A Needle in a Haystack is the 19th main quest in Kingdom Come Deliverance (KCD). This walkthrough will guide you through the fastest way for A Needle in a Haystack Main Quest. Your main task is to find out who Pious is and then arrest or kill him.
A Needle in a Haystack triggers automatically after completing Poverty, Chastity and Obedience Main Quest.
This walkthrough focuses on the peaceful solution (good ending) for arresting Pious instead of killing him. It’s necessary for the “Merciful” trophy/achievement (don’t kill anyone for an entire playthrough).
Avoid getting kicked out of the Cloister during this quest! If you get caught doing mischief you’ll have to agree to solitary confinement or else they kick you out!
Find out which one of the Novices in Pious / Kill Pious / Hand Pious over to justice
After the long cutscene in which you’re initiated as a Novice, brother Antonius will come talk to you.
Pick the following dialogue choice with him (this will spare you some steps in this quest):
- Could we not do the tour?
- Thanks for everything. I’ll look around myself.
- I’ll work it out myself.
Afterwards, immediately talk to Antonius again before he walks away.
Pick the following dialogues:
- Tell him about the search for Pious.
- I want to find him and kill him.
- (Persuasian) Please don’t tell him anything –> Doesn’t matter if you fail or succeed in this persuasion.
Stay where you are and advance time until 11:00. You’ll now get the objective “Eat with the others”. After advancing time some guy might (or might not) talk to you automatically, asking if you did your work at the library. It doesn’t matter what you say to him, he’ll just give you a warning.
Eat with the others
At 11:00 (midday) you will see everyone rushing from the main chapel to the dining area. Just follow the monks. The lunch area is on the ground floor. When you exit the main chapel, keep going straight until you reach the end of the hall. At the end of the hall are two doors. Head through the one on the right to enter the lunch area. See screenshots below:
Sit down where there’s food on the table You’ll automatically start eating. Sit for 20-30 seconds and watch the animation how you eat the food. Stand up from the table. A warning will show up that you’ve been poisoned!
Walk around a little, you should soon black out from the poison. Now Antonius will come talk to you. Pick the following dialogues with Antionus:
- What deal?
- I agree
- Alright. Let’s do it your way.
- What will you do?
- Where can I find blood in the monastery?
- What do I need the keys for?
- I know everything I need to know. I can get to work.
So who is Pious? Antonius is Pious! Because you told him earlier you plan on killing Pious he got scared and tried to poison you. He was hoping the poison would kill you, but it didn’t. So instead, he tried to make a deal with you so both of you can get out of the cloister alive. For now, we’ll follow his plan but we’re going to arrest him at the end.
Get Blood
After finishing your talk with Antonius (Pious), you are still under the effect of poison and your health declines rapidly. Luckily, you’ll be standing right next to a bed when the talk finishes. Lie down until 23:00 to regenerate health and skip time. To get blood & keys it has to be night anyway.
When it’s 23:00, head back down to the kitchen where you just ate the poisoned food. Enter the backroom of the kitchen, it should switch the display to “You’re Trespassing”.
In the backroom of the kitchen, on the counter between the two doors, you’ll either see a piece of paper or a “Goatskin filled with blood”.
If there’s a paper it’ll say “Use” when looking at it. “Use” it to order blood. Then return the next day to pick up the “Goatskin filled with blood”.
If you’re lucky the “Goatskin filled with blood” is already sitting on the table. Then you can pick up this Goatskin right away to finish the objective.
Regardless of which option you get, stay where you are and continue with the next objective for getting the keys, they are close by!
Get Keys or Lockpicks
From the backroom of the kitchen, head through the door leading to the storage room. Go straight and head through a second door. This leads to a smaller storage room. At the very end of this second storage room is a shelf by the wall. It’s very dark and you probably can’t see anything but black, but on that shelf sits the monastery key! It’s high up on the right side of the shelf. When you get close enough it gets highlighted as “Monastery Key”. Pick it up to solve this objective.
(Note: you can only enter here at night, make sure you come at 23:00 as described in the last objective).
It’s hard to see so try bumping up the brightness in the game options and also your screen’s brightness. Below is a picture of the shelf with the key, with boosted brightness:
Kill Antonius / Go back to Antonius
After searching for blood and keys, head back to bed and sleep until the next morning.
If you had to order blood then return later that day to pick it up.
