Find The Needle update V14.1 reworks depots, fixes machines eating items and brightens nights

Find The Needle’s V14.1 update on PC makes early progression smoother, fixes the bug that had machines swallowing items and brightens the nights. The developers also say the community is nearing 15k members, and that they have a development plan for the next 6 to 12 months.

Progression changes

• Depots cost only money now, with no parts, and you can build as many as you want in any stage. The first is still free with the Panel Press, and each one after that costs more.
• Extend the Shed no longer waits for orders and needs no hay rods, just money and straw panels.
• Scan Batch Size and Scan Cycle Speed levels 1 to 3 no longer wait for orders. You can buy them once you have the Scanner Mk I.
• Level 5 of the arm, compressor and wrapper upgrades unlocks sooner, with Rods and Gears. Belt level 5 unlocks with Eco Bricks.
• On Big, Huge, The Mountain and MOUNT HAYVEREST, orders no longer wait for needles. Small and Standard stay the same.
• Driving the Skyline Crane yourself now digs up to twice as fast as AUTO DIG.
• The bay door countdown is now 2.5 hours instead of 24. If you’re already past that, the door opens after the intro.

Machine and item fixes

• Machines no longer eat items. One cause was a belt laid without snap, slightly off a machine, which never connected and dropped items off its end. The other was an item running past a short intake on a fast belt. Both are fixed.
• Items lying inside or under the Panel Press, Fabricator or Smelter get picked up by the machine, including ones that fell there before this update.
• Scrap heaps no longer fall off the end of the Smelter’s belt.
• Changing a Fabricator’s or Assembler’s recipe no longer throws out items the new recipe also uses.
• A spare needle goes into a drawer instead of the floor when your needle cabinet is full.
• After you turn the key, you now have to go down the hatch before buying a new pile. Previously the game stopped saving after the key, so time played on the new pile was lost.
• The detector can now hear needles through the side of a tall pile. On big piles it couldn’t hear the first needles at all.
• Two T Junctions can sit back to back, and blueprints with a Hay Bricketizer, Tube Launcher or Fuel Disc Press connect their belts again.
• The compressor’s bale no longer shrinks and pops back as it comes out.

Interface and comfort

• Nights are brighter, so you can keep working in the dark.
• Machine panels show how many items are inside, such as 2/3 under each input. A switched-off machine says SWITCHED OFF in red, and SHORT OF POWER no longer hides its numbers.
• The order sheet counts each item on its own, so The Dairy shows 0/200 and 0/200.
• The price board lists products you can make but haven’t sold yet.
• The Hay Bricketizer gets the new panel, and taking something down shows the parts you got back.
• The Depot has a slider for how many of each item to keep, and tells you when a count is over its limit.
• Order cards no longer mark the Drone Mk II, Standard Arm and Scanner Mk II as upgrades.
• Picking your throw emote in the Customizer is simpler, and tips are clearer.

The developers describe this as a new way to play, like the demo: no orders to chase, just digging, building a factory and making as much money as you can.