Find The Needle V14.1 Reworks Depot Costs, Fixes Machines Eating Items, Adds New Play Mode

Update V14.1 changes progression requirements and costs, fixes items vanishing in machines, improves machine panels and night visibility, and adds a demo-style way to play.

What changed

• Depots cost only money, with later ones at $750, $1,130, $1,690 and up.
• The bay door countdown is now 2.5 hours, down from 24.
• Belt level 5 unlocks with Eco Bricks.

Progression and Costs

• Depots need no parts; the first is free with the Panel Press, then $750, $1,130, $1,690 and up.
• Extend the Shed is no longer gated by orders and needs money and straw panels instead of hay rods.
• Scan Batch Size and Scan Cycle Speed levels 1 to 3 are no longer gated by orders and can be bought once you own the Scanner Mk I.
• Arm, compressor and wrapper upgrades at level 5 unlock earlier, using Rods and Gears.
• Belt level 5 unlocks with Eco Bricks.
• On the larger maps, including Big, The Mountain and MOUNT HAYVEREST, orders are no longer gated by needles; Small and Standard are unchanged.
• Driving the Skyline Crane yourself digs up to twice as fast as AUTO DIG.
• The countdown over the bay door is now 2.5 hours instead of 24, and if you are already past it, the door opens after the intro.

Bug Fixes

• A belt placed without snap and slightly off a machine never connected to it and dropped items off its end; this is fixed.
• On a fast belt, items could pass the end of a machine's short intake and vanish; this is fixed.
• The Panel Press, Fabricator and Smelter now collect items lying inside or beneath them, even ones that fell there before this update.
• Scrap heaps no longer fall off the end of the Smelter's belt.
• Switching the recipe on a Fabricator or Assembler keeps items that the new recipe also uses.
• When the needle cabinet is full, a spare needle goes into a drawer instead of onto the floor.
• After you turn the key, you must go down the hatch before buying a new pile, so time played on a new pile is no longer lost.
• The compressor's bale no longer shrinks and pops back as it comes out.
• The detector can hear needles through the side of a tall pile, including the first needles on the big piles.
• Two T Junctions can now sit back to back.
• Belts on blueprints that include a Hay Bricketizer, Tube Launcher or Fuel Disc Press connect again.

Interface and Quality of Life

• Nights are brighter, so you can keep working in the dark.
• Machine panels now display an item count under each input, such as 2/3.
• A machine you switched off says SWITCHED OFF in red.
• SHORT OF POWER no longer hides a machine's numbers.
• The order sheet tracks every item separately, so The Dairy shows 0/200 and 0/200.
• The price board lists products you can make but have not sold yet.
• The Hay Bricketizer has the new panel like other machines.
• Taking something down shows the parts you got back.
• The Depot has a slider to set how many of each item it holds, and it tells you when a count is over its limit.
• The Drone Mk II, Standard Arm and Scanner Mk II are no longer marked as upgrades on order cards.
• Picking your throw emote in the Customizer is simpler, and tips are clearer.

New Way to Play

• A new way to play, like the demo, has no orders: you dig, build your factory and make as much money as you can.

Developer Notes

• The developers say they have a development plan for the next 6 to 12 months.
• The community is reaching 15k members.

Check out the interactive calculators and database on findtheneedlers.com.