In Plague Inc. for the Android & iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, etc.), Fungus on Brutal is probably the hardest plague in the game in my opinion. Fungus plagues spread so slowly, that you have to be extremely tactical and patient, unlike some of the other plagues where you can just pump up the symptoms and watch everyone die.
I have listed my gene setup below. I have all genes unlocked, which just requires winning 25 games. You don’t need to unlock all of the genes to win this one, but a couple that I typically use are unlocked near the end.
DNA Gene - Metabolic Jump (Bonus DNA from red bio-hazard bubbles, this one is important and is a great combo with the Spore abilities that the Fungus plague type has)
Travel Gene - Aquacyte (Increases chance of plague spreading by Sea, this guide is written for using water so if you use Aerocyte or Teracyte instead then you’ll also want to substitute the primary transmissions you use as well)
Evolution Gene - Patho-Stasis (Abilities don’t increase in cost but your plague is easier to cure, this one is important for this strategy)
Mutation Gene - Genetic Mimic (Slows down cure research, this is important and balances out Patho-Stasis)
Environment Gene - Extremophile (Minor bonus to all environments, if you don’t have this use any other you have unlocked)
The main strategy here is to infect the world without them knowing, and then kill them all as fast as possible. This is a long game because Fungus takes so long to spread, so you have to be patient.
One very important thing to remember is that you DO NOT want your plague to be detected until the whole planet is infected. The only way to make this happen is to keep your symptoms at zero for most of the game. You start with a few at the beginning just to get the bio-hazard bonus, but at a certain point (you’ll see below) you have to devolve any mutated symptoms immediately.
When I say immediately, I mean once the notification pops up that a symptom has mutated, do not close the notification first, go immediately to the symptoms list and devolve it, or risk your plague being noticed before you even get a chance. If the world detects your plague early, you might as well start over because you probably won’t win.
Stage 1
- Start in China
- Symptoms: Cysts, Hyper Sensitivity, Abscesses, immediately devolve any other symptoms that mutate
- Transmissions: Water 1 & 2
- Abilities: Your abilities are cheap with the Patho-Stasis gene, so after you’ve purchased your three symptoms, purchase all Spore Bursts and one Spore Eruption to infect a bunch of countries right off the bat, but leave the final two Spore abilities for the end
Stage 2
- Transmissions: Air 1, Blood 1
- Symptoms: Keep devolving any mutated symptoms immediately
- Abilities: Drug Resistance 1, Cold 1, Heat 1
Stage 3
- Once your plague has infected around 500 to 600 million world wide, devolve all symptoms to keep the world from knowing about your plague
- Transmissions: Bird 1, Livestock 1
- Symptoms: Keep devolving any mutated symptoms immediately
- Abilities: Cold 2, Genetic Hardening 1
Stage 4
- Most of countries should start to be infected, but they still shouldn’t know about your plague if you devolved your symtoms immediately
- Transmissions: Save your points and let the infection spread
- Symptoms: Keep devolving any mutated symptoms immediately
- Abilities: When there are only five or six countries left to be infected, purchase the last two Spore abilities to get all or most of them
Stage 5
- If you played your cards right, everyone on the planet is infected and you should have around 70 points to spend to unleash hell
- Symptoms: Cysts, Hyper Sensitivity, Paralysis, Coma, Total Organ Failure – save any left over points for Abilities you may need
- Transmissions: Devolve a few to get some points back
- Abilities: Genetic Hardening 2, Genetic Reshuffle 1, 2, & 3 once the cure starts to build
At this point people should be dying by the masses. The cure level will rise quickly, but as more and more people die it will slow down. After you’ve purchased your abilities, throw whatever extra points you get at more fatal symptoms to speed up the process, but it should be Good Game time pretty soon.
You won’t get many points this way, but I honestly haven’t found many ways to get a lot of points on the Fungus plague.
kevinO March 7, 2013 at 10:19 pm
Is this strategy dependent on having a purchased game and being able to use gene mods? is there any way to beat the game without using the extra stuff (which your forced to pay for despite “unlocking” it)?
I still have plague inc for free, i have beaten all on normal and bacteria and virus on brutal. Currently stuck on fungus and haven’t attempted the rest on brutal yet. My objective is to unlock the bonus stuff without having to buy the game… is this even possible? every strategy i have found thus far requires gene mods, which need the game to be purchased to use (this is just dumb in my opinion, if you unlock something in a game you should be able to use it). If i buy the game and every is unlocked for me… what the hell is the point?
anyway, if anyone knows a strategy that could help me beat this without using gene mods let me know
Donny (admin) March 8, 2013 at 7:49 am
I have no strategies to beat Fungus on Brutal without genes. Personally I don’t think it’s possible to beat Fungus or Parasite on Brutal without genes, they’re just too hard. I’ve seen other people comment that they have beaten the rest of them on Brutal, but those two are the toughest in the game.
I don’t know why you wouldn’t buy this game though, it only costs a dollar so it’s well worth it. I’ve definitely gotten my dollars worth from this game anyway.
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kevinO March 9, 2013 at 1:47 pm
but my whole goal was to unlock the extra stuff on my own, if i just buy the game and get the extra stuff for free it won’t be worth it
Donny (admin) March 9, 2013 at 2:37 pm
You still have to unlock the genes, in order to use them you just have to make one 99 cent purchase.
