What is Achievement Idle? - Everything Explained

A VIDEO guide to Achievement Idle maps. Achievement Idle maps are maps used to idle for items, trade, farm strange weapon ranks and much more. They have a long history with TF2's drop system, all explained here.

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Achievement_idle is the name of a popular custom map in Team Fortress 2. This map and it’s variants play a key role in the history of the item drop system within Team Fortress 2.

In April 2008 the Gold rush update launched. With the update came 3 unlockable items for the Medic class. The items were rewarded to players after they complete 1 third, 2 thirds and all Medic-specific achievements. Getting all Medic-specific achievements was a difficult and time-consuming process. Because of this, this is the point in time achievements maps started to get produced.

In February 2009 the Scout update launched. A new system was put into place so that players didn’t need to earn every class-specific achievement in order to get all 3 class-specific items. Basically 3 new achievements called milestone were put into place. Milestone achievements are earned by completing only a fraction of class-specific achievements and they now granted the unlockable items.

In May 2009 the Sniper versus Spy update launched. The item drop system was added in this update. Alongside milestones rewarding player with items, they now had a chance to get items just by spending time playing the game. Hats where also first introduced in this update. People who wished to collect all the available hats quickly learned that they can simply leave Team Fortress 2 on wile doing other things and would eventually get all 9 hats with enough time and luck. Maps, such as Achievement_idle were crated in this point in time. These maps served as a means for players to be idle wile connected to a server and not screw up their play-stats. (Achievement_idle specifically kills the player after a short time in order to not leave players with a huge stat for longest lived life.)

In December 2009 the WAR! update launched. This update introduced crafting. Players continued to idle for the newly added hats and could now attempt to get them with crafting as well.

In April 2010 a changed was made in order to discourage and reduce the number of players idling for items. A weekly cap on the number of drops a player could receive was added to the game. The drop system was also reworked slightly and now guaranteed drops.

In July 2013 another change was made, again to discourage and reduce the number of players idling for items. The drop system was changed so that players needed to be active at their computers in order to accept new items received before they could start using up time for the next item to drop.

In June 2011 the Uber update launched. In this update a new item quality called ‘strange’ was added to the game. Strange weapons function like regular weapons but track the number of kills they player sores with them rank up. Players wish to get higher and higher numbers and rankings on their strange weapons. Because of this, a new variant of Achievement_idle maps were crated. On these maps players can repeatedly get kills ranks up their weapons outside of regular gameplay. This practise is referred to as farming and is somewhat frowned upon by the Team Fortress 2 community.

To summarize, Achievement_idle is a map with loads of variants. Players primarily used these maps to receive items by remaining idle for long spans of item. Players also used these maps to aimlessly fight or deathmatch, as well as to socialize and trade with each other. Some variants of these maps contain objects and architecture to help players earn achievements too. These maps are still fairly popular despite being semi pointless in recent times due to the weekly dropped item cap and having to be at a computer or use a script to accept new items.

And that’s basically Achievement Idle maps, the history of item farming, how they both relate and everything else worth noting in a nutshell.

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Learn More/Play on the Server

• Today there are roughly 250 achievement/idle/strange-farming servers total.
  
• To find a server search by name "ach" or "idle" or w/e. Google is what I used to find the strange farming servers. Do the same if that's what you specifically seek.

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[Randomdude432]

And I still think the creators of the achievement idle maps were still dumb for putting the spawns right next to each other

[Phantasm]

so i joined a map, been on it for a few minutes, and the floor is a treadmill which takes me to my death, will this farm weapons?

[Major Mari]

I wasn't around when halo was around. so
screw dat halo.

[Darth Dangermouse]

you forgot to metion the halos players got if they didnt idle

[Rabi3 Kolleb]

HAT IS GOOD FOR YOU'RE SOUL

[GlobalS]

at the ending

[GlobalS]

why in preview on youtube video you can see your pyro holding rocket launcher instead of scorch shoot? :O

[Robocock]

ip to server?

[Dom]

No, just a version of the map with the glass dividers removed.

[Haltariux]

Lol that ending XD was that a Strange Lvl up server?