost twice as fast, and the backpack means fewer trips.
3. Get Detector Mk I ($250). Now you can hear metal before you see it and dig straight toward valuables instead of guessing.
4. Save for the Pitchfork ($900). It moves roughly five times as much hay as your gloves.
5. Buy your first Auto-Sifter ($4,000). It tunnels into the stack by itself and sells what it finds, so money keeps coming in while you dig elsewhere.
6. Upgrade the detector to Mk III ($7,000). This is the big one: from Mk III the detector tells you when the signal it is picking up is the needle.
7. Sweep the stack systematically. Tunnel in, switch to the detector, turn slowly and follow the beeps. When it says it's the needle, dig toward it carefully.
8. Look for the sparkle. Once the needle is exposed it twinkles, even from across a tunnel. Walk up and grab it.

Tips that save a lot of time

• Tunnel, don't carve. A long walk-in tunnel through the middle lets the detector cover far more of the stack than scraping the outside.
• Clear the floor, not just the walls. You can only walk into spaces your body actually fits through.
• Watch the ceiling. Any hay that is no longer connected to the rest of the stack falls down, so a huge cavern can drop its roof.
• Keep an eye on the Auto-Sifters. If a machine digs up the needle, you'll get a message and a beam of light over its tray. Just go and grab it.
• Let magnets do the picking. Magnet Gloves pull exposed metal (including the needle) into your hands as you walk past.

Finding it in Purist mode

Purist mode has no detector, no machines and no upgrades, only your gloves. The same rules apply though: the needle is deep in solid hay and it sparkles once uncovered. Work in straight tunnels, keep them at head height so you can see along them, and check every new chamber for a glint before moving on. More in Classic vs Purist.

What happens when you find it

You win the stack and see your stats: search time, how much of the stack you went through, hay moved and money earned. Then you can start the next stack. Your tools, upgrades and money carry over and your Auto-Sifters start new tunnels, so every stack after the first goes faster.