Apparently a lot of people thought that Brutal was a cake walk in the original versions of Plague Inc.
Honestly, it wasn’t super difficult once you got used to the mechanics of the game and the plague type, but the devs have answered with MEGA Brutal mode, which at first seems pretty crazy.
Mega Brutal adds several different mechanics, from random blood tests that detect your plague without any symptoms, to huge increases in ability costs the more people that are infected with your plague.
After many futile attempts, I’ve cracked the code on Mega Brutal Bacteria.
Here is the Gene setup:
Gene Setup for Mega Brutal Bacteria
DNA Gene – Metabolic Jump
Travel Gene – Aquacyte
Evolution Gene – Symptostasis
Mutation Gene – Genetic Mimic
Environment Gene – Extremophile
Mega Brutal Bacteria Strategy
The best way to run against this mechanic is very aggressively with symptoms, but try to keep your severity low.
Starting country: China – I have been running with India a lot lately, but every time I tried India on this one, the minute Greenland got infected it would stop spreading immediately and I would end up losing.
Buy these symptoms first: Nausea, Coughing, Rash, Anaemia, Cysts
Next buy these transmissions: Water 1, Insect 1
Then buy these abilities: Bacterial Resilience 1, Drug Resistance 1
At this point your plague should be spreading throughout China pretty quickly since you have a decent amount of infectivity. It’s time to turn it up a notch though. Once your plague starts spreading, you’ll be gaining a lot of bonus points to spend from Metabolic Jump and having a lot of symptoms.
Buy these transmissions next: Water 2, Insect 2
Some more symptoms: Sneezing, Pneumonia, Vomitting, Sweating, Haemophilia, Abscesses, Hyper Sensitivity
Next buy these abilities: Bacterial Resilience 2 and 3, Genetic Hardening 1 and 2, Drug Resistance 2
Your plague will be spreading like crazy at this point from your huge infectivity, giving you points faster than you can spend (nearly). Remember however that the more of the population that is infected, the more all of your abilities are going to cost, which is a very frustrating mechanic at the end of the game.
At this point, keep an eye on symptoms that mutate, and devolve any that are extremely lethal and / or severe, because you don’t want countries shutting down their borders before they are infected.
Keep evolving symptoms like Diarrhea, Pulmonary Fibrosis, Skin Lesions. If the cure starts to build too quickly, throw in Paralysis and Coma. You can also purchase some Genetic Reshuffles as needed, but they might be really expensive by now.
Once all countries are infected and you get a decent population that’s infected, throw in the Necrosis symptom to speed things up a bit.
Once everyone is infected, it’s time to let out the Demons! Throw the book at them with whatever points you have left. Total Organ Failure, Internal Haemorrhaging, Dysentery, etc. The population will die extremely fast and..
Congrats, you win!
If you’re having trouble or have some suggestions, leave comments below and let me know.
