Plague Inc. Nano-Virus Mega-Brutal Guide/ Walkthrough/ Strategy

It took quite a few tries and fails, but I was finally able to find a solid strategy for Nano-Virus in Mega-Brutal difficulty. The first few games were a struggle to slow down the cure progress, the next set of games became a puzzle of how to infect the island countries. I might sound arrogant, but I can assure you that my guide/strategy will always net you a 5 out of 5 biohazard score with every game.

I did at least 5 games using this same strategy over and over again to make sure that it always works. Luckily enough, it always does. The key to this strategy is balancing the evolution of infectious symptoms and cure-slowing abilities. You can't really focus on one particular side since the other tends to make you pay for not giving enough attention to it. That's about enough background on this strategy, so let's get started.

Once you select a country to start Nano-Virus in, the cure progression starts at the same time. That is the probably the primary reason why beating this plague is hard in both brutal and mega-brutal difficulties. If you want to get the best possible score by using this strategy, follow the order I evolve symptoms, transmissions, and abilities unless told otherwise. I'll try to explain why I evolved this and that while we move along the strategy.

Before starting, make sure you have these genes equipped:

• ATP Boost - we'll need this because we're going to evolve a few stuff before selecting a country to start in.
• Aquacyte - makes those hard to reach island countries, that are only accessible by ship, easier to infect.
• Sympto-Stasis - this gene stops the increase of DNA costs of symptoms every time you evolve but it increases the speed of the cure progression. This is probably the most important gene to have.
• Genetic Mimic - slows down the cure progression. The primary reason we need this is to counter the cure speed increase that sympto-stasis has.
• Extremophile - gives a small boost on every climate. Very useful.

1. Before selecting a country to start in, we'll need to evolve a few things:

• Code Fragment Interception
• Coughing
• Cysts
• Hyper Sensitivity
• Insomnia
• Paranoia

It might seem that you won't have enough DNA to evolve everything above, but you do. Insomnia and Paranoia costs nothing to evolve.

2. Start in China or Saudi Arabia (Saudi seems to be recommended a lot by other people and its airplane paths really provide a boost into infecting countries sooner)

3. Evolve the following symptoms in any order you want. I recommend evolving the cheaper ones first

• Rash
• Sweating
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Pneumonia
• Sneezing
• Abscesses
• Anaemia
• Haemophilia

4. Continue by evolving the next set of symptoms(if they aren't mutated yet), transmissions, and abilities in this exact order. It is highly recommended that you evolve something once you have the DNA to do so. Why? Because Genetic Shifts happen, and when they do they'd most likely increase the costs.

• Code Segment Interception
• Water and Insect 1
• Paralysis
• Coma
• Skin Lesions
• Diarrhoea
• Water and Insect 2
• Radical Elements Stabilised
• Drug Resistance 1
• Genetic Hardening 1 and 2
• Drug Resistance 2
• Seizures
• Insanity
• Cold Resistance 1 and 2
• Necrosis
• Dysentery
• Encryption Breached
• Replication Factory Overload
• Genetic Re-Shuffles 1, 2, and 3
• Heat Resistance 1 and 2

By following this order of evolution, cure progress won't even hit 70%. Again, evolve every time you get the needed DNA.

5. At this point, you'll have to wait until the whole world is infected, you'll get a prompt saying that there are no healthy people left. Once this happens, evolve every lethal symptom you can. I suggest getting Total Organ Failure and Hemorrhagic Shock maybe even Internal Hemorrhaging. There are times though that you will have enough DNA to evolve every remaining symptom.

6. From here on, people will start dying fast. Wait for a pop-up saying something like "Nano-virus is about to eradicate humanity", after that shows up evolve Broadcast Interceptor Overload. This significantly lowers the cure progression which in turn boosts your highscore.

That's it. I hope this guide has helped you conquer Nano-Virus in mega-brutal difficulty with ease and has also helped you get a 5 out 5 Biohazard score. 

If you guys have any tips, questions, or an alternate strategy you'd like to share, please do post them at the comments below. I'll be sure to include the the good ones I see along with this guide. Thanks for using my strategy and happy spicy gaming!