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Kebi March 11, 2013 at 1:58 pm
I would have bought this game long since but my default google account’s password is lost to me and despite trying EVERYTHING i have been unable to change it. Best game I have played for ages if not ever. So many variables that I will step by step do the same thing but can get a different score or outcome depending on the news or how the game’s feeling. So weird. After clocking all so many times, I now find Bacteria Brutal (!) a bit hard. It seems as the game evolves so too do my strategies.
Kebi March 11, 2013 at 1:38 pm
I had clocked all free levels on brutal but I think the games evolves itself to keep it challenging and to make you want to buy it more to unlock genes. After clocking bioweapon brutal, it wouldn’t unlock the cheats.I either had to buy the cheats or buy the neurax worm. I forget which. It’s been a long time since my strategies worked and the game keeps shoving me back to the beginning; wiping out my progress in th process. Best advice? Write down your own strategy and keep tweaking it until you win. Don’t get stuck ina rut trying same s
2perninja April 13, 2013 at 10:09 pm
I think i found a way to beat it on brutal with no mods but u will need a LOT of patience
Infect india
Wait it out until u get 8 dna points and buy the air transmission upgrade wait it out some more and buy the water upgrade
Wait until u get the points untilu u get the last upgrade of the air and water(cant remember the name but it gets unlocked when u have the 2 upgrades of water and air) do NOT get any other transmission upgrade since it will increase mutation and u dont want that i only devolved about 6-7 times with the cost being 3 to devolve b4 i won the game
Anyway
Next get the drug resistant upgrade wait it out for more upgrade points and get cold 1 and 2 then heat 1. I bought the 2nd drug resistant because i kept getting a lot of points somehow but it u think u wont get a lot of points dont. Next WAIT just wait as the infection spreads and devolving any symptom dont get a single one nada. I had about 73 dna points when the whole world was infected if u have enough to buy up to total organ failure buy it and hope u get the points to buy the dna reshuffle when the cure research is 60%. Keep buying the dna reshuffle when cure research is 75% and hope ur fungus is killing them to slow their progress down. Buy insomia then paranoia as in takes 1-4% off their progress. Wait it out and buy any lethal symptom u can afford to make the waiting a tiny bit quicker.
The research stopped at 80% while i had 400 points less than the writer of the guide on top of the page so people who have genes would hopefully get a better score if they use this ”guide” of mine
This is not a 100% guarantee that you will win since during my 2nd try i kept getting points and was able to buy all 5 air and water upgrades with only 1.4 billion people infected(which was odd but eh ill take it) i do not have the full game fyi
Hope this helps srry if it isnt clear its a pain in the a$$ typing this whole thing on a android phone
Alex February 23, 2013 at 11:06 pm
No matter what, because my fungus mutates all the time, I end up losing up to 7-9 per devolv, and when I have 70 I am short of DNA by 7 to buy total organ failure, I never have enough DNA, I have all the exact same genes, and followed everything. Yet it always makes me lose my DNA while i wait for it to spread and i lose the necessary DNA, any help?
Donny (admin) February 25, 2013 at 11:50 am
You can try to hold off on purchasing Genetic Hardening 1 until after purchasing Total Organ Failure and people start dying. It’s a little risky, but it may work.
Another option is to replace Metabolic Jump with Cytochrome Surge, which gives you more DNA when popping orange bubbles. I haven’t tried this with Brutal Fungus yet, but I had a lot of success using it on Brutal Parasite, which is also a longer plague type to beat.
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john February 14, 2013 at 9:57 pm
I followed genetypes, except don’t have extremophile, so I used something else. Used spores right away, my followed strategy somewhat closely. Disease discovered at around 50 million, but plague spread like wildfire, used all spore bursts and made it get lethal. Won in 487 days, 50% cure for 23980 points(my 2nd highest). Failed probably 10 times before, with strategy not too dissimilar, except didn’t have pathostasis at the time.
Abi February 13, 2013 at 11:23 am
I tried this and it didn’t work. They started a cure before I even infected the second country
Donny (admin) February 14, 2013 at 8:33 am
Then you didn’t follow it precisely. “Once your plague has infected around 500 to 600 million world wide, devolve all symptoms to keep the world from knowing about your plague”
If you miss that step, then you’re toast. You have to literally get everyone in the world infected with your plague at the end of the game before you turn any symptoms back on.
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Martin January 27, 2013 at 2:18 pm
I followed this strategy to a tee (T? tea?) and it did. not. work. But hey, I haven’t unlocked any extra shit.
Donny (admin) January 27, 2013 at 9:11 pm
The Genes are the most important part of this strategy honestly. If you don’t have any genes unlocked, keep beating Bacteria on Normal until you unlock some more.
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Jim February 14, 2013 at 2:16 am
I’ve beat everything but Fungus & Bio-Weapon on Brutal.. Have unlocked. 80% of Genes.. How do I unlock USING the gene mods?
Jim February 14, 2013 at 3:25 am
P.S. Game version 1.4
Donny (admin) February 14, 2013 at 8:35 am
You mean you haven’t used any of the gene mods yet? I believe you just have to purchase one item in the game to be able to use the gene mods. 99 cents, it’s well worth it.
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Gary January 11, 2013 at 9:02 pm
When you have infected the world without them noticing it. You should probably use coughing, sneezing, immune suppression, total organ failure ( probably the best symptom), coma. That seems to work better to me.
Donny (admin) January 12, 2013 at 12:45 am
I use the route I listed primarily because it gets you Paralysis as well, which helps slow down cure research.. but yeah, whatever works is all good.