Plague Inc: 8 Beginner Tips

Plague Inc. is a simulation game that many of you might have heard of. The game's objective is quite simple: choose a type of disease, develop it, infect everyone, and ultimately wipe out all humans. Despite this simple goal, the game is not easy, as people are quite resilient in combating your disease, and the measures taken by countries will exhaust you.

The Pandemic Changed Survival Games Forever

After Covid put surviving day by day at the forefront of our mind, we just can't get enough of games that focus on it.

Therefore, you need to effectively use the DNA points you collect to enhance your disease in terms of Infectivity, Severity, and Lethality. You are not alone in creating the deadliest disease; the tips in this guide will give you a head start.

Choose A Good Starter Country

Choosing a starting country should not be taken lightly. A poor choice of starting country can lead to an early defeat and make spreading your disease extremely difficult. Remember, your first goal is to spread your disease as much as possible. Therefore, starting in countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, India, or China will give you a head start.

The Importance Of Airports And Ports

Having airports and ports in your chosen country makes spreading the disease significantly easier. However, it is not enough to just have airports and ports; they also need to be popular. Some countries have airports and ports, but they are not very busy, which can be a disadvantage.

After choosing a country like Saudi Arabia with busy airports and ports, you can significantly increase your spread rate by unlocking Air I, Air II, Water I, Water II, and Extreme Bio-Aerosol transmissions.

Challenging Countries As Starting Locations

Starting in a wealthy country can make things much more difficult. In such a country, you will be forced to develop Drug Resistance early. Additionally, wealthy countries can detect your disease earlier.

Moreover, countries with few borders will make it harder to spread your disease. If you start in an island country that lacks airports and has an inactive port, you have made a poor start.

Control Random Mutations By Devolving

Over time, some of your diseases may develop random mutations. These random mutations can increase Severity or Lethality, which can disrupt your strategy or cause countries to take countermeasures early. If you aim to infect as many countries as possible stealthily, don’t forget to devolve.

If you are playing above the normal difficulty level, you will be playing against the clock. Therefore, playing stealthily might not be a good strategy. You may need to play a bit more offensively.

Depending on the type of disease you are playing, devolving can earn you extra DNA points and be beneficial. However, in some types of diseases, devolving may require you to spend points.

Since the Virus disease type mutates constantly, it can be very difficult to control. Therefore, devolving is crucial to keep it under control.

Playing stealthily all the way through and constantly sticking to this strategy is not a good idea. You need to know when to stop playing stealthily. Playing aggressively is effective for gaining more DNA quickly.

Aim For Maximum DNA Points With Bubbles

Biohazard, or red bubbles, will appear when you infect a country for the first time. You cannot get another red bubble from a country you’ve already infected. Therefore, to obtain more red bubbles, you should increase your disease’s Infectivity stat, allowing it to spread to other countries more quickly.

Additionally, to maximize the yield from red bubbles, you should not keep your Severity stat too low. If your Severity is low, you will get less DNA from red bubbles. Therefore, playing aggressively can be more rewarding.

If you are wasteful with your DNA points without increasing your Lethality stat, you may not be able to unlock crucial upgrades like Necrosis and Total Organ Failure.

Orange DNA bubbles appear more frequently at the beginning of the game and provide small DNA bonuses. However, you cannot rely on them in the mid to late stages of the game. Hence, towards the end of the game, you should increase your Lethality and especially your Severity to boost your DNA gains.

Normally, you cannot obtain DNA by popping blue bubbles. If you unlock the Catalytic Switch genetic code, you will earn bonus DNA from them as well.

Don’t Delay Infecting Greenland

Greenland can be one of the most difficult countries to infect. This is due to its low population, having only a port, and its cold climate. Normally, the most effective method to reach most countries is by unlocking Air and Water transmissions. However, even with Water transmission, you might not be able to reach Greenland.

