Spicy's Comments: Props to Narth for submitting a 5 Biohazard Speed Run guide! and on Fungus at that! It's well written and detailed. Also, I have made no changes to it whatsoever. I promise, I didn't. As always, if it doesn't work once, go try a thousand times more.
Yes, that's right. I finally got under 200 days for a fungus speed run and I am excited to share how. Be warned - this will still require many, many tries to finish.
First, pick ATP boost, Suppression, Patho-Stasis, Darwinist, and Extremophile. According to rumor, suppression helps land transmission even when the border is NOT closed and considering how helpful it seemed to be, the rumor is likely true. The other genes are pretty standard for a fungus run otherwise.
Start in India. Higher population means more to infect at start, and we will be relying on increased water transmission to also help infect our humid starting country.
Wait until the speed run pop-up emerges, then close it and buy Anemia and Hemophilia. Again, rumor has it that if you evolve before the popup it hampers transmission and it would seem the rumor is true.
Buy as many spore bursts as you can. However, do not yet buy a spore eruption. If you buy a spore burst at the same time you buy a spore eruption, they sometimes cancel one another out.
At the same time, buy Rash, Sweating, and Skin Lesions. Do your best to buy these symptoms before you use up spores...the more severity you have when you infect a new country, the more DNA you get from popping each bubble.
Once you have bought all spores up to and including spore hardening, buy Water 1 and Blood 1. Then as soon as possible buy Water 2 and Blood 2. Water transmission will help infect islands which are always a pain and I think it is more reliable than hoping to get lucky with spores and random boats. I chose blood transmission (yet again, because of a rumor) because it would appear that when combined with profuse bleeding (hemophilia and skin lesions combo) infectivity is greatly increased relatively cheap which is very necessary in this run. The combo makes it easier, but even without it, this combination was a HUGE game changer for me. My runs were reduced by an average of 10 days after I started using blood. Plus, profuse bleeding combo adds a bit of lethality early which is nice.
After this, evolve Birds 1 and 2. Another standard and necessary evolution in this run.
Now switch to abilities. Evolve Drug 1 and Cold 1 and look at your lethality and countries infected. If you have managed to evolve some highly lethal transmissions while also infecting most countries, especially islands, skip to the next step. If not, evolve Fever, Immune Suppression, Total Organ Failure and Necrosis...perhaps another high lethal symptom if needed.
Now, evolve Drug 2, Cold 2, Heat 1. Evolve 2 or 3 more lethal symptoms, unless you still have quite a few countries, especially islands, to infect. The most important are going to be total organ failure and necrosis, followed by Dysentery if available (don't buy more than 1 or 2 symptoms to unlock, just get it if mutations get you close), and of course the two hemorrhaging symptoms, systemic infection, fibrosis. Tumors if leftover as well - it is not as lethal as it suggests but it helps.
Once you've evolved the first resistances and raised your lethality, evolve Drug 2 right away, followed by Heat 2 and Environmental Hardening. If all countries are not infected shortly after this, it is a bad sign.
Finally, max out your lethality as soon as possible following my symptom list in the paragraph above the last. Pay attention to what countries are not fully infected. Poland, for some odd reason, was low on infected in my record game. I bought livestock 1 and it immediately infected and killed the country in a few days, basically making the difference between a 4 and 5 biohazard game for me.
Hopefully at this point you will win in under 200 days. What will decide your game is which countries you infect at the start, followed by lucky mutations, followed by good decisions made by the player based on what is happening in game. Greenland, Iceland, Philippines, Caribbean, New Zealand, Madagascar, and Canada seem to give the most trouble in that order. Greenland not infecting at start seems to be a failure every time, and not having at least a few of the others as well.
That's the guide. Good luck!
