Difficulty

Difficulty is a feature in Plague Inc. and Plague Inc: Evolved that alters gameplay by making it easier or harder to win the game. If the player beats a Plague or a Scenario on any difficulty in the original Plague Inc, it will be automatically registered as beaten on all lower difficulties, indicated by Biohazards, while on Plague Inc: Evolved, there's only one Biohazard, which indicates what is the highest difficulty in which it was beaten.

Difficulty is used to lock content away to the player, such as Plagues and Cheats. The player has to beat certain games on a set difficulty or higher to unlock them. In Plague Inc: Evolved only, the player can enable Pity Mode to reduce the difficulty in which they have to beat Plagues to unlock content.

Types

Main Game

Casual

Casual is the 1st and "easy" difficulty, and is for those wanting a quick or easy game. It is the minimum to unlock a random gene of the Genetic Code respective to its plague type. In it, people are extremely lax. People do not wash their hands, doctors don't work, and sick people are even given hugs

"For new players or those wanting a quick game"

• No one washes their hands — Increased infection rates.
• Research doctors don't work — Reduced cure research speed.
• Sick people given hugs — Infectivity increased once spotted.

Normal

Normal is the 2nd and default difficulty, and is the minimum for unlocking the next standard plague type. In this difficulty, more people wash their hands, as well as doctors contributing to research.

"For experienced genetic strategists"

• 67.3% of people wash hands — Normal infection rates.
• Doctors work 3 days a week — Normal cure research speed.
• Sick people ignored — No change in Infectivity once spotted.

Brutal

Brutal is the 3rd and "hard" difficulty, and was the hardest before Mega Brutal was introduced. Brutal introduces obstacles such as excessive hand washing, very determined doctors, and higher disease paranoia. Winning with all standard plague types on Brutal unlocks the Neurax Worm, and winning with the Neurax Worm on Brutal unlocks Necroa Virus and so on.

"For strategic geniuses living in concrete bunkers"

• Compulsive hand washing — Reduced infection rates.
• Doctors never go home — Increased cure research speed.
• Sick people locked in prison — When disease is spotted, infection rates are greatly lowered.

Mega-Brutal

Mega Brutal is the 4th and "very hard" difficulty. Introduced in Plague Inc: Evolved and later added in the Mutation 1.8 update for the mobile version Plague Inc., this difficulty amps up the humanity's resistance in terms of cure efforts and discoveries.

"For players who thought Brutal was Casual!"

• Genetic drift impacts evolution - Symptom costs become more expensive with more people infected.
• Doctors invest in research — Greatly increased cure research speed.
• Random medical check ups — Plague will randomly be detected through "Anomalous blood test results". It will also be detected automatically once any country is fully infected.

Cure Mode

Casual

Casual is the 1st and "easy" difficulty, and is for those wanting a quick or easy game. In it, people listen to experts, aware of fake news, and countries cooperate to eradicate the disease.

"For new players or those wanting a quick game"

• Full international co-operation — Increased cure development speed and 110 Authority
• Clapping scares disease away — Reduced infection rates.
• People love wearing masks — Reduced transmission rates.

Normal

Normal is the 2nd and default difficulty. People are still aware of fake news but politicians are incompetent and hospitals are not as prepared.

"For experienced genetic strategists"

• Politicians vaguely competent — 100 Authority.
• Experts mostly listened to — Normal Non-compliance.
• Healthcare systems unprepared — Normal fatality rates.

Brutal

Brutal is the 3rd and "hard" difficulty. Brutal introduces obstacles such as fake news, politicization of science, and even arresting experts who report on the disease.

"For strategic geniuses living in concrete bunkers"

• Sick people inject disinfectant — Fake news and increased fatality rate.
• Leaders ignore science — 98 Authority; depletes more easily.
• Doctors arrested for reporting disease — Experts not listened to, increased Non-compliance

Mega-Brutal

Mega Brutal is the 4th and "very hard" difficulty with slightly longer playtime. This features careless, ignorant and unintelligent citizens, politicians and doctors alike.

"For players who thought Brutal was Casual!"

• Sick people given hugs — Significantly increased transmission.
• Everyone believes fake news - Very significantly increased fatality rate and Non-compliance.
• Doctors play Plague Inc. all day — Very significantly reduced cure research speed and very significantly increased fatality rate.

Gallery

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  Difficulty selection screen in Plague Inc.

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  Same with mega-brutal chosen

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  Difficulty selection screen in Cure mode

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  Same with Mega Brutal difficulty

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  Casual Difficulty

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  Normal Difficulty

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  Brutal Difficulty

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  Mega Brutal Difficulty

Trivia

• In order to access Mega-Brutal in Plague Inc., the player has to tap the Biohazard icon below Brutal difficulty, which will replace it with Mega-Brutal. It also changes the icon into black-in-gold, and it can be pressed again to show Brutal difficulty.
  • In Plague Inc: Evolved, it's available separately.
  • On Android, you must buy the premium version to access the Mega-Brutal difficulty.
• Zombies don't count toward infected in Mega-Brutal, and therefore won't increase symptom costs.
• Completing a game in Casual will not unlock a new plague, but it will unlock new random genes or advisors on Normal Mode and Cure Mode, respectively. This way, the same game can be played various times to unlock them.
  • Plague Inc: Evolved has "Pity Mode" in the settings, allowing the next plague type to be unlocked by beating the previous one in Casual, instead of Normal. This also allows Cheats to be unlocked by beating all Standard Plagues in Normal and Brutal difficulty, instead of Brutal and Mega-Brutal.
• The description for Brutal Difficulty in Cure Mode contains a reference to COVID-19.
  • "Sick people inject bleach" refers to the 45th American President Donald Trump, who suggested people to inject disinfectant to cure COVID-19.
• In Cure Mode on Mega Brutal difficulty, 1% of all recovered people will revert back to being healthy, meaning that allowing the disease to die off by killing all of its hosts is near impossible, even with the Bio-Weapon.