It’s been a year and a half since Candywriter released BitLife for iOS, and later for Android devices. And one reason why it still has so much staying power is the fact that the game has featured weekly challenges for over a year now. These limited-time events are typically announced on Saturday afternoons, and you’ll have four days in most cases to complete the requirements of the challenges, which are based on the given theme for the week.
Unlike most of the previous challenges we covered, the latest one does not have anything to do with movies, television series, and/or your usual pop culture subject matter. Instead, it’s all about Greek mythology, as you may have guessed by the event’s name — the Achilles Challenge. Although the description suggests that your military career may end up going “up in flames,” you’re going to need to be a good soldier and invoke the body part Achilles is most associated with by getting a certain skin condition during your trips to the gym.
We should also warn you that this is one of the hardest challenges we’ve complete in a while! However, you don’t need to worry too much about that, as our BitLife mini-strategy guide for the week shows you how you can complete the Achilles challenge in as little time and with as little rework as possible.
Getting Started With The Achilles Challenge
As is clearly stated in the Achilles Challenge’s requirements, the first of these is very simple and straightforward — you need to create a male character and set their birth country to Greece. For best results, you will also need to re-roll your character until you get one whose Smarts and Looks are at least 80 each at birth, or configure those stats manually if you purchased God Mode. But even if both stats are in the 40 to 60 range, you can always join school clubs and take part in school sports to respectively improve your Smarts and Looks.
The second requirement we’ll be discussing is similarly easy to complete, as you will need to join the army. You can enlist as soon as you graduate from high school or get a GED, and even if your parents choose to emigrate, the first requirement will not be nullified — you can also join the army in another country outside of Greece, just as long as you were born there. But it’s the other requirements that may give you some trouble, and that’s what we will be discussing next.
Go To The Gym To Get Athlete’s Foot
One of the requirements in the Achilles Challenge is to get athlete’s foot at least once in your virtual life. And you can go about this simply by going to the gym at least once per year. The option to work out at the gym becomes available once you turn 12, and gym usage is free until you turn 18, upon which each visit will usually cost you 15 euros in Greece.
You won’t always get sick after visiting the gym — we’d say there’s only a two-in-ten chance you’ll come down with an illness. And there are also different illnesses you can contract at the gym, including ringworm and staph infections. But athlete’s foot is definitely one of them, so a little patience may be needed here. Just make sure you’re working out on a yearly basis in the game, and sooner or later, you will come down with athlete’s foot and complete this particular requirement.
For Android players, this requirement is apparently replaced by joining the wrestling team in school. Unless you’ve got God Mode to set your special talent to Sports, this could be a case of trial-and-error where you need to surrender your current character’s life and create a new one. But if it’s any consolation, it won’t take you too long to figure out your Athleticism — in Greece, middle school starts once you’re 12, and that is likewise the earliest age in which you can join school clubs and sports.
How To Complete Your Three Deployments
There’s no doubt about it — the most difficult part of BitLife’s Achilles Challenge is completing the three deployments and making sure you survive all three of them. There’s no need to elaborate on why this would have been such a tricky requirement to complete had the challenge been launched earlier — stepping on a mine, of course, could be fatal. But we’ve also noticed that deployments are far less frequent than they used to be. During one playthrough for this challenge, our test character was already at retirement age for the military but had NOT been deployed, even once!
In order to avoid this, it might be a good idea to avoid using the Work Harder option and to keep your Performance from reaching perfect levels — it seems that commanding officers no longer ask soldiers with perfect Performance to disable mines in foreign countries, so if your Performance bar is completely filled up and you haven’t completed the requirement yet, you might want to pull a prank or spread a rumor or hook up with someone. As this could lead to a dishonorable discharge, you may have to quit BitLife and restart it if this ever happens to you.
As usual, the typical strategies for completing Minesweeper levels will apply. Tap anywhere on the grid, but preferably tap on a corner square, as this would make it easier for you to decipher which squares have mines on them. Take your time and analyze the visible squares with numbers on them, as that tells you how many surrounding squares have mines — there is no time limit for this mini game, so don’t rush it!
And be prepared for situations where the visible squares won’t provide any clues at all regarding the placement of the safe squares and the ones with mines. You may need to take more time at such points, because one mistake could lead to serious injury or death!
For each deployment you complete, the size of the grid will increase for the next one. Initially, it’s a 10×10 square, but the second will be 12×12 and the third will be 16×16. That means the mini-game will be progressively harder to complete, and considering the risks involved in here, you may want to prepare yourself to go through multiple lives or, if you don’t mind paying a dollar per pop, the Time Machine might be an option.
Get Plastic Surgery Or Read A Book To Improve Stats
Last, but not the least, the Achilles Challenge will require you to have a perfect 100 in all four major stats — Happiness, Health, Smarts, and Looks. Assuming you’re trying to achieve this right after you completed your third deployment in one piece, your Happiness should be at 100 percent.
As for Health, you may need to go to the gym, meditate, take a walk, or take a martial arts class for a quick boost — usually, the gym would be fine if your Health dropped a few points below 100 at some point before you completed your final deployment. However, Looks and Smarts could be trickier, and you may need to make a few sacrifices in order to get those stats up to 100.
For Looks, plastic surgery procedures are the best way to go — at this point, you should have enough money to afford a surgery or two. Make sure you’re only choosing doctors with a good Reputation, as that will make the procedure far more effective and decrease the chances of a botched surgery. (You can always quit the game and restart it if the doctor botches things.) Assuming your Looks are in the 80s or 90s, one or two procedures should be enough to get the stat up to 100.
As for your Smarts, reading books should increase that stat to 100. You may want to choose a more grown-up title for best results, but typically, books that are 200 pages or longer should instantly increase your Smarts to 100 after completion.
Once you’re at a perfect 100 for all four main stats, that should complete the Achilles Challenge for you! You will then be taken to the prize chests — choose one of the four and you will, once again, get a new hat or eyewear to add to your unlocked accessories.