In Plague Inc. for the Android & iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, etc.), Bacteria is the first plague you have access to. You’ll have to beat Bacteria in order to unlock Virus and keep progressing through the plague types.
I wrote up a very detailed guide on winning your first game on Bacteria, so check that out if you haven’t won a game yet.
Here is the basic summary of the strategy I use to beat Bacteria.
Stage 1
- Start in China
- Transmissions: Air 1, Water 1
- Symptoms: Rash, Sweating, Skin Lesions, devolve any lethal symptoms mutated
- Abilities: Bacterial Resilience 1
Stage 2
- Transmissions: Air 2, Water 2, Extreme Bioaerosol
- Symptoms: Coughing, Sneezing, devolve any lethal symptoms mutated
- Abilities: Bacterial Resilience 2 and 3, Drug Resistance 1
Stage 3
- Once China gets around 1.2 billion infected, they will be alarmed and countries will start to fund the cure
- Symptoms: Cysts, Hyper Sensitivity, devolve any lethal symptoms mutated
- Transmissions: Bird 1 and 2, Livestock 1, Blood 1
- Abilities: Genetic Hardening 1 and 2 as the cure starts to build
- Save about 30 to 40 points for the next phase
Stage 4
- Most countries will be infected, around 4 billion of the population
- Symptoms: Immune Supression, Paralysis, Coma (both Paralysis and Coma slow down cure research), only devolve severely lethal symptoms mutated
- Transmissions: Any you may need, based on the countries that need to be infected
- Abilities: Cold 1 and Heat 1 if you have extra points, Genetic Reshuffles if the cure starts to get out of hand
Stage 5
- All countries infected, around 5 to 6 billion of the population
- Symptoms: Slowly build up Total Organ Failure, Necrosis, Hemorrhagic Shock, Internal Hemorrhaging, you don’t want to outpace kill rate with infection rate  in the last countries infected
- Transmissions: Only if you have extra points
- Abilities: Genetic Reshuffles if the cure gets too high
Stage 6
- Everyone is infected, time to destroy them
- Symptoms: Throw whatever lethal symptoms at them that you can
- Abilities: Genetic Reshuffles if the cure gets too high
- Congrats, you win!
