Plague Inc.: How to Win as the Fungus

Want to Win as Fungus? Hit the ground running

Picking an ideal starting location is essential when playing the fungus in Plague Inc., since it’s such a difficult pathogen to spread.

Starting in Iceland or Greenland is the best course of action, especially when paired with some of our other tips. Seeing how these countries are the furthest apart from others, should you start elsewhere, it can become a complete pain to infect these two countries as airports and harbors start closing down later on in the match.

Others may claim starting off in India is the best course of action, and for every other pathogen in the game, we wholeheartedly agree. However, taking into consideration the latching nature of the fungus, it’s best to start of in an isolated country with poor environmental conditions.

Burst some spores

As mentioned before, the fungus pathogen can prove quite challenging to spread later in Plague Inc.. That’s why it’s best to pour some early points into six Spore Burst abilities and one Spore Eruption ability. The former infects one country at random, whereas the latter will infect five.

That’s a total of eleven countries infected at a relatively low cost. This is better done early on in the match, since your fungus isn’t that big of a well-known threat yet. Seeing how you’ve already infected one of the two hardest to reach countries by picking it as your starting position, it’s pretty much guaranteed you’ll infect America and/or Europe with the Spore abilities, which will greatly boost the spread of your pathogen to nearby countries.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a deadly fungus!

As soon as you’ve made back some DNA points after hastily spreading your pathogen, it’s time to invest in some transmission abilities. Plague Inc.’s Air 1, Air 2, Water 1, Water 2 and ultimately the Extreme Bioaresol will ensure the spread of your fungus by land, by sea, and by air.

The Air abilities increase the infectivity of your pathogen in arid environments, as well as granting a greater chance of spreading the disease by plane. The Water abilities, on the other hand, allow the fungus to spread more rapidly in humid environments and by naval travel.

Plague Inc.’s Extreme Bioaerosol ability lets your fungus bypass filtration systems on airplanes and ships, which will greatly boost your infectivity by air and by sea and stack upon the Water and Air abilities. Pretty much the second you get your hands on this tier 3 ability, it’s almost a guarantee your fungus will spread to smaller island groups and other disconnected countries.

Let symptoms develop on their own at first

Initially, you’ll want to keep your pathogen as low-profile as possible. This will keep your fungus from appearing on watchlists worldwide, increasing the chances of infected patients visiting other countries through the aforementioned transmissions. Infected or frightened countries may shut down their borders, forcing you to rely on other forms of transmissions to infect them.

As Plague Inc. progresses, symptoms for your disease will gradually develop on their own. Whatever its naturally evolved symptoms may turn out to be, you can build upon that later to increase the deadliness of your fungus. This can range from simple insomnia and coughing to all-out insanity and hemorrhagic shock, depending on how lucky you get in that specific match.

While symptoms don’t require too many DNA points at first, it’s better to spend these precious points on transmissions to ensure the maximum amount of DNA points you can harvest from red infection bubbles and orange DNA bubbles. It may be tempting to experiment with symptom combinations when you have 80+ DNA points stacked, but that experimentation is better left for some easier pathogens in the game, such as viruses or bacteria.

Fight the cure

By now, tons of infected people will begin raising some suspicion, causing some countries to begin work on a cure. Besides popping the blue research bubbles carried over from one country to another, it’s important to slow down the progress towards creating a cure.

This is where your lack of initial symptoms truly pays off. The more lethal or severe the disease, the faster the research for a cure will progress. When your fungus isn’t quite deadly and is honestly rather mild in terms of symptoms, curing the illness doesn’t become a worldwide priority just yet.

You can further slow down research speed by investing some DNA points into the Drug Resistance ability branch, and that comes highly recommended. Drug Resistance 1 and 2 will increase your pathogen’s resistance towards antibiotics, increasing its infectivity in wealthy countries. When these denser societies get caught off guard, however, expect a serious initial boost in cure research!

Genetic Hardening 1 and 2 are your best bets when quite a few countries combine forces to develop a cure. These abilities will slow down further research speed, granting you some breathing room as you slow down your impending doom clock.

Lastly, the three Genetic Reshuffle abilities can buy you some additional time, since these reform your fungus’ structure, biting a small chunk of progress out of the research bar. Unlock a new Genetic Reshuffle ability whenever the research reaches somewhere between 30 to 40% completion to ensure countries lose the most research. These abilities will set you back a hefty 40 DNA points, mind you, once more highlighting the importance of not quickly evolving certain Plague Inc. abilities or symptom trees.

Rain on their parade

Gradually, every country on the world map will become infected. If there’s a handful of countries that somehow managed to escape the spread, spend some DNA points on the Spore Burst I ability, which is the same as the original Spore Burst ability and will infect a country at random. Worst case scenario, there’s about two or three disconnected countries not yet infected by your pathogen, which the Spore Burst I will fix.

When every country is but a red blimp on the world map, it’s time to start making your cure as deadly as it can get. It’s likely that your fungus has developed a handful of symptoms over the course of this match, meaning you have quite a few options to begin expanding that branch of symptoms.

In theory, you can go about this however you see fit, but it’s important that, from now on, you build upon the fatality of your disease. DNA points will be hard to come by in Plague Inc. once all countries are infected, meaning it’s an honest necessity you further develop already established symptoms. In other words: work horizontally up or down the skill three, not horizontally alongside it.

You know what? Go bonkers!

Have some points to spare while your fungus begins taking lives? Spend them however you like! You can experiment with possible symptom combinations, unlocking Plague Inc. achievements or causing events like cancelling the Rio 2016 Olympics or even putting a stop to Brexit.

It’s important that you don’t lose track of the world map, no matter how good your pathogen is doing. When you fail to pop research bubbles, the cure will develop more rapidly, which can still put a stop to your disease no matter how many lives it has taken already.

With your Plague Inc. win as fungus secured, you can do it all over again!