Observational claims of IMBH detection in the (μ = M_IMBH/⟨m⟩, α = M_IMBH/M) plane, shown as black diamonds. Any technique (most notably the direct N-body one) that cannot simulate more than a given number of particles N must trade α for μ at any given N, being unable to access the top left region, which is shown shaded in orange for a typical value of N for direct N-body codes currently available, N = 10⁶. As a reference, N = 10⁵ is also shown as a dashed line.