The Find The Needle tech tree is the Yard Research screen, and it is much larger than the handful of nodes you meet in the first hour. It splits into five branches — HAND WORK, YARD BUILDING, HAY LINES, POWER and PROCESSING — and the full game advertises more than 300 upgrades that unlock new machines, raise production speed and efficiency, and expand the factory.
Find The Needle tech tree: the five branches of Yard Research
| Branch | What it covers | Bought / ready |
|---|---|---|
| HAND WORK | The manual tools | 5 ready |
| YARD BUILDING | Platforms, walls and roofs | 4 of 17 bought, 4 ready |
| HAY LINES | Belts, splitters and the launcher | 4 of 17 bought, 2 ready |
| POWER | The generator and its wires | 2 of 23 bought, 5 ready |
| PROCESSING | Bales, wraps, bricks and the silo | 3 of 101 bought, 11 ready |
PROCESSING splits again into AUTOMATION, WATER, PROSPECTING, SELLING and FITNESS. Those counters are a snapshot of an early build — read the live numbers on your own cards.
HAND WORK is the branch you meet first, holding the tool upgrades: Toy Shovel, Spade, Bucket Licence, Broom, Bigger Spade, Bigger Bucket, Pitchfork, Bigger Pitchfork, Smooth Pouring, Better Broom, Wheelbarrow Licence and more.
The yard building, hay lines and power branches alone hold dozens of nodes, and processing holds over a hundred, so the tree rewards a plan instead of impulse buys. The order to take the nodes in is the research upgrade order.
What the counters on each branch mean
Two numbers sit on each branch card: how many nodes you have bought, and how many are ready for you to buy. A "ready" node is one whose prerequisites are already satisfied, so it is the ready count — not the bought count — that tells you where you have room to spend.
Individual cards carry a price and a buy state. Visible examples include Tube Launcher Plans at $260.00, Belt Joiner, Priority Arm, Underground Cable at $3k, Bigger Boiler at $80 with 0 of 6 ranks bought, Bigger Firebox at $60 with 0 of 5, Longer Spans at $100 with 0 of 5, Longer Drops at $90 with 0 of 4, Larger Bale Chamber at $50 with 0 of 6, Faster Bale Press at $50 with 0 of 6, and Raise Bale Quality at $50 with 0 of 5. The fractions are the upgrade ranks still available on that node.
POWER is the branch to watch early, because nothing runs without power. The pole nodes are what turn a free-standing machine into a working one, and the power grid page covers how to lay that branch out.
How to buy a node
- Open Yard Research. There is a search field across the top and unlock links beside the branches.
- Click a card to open it, double-click to buy, right-drag to move the view without closing the panel.
- Check the price on the card in your own build before you commit. Prices and research levels have changed across demo updates, so a price written down weeks earlier may not be the one in front of you.
- Budget for the whole route a node starts: the machine, the material that feeds it, the electricity it draws, and somewhere for its output to go. An unlocked machine on its own is not a functioning line.