Plague Inc.[Submitted Guide] Simian Flu Brutal Strategy: 3rd Submitted Guide

This guide has been written and submitted by Dr Bulgaria. Thanks for submitting a lot of guides for us! Submit yours now via our submit section!

This guide is listed as an alternative in Spicy's Simian Flu Brutal Guide
Spicy's Comments: 3rd Simian Flu Brutal Guide submitted to us since its release. Thanks to everyone who has submitted their own strategy! The more options there are, the better, right? This Guide is very detailed and explains a lot about the strategy and the plague type itself. Kudos to Dr Bulgaria for writing such an amazing guide.

Simian Flu Guide (Brutal) by Dr Bulgaria

The new evolution in Plague Inc is really amazing and I have been playing it nonstop for the last 3 days. It took me awhile to understand the idea and the game mechanics because unfortunately I haven't seen the first movie and up until recently I was not planning to see the second. Now I am getting curious.

The strategy I am going to offer you is not set in stone. It took me several tries to beat this game in brutal and frankly I suggest to everybody to start on casual until you get used to all the interface go through Normal to Brutal and ensure you unlock all the new genes before trying your hand on the hardest setting. And BTW I am not talking scores yet. My goal was to beat the game and I did not care how good or bad I would finish it. The first time I succeeded to beat Brutal my Cure was at 97% and it took me 760 days. I have 2 working tactics so far that are practically the polar opposite but neither guarantees a 100 % success on Brutal more like may be 3 out of 5 (they both give practically 100% success rate on Normal though)


First of all here are a couple of things I observed about the scenario as a whole that while they are not proven to be 100% truth I believe are valid points you should always take into consideration:
1. This is the first disease in which in order to win you do NOT have to kill every single human and do NOT have to INFECT every single human. Same goes for Apes BTW.

2. I was unable to beat the scenario even on casual without using Simian Neuro-Genesis. Thus you will have to create the Planet of the Apes to win. May be they will release this as an achievement later on (like NAZG?) Who knows. Just bear in mind that I tried about 10 times and once was with about 7 millions survivors present and people were dying like flies but the Cure practically turbo boosted from 76 to 100% and I lost.

3. I did not see blue cure bubbles on this scenario on any of my plays. I suppose this is in line with the special conditions you have here to negate/reverse the cure development. This means that Catalytic Switch is a completely useless Gene in this scenario (shame cause it is one of my favourites). I am actually unsure which gene is best suitable in the first slot for this scenario so I went with Cytochrome Surge hoping to score some extra casual DNA points.


4. Unlike other scenarios I noticed that country borders remain open for prolonged periods of time even after the disease became lethal or after the WHO warnings. May be this will change after I try Mega Brutal but for now transmitting the virus initially was much easier than on pretty much any other scenario. I also noticed that it is not easy getting the infectiveness of the disease to a full meter which means that at the later stages of the disease you always run the danger of all the humans dying before you win. Always keep an eye on the speed with which humans are dying unless you managed to infect the whole world


5. There is no single way to victory more like guidelines I will provide you. While the scenario in a way is similar to the Necroa Virus you can still beat Necroa even on Brutal without using hordes or active abilities. I was unable to achieve this here except on Casual.


6. So far I noticed several ways in which you can lose this scenario and only one single way to win it. You can lose it by:

• Getting the cure to 100% (And not reversing it! Yes on this scenario you can actually get the cure to 100% but then reverse it back to less than 100% and still win it! Cool!)
• Killing all the human hosts BEFORE you reach the Planet of the Apes
• Allowing all the Apes to be killed/captured (never happened to me but I am fairly sure you cannot create the Planet of the Apes without Apes :))
• To win you have to create the Planet of the Apes. I am unsure of the exact conditions for this to happen but I believe you get this achievement when the number of intelligent Apes surpasses the number of surviving humans AND the humans are either all infected or at least some of them still are (see lose conditions above!). I managed to score wins in either case (that pesky Greenland! remained uninfected once but I still won since the pop up happened before all the other humans died)

I strongly suggest unlocking all the new Genes before trying your hand on Brutal. The Genes I am using I believe are best suited for my main tactic but feel free to try others as like I said there is no single way to victory. I used the following Gene setup:

• Cytochrome Surge (or ATP Boost)
• Aquacyte (but you could also use Aerocyte)
• Latent Catalyst (I used Ion Deficit until I unlocked that one)
• Leadership (hands down the best for the active abilities and you will need to use pretty much all of them)
• Extremophile

My guide is step by step for the first stage of the game only. After that you will have to stay on your tiptoes and actively fight to achieve victory. Here goes:

Stage 1:

During the initial stage of the game you are the Simian Flu virus you have escaped the Gen-Sys lab and you are infecting the world as best as you can. In a perfect scenario you will infect everybody before you need to move to Apes but not on Brutal or even on Normal. Start in India, China or Saudi Arabia. You could also try starting in South Africa or Brazil. You need a good spreading point initially in order to make the later stages easier for you. However it would also be smart to plan ahead and choose a starting country in an area rich in monkeys. China or India are my best choices.

