How to Find the Hidden Basement in Search for the Needle
The Basement is Chapter 2 of Search for the Needle. Finish the Chapter 1 needle hunt and continue the farmer's story sequence to reach it. If you are already underground and looking for the hidden puzzle room, follow the green, red and purple wires and pull all three levers to open its door.
Reach the Basement after Chapter 1
Find the needle in the farm's haystack, then continue the story with the farmer. He sends you into the Basement and throws a key into the haystack. You have reached Chapter 2 when your objectives involve finding that key, pulling the levers and solving the puzzles.
If you are still working through the earlier haystack, follow How to Beat Search for the Needle for the Farmhouse run and its needle hunt.
Find the hidden puzzle-room door
In the Basement, look for the doorway connected to three colored wires on the floor. It has three lamps overhead and a DO NOT ENTER sign beside it. The green, red and purple wires lead away from this doorway to the levers that open the room.
Use the door as your starting point if you are unsure which way to go. Pick a wire color and follow it to its end, pull the lever, then work through the other two routes.
Image unavailable. Puzzle-room doorway with three overhead lamps, colored wires and a DO NOT ENTER sign.
Follow the colored wires from the hidden puzzle-room door.
Pull the green, red and purple levers
Green lever: behind the haystack
Go behind the haystack and look among the wooden boxes. The green wire ends at a lever beside them. Click the lever to pull it before moving on.
Image unavailable. Green wire leading to a lever among wooden boxes.
The green lever is among the boxes behind the haystack.
Red lever: behind the Sell board
Head toward the Sell Hay cart and walk around the back of the Sell board. The red lever is attached behind the board, where it is easy to miss if you only look at the front. Follow the red wire to it and pull it.
Image unavailable. Red lever attached to the back of the wooden Sell board.
Look behind the Sell board for the red lever.
Purple lever: beside the alien's jail
Go to the alien's jail and look next to the Drone equipment. The purple wire leads to the lever beside that equipment and the barred cell. Pull it to finish this route.
Image unavailable. Purple lever between Drone equipment and the barred alien cell.
The purple lever sits by the Drone equipment beside the alien's jail.
Once all three levers are pulled, the puzzle-room door opens. Return to the entrance with the colored wires and go inside to reach the crystal, keypad and picture puzzles.
If the door is still closed
Retrace all three wires and make sure you pulled each lever. Reaching a lever's location is not enough; you need to interact with it to complete the lever objective. Starting each check at the doorway makes it easier to keep the three routes separate.
The Basement Key is used at the ladder exit. You can open the puzzle room before collecting it, so continue checking the levers if this inner door is still shut. The key search remains a later escape task if you have not finished it yet.
Once you are inside, use the Basement walkthrough for all three puzzle solutions and the escape route. The Basement Key guide covers finding the key and using it at the exit.