Whenever you have both items, go talk to Antonius/Pious (he is marked on the map as a main objective). Tell him “I have everything we need for the escape” and he’ll tell you to meet up with him right after evening mass.
Right after evening mass, meet with Pious in the dormitory
Advance time until 18:00 (which is right after evening mass). Then talk to Pious (Antonius). He’s upstairs. You can reach him by going through the door in your sleeping area. Talk to Pious and watch how he drops blood down the balcony to fake his death. Now follow him.
Follow Pious
Follow Pious outside. He’ll unlock the doors leading outside. If you run into any guards, ignore them. Once outside you’ll automatically talk to him.
Pick dialogue:
- I can’t let you leave. I’m turning you over to the Bailiff.
This will trigger a fistfight with Pious. Knock him out. A loading screen will show and you’ll hand him over to the Bailiff automatically. He’s a very easy fight, just keep hammering his head with quick punches and he’ll go down in half a minute.
This concludes A Needle in a Haystack Main Quest and triggers “The Die is Cast”.
You have now solved the quest without killing Pious, which is important if you want the “Merciful” trophy/achievement for not killing anyone.
Next Up: The Die is Cast Main Quest
For more Walkthroughs, check out the full Kingdom Come Deliverance Walkthrough (All Main Quests).
Melar says
You can also release Pious at the end of the quest instead of arresting him. Arresting him didn’t give me the special dice.
Sonyadore says
Wonder if it is possible to release him then fight and hand him over? … or maybe pickpocket him at night while he sleeps so you get the die before getting poisioned/ helping him. That way you can just hand him over.
DippyMD says
HOW TO GET DICE and giving him over to the Baliff
Step 1: Say you’re bringing him to Baliff
Step 2: Kick his butt
Step 3: When Baliff leaves, open jail sell (Very Hard Lock)
Step 4: Kick his ass again
Step 5: Steal dice, Baliff catches you, Lie (he has 0 lie so you will succeed)
Step 6: YOU GOT THE DICE AND THE GOOD ENDING
Nocturnos Gaming says
Lol i killed him after he poisoned me, afterwards i went after a priest to knock him over and i was arrested outside the monastery. 5 minutes and done lol
Anon says
What did you kill him with?
Joe says
there is a knife in his chest on the room everybody sleeps
anon says
Where is mt loot? I lost all my quest items!
PowerPyx says
It’s a game bug.
I wrote a warning about it in the previous quest’s walkthrough. Before you put on the monk robe you must put all your things in the trunk at your house or else you will lose them.
Novice says
Did you lose everything or just the quest items? Because I just lost the quest items after doing this quest, everything else (weapons, armor, etc.) was still there. Looks like I’ll have to re-do this quest again.
Nate says
All of your items are in the chest in Brother Porters room, the place where you originally got your monk robes. It’s an easy lock but you can also knock him out and take the Trunk key off of him.
Sluggy says
i guess my method was a bit more violent, first thing i did was getting a lockpick, getting outside, preparing my horse next to an open door, got my dagger, stabbed him in the back and ran away
Pzzztttt says
Did everything as exactly as you said but i never get poisoned. I sit and eat for 30 seconds then I got back up, nothing happens no poisoning or blacking out.
PowerPyx says
Hmm… try advancing time after you sit down. Not sure if that’s a bug or what.
If you did the dialogues exactly as described you will get poisoned. Just do those exact steps and nothing else and go there are the specified time.
LudvigNobel says
Wait untile everyone finishes eating.
GReedybstrd says
Quick question, where is my gear? I want to get it while progressing through the quests in the church but I have no idea where it is
Ian Rodriguez says
The goat blood never came, had to open the monestary door, grab my stuff from the chest, come back, and back him to pieces. After that I managed to escape through the monestary door again.
Fergus says
After handing Pious over to the Bailiff he said to wait and someone would bring my gear but they never do and its not at the chest in the monastery,is there a way to recover it? just lost 21k groschen otherwise
Chris says
This is the worst quest ever. I’m going back to kill the b!tch that put me in solitary confinement TWICE
Fredrik says
My charachter simple doesn’t eat. He just sits down a does nothing
PowerPyx says
Is there food on the table? (some orange-colored soup, as depicted in the screenshot)
Fredrik says
Yes there is food om the table, my character simply sits down and leans over the table
Fredrik says
Never mine i fixed it
Adam says
So many solitary confindments I’m going back to kill him right now
christian says
Can you go back and do all the side quests in the monstary or do you fail them if you don’t do them during this mission?
christian says
Never mind you do fail all the side quests if you complete this mission first. So people need to be aware of that and also need to know how to complete those side quests.
