Become a plague master and beat them all.

Have you started Plague Inc. recently and do you need some advice to get the ball rolling? If so, you’ve come to the right article.

These top 50 Plague Inc tips for beginners offer some helpful advice to guide you through Plague Inc., beginning to end, so that you can soon spread your wings and conquer the game on your own.

50. Learn about your starting country

Which country should you start your plague in, and how do you know it’s the one? At the beginning of each game, you should select the country you are interested in and then click its name (located on the bottom center of the screen) to find more information about it.

49. Pick a starting country that will help your plague spread

You want your plague to have an easy time getting around when it’s young and weak, right? If so, then you should pick a starting country that has both airports and ports.

48. Pick a starting country that won’t kill your plague

There is the very real chance of your plague dying before it gets anywhere. If you don’t want this to happen to you, you should aim for a fairly poor or rural country that won’t be able to shoot down your plague the minute it gets spotted.

47. Start somewhere hard to infect

There are a few out there who recommend starting in a country that is generally difficult to infect, for instance Greenland, so it doesn’t become a problem later. This would be wise if you constantly find yourself with all countries except one infected, causing you to keep losing.

46. Stay in the know

Just like in the real world, in the Plague Inc. world it’s important to pay attention to the news. It will help you know what to look out for as well as what you should evolve. Some notifications include bird migration, the Rio Olympics, improved sterilization methods, and improved research methods. Base what you evolve off of these if you can.

45. Spend to spread

When DNA first starts rolling in, you may want to start upping the killing factor of your plague ASAP. That is not it. You should aim to spread your plague far and wide so that most of humanity is infected before cure research begins. If its lethality is too obvious, cure work will start soon, and the likelihood of your disease dying young will rocket.

44. Customize

Each country is different, so it makes sense how each plague spreads best is different for each country. For instance, if your country of choice is landlocked, then starting off with water 1 would be pretty useless.

43. Read descriptions

When you click on a transmission, symptom, or ability, a description of what each does is shown. These descriptions also offer helpful hints, for instance which climate they are most useful in, so be sure to give them a look.

42. Look down

DNA is limited, and only so much comes in at a time, so you have to be careful about what you choose to spend it on. To more effectively gauge which transmission, symptom, or ability is worthy of your time when choosing, look down and lo behold there are three bars that read infectivity, severity, and lethality in that order. When you click on a symptom or transmission, how much that specific one will strengthen your plague will be reflected in the bars.

41. Get the islands

Most Plague Inc. players start out in Saudi Arabia, India, or China, which makes sense because those are the most advantageous locations. However, this means that getting into the islands will be tricky. To help with this, you should invest in environment based transmissions, especially water 1.

40. Mutations are your friend...sometimes

Especially when you play virus, mutations will happen. However to let them be or not to be, that is the question. In the beginning of the game, as long as your mutations are not lethal you should not devolve them. They’re basically freebies since they reduce the amount of DNA you have to spend. However, if in an unlikely scenario you get a lethal mutation, you should devolve it to prevent humanity from picking up on things before they should.

39. Bide your time

In the beginning of the game, DNA stacks up slowly, and you might be tempted to start evolving whatever you can afford so your disease becomes more dangerous, which would lead to you gaining more DNA. It’s actually best to save up DNA so you can evolve more effectively rather than just blowing it all.

38. Don’t over evolve transmissions

You may think, well since spreading my disease is so important I should really focus on evolving transmissions, right? While yes, though you should evolve transmissions, you don’t really need to evolve every single one of them. The best way to go is to pick two or three at most and fully evolve those. That should save you some DNA in the long run.

37. Symptoms also help with spreading

It’s not only transmissions that increase infectivity. Symptoms, for instance coughing, do too. Just like with transmissions, certain symptoms are better suited for better countries, so keep that in mind when evolving!

36. Prioritize

Transmissions, symptoms, and abilities cost more DNA as the game goes on. For instance, what may have cost 12 DNA at the beginning of the game may cost 22 by the end. Therefore, it’s important to know exactly what you want to evolve so you can evolve it first, while it is still cheap.

35. You don’t have to see everything all the way through

Just because you evolve bird 1 doesn’t mean you have to get to extreme zoonosis. In fact, it doesn’t even mean you need to evolve bird 2. Evolve only what you need to, because even if you do devolve later, you’ll only get 2 DNA back compared to however much it cost it to evolve. Spend smart.

34. Even out infectivity and lethality

While yes, it is important that your disease is not deadly enough to notice in the beginning of the game, if your disease is too harmless, it’ll be really easy to cure. To avoid this, start investing in mild symptoms at the beginning that won’t draw too much suspicion but will pave the way to unlocking more dangerous symptoms.

