Needle In A Haystack Arena
The arena is the multiplayer side of Needle In A Haystack: up to 12 farmers dig one big haystack, and whoever picks up the needle first wins the round. On the way you can knock each other about — but in the end you have to be first to the needle. It's free, it runs in your browser, and there's nothing to download.
How a round works
- Everyone starts the round with bare hands and no coins. Dig hay, sell it at the belt — it pays 3 times the usual price here — and buy tools at the shop.
- The stack is bigger than the everyday one and the needle is buried deeper, with a few rare finds hidden around it to fool the detector.
- The first farmer to pick up the needle wins. Everyone sees the scores for 10 seconds, then a fresh haystack appears and the next round starts.
- Came in late? You get coins to catch up — more the longer the round has been going, up to 1,500.
- Nobody has found it after 8 minutes? Every detector starts hearing the needle from further away.
HP, hits and getting defeated
Every farmer has 100 HP. Swing at someone with what's in your hand: the pricier the tool, the harder it hits — except the leaf blower, which barely hurts but slows them down.
| Tool | What it does to a farmer |
|---|---|
| Hands | 8 HP a hit |
| Pitchfork | 15 HP a hit, and a bigger push |
| Hay bomb | Up to 45 HP to everyone near the blast, and throws them |
| Leaf blower | 5 HP a second, but halves their speed and blows them back |
| Hay vacuum | 40 HP a second for as long as it's on them |
HP comes back by itself once you haven't been hit for 5 seconds.
At 0 HP you're defeated and sit out for a moment: 10, 20, 30 seconds for your first, second and later defeats in a round. You keep your coins and tools; the unsold hay in your bag goes to whoever defeated you.
What you get for defeating someone
- Their unsold hay and finds, paid straight to you as coins.
- A 100-coin bounty, plus 100 more for every defeat in a row they were on — look for the 🔥 on name tags.
- 30 HP back.
- No bounty for defeating the same farmer twice within 1 minute: picking on one player doesn't pay.
Safe zones and protection
Nobody can be hit right at the spawn point, the selling belt or the shop: look for the rings on the ground. When you come into the arena, and when you're back after a defeat, you're protected for 5 seconds — unless you hit someone first.
Bot farmers
When only a few people are online, bot farmers fill the arena up to 4. They're marked Bot, dig and sell like anyone, hit back when you hit them, and are a little slower than people.
Play with friends instead
Want a game of your own? On the home page, press Friends to open a private room and share its code. Go to the home page.