1. Evolve Blood 1, Pharyngitis and Sneezing.
2. Evolve Air 1, Drug 1, Cold 1
3. Evolve Blood 2, Air 2 And Extreme Haematoaerozole.
4. Evolve Drug 2 and Cold 2. Whatever mutations you have so far ignore them. I almost never evolve symptoms early at this game as the success is relying on the right mutations to happen in order to get more infective and more lethal. I wait until the very late stages to evolve max killing symptoms. In this game the random mutations almost always help. The only unwanted mutation is the intelligence pathway - it speeds up cure research and can kill all the humans before they all become infected. This is the only one I ever devolved (very costly but needed).

The first stage ends after your disease is discovered and Gen Sys promises to develop a cure using Apes. You need to watch out for those 2 pop ups and after the second one you have to carefully monitor Cure progress as it tends to turbo boost towards 100 % very fast and before you know it. After you get the second pop up saying that Gen Sys are staring to develop a Cure from the Apes research you should stop developing the abilities/transmissions I listed above no matter how far along you are in the list. Usually you will manage to develop extreme Hemoaerozole and may be Drug 2 before you have to act but that does not always happen. Once you notice the Cure research is darting towards 20% you need to develop Simian Neuro-Genesis. This destroys the Gen Sys lab and stops the Cure at the percentage it is at that moment. From that moment on you are in the next stage of the game

Stage 2: 

I wish I had a perfect guide for the next portion of the game but at best I can offer you directions and no firm instructions. There are a few must do steps in order to maximize your chances of success and I will list them accordingly. You have to remember that from the moment you enter stage 2 you will have to keep in mind 2 very important rules:

• The main income for DNA from this point of the game on will come from Ape Colonies. Consider them investments - you sacrifice some DNA and you get a steady income of DNA on a regular basis as long as the colony exists. You need to plant colonies (using the Active ability) and you need to develop them. Now this is part of the reason you need to choose your starting country carefully - the first colony will be in that country and the more Apes you have in a colony the more income it will generate. I suggest using your create colony ability as soon as you have the DNA every time unless you need the DNA for something else.
• If there is an ACTIVE Gen Sys lab anywhere in the world the Cure research will progress VERY fast. It will progress even faster if that lab is in a country with intelligent Apes present. So your second important goal will be to destroy those labs ASAP. Now bear in mind if the lab is in a country with no Apes they will not contribute to the cure that much and will usually move to one with Apes so it makes sense to wait for the lab to come to you instead of moving Apes towards them but that is not a rule set in stone. Use your judgment especially if the Cure is getting close to 100%.

 
1. Evolve Ape Colonies and set one in your starting country. You CANNOT set up an Ape Colony in a country with no intelligent apes which means that in order to get s steady income in DNA you need to spread Apes around and make colonies with them. Using the Ape button in the bottom of the left margin of your screen you can monitor the areas where there are intelligent Apes (countries get colored in bright green). If you haven't evolved any of the transmissions/abilities I mentioned in Stage 1 now is a good time to do it. Also evolve Cognitive Shift and Education ASAP. Evolve Coughing and Haemoptysis as soon as you can (if you are lucky they would have mutated by now which means you are having a good game)
 
2. You now have new Ape transmissions as well as abilities. Evolve Hominidae Bridge from the transmissions page. This is hands down the Creme de la Creme in Human/Ape virus transmissions and will help you both spread the virus and increase the number of intelligent Apes. It is expensive but it is a must have to succeed. You can evolve some other Ape transmission later in the game (I usually evolve inter genus dissemination 1 may be 2). Evolve this transmission as fast as possible sometimes if it takes too long to generate DNA you might want to evolve it before Education and before setting out other colonies to get spreading the Intelligent apes around the world


3. Evolve Social Cohesion and Ape Migration as soon as you have DNA for it. You can switch between Ape map and disease map to monitor the spreading of both the virus and the spreading of the intelligent monkeys. You have a relatively brief period of time until the second Gen Sys lab is launched and you need to use that time to set up you "economics" (set up initial Ape Colony and may be one or 2 more when there are enough apes around the world). When setting up colonies bear in mind to spread them around the world to make them harder to destroy.