33. Don’t go too soft on them

Some of the symptoms read potentially fatal, for instance fever. Although they can kill, they won’t be especially alarming to humanity, unlike for instance, necrosis. In short, it’s fine to evolve those along with the more infectious symptoms. If you’re too kind and you hold back on the dangerous symptoms for too long, then your disease won’t be deadly enough when it needs to be.

32. Take a break

There exists, in the upper left corner, a pause button. That button is your ally. Before evolving, or if things are just moving too fast, use the pause button so you can analyze the situation and make your battle plan. That way you can charge forward with no regrets.

31. Eyes on the screen

To some Plague Inc. may seem like the kind of game you can play while watching a TV show at the same time. This may be possible for some, but for the rest of us normies, Plague Inc. requires focus. If you take your eyes off the screen, when DNA starts popping up fast, you’ll miss your chance to collect it.That will hurt a lot in the long run.

30. Watch who’s infected

The goal of Plague Inc. is to wipe out humanity, and before they can be killed by disease, each person must first be infected. You can check if a country is infected, or how many are infected in a country, by clicking on said country. This will let you know what you need to evolve to bring humanity down.

29. Watch the map

As the game progresses, you’ll be able to see ships and planes traveling. The vehicles that are red are the infected ones, helping you spread your disease. It is important to keep an eye on them, because the countries they land on will provide DNA, and you don’t want to miss collecting it. Also, it is good to know when a difficult country to reach has been infected so you can strategize.

28. Climate resistance

Your plague will be naturally more resistant to the climate it originated in. This means if your plague started somewhere like Saudi Arabia, it will naturally have a higher heat tolerance. In this case, you would want to focus on evolving cold resistance so that your plague can be just as effective in areas like Greeland or Iceland.

27. Hoard like a dragon

If you stuck with the advice above, by the time you hit a boom in DNA, it’s likely your plague isn’t very high spec. But that’s alright. Hoard your DNA until you’re at a high number, maybe over 40, before evolving. This will give you a lot more options than if you were to spend immediately, because you’ll be able to make decisions based on who’s been infected so far and if any progress towards a cure has been made.

26. Stay calm 

Just because it is announced that a country will be looking into a cure, doesn’t mean there will actually be any cure progress. In fact, cure progress likely won’t begin for a while. At this stage it is better to continue evolving transmissions and symptoms rather than abilities that would strengthen against a cure.

25. Check out the prevention methods

Obviously, countries are going to take methods to prevent the spread of your plague, and it’s up to you to be up to date. For instance, if China closes its airports, there’s little point in evolving air based transmissions. Of course, different countries will try different methods at different rates, so don’t discount a certain transmission just because one country has eliminated it.

24. Special abilities

All plagues have special abilities, so you should take advantage of special abilities to wipe out humanity even faster. For instance, virus’s special ability increases the amount of mutations which makes finding a cure harder and increases the danger of your plague. However, if not used wisely, a special ability can backfire. For instance, virus’s special ability may make your plague too dangerous which may get it noticed too quickly.

23. Judge for yourself

As mentioned, all plagues have their own special ability that can be quite useful. However, they are not necessary to win the game, and sometimes spending DNA on them can actually be a waste. For instance, there is little point to bacteria’s special ability which improves overall climate resistance, because it’s a better investment to just focus on either cold resistance or heat resistance.

22. Not too big of a deal

Abilities have no effect on a plague’s infectivity, severity, or lethality. Really, the only one that absolutely demands spending DNA for is drug resistance and its cohorts. The rest are just not that big of a deal.

21. Quality over quantity

Which symptoms you evolve matter. Some of them are simply better than others, and that’s a hard fact. Rather than evolving every symptom you can afford, pick them with an end goal in mind. For instance, insomnia will eventually lead to insanity which could produce combos that will slow cure work. Rash will also eventually lead to necrosis which greatly increases all of your plague’s stats.

20. Look at the data

Right below the box that says cure is a box that says world. If you click on that box, you’ll be able to see info such as how many are healthy, infected, or dead as well as how long it will take for the cure to be available. This may help when you’re plotting your next move.

19. Infected to dead ratio

When looking at the data of specific countries (click on the country, then click on their name), a good thing to look at is the infected to dead ratio. It’s not good if more people are dying than being infected, because if all the carriers are dead, the disease cannot spread. In this type of case, you’d want to reduce the lethality of your disease.

18. Almost there

Once most of humanity has fallen victim to your plague, and there is a slow but steadily increasing death count, is when you should begin to increase the lethality of your disease. However, don’t turn to the extremes like total organ failure or hemorrhagic shock yet because you don’t want to risk the infected dying before they have completely spread your plague.

