Hay clearing time estimator

Measure one small loop first

Count a manageable amount of hay while actively collecting, then time a full trip to deposit and return. Record the current carrying limit and hay collected per successful action. Use your observed values instead of a video's upgraded account or another game's shop numbers. The editable example in the form exists only to demonstrate the arithmetic.

The model in plain language

Remaining hay is split equally among the players. Each player's collection time is their share divided by hay per grab, grabs per minute and the remaining useful-work fraction after overlap. Deposit trips are each player's share divided by capacity, rounded up; travel time is that trip count times your round-trip seconds. Collection and travel are added. Teammates make their trips in parallel, so travel is not divided by the team size a second time.

Worked example: collecting is not the whole trip

These are illustrative inputs, not statistics from any Roblox game. Suppose 1,200 hay remains, each successful grab collects 2 hay, and each player makes 30 successful grabs per minute while actively collecting. Each player can carry 50 hay, and a complete deposit-and-return trip takes 30 seconds.

With four equally productive players and no duplicated effort, each player handles 300 hay. Collecting that share takes 300 ÷ (2 × 30) = 5 minutes. Each player makes ceil(300 ÷ 50) = 6 deposit trips, adding 6 × 30 ÷ 60 = 3 minutes.

The estimate is therefore 8 minutes, not 5 minutes. The players make their trips in parallel, so the 3-minute travel allowance is not divided by four again.

In the third row, only 75% of collection effort is useful in this model. Collection therefore takes 300 ÷ (2 × 30 × 0.75). Deposit trips still depend on the amount of useful hay assigned to each player. This is a planning assumption, not a claim about how a particular game handles overlapping actions.

The calculation

Let H be hay remaining, P equally productive players, h hay per grab, g successful grabs per minute, C carrying capacity, r round-trip seconds and d duplicated effort expressed as a fraction. Enter 25% overlap as d = 0.25 in the formula.

Hay per player       = H / P
Collection minutes   = (H / P) / (h × g × (1 − d))
Trips per player     = ceil((H / P) / C)
Travel minutes       = Trips per player × r / 60
Estimated minutes    = Collection minutes + Travel minutes

A partly filled final trip still counts. For example, changing only the four-player capacity from 50 to 200 gives two trips per player, not one and a half. The estimate becomes 5 minutes collecting plus 1 minute travelling: 6 minutes.

These results estimate clearing and depositing. They do not predict the needle’s position, your chance of finding it or the completion of another objective. Do not use a teammate’s upgraded collection rate as your own, or treat this equal-work model as an estimate for a team with very different tools.

Know what the result leaves out

This assumes equal collecting ability, fixed pace and uninterrupted work. It does not model unequal tools, changing upgrades, a shared bottleneck, loading, disconnections or breaks. The final partly filled deposit trip is included. The ±20% band is an illustrative planning sensitivity, not a measured error bound. The needle may be found before all hay is cleared—or the game may have additional objectives.