Plague Inc Disease Guide

Updated:

12 Jun 2020

Learn all about the Plague Inc. diseases so you can strategize your victory!

Although a plague is technically a bacterial disease, Plague Inc. takes plagues a step forward and gives you the option to have your plague be bacterial, viral, or fungal, among other options. There are many different ways to reach success with each type of plague, and this guide will help you with just that!

Bacteria:

Bacteria is the traditional root of a plague, and also the first disease you must use to bring humanity to extinction. When playing Bacteria, it’s best to start in a warm country, think Saudi Arabia, and then to evolve Cold Resistance rather than to evolve Bacterial Resistance, Bacteria’s special skill. Another hack when playing bacteria is devolving transmissions to get back some DNA. Once you’ve infected everyone, do you really still need extreme bioaerosol? Bacteria is a great way (and the only way) to get started on Plague Inc., and when playing remember to infect them all before you wreck them all.

Virus:

Virus is the favorite disease of many Plague Inc. players because unlike some of the other diseases (especially fungus), it doesn’t take Saturn’s orbit around the sun to complete. Virus actually moves very fast thanks to it’s trait of mutating often. When playing Virus, use mutations to your advantage, but only keep them around in the beginning of the game if they’re not lethal. It unfortunately costs DNA to devolve a symptom that has mutated, so try to avoid doing so. Evolving Viral Instability, Virus’s special skill, toward the later middle half or the end of the game is a great way to throw humanity into chaos.

Fungus:

Fungus requires patience. This is because out of all the diseases, fungus is one of the slowest, if not the slowest, to spread because it spreads through spore release. However, to make up for this fungus has three special abilities that are quite handy in a pinch: Spore Burst, Spore Eruption, and Spore Hardening. Rather than using a Spore Burst or a Spore Eruption as soon as you can, it’s better to wait until most countries are infected so the odds of the special ability infecting a difficult country, like an island, increases. As a side note, whenever you evolve a spore burst, make sure to click the red bubble before you evolve again to prevent the next spore hitting the same country.

Parasite:

Although the nature of Parasite makes it difficult to detect, it starts with especially high severity. To combat this and to make the most out of your Parasite experience, it is essential to spread your plague quickly so that it has infected most before it’s been noticed. Parasite’s special ability is Symbiosis, which makes it harder to find and cure, and evolving it can increase the disease’s infectivity. On the other hand, devolving it can increase its severity, which is especially dangerous in the beginning of the game. With Parasite, it’s best not to do anything to drastically affect severity until most have fallen victim to your disease.

Prion:

Prion is a stealthy disease like Parasite, but it doesn’t have a special ability that can reduce its severity. However, what Prion does have is a special ability, Neural Atrophy, that can help slow down cure research, which is a huge plus. With Prion, symptom evolutions and the like take longer to come into effect which may make it tempting to evolve many. Rather than doing that, you should pick and choose what you evolve with care because although it may take a while to show results, Prion is ultimately quite the deadly disease, and for it to succeed it must be spread far and wide before it’s discovered.

Nano-Virus:

Nano-Virus is a man-made disease that humanity is aware of and trying to cure as soon as the game starts. Nano-Virus’s special abilities, Code Fragment Interception and Radical Elements Stabilised, reflect this. Both slow down cure research and progress, and evolving them at the start of the game can help negate the initial disadvantage you’re stuck with. Also, with Nano-Virus you can devolve to get back some DNA.

Bio-Weapon:

The goal of Plague Inc. is to wipe out humanity, and Bio-Weapon takes that to the next level. Bio-Weapon is like Nano-Virus as it is also a manmade disease and cure research starts immediately. However, unlike any of the other plagues, Bio-Weapon grows increasingly lethal over time. With Bio-Weapon you run the risk of killing hosts before they can spread the disease or having the cure discovered too quickly. To win you must take advantage of its special abilities Gene Compresion, Nucleic Acid Neutralization, and Deactivated Modified Gene to suppress its lethality. Should you evolve those three special abilities to their full potential, you will have access to the fourth special ability, Unlock Annihilate Gene, which increases lethality to the max and should really only be used once everyone has been infected.