Plague Inc: How to Beat Fungus on Normal

In Plague Inc. for the Android & iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, etc.), Fungus on Normal will be your biggest road block when you first start playing.

The Fungus plague is so rough because it spreads extremely slowly, so you have to use different tactics to beat this one compared to the other plague types.

I have listed my gene setup below. I have all genes unlocked, which just requires winning 25 games, but I only used the first gene unlocked in each category to simulate someone playing through it the first time. I suggest beating a few more games on the Bacteria plague if you haven’t at least unlocked a gene in each category.

DNA Gene – ATP Boost (Bonus DNA on at the beginning, if you have anything better unlocked then use that instead)
Travel Gene – Teracyte (Increases chance of plague spreading by land, if you have anything better unlocked then use that instead)
Evolution Gene – Ionized Helix (Bonus DNA when devolving, this one is important for DNA point generation)
Mutation Gene – Darwinist (Increases the chance of your plague mutating, this one is important since Ionized Helix gives you DNA points for devolving)
Environment Gene – Xerophile (Bonus in hot/dry climates, if you have anything better unlocked then use that instead)

Read before you proceed, it’s important

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. The real key here is the Ionized Helix gene, since you get points back every time you devolve something, so you can devolve most unnecessary traits at the end to get a bunch of points back.

One very important thing to remember is that you DO NOT want your plague to be detected until every human on the 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.

It’s also very important that you save up around 70 points near the end in order to purchase all of the symptoms you need all at once, but if you follow this guide then you should have what you need by then.

Stage 1

• Start in China
• Symptoms: Cysts, Hyper Sensitivity, Abscesses, immediately devolve any other symptoms that mutate
• Transmissions: Bird 1, Water 1
• Abilities: Drug Resistance 1, Cold 1

Stage 2

• Transmissions: Air 1, Livestock 1
• Symptoms: Keep devolving any mutated symptoms immediately
• Abilities: 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, start banking points for the final phase
• Transmissions: Bird 2, Blood 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, also make sure you try to save near 70 points for the next phase but you can devolve unnecessary stuff soon to get points back if necessary
• Transmissions: Save your points and let the infection spread
• Symptoms: Keep devolving any mutated symptoms immediately
• Abilities: Save your points and let the infection spread

Stage 5

• If you played your cards right, everyone on the planet is infected and you’re ready to kill them all
• Symptoms: Cysts, Hyper Sensitivity, Paralysis, Coma, Total Organ Failure, then whatever other fatal symptoms you can afford after you purchase your abilities below
• Transmissions: Devolve everything to get points back if you need them
• Abilities: Genetic Hardening 2, Genetic Reshuffles if you need them but you shouldn’t, devolve your Colds and Heats if you need more points since everyone is already infected

At this point people should be dying by the masses. The cure level will start to 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.