Plague Inc. Simian Flu Casual Guide: Easy Gene Unlock Strategy

The latest special plague type, Simian Flu, simulates the same virus in the Planet of the Apes film that kills humans and makes apes smarter--It actually makes humans smart, too, but it kills them soon after. Because this is a new plague type, the Yo It's Spicy team decided to make guides as we progress to conquering the Simian Flu in mega-brutal strategy. So for starters, we'll need to unlock the Simian Flu-exclusive genes first.

The easiest and simplest way to unlock genes is to play and win a game in casual difficulty. Genes unlock one at a time so you'll need to play a few games to unlock them all. Obviously, we'd want a strategy that works all the time so we could easily unlock every gene without having to restart multiple games.

At first look, the Simian Flu seems to be very complicated since you are able to use ape abilities and transmissions, but don't be confused by this, the main goal is still to eradicate humanity--leave the apes alone they've done nothing!

I've used this strategy to unlock every available Simian Flu gene, and I have never lost a game using it--I guess playing on mega-brutal all the time made this easier for me. Also, this strategy does not make use of any ape abilities, I treated the Simian Flu like any other basic plague type.

Here's the most recent stats I had using this strategy:

Recommended Genes

Since we're just starting to play the Simian Flu, all its unique genes will be locked. These are the suggested genes(that you may have already unlocked) to make the game a little bit easier.

• ATP Boost - can't go wrong with this gene, it's my personal favorite, since it provides 8 DNA at the start that could be put to good use at the early stages of any game.
• Aerocyte - this strategy mainly relies on planes to spread the infection to other countries.
• Extremophile - minor boost in every climate. You could also substitute this one with Xerophile to increase infection rates 

If you don't have these genes yet, I suggest you play some casual Bacteria games to unlock them. It shouldn't take too long.

*Insert ape-related cliche or pun here*

1.) Before selecting a country to start in, evolve Pharyngitis. Begin your plague in Saudi Arabia, then continue to evolve the following as soon as you have the DNA(in this order).

• Sneezing
• Air 1 & 2
• Drug Resistance 1
• Cold Resistance 1
• Water 1 & 2
• Extreme Bioaerosol
• Drug Resistance 1
• Cold Resistance 2

Don't worry about mutations, I have played several games with this strategy and mutations don't really cause any trouble. They help the strategy more than they destroy it, actually.

2.) At this point, we're just going to relax and pop bubbles until the whole world is infected. While waiting, watch the cure progression carefully. 

If the cure progression reaches 25%, immediately evolve Simian Neuro-Genesis. This is the only ape ability we'll be evolving in this strategy.

After the pop-up above appears, evolve:

• Neuro-enhancement 1, 2, and 3
• Total Brain Death

3.) After evolving Total Brain Death, continue by evolving the most lethal symptoms you can. I've listed down the ones you should prioritize on getting.

• Haemorrhagic Shock
• Pulmonary Haemorrhage
• Internal Haemorrhaging
• Hydrocephalus
• Meningitis
• Coma
• Gastric Ulceration
• Hypocoagulability

These symptoms will provide enough lethality to easily eradicate humanity. You're likely enough to get adequate DNA to evolve all of them, if you have remaining DNA left, use them to evolve Genetic Re-Shuffles.

Now, all that's left is to wait for the Simian Flu to wipe out every living human on earth and bring upon the rise of the apes.

Alternate Strategies

Simian Flu Casual Strategy Guide by Ross.(Original comment here)

Ok I beat it on casual so far and have a basic strategy:
This simulation starts out centered around infection and quickly evolves to Revolution and finally all-out war. Think of Spartacus; That's a pretty good analogy. This is mostly a war of attrition as well!
I'll separate this into 3 phases:
Phase 1- Infection:
- Start off by upping your infectivity. Avoid doing anything with apes or symptoms yet. You want to establish the virus to spread quickly!
1. Start off in China or India
2. Get Fomites 1, Air 1 and Water 1
3. Get Fomites 2
4. Get Insect
5.Get Cold 1, Heat 1, Drugs 1
6. Let the virus spread a little, If any symptoms evolve, LET THEM (Except for Neuro-enhancement 1. You don't want people getting smarter too early!)
7. Society will start noticing the virus about mid-way, but it's OK for now. They don't start seriously researching a cure until the apes cometh. Once you have enough points and a handful of countries, Do Simian Neuro-genesis to unleash the apes from the lab. (If it hasn't happened already, the lab will choose to keep quiet about the virus and apes for as long as possible). NOTE THAT DESTROYING LABS SIGNIFICANTLY DECREASES RESEARCH TIME...THIS IS IMPORTANT FROM NOW ON!
Phase 2- Revolution:
- You are now in covert building mode. The idea is to covertly evolve the apes and establish bases, all the while infecting apes in other areas and building a chashflow and army. You want to be as discreet as possible when bailing out and infecting your fellow primates. Humans will start becoming aware of you, but this is acceptable...as long as humans don't get smarter during this time!
1. Get Ape Colonies and set up first colony in the country you started in. This will increase infection amongst apes and start generating additional DNA pts periodically. do NOT make more than this for now!
2. Get Cognitive Shift (this increases DNA from colonies which will be important later).
3. Get Primal Awareness (this decreases the chances of hum as discovering the ape threat too early and destroying your base)
4. Get Education followed by War Paint
5. Set up a 2nd colony in a large country (I chose Russian). Spread your colonies out over large distances and continents to decrease chances of being discovered and wiped out, make it easier to infect apes in other areas, and make wiping out labs easier as they pop up.
6. Get Ape Rampage (to take out labs as the pop up. IMPORTANT!) and Organised Travel, Logistics to spread infected apes into other areas.
7. Migrate apes from India or China to Egypt to begin infecting Africa (which you will set up another shop a little later)
8. If any labs pop up without infection, migrate apes to clean area which will auto set up a base and allow you to knock out the lab. DO THIS ASAP! Upgrade traveling speeds as necessary.
Phase 3- Guerilla-Bio Warfare (pun intended)
- The humans will now begin taking action against you if they haven't already. The virus will be steadily mutating and slowly debilitating the humans, which means they are fighting a war on two fronts: a bio war and a war vs. the apes. Your ultimate goal now is to grow strong enough to outlast human attacks and research for the cure while upgrading the virus to lethal levels which will kill all the humans. **If you think that the apes will wipe out humanity, YOU ARE WRONG!**
1. Get all Ape abilities under Abilities (in no particular order...doesn't have to be all at once either)
2. Get Inter-genus dissemination 1, Sebaceous excretion and Hominidae Bridge under Transmissions (in no particular order). Hominidae will generate a chance of humans giving the virus to apes and vice versa, which greatly helps infect the americas.
3. Continue to destroy labs immediately as they pop up
4. Establish 5-6 colonies worldwide (with 1 or 2 in the americas). Spread them out!
5. At this point if Neuro-enhancement 1 evolves, let it go. It's too late for the humans now!
6. Begin evolving your very lethal symptoms and watch humanity slowly die.

Closing statements and Credits

Thanks to all those who've shared their own guides, tips, and strategies. If you have other things you would want to add, comment below or submit them directly to us via our submit section.

I hope this guide has helped you unlock every possible gene in Simian Flu easily. Now go and use those genes for the Normal difficulty! HSG!