DNA Gene - Metabolic Hijack or Cytochrome Surge. Metabolic Hijack will automatically pop red and orange bubbles. This is useful as all the red bubbles show up immediately when using the fungus’s spore abilities. Cytochrome Surge will give you more DNA from orange bubbles. Travel Gene - Suppression. This helps the gene cross country borders. Don’t boost planes or ships as the fungus gene is hard to transmit through these methods. Evolution Gene - Patho-Stasis. This gene stops the increase of DNA costs which you will rely heavily on. Mutation Gene - Genetic Mimic or Creationist. Both of these options will make it harder to cure the fungus. Environment Gene - Extremophile. This will allow the fungus to get a bonus in all environments, helping it spread on land. If you don’t have this option, pick the boost that will most benefit your starting country.
China seems to be the most reliable option due to its large population, ports, and large land mass. Other countries you may want to consider starting in are Madagascar or India. Other guides suggest starting in Norway to make infecting Greenland and Iceland easier. Saudi Arabia and South Africa can also generate a win. You want to pick a country with a high population and ports.
The key to surviving is to devolve any symptoms that randomly mutate before the symptoms can raise awareness of your fungus. [2] X Research source You will need to devolve symptoms throughout the game. The fungus will automatically develop new symptoms, so keep an eye out to quickly devolve. You may want to consider the Translesion + gene if you are having difficulty with costs to devolve. This gene stops cost increases when devolving.
Water and Air Transmission 1. Bird 1 can also help due to the fungus in bird droppings. But this transmission isn’t always necessary. Drug, Heat, and Cold Resistance 1. After you’ve updated these to level 1, focus on your Spore Burst abilities before continuing to level 2.
Keep evolving Spore Bursts until you get the Spore Hardening ability. Each time you purchase a Spore Burst, a new country will be automatically infected. Save a few Spore Bursts for the end of the game to infect any hard-to-reach countries. Saving a few bursts can help you get Greenland if you haven’t infected it yet.
Drug, Heat, and Cold Resistance 2. Environmental Hardening.
Water and Air Transmission 2. Extreme Bioaerosol. Once you’ve upgraded Air and Water you will have the ability to upgrade to Extreme Bioaerosol. This boost allows the pathogen to bypass air/water filters, increasing the likelihood it survives overseas travel. [4] X Research source
If you haven’t infected the entire world, any symptoms which are found will immediately destroy your chances of winning. Because your fungus has infected people but isn’t killing anyone yet, a cure is easy to reach.
You can now use your remaining Spore Bursts to infect these countries without having to wait for the fungus to spread naturally. Try to avoid using your Spore Bursts until the likelihood of these countries being the targets is high. You may have to be patient as you wait for natural infection to other regions first. Keep an eye on symptoms until you can use Spore Burst and Spore Eruption to infect each country.
Wait until you get the “No one is healthy” pop-up before evolving any symptoms. If your world looks red and the infected counter stops moving, but you don’t see the pop-up, it’s likely a natural disaster killed some people.
Coughing. Pneumonia. Necrosis (optional if you have enough points). Pulmonary Edema. Pulmonary Fibrosis. Total organ failure. Coma. Insanity. Since everyone is now infected, don’t waste points or time on symptoms which are aimed at spreading the disease. Focus on those symptoms which lead to casualties. Your plague should be as fatal as possible.
Genetic ReShuffle 1, 2, 3. Genetic Hardening 1 and 2. This can also help you to get a higher score as you will win with a lower cure percentage.
