Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27014396-20190830133343

What genes in Plague Inc do you think are the WORST? State one or two for each gene type if you can.

In my opinion, the worst genes in Plague Inc. are:

• Cytochrome Surge - Literally NOBODY uses Cytochrome Surge unless you're using Parasite, and even then Catalytic Switch is better. You can't get any massive streams of DNA with it in both the short-term and long term as orange bubbles are super infrequent compared to red infection bubbles and blue cure bubbles (when everyone's working on the cure).
• Metabolic Hijack - Literally no performance bonus whatsoever and if you're decently fast enough then automatic bubble popping won't even be necessary. Unless you're using the Unlimited Strain cheat, there's literally no point in Metabolic Hijack.
• Creationist - Imo this is one of the most useless genes in the history of Plague Inc. Unless you're trying to get the Not Another Zombie Game achievement (which by the way is virtually impossible), the forcible suppression of mutations will do nothing but slow down the progress of your disease. Mutations are vital in making it much faster to reach the all-powerful Total Organ Failure and Necrosis when you desire it most, and suppressing that with Creationist ridiculously weakens your disease's capacity to do anything, and with no benefits in return. The slower your disease progresses, the more time the governments have to cure you. No wonder Creationism is pseudoscientific.
• Native Biome - This just makes it easier for governments to spot you without having any bonus to transmitting via planes or boats. Useless.
• Rurophile - You already can spread very well across Poor countries so what's the point of Rurophile? The other Environment Genes bring much more benefit, especially Extremophile.
• Translesion + - This has got to be the most useless gene in existence, more so than even Creationist. To begin with, almost all of the plagues either have their own unique Evolution Genes or do not cost you DNA to devolve stuff which renders the gene absolutely freaking useless in those plagues. Moreover, the few plagues in which this gene actually works - the Neurax Worm and the Virus - is not even necessary! Any decent player should know that the Virus is a speed plague, so if you are fast enough then by the time you would have to devolve so many symptoms for Translesion + to have any practical use, there's no point because at that point you would have have already infected all countries and you'd be at the stage of the game where every mutation brings benefit, including the lethal ones. Every other gene brings much more valuable benefits than that of Translesion +, making Translesion + the worst gene in the game.
• ThermoNecro - Why reduce the chance of zombie decay there when everyone in the hot countries will get rapidly infected anyway? Just start in Saudi Arabia, and ThermoNecro becomes infinitely unnecessary. Besides, it's the COLD COUNTRIES you need to worry about in terms of zombie survivability, as most Z-Com starting points will happen in Europe. Therefore, ThermoNecro is USELESS.
• Adrenal Surge - This just turns your apes into suicide bombs, which is very counter-productive. The Simian Flu is a slow plague, it takes lots of time and patience to infect the world with, and Adrenal Surge forces you to transpose into the worst possible playstyle for the Simian Flu - a speed rush. Rushing with the Simian Flu causes the government to notice your presence very early which will prompt them to witchunt your ape colonies with drones at a very early part of the game.
• ATP Overdose - 20 more DNA points to devolve!? How is that in any way helpful, given that you need to devolve every mutation for the first few in-game months to prevent rapid detection? And the bonus DNA at the start wouldn't help much when eventually you will be faced with crippling devolution costs. What if you happen to mutate the Neuro-enhancement branch in Mega Brutal, the symptoms that you cannot afford to keep? That would cost you 30+ DNA points to devolve since the neuro-enhancement branch has a ridiculous +10 starting devolution cost.
• Berserker - I tested this gene and it immediately screwed me over. Templar Industries spawned their bases far earlier than I was ready and the game quickly became unwinnable. Nope, not using this at all.
• Aerophobic Bat - Similar problem with Simian Flu, this gene turns your Vampire into a suicide vessel. You could potentially and unexpectedly kill yourself with this gene when trying to perform those all-important hit-and-run attacks on the Templar Bases. This is especially true with Brutal and Mega Brutal difficulties, in which Templar Bases are essentially reinforced with a carbon-nanotube-tungsten alloy coated with napalm-infused Holy Water. In other words, they rapidly become extremely difficult to beat and every small point of HP counts. Aerophobic Bat increases the chances of stupid deaths that shouldn't happen, and increased speed is useless if you're not alive to use it.

Alright, I have stated my opinions on what is the worst Plague Inc. genes. Now it's your turn to voice your opinions. If you disagree with someone else's "worst plague" choice, you are free to respectfully debate.

NOTE: Scenarios are excluded from this, as they have an infinite array of metagame possibilities, more than far too many to account for in this thread.<ac_metadata title="What, in your opinion, are the WORST genes in Plague Inc.?" related_topics="Genetic Code"> </ac_metadata>