THEY
WERE
WRONG

I just managed to beat area 1000 using Bush Whacker.

http://forum.codenameentertainment.com/?thread_id=13332

This should cover it for my answer.

Raymond Jerome: "i just have to laugh thinking he thinks that bw will get him to 1,000"

Teschio: "Which are capped at 6k levels. You can use buffs as much as you want, until the cap is raised, you can forget about area 1000 (unless with some tanking shenanigans)"

Teschio: "The answer is, very hard. Impossibly hard. 50 stages seem like nothing, but with the level cap in place, you CANNOT make it. Please, try it even without buffs (or at least without rare ones), see how HARD each next stage is. Even if you manage to get to 990 with only the BW and common+uncommon+rare buffs and savage strikes and storms (and you WON'T make it to 990, I assure you), you need 100 times more damage than THAT to finish the last 10 levels. Seriously, TRY IT. Because you are theory-crafting without any actual knowledge, whereas I tried it."

Thedude: "Even with the Pumpkin maxed out, the Gryphon and Mama Kaine both with their golden epics, I couldn't pass 985 and couldn't survive long term on 984."

Teschio: "The problem is, people won't believe until they try. And even after that, there will be someone saying "but maybe with weekend buffs and the right formation I could make it"... not unless those weekend buffs increase your DPS by a factor of 1000."

For the record, I had 966k idols, and all DPS/click-related talents were maxed, except for "Set Bonus" (48), "Well Equipped" and "Swap Day" (25 each), and "Sniper" (35). As for buffs, I used one of each of common/uncommon/rare for the Siphon, Accuracy, and DPS buffs (plus speed buffs to make good use of time) all at once, then for the last 15 levels, applied the epics for each. That, aided by a fairly consistent upkeep of Savage Strikes (+50% DPS) and keeping the mouse trained on targets, I managed. Between areas 950 and 1000 took about an hour.

Oh that.

I did it i think during Emo's event, but even with maybe 1.5 million idols at the time (and all talents maxed), some shenanigans were required to finish it (though not too many - warps and repeated savage strikes while triple-stacked the last 15 or 20 areas and i recall having to quickly use firestorm-warp-firestorm on the final couple).

Definitely not worth doing sooner than that considering the resources it would've wasted. And now with over 2m idols and the weekend buff, it wasn't worth going past 980 or 985 - which still would've taken shenanigans - i.e. the extra half million idols made little to no difference even on a formation with two more spots than the one i used to reach 1000.

Which i think was kind of the point of the other thread - until the cap is raised, that won't change - even with 5 million idols one can't walk straight to 1000 (though that other one was too long to actually read all the way through!)

Anyway, congrats! Always nice to have one of those annoyingly greyed-out achievements coloured in. (I was shocked and a little annoyed when recently finally fulfilling the 10,000 missions achievement only for it to put up a 100,000 mission one - which will i think NEVER get coloured in). (;.;)

Thanks, Amanda. Much agreed. Reaching area 1000 would have felt nice regardless, but the added stigma of "It aint possible, bro" makes it so much more fulfilling. Rocky can't beat (insert relevant name per movie here)? Prove'em wrong. The Kraken is an insurmountable beast? Medusa head, sucker. Can't reach area 1000 on an idle game? Thou should never protest the stubbornness of a true NEET. You say "Impossible", I say "Hold my beer."

Azaryah, I'm a compulsive completionist. Probably bordering on some kind of mental instability, if I had to bet money on it. Tell me "You can't do it" and I will grind my fingers down to the bone to test how true or untrue that is. Seeing incomplete entries in games just....irks me, and I will go to insane lengths to fill those in. Once, in Tales of the Abyss, I needed enough "grade" (a type of currency) to buy upgrades in New Game+, but the amount I needed for all the upgrades typically takes 2 or 3 playthroughs to amass. Not good enough for me. So I memorize through muscle memory how to run into a battle, beat the enemies, run off screen to respawn the enemy, run back on, get into the fight, repeat somewhere in the vicinity of 3000 times. Without looking at the screen. I spent around 12 straight hours "blindly" farming resources from an enemy while watching anime on my nearby laptop. My hands were almost numb after 8 hours of repeating a 15-second loop, but muscle memory kept my hands going.

But. That. Is. NOTHING, compared to getting the 16th eleth mixer sloth in Tales of Graces f. Which I have done. Which is true, diagnosable insanity. You think Dark Souls is hard? Getting that 16th slot is, by design, not intended to be reasonably possible.

That said, even I'M not loopy enough to believe I will ever reach 100,000 missions >.> Knowing there is a 100,000 version kinda sours the prospect of even trying for the 10,000-mark. Do the devs think anyone will ever reach that? Or is it meant as a troll achievement, like "Sure, it is technically possible. Technically. Have fun eternally staring at this grayed out space you'll never get."

Fing, me? Cheat in a video game? I'd rather marathon all of Justin Beiber's old tween music for a month. I have higher gaming standards for myself than to lower myself to such tripe disrespect and shame. If I cannot achieve something legitimately, then what's the point?

if you've less than 1m idols and claim to beat area 1k, why do i struggle with the last 30 or so areas with all buffs and max 6k levels without gold boosting crusaders on the field and have 1.5m idols?

100k mission achievement? sad. i bet theres a 1m mission achievement to go with it, just like there is a 1m clicking achievement. come on devs, be more reasonable. missions came out may 27th 2016 and im not at the 7k mark still.....IF 1m missions is an achievement, it will takes *years*.....i think 100k will even take years for most.

"I did a thing!"

"You cheated!!!"

"What? No... no i didn't"

"Then why can't I do the thing!?"

"Um... I don't know, but..."

"You're a cheater!!!"

"... um, how do you have an account here when you're 5 years old?"

"CHEATER!!!!!!"

4000 increases the effect of precise aim.

Amanda, 4000 has no GEs, but the "Remote Detonation" ability is immensely useful for walling, like you mentioned. She's one of the few crusaders I used that didn't have a GE, just because that ability was too useful to pass up.

Mindy was mimicking Bogins and 4000. I said Mindy was mimicking 4000 "because Precise Aim" because in order for Mindy to mimic, the crusader has to be in the formation, and having 4000 in the formation (i.e. "a robot") benefits both in terms of double-dipping a unique and useful ability as WELL as aiding in a boost given by Veronica. Veronica was not being mimicked, but simply having 4000 in the team gives her that extra DPS buff, as opposed to mimicking, say, Merci, whose "Deflect Evil" skill would be mimicked to minimal help while lacking the extra "Precise Aim" buff.