4. You will get a pop up saying the Gen Sys is setting up a new lab. After this popup you need to evolve Ape Rampage and then as soon as you have the DNA Primal hunt.
 
5. Keep an eye on the labs that appear around the world As soon as you have a lab IN a country with Intelligent apes use the Rampage ability on it. At this stage it is still too early to chase labs with migration ability. Let them come to you. Evolve some more transmissions/lethal symptoms if you do not have any to start the killing of humans. I usually follow the pathway towards the Hemorrhagic Shock (either Coughing, Haemoptysis, Pulmonary Hemorrhage or Sneezing, Epistaxis). One trasnmission I find usefull to evolve relatively early at this stage if you have some DNA to spare is water 1 to help with Greenland and the rest of the cold countries but that is not set in stone.
 
6. It will take some time for humanity to realize that the Apes are related to the disease and are dangerous. At some point a pop up will appear saying that Governments have agreed to start hunting and killing apes to try and put the disease under control. That places you in stage 3 of the game.
 

Stage 3: 

You have to keep setting up Ape colonies from now on every time you have the DNA (it costs progressively more and more to do it) spreading them in far parts of the world ideally one on every continent. I use Brazil, Central or West Africa, India or China, Canada and possibly some European Country or Saudi Arabia. Bear in mind that countries with more Apes with them (geographically I mean like the African Countries or Brazil) are better suited for creating large colonies with a lot of Apes in them and are thus giving you a more steady income. You have to keep on using the rampage ability on labs when they appear in one of your countries to reduce the level of the cure. And you need to evolve Organized travel when you have the DNA as it will be your main tool for survival and attack as the virus is wiping out the rest of humanity. There are no firm rules about how to organize your game from now on but I would evolve the following at any moment I have DNA to spare:

1. Scouts
2. Logistics
3. Primal Awareness
4. From the symptoms in no particular order whichever is available Pulmonary Hemorrhage, Hemorrhagic shock and Internal Hemorrhage (use the ones that say they reduce Cure development early if you notice Cure is approaching 100%) Photophobia, Subconjunctival bleed and Haemorrage, Blindness, Coma. Always check the infection spread summary and try and help the flu spread if it needs help - for example if rich countries like Sweden or Canada are not fully infected evolve Droplets transmission. Your goal is at this point to achieve no healthy people left in the world while keeping the Apes alive.

 
After the governments decide to attack apes directly they will start sending drones at you. You can ignore drones that are attacking countries with no colonies but if you have spare DNA you should try and save those as well. If they are attacking a country with a colony use the active migration ability and move the apes to an adjacent country. If they set up another lab in a country with apes (and by this stage of the game all the apes on the planet should have become intelligent (the total number is roughly 600 000 slightly above that) use rampage on it. You will get periodic boosts of DNA from your colonies (by this stage you should have 5 big colonies but if you can set up more that is great. I would say 3 is the absolute minimum if you wants to finish the game on this difficulty). Use the DNA to evolve further killing symptoms or abilities on the Apes you might need (like speeding up their travel with Logistics if you haven't developed it earlier) Horseback riding and Seafaring (I find this one completely useless unless there is an uninfected island and you want to actively transfer the virus there using the Apes). If All the people in the world are infected and you are at 60% with the cure tops one quick way to win is to evolve the intelligence symptoms all at once - you will need at least 50 DNA to get to Total brain death which is the most lethal symptom. Usually I finish the game without going that road. Keep on moving the ape colonies to protect your DNA income and keep on using Rampage on the Gen Sys Labs and eventually you will win.
 
Like I said this strategy does not work 100%. 3 out of 5 is my observation. There are several good events that can help you win it and several bad ones that can ruin your game. Mutation of Improved intelligence especially early in the game is practically a game over. I almost always lost with this one. Mutating Coughing and Haemoptysis while you have evolved Sneezing and later self mutating of the other Lungs symptoms ususally helps you win it with minimal effort.
 
Like I said I have 2 strategies but my second one is almost identical at least in the early stages with Spicy's strategy for normal (which BTW works fairly well on Brutal as well) so I do not feel the need to post it. Good Luck!