Nicx274 says
I waited till 11 and everytime, nobody came to eat. Looked in the daily schedule thing and it’s at 6am, not 11.
cycloniccupid says
Wont let me sit down at the table to eat woth the monks
cycloniccupid says
I was finally able to sit but now im not being poisend. I follwed all your steps leading up to this point although the time of day is different.
TGZ says
Advanced to 11:00 but theres no option for me to sit and eat ( did the steps before advancing to 11:00 tho )
Ouui says
Yeah I had the same problem, 11 hours to wait untill 6am. Trying it now did this work?
YeaThatsRight says
Break in to the monastery before the quest.
Plant a dagger in the room to the side of the main entrance.
Talk to 1st guy, deny a tour.
As he’s walking away go get dagger and murder him.
Place in corner.
Walk out into the sweet smell of freedom again.
A Needle in a Haystack: 2 min completion
justin says
i got kicked out of the monastery and now i can’t get back in and i have no map markers, any suggestions? my only option is a very hard lock that the game wont let me pick
PowerPyx says
You could climb up the ladder and drop down on the monastery rooftop. But it’s a long fall and you need the perk that reduces falling damage 30% to survive (also full health and bandages to heal yourself afterwards). From the rooftop you can drop into the monastery. Not sure if your armor affects falling damage.
Otherwise, just reload the autosave from the start of the quest and replay from there (only takes 5 minutes if you skip all dialogues).
Exareo says
This quest is utterly terrible. Although your guide is spot on besides eating at 11am. You actually eat at 6am. Wait until people start to get up, and then stand up. (It is a lengthy sitting period)
WhiskeyMetal420 says
I keep getting in trouble for not following my daily duties. F this quest I’m just going to reload and break in and kill this guy.
Janson says
I followed this walkthrough mostly faithfully (no pun intended). I avoided the side quests and was just there to get Pious. I agreed to escape with Antonius after he poisoned at dinner, but I kept getting caught at breakfast by one of the Circators. Someone must have seen me when I placed the order in the kitchen during sleeptime, stole the goatskin right before Mass, or when I stole the Marathon III book in the fratery on the first day. I tried a few times to go about my daily duties but those fun-hating priests kept tossing me in jail every time I went to Antonius to tell him I had everything. My answer was to just catch him on the way to the first Mass in the corridor and arrange to meet at 6 p.m. in the dormitory, then hightail it to the dormitory, sit on the toilet, and read the Marathon book until then. So if you keep getting busted, try arranging the meeting before everyone gets together then wait in the dormitory until 6. You’ll find Antonius on the opposite side of the dormitory waiting on the balcony. Worked for me.
Kinsara Ayman says
I was having a problem with that **** who always sends me to prison, i killed the fucker a hid his body, anyhow if i got jailed where can I retrieve my items ?
Fiel says
How do i do side quest that require to do in order to get King Charming trophy while doing this walkthrough? (In the Cloister and Libri Prohibit)
Thanks
Laurence Bunnage says
I’ve got all the way to the end of this quest, but whatever option i choose I get:
Get your gear back: started
Get your gear back: Failed
Crash to desktop
I’ve even got to almost the last step. Went back, got caught, got kicked out (with stuff), went back to Antonious, Back Stabbed him and…..
You’ve guessed it
Crash to desktop
What do the Software testers on this game actually do. This is a main quest!!!
Godzofwar says
For those wondering how to get the dice at if you turn him in, when you go back to Rattay he’s in the cell that the Bailiff is next to. Wait until the guard and Bailiff leave and pick it. It’s a very hard lock and you can knock him out in the cell, steal his die, and leave.
Adrian says
It won’t let me use the paper for the blood.ps4
Joe says
Easier way to now do this is to follow Antonius as you shows you around. When you reach the library immediately tell him about your search for Pious and that you won’t kill him and you’re unsure what to do. After you tell him to not tell anyone else about it call him out as Pious and he will admit it. From here you don’t need to go through getting poisoned, although he does still apologize for poisoning you; not sure if it was meant to be done this way but it works and much faster.