17. Stop the cure in its tracks

Once the cure research has hit above 5% is when you should turn to abilities that will prevent it from going any farther. If you’ve saved enough DNA, this shouldn’t be much of a problem, and you should be able to evolve a few of them.

16. Who’s working the hardest?

To the left of the world tab, once you have selected the world button on the bottom of the screen, is a tab that says cure. It will tell you who’s leading the cure research, as well as how close it is to being finished. This information is useful, because you can prioritize which countries must be brought down.

15. Don’t wait til the last minute

While it may seem like common sense, don’t ignore the cure progress, which you can find at the bottom right corner. Definitely try to evolve all of the cure prevention related abilities before cure research is above 60% for your best chance at survival.

14, Counting down the days

The data will tell you how many days, or possibly years, are left until a cure is developed. The upper left corner will tell you the current date. Use these pieces of information to gauge if your disease is killing at the right pace.

13. Enough dead?

If you visit the bottom left corner, there is a button that says disease. You should be familiar with this button since it is where you go to evolve transmissions, symptoms, and all that, but it also holds other information. On the first screen it takes you to, it shows the daily infections and daily deaths. This information paired with the data you can find from the world button can help you figure out if humanity will be wiped out by your plague before the cure is done.

12. Constant Vigilance

You can’t let your guard down until the end when playing Plague Inc. Even when you have gotten the notification that all have been infected, it is still no time to rest. After all, there is always the possibility that the cure will be completed and distributed before humanity has perished.

11. Get your DNA back

Reclaim some of your hard won DNA by devolving transmissions once your plague has infected all of humanity. This may not be applicable to all games, but in cases where it does not cost to devolve, you should devolve. However this should only be done once absolutely everyone has been infected and not a second before.

10. Stay patient

Around this time, your DNA flow will probably be slow, which is why it’s important to devolve if you can. It’s tempting to spend DNA to try to speed up the game, but don’t. Rather you should save up so you can afford the more lethal symptoms.

9. Fan-favs

As has been said before, some symptoms are just better than others. When you’re nearing the end of the game, symptoms you should be trying to evolve are necrosis, total organ failure, and hemorrhagic shock. If you can get all three, all the better.

8. How to know if it’s about time

Once you receive the notification that humanity is as good as gone, the game is as good as done. But how to tell if you’re even going to receive that notification? It’s simple, if everyone is infected, your cure time is over 10 years, and people are dying at a steady rate, it’s over. If you have all those boxes checked, you’ve basically won.

7. It’s okay to be rich

Near the end of the game, you may find your DNA count on the rise once more. You don’t necessarily have to spend it. If your disease is already guaranteed to bring humanity down, it’s fine to sit back, relax, and watch the world burn. After all, it’s not like adding on nausea will get rid of humanity any faster if you already have hemorrhagic shock.

6. Desperate times call for desperate measure

Let’s say you’re unfortunately living life on the edge. The cure is nearing completion, not nearly the amount of people are dead that need to be, and you’re not bringing in any DNA. If you’ve already sold off all your transmissions, what you may need to do is start selling symptoms and abilities.

5. Selling the goods (abilities)

If you’re selling abilities in this dangerous scenario, you absolutely must not sell any related to cure prevention. At most, sell the ones related to the environment.

4. Selling the goods (symptoms)

When selling symptoms, just because they were more expensive does not mean you are going to get more DNA back from it. Actually, this applies for transmissions and abilities as well. Sell only the symptoms that have no potential. For instance, if you have evolved diarrhea and know you won’t be able to reach dysentery, diarrhea is something you might want to devolve if that extra boost of DNA will help you afford total organ failure.

3. Just because the cure is at 90% does not mean it is game over

There’s no need to quit your game and restart just because the cure is at 90% or above. It’s still possible to win, although it will be a very suspenseful win. As long as you’re calm and making smart choices, you’ll be fine...although your score may be a bit low.

2. Under no circumstance can the cure be completed

If it’s fine if the cure is at 90% is it fine if the cure is completed? Nope. If the cure is completed, it will be distributed extremely quickly and all your hard work will have been for naught. Just, do not let it happen.

1. Use what you have learned

Ultimately, Plague Inc. is a strategy game, and it is safe to assume that you learn a little after each run through. It’s important to remember what you learned, especially why you lost (if you lost), because that information will help you with your next run. For instance, if you infected everyone but couldn’t kill them all in the end, then now you know to begin evolving deadly symptoms a bit sooner. Work smarter not harder!

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