How to Get and Use the Basement Key in Search for the Needle
Find the Basement Key by clearing the haystack in Chapter 2. After collecting it, finish all three levers and all three puzzles, equip the key and climb the ladder to the exit trapdoor. If you already have the key but lasers block the ladder, completing the remaining puzzles is your next step.
Find the Basement Key in the haystack
Work through the Basement haystack until you expose the key, then collect it. You are looking for a large golden key, like the one shown at the exit below.
Save cash for Dynamite if you want to open up larger sections of the pile. Its blasts cover a broad area, so you can expose more hay with each use. The Vacuum is another useful clearing tool as you search. Keep clearing and looking for the item as more of the pile becomes visible.
Finding the key early lets you finish searching the hay before you free the alien. Keep the key ready while you complete the lever and puzzle objectives that open the escape route.
Use the key at the ladder exit
Pull all three levers to reach the puzzle room, then finish the crystal, paper-code and picture puzzles. Completing the puzzles opens the alien's cell and removes the laser obstruction from the escape route.
With those objectives complete, select the Basement Key in your hotbar and head to the ladder beneath the exit trapdoor. Climb with the key equipped to start the escape cutscene. Carrying the item gets you ready for this final step; you still need to select it before using the ladder.
Image unavailable. Golden Basement Key held in front of the exit ladder with the objectives completed.
Equip the golden Basement Key at the exit ladder once the objectives are complete.
Why the key alone does not let you escape
The obstruction in front of you tells you which task is still missing:
- Lasers block the ladder: check the puzzle objective and complete the remaining crystal, paper-code or picture puzzle. All three must be finished to clear the obstruction.
- The inner puzzle-room door is closed: follow the green, red and purple wires and pull their levers. The Hidden Basement guide shows all three locations.
- The puzzles are done, but the key objective is unfinished: return to the haystack and collect the key, then equip it before going back to the ladder.
If the keypad puzzle is your remaining task, its number comes from the papers on the puzzle-room floor. The physical Basement Key is a separate item for the exit. Follow the Basement walkthrough for the full puzzle solutions and escape route.