Strategy Guides/Virus | Plague Inc. Wiki - Fandom

Note: You need to play extremely aggressively to win as a virus, which means success is often determined by luck. The main determining factor is whether you can get island nations, particularly Greenland, before they close their ports. So it may take a few tries if you are unlucky.

Genetic Code

• Catalytic Switch - Honestly, this is not very important. Any of the DNA genes will work, you will be drowning in DNA with this strategy regardless of your choice.
• Aquacyte - You want this to get those pesky island nations (I'm looking at you Greenland).
• Sympto-Stasis - Even though you will mutate many of your symptoms, this is helpful since you will still be evolving many symptoms on your own. Feel free to replace this with any of the other "stasis" genes.
• Genetic Mimic - Research is insanely fast on Mega Brutal, so you want to slow it down as much as possible.
• Urbophile - This is helpful for infecting Europe, which you need to do quickly so you can get Greenland before ports close.

Gameplay

1. Start in Saudi Arabia. It's airport goes to several different countries, and it is nestled nicely between Africa, Asia, and Europe.
2. Evolve Air 1 and Air 2 as soon as possible, as they help spread your disease through the airport. Also, Saudi Arabia is an arid country, so it will help your disease get a solid foothold. Right after that, evolve Rash, Sweating, and Skin Lesions. This will double your infectivity, helping you spread even faster.
3. You might mutate Necrosis, since it is connected to Skin Lesions, but don't worry about it. In fact, you shouldn't devolve anything with this strategy, except for possibly Total Organ Failure since it has a tendency to kill off people too fast. Being discovered early isn't a problem; your primary concern should be infecting as many countries as possible.
4. Once you have Skin Lesions, you have some options in how you continue. You need Europe to get infected as soon as possible, so I recommend Drug Resistance 1 and Water 1. You can hold off on these until you infect Europe, but they should be high priority as soon as you infect a European country. After that, Rodent 1 and Cold Resistance 1 are also good for getting Europe infected.
5. During this time, you should also evolve Anaemia, Haemophilia, Coughing, Sneezing, and possibly Pneumonia. With Sympto-Stasis, none of these should cost more than a few DNA Points. Increasing Severity is actually a good thing in this case, as it will get you more DNA Points.
6. Other important symptoms are Insomnia, Paranoia, Seizures, and Insanity. Hold off on these until cure research starts. Don't get them all at once, just get them whenever you feel cure research is getting a bit too fast.
7. By this point you should be infecting countries very fast, and you should have a constant stream of DNA Points. If you haven't evolved Water 2 and Drug Resistance 2 yet, do so. Also get Extreme Bioareosol, Cold Resistance 2, and Rodent 1 if you haven't yet.
8. This is the critical point in your playthrough. If Greenland (or any other island nation) closes its port before being infected, you've lost. Go ahead and start over. Otherwise, you should be able to win. Keep evolving symptoms to increase your infectivity; Necrosis is a good choice. Focus on cheap symptoms, such as Cysts, Nausea, Vomiting, Abscesses, etc. and let the more expensive ones mutate. Cheap symptoms also tend to increase infectivity without too much lethality, which is helpful if your worried about killing off your carriers. The main symptoms to avoid are Dysentery, Hemorrhagic Shock, and above all Total Organ Failure. Don't worry if they mutate, just don't evolve them on your own. Necrosis is OK since it increases infectivity just as much as lethality. You want to have some lethality, as killing people slows research.

Once you infect every country, get Viral Instability 1-3 and watch the world crumble! Evolve whatever you need. If cure research gets too high, get Genetic Hardening or Coma. Honestly, once you infect every country, you have essentially won as long as your infectivity is greater than your lethality.

Conclusion

Guys and gals, I really hope this strategy guide helped you. What it all really boils down to is get out there and try whatever the heck you want. With a bit of luck, you could beat the virus with any strategy. This strategy guide is merely one option.

That being said, I hope that you'll check out my soon to come strategy guides. I'm thinking that the Prion or the Neurax Worm will be next (after all, they're the only other ones I've beaten on Mega Brutal!). In the meantime, thanks again for reading, and I'll see you around.