Plague Inc. · 4:08am Jul 6th, 2013
Aright guys... just got a game called 'Plague, Inc.' and it is the single most addicting thing I've ever had the pleasure of playing. It is just so much fun... and, because of that, I've been neglecting my stories. However, instead of pulling my usual 'I'll just drop everything and write', I think I'll just roll with what I'm doing... Of course, some good will definitely come of this. If you didn't know already, allow me to explain what exactly Plague Inc. is.
Plague Inc. is a brilliantly designed strategy game for mobile devices. You play the role of an infectious disease- your goal: to destroy all of mankind. There are seven basic Plague types you can play as (though each individual one will have to be unlocked, by completing the one before it on Normal or Brutal difficulty): Bacteria, Virus, Fungus, Parasite, Prion, Nano-Virus, and the Bio Weapon. There are also several Special Plague variants. Neurax Worm and Necroa Virus are the only two available ones, but more will be released in future updates. While I don't know anything about the Neurax Worm, I do know that the Necroa Virus has an available symptom that allows you to reanimate the dead- creating a zombie apocalypse. You do, however, have to pay 90 cents for the full game. The free version is unlimited and has most of the features, but the best parts of the game are only for the full version. It removes ads, allows you to change game speed, unlocks the Special Plagues, allows you to unlock the Cheat plagues, and allows you to modify your disease's basic genetic code. All in under a dollar; an amazing deal, if you ask me. Now, in order to succeed, you have to at least have a basic level of strategics. Since you indirectly control your disease, you have to buy symptoms using DNA code (you earn that by infecting lots of people, and popping red and orange bubbles that pop up). Each symptom will change something; either the lethality or the infectivity. You can also add things such as resistances, transmissions, and special abilities (each Plague type has it's own special ability, as well as it's weaknesses. My personal problem is the Fungus's inability to spread quickly, and the fact that you earn DNA points extremely slow. However, I've heard that the Bio Weapon is the most difficult). People won't attempt to fight your disease until it's spotted, either by having way too obvious symptoms, or a normal blood test, where they spot it without even knowing it exists. Even then, they won't even put that much work into a cure until the disease becomes more dangerous. There are a few ways to fight the cure; adding drug resistances and changing your DNA (Genetic Reshuffle. It just automatically lowers the cure progress), as well as adding more aggressive symptoms, to make researching countries fall into Anarchy, slowing cure progress. Most cures take several in-game years, and your disease usually won't even be spotted for a few in-game years as well. I strongly recommend this game to anyone interested in diseases, or anyone who favors strategy games. Or both. There is a way to play on the PC; just look up 'Bluestacks', install it, and download it in the app.
Alright, back to what I was saying earlier. Some good will definitely come of this; Plague Inc. is an extremely realistic game. Realism was Ndemic Creation's primary objective when creating the game. So, for those of you who read my story 'Pandemic', you'd know that it really lacked realism, which is why it wasn't very well received. I have definitely learned a lot from Plague Inc., such as infection spread time, average mutation times, Pandemic Protocol, and cures. In Pandemic, the cure to Serium was discovered in one week. As well as 80% of Equestria getting infected in a week, and the death toll skyrocketing in just a few days. And several mutations within that one-week time span. That's the opposite of realism! The things I've learned from Plague Inc. will definitely help make the rewrite of Pandemic a success. Whenever I finally stop playing and start writing... seriously, though, check it out. It's so fun it's ridiculous!
Edit: I know what the Neurax Worm is now. It's a mind-control Plague, with revolutionary new features. First off, the symptom and transmission trees are completely changed up, with brand new symptoms, transmissions, etc. Instead of making people cough, sneeze, vomit, and eventually die from Total Organ Failure, you make it so that heir bodies react differently to the Virus. Example: there's a symptom that allows you to lessen allergic reactions to the disease, lowering the severity. Another brand new ability is that occasionally, in infected regions, a bubble will pop up of a golden airplane. Drag that bubble to any uninfected country, and they're automatically contaminated. After all, since it is a mind control plague, you can force people to travel to other countries. Also, another edit: I don't think you need the full version for Special Plagues. All you have to do is beat every single disease type on Brutal. To unlock Necroa, all you have to do is beat the Neurax Worm on Brutal. That, or you could pay $1.99 to automatically get it, but it would just be cheaper and more fun to do it by beating it on Brutal.
Hey... *poke poke* Are you still stuck on fungus or have you progressed?
1196367 Stuck on Nano-Virus now... 3 diseases ahead of Fungus. They start the cure immediately! And it goes up fast, has slow evolution... but it's special ability is extremely overpowered. You know how Genetic ReShuffle takes cure progress down by 10% at most? Nan-Virus takes it down by 30% at most, and you can do it twice, as well as slow it down considerably. Also, you can make it 100% immune to all medicines, and throw the replicator into overdrive mode, increasing the infectivity to 100% for a few in-game weeks. Also, you can put the Receptors into overdrive, making you immune to the cure for a few weeks. However, by the time it's all over the world, the cure's already at like 78%... it's really difficult.
1196677 Wow... That's pretty impressive. Just keep trying and you'll get past it like you did fungus.
1196768 "No healthy people left in the world"
"North Africa leading Global Cure Effort"
Me: *facedesk*
1196768 I still lost, though... I put on seizures, every infected person in Greenland died. Just when I hit 200 infected in Greenland, they execute 199 infected, and the last man dies of my disease.
1196774 I'm sorry. Just keep trying. You'll kill them all one day.
1196776 I see why everyone hates Greenland now...
1196778
1196802 "Oh no! 0.98% of our population is coughing! Time for a justified mass murder, so that nobody else will have to cough every few hours!"
1196806
Nice.
1196952 Logic=NONE
I'll restart soon... make sure you come along when they come to pick up your stuff tonight. I wanna show you some shizzle I've been doing in that game
Oh no... Serium infected Pinkie! *Deletes all symptoms*
1196959 I managed to 5 biohazard every disease on mega brutal.
Call me the Plague Master
Hey, killingfrenzycreator! Follow the link below, and you should be able to beat nano-virus.
http://plagueinc.wikia.com/wiki/Strategy_Guides/Nano-Virus