One of the countries that frequently travels to Greenland by ship is Russia. Therefore, you should adapt your disease to Russia first. To do this, develop traits targeting Rural, Cold, and Humid conditions. Additionally, you can easily reach Greenland from Norway as well.

When your disease is detected, countries will close their ports and airports. If Greenland closes its port, you might be in a tough spot and may never be able to infect it. In this case, you would have to rely on random events like birds migrating there, which is not a very reliable method. Therefore, you should infect everywhere and adapt your disease to every country before it’s too late.

The Same Strategy May Not Work For Every Disease

Using the same approach and developments for every disease can put you in a difficult position. You need to adapt your play style according to the diseases:

Disease

Playstyle

Bacteria

Bacteria, being more straightforward and easier compared to other disease types, struggles in extreme climates. Therefore, you should unlock Bacterial Resilience, Cold Resistance, and Heat Resistance as soon as possible.

Virus

Due to its rapid mutation, it can quickly get out of your control. Continuously devolving will become increasingly expensive. You should prioritize Transmissions and abilities.

Fungus

Spreading this disease with classic transmissions is not easy. You should frequently use Spore abilities.

Parasite

This disease starts with high Severity. You should focus on developing traits that increase your Infectivity.

Prion

This disease begins with difficulty for scientists to find a cure. You should play to make this even more challenging. Since it is also hard to spread, you should invest extra in Transmissions.

Nano-Virus

Cure research for this disease will start immediately at the beginning of the game. Therefore, you need to frequently use Nano-Virus's special abilities to disrupt cure research.

Bio-Weapon

This disease becomes more lethal over time, making it difficult to control. You should use special abilities to manage its lethality. Unlocking Annihilate can quickly guarantee victory.

Follow News About The Disease And Countries

Following the news in the game helps you see the measures countries are taking against your disease and develop strategies to counteract things that make your task harder. By targeting countries that are leading in developing a cure for your disease, you can make your job easier.

For example, if a 'Festival of Love' is being held in a country, the infection rate in that country will increase. If you develop the Nausea symptom, the infection will spread more effectively. Similarly, you might see news announcing the 'ICure Device'. In this case, you can unlock the Sweating symptom to render this event ineffective.

Using events to your advantage and paying attention to the measures countries are taking will always benefit you.

Develop Your Disease According To Country Attributes

Randomly developing your disease may seem effective at first, but you will naturally have difficulty reaching certain countries. Therefore, you should check the attributes of countries where your disease is weak or struggling to spread. This way, you can develop your disease to target those specific countries.

For example, if you are having trouble spreading to Russia, you will see that it is a rural country with a cold and humid climate. By unlocking Livestock in the Transmissions section and Cold Resistance in the Abilities section, you can make your disease more effective against that country.

Make Your Disease More Effective Using Combos

Another way to make your disease more effective is by using combos. Becoming familiar with combos as soon as possible will be to your advantage. Here is a list of combos you can apply to standard diseases:

Combo Name

Requirements

Effect

Walking Dead

Unlock Insomnia and Anemia

• Decreases cure research rate.

Public Defecation

Unlock Insanity and Diarrhea

• Increases Infectivity.
• Draws attention to the disease.
• Increases research speed.

Projectile Vomiting

Unlock Vomiting and Coughing

• Increases Infectivity.

Profuse Bleeding

Unlock Hemophilia and Skin Lessons

• Slightly increases Lethality.
• Greatly increases Infectivity.

Oops

Unlock Sneezing and Diarrhea

• Lowers productivity.
• Draws attention to the disease.

Swine Flu

Unlock Coughing, Diarrhea, Pneumonia, Vomiting, Livestock I, Livestock II and Insomnia

• Slight increase in work needed for the cure.
• 10% increase in budget required for the cure.

Combos may not unlock immediately; it might take some time for them to become available.

The World Health Organization Are Playing Plague Inc

The World Health Organization play Plague Inc: The Cure. This new expansion from developers Ndemic has players fight the pandemic.