Where's the Needle? vs Haystack Factory
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Where's the Needle?
Dig through a massive haystack, strand by strand, to find six hidden needles. Automate your process by building a factory with various machines and scanners to speed up your search and earn in-game currency.
- First-person 3D haystack exploration
- Build and automate a hay factory
- Multiple pile sizes
- Yard Research upgrades
- Scanner detection system
- Offline play
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You wake up locked in a warehouse with an open roof. In front of you stands a mountain of hay: millions of strands, and somewhere inside, six buried needles. All you have are your hands. So you start. ONE STRAND AT A TIME Pick hay strand by strand and toss it into the HAY IN intake at the SELL HAY stand. Every strand earns you cents. Cents become dollars, and dollars unlock tool licenses and machine plans in Yard Research. Then buy your gear at Supply Co. BUILD YOUR OWN HAY FACTORY Place every machine wherever you like: conveyor belts, a Dump Hatch, a Steam Rake that needs no power, robot arms in three sizes, Hay Generators wired up with power poles, a Hay Compressor that presses bales, and a Splitter that divides a belt in two. Each extra copy of a machine costs more, so plan your layout. LET THE SCANNER HUNT Mount a scanner arch over a belt. It holds the passing hay, checks it, and sounds a siren when it spots a needle. Careful: sell a needle with the hay or burn it in a generator, and it slips back into the pile. SIX NEEDLES A sewing needle, a desk pin, a safety pin, a bent pin, a hat pin and a darning needle. Each is buried at a different depth, and the deepest hide in the heart of the pile. Every needle you recover goes into your wooden Needle Cabinet until all six slots are full. FEATURES • A first-person 3D haystack you can dig into • Three pile sizes: Small (4.8 million strands), Standard (13.8 million) and Big (34 million), with a peak above the warehouse walls • Yard Research: 8 branches and 48 unlocks and upgrades, from tools, belts and power to your own stamina • Supply Co.: toy shovel, spade, pitchfork, Yard Vac, a metal detector that beeps near a needle, bucket and wheelbarrow • 13 machines and structures to place and connect • Uncover a needle by hand and it glints • A 15-step task card to get you started (you can switch it off) • Game Center leaderboards for the fastest finish on each pile size • Three save slots with autosave • Quality settings from "Potato" for older iPhones up to "High", plus adjustable interface size • Plays fully offline • No ads, no in-app purchases • Landscape only Languages: English and Arabic (Kuwaiti dialect). The game follows your iPhone's language, and you can switch it any time in Settings. Made by a solo indie developer in Kuwait.
Haystack Factory
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Grandma's barn holds one enormous pile of hay: 1,500,000 strands, and every single one is counted. Somewhere inside, she hid her needles. So roll up your sleeves, walk in and start pulling it apart. No ads. No pressure. Just cozy hay hunting with Grandma. PLUCK EVERY STRAND • Play in first person, in landscape: left thumb to walk, right thumb to look around. • Pluck hay by hand until your apron is full. Every strand you move leaves the pile, and the counter keeps ticking down. • Weigh your hay at the Hay Scale for coins. Keep the deliveries coming and the combo climbs. BIGGER TOOLS, BIGGER HAULS • Toy Trowel, Garden Spade, Hay Fork, Feed Bucket, Wheelbarrow, Garden Wagon, Push Broom, Leaf Blower and the gloriously loud Hay Vacuum (mind the overheating). • The Pin Finder pings and buzzes in your hands as you get close to metal. • Three upgrade tracks per tool, with the numbers right there: 1 strand per grab becomes 2, then 3… BUILD YOUR OWN HAY LINE • Place every machine by hand, right in the barn: Conveyors, Rake Pistons, Pitch Arms, Hay Hoppers, Fork Junctions, Decks, Stairs and a Barn Lift. • Put a Magnet Gate on a belt and it stops anything metal in its drawer. Walk over, open the drawer and see what you caught. • Power it all with Hay Stoves, Power Poles and Batteries. • Press hay into bales, wrap them, mill pellets and roll paper. Lob clumps across the barn with the Hay Cannon, or send a Crop Copter to tidy the floor. GRANDMA'S SEWING CABINET • 28 needles to collect, from the everyday Darning Needle to the legendary Golden Needle. Each one comes with Grandma's story and a perk. • The paperclip will fool you at least once. Junk goes in the Junk Drawer: 18 oddities to dig up. • Lucky strands go in Grandma's Lucky Jar. The odds are fixed and shown in the game. A WHOLE FARM'S WORTH OF HAY • Orders from the neighbors: Old Man Hawkins, the bakery, the stables, the zoo and more. • The Farmer's Almanac: more than 200 pages of upgrades across 8 branches. • Clear Grandma's Barn, then take on bigger stacks: the Back Field, the Old Silo, the Harvest Fair Heap and, one day, Mount Haymore. • The Daily Haystack: one small stack with one needle, the same for everyone today. FAIR, ALWAYS • Needles are never for sale. You find every one yourself. • No loot boxes. • Nothing you can buy helps in the Daily Haystack. • No ads. • Plays offline. No account needed. Best with two thumbs and haptics on. Haystack Factory is free to play, with optional in-app purchases that never include needles. Payment is charged to your Apple Account. Haystack VIP subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period; manage them in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use: https://clausewl.github.io/haystack-factory/terms.html Privacy Policy: https://clausewl.github.io/haystack-factory/privacy.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Where's the Needle? at none against Haystack Factory's 5. Where's the Needle? also leads on iOS requirement (16.4 vs 18.0). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Haystack Factory sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month. Where's the Needle? asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | Where's the Needle? | Haystack Factory |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | — |
| Update frequency | — | Every 4 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 18 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Faisal Aljuwaisri | Clau SEWL |
In-app purchases
Where's the Needle?
No in-app purchases
Haystack Factory
- Haystack VIP (Monthly)$7.991 Month
- Haystack VIP (Yearly)3 Days trial$39.991 Year
- Starter Farm Pack$1.99
- Golden Detector$6.99
- Double Coins$7.99
Questions
Is Where's the Needle? free?
Is Haystack Factory free?
Do Where's the Needle? or Haystack Factory have ads?
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