Fungus

Strategy Guides
Main Game - Cure Mode - Speed Run

Fungus

Fungal spores struggle to travel long distances without special effort. Fungal spores cause unpredictable spread patterns. Difficult to contain.

Information

Plague Type

Standard

Special Abilities

Spore Burst

Release Date

May 23, 2012; 11 years ago

(Version 1.0)

Cost

Complete Virus on Normal or higher (All platforms)
Buy for $0.99 USD (iOS)

Core Statistics
Infectivity	Severity	Lethality
1	1	0

Cure Requirement	Mutation multiplier
0	0.5

Base Cross Country Transmission
Air	Sea	Land
0.0001	0.0001	0.0001

Base Environmental Effectivity
Rich	Poor	Urban	Rural
0	1	1	1

Hot	Cold	Humid	Arid
0.1	0.1	1.7	1

Increase Speed
Infectivity	Severity	Lethality
0.1 (1)	0.1 (1)	0.05 (0.4)

« There are around 300 fungi identified as pathogenic to humans. Typically 2-10 micrometers in length, they spread via fungal spores and can produce lethal mycotoxins. »

— Description of Fungus in Plague Inc.: The Board Game

Fungus is a standard game disease in Plague Inc., characterized by its difficulty in spreading over long distances by means of airplanes, ships or land borders, but in contrast, this disease possesses special spore abilities, which allow the pathogen to spread to new territories by using them.

Description

Main Mode

The Fungus' biggest advantage is not relying on ships, planes and borders to infect new countries, this makes it so that pesky island countries, especially Greenland, won't be as big of a problem as with the other pathogens, not to mention it also has a bonus in humid countries. Fungus is also great in scenarios like Shut Down Everything, Pirate Plague, Volcanic Ash and Xenophobia due to not needing other transmission factors to infect new countries.

The drawbacks however, is that the Fungus has poor air, sea and land transmission, along with the slowest infection rate in the game by a long shot, making it more reliant on transmissions (all of which has reduced cost) than any other pathogens baring the use of it's abilities as well as suffering a large penalty in arid countries.

It requires a more patient playstyle as you'll be picking your moment to use Fungus' abilities to infect desired countries so you can get more infections in before the cure starts, although a very aggressive one works as well since it doesn't matter if countries close their ports or not.

Cure Mode

Fungus is an extremely annoying pathogen to deal with in Cure Mode, for starters, it has the same transmission penalty as it does in the main game which means closing air and sea ports won't do much in stopping the infection. Instead, it starts in one country only, which means that it'll be extremely difficult to track upon starting.

Once discovered, it'll likely start spreading to other countries immediately via it's spores at an extremely frequent rate. Since the plague has to be analyzed, there's nothing that can be done about the infection itself when discovered other than lockdowns, which is very effective at reducing the spread.

When the analysis is complete, the player can significantly reduce the rate which new spores infect other countries which greatly helps with slowing down the infection. In the Cure Mode, countries with humid climates are one of the most vulnerable because the fungus has a certain bonus of effectiveness in this type of climate.^[1] In addition, the fungus does not spread much by boats, airplanes or land borders.^[1]

Special Abilities

Spore Burst (1): Releases a small amount of spores that will infect a random, uninfected country.
Spore Eruption (2): Releases a huge amount of spores that will infect multiple, uninfected countries.
Spore Hardening: Spores become more climate resilient and will continuously infect uninfected countries.

Special Operations

Micron Ventilation Filters: Use micrometer filtration systems. Significantly reduce the frequency of fungal spores spreading infection
Antifungal: Deploy high altitude anti-fungal aerosols around the world to reduce the fungal bloom. Reset fungal infection bonus

Trivia

In April 2016, Fungus was added to the Multiplayer Mode, along with Parasite.^[2]
In December 2019, the Armageddon expansion of Plague Inc. The Board Game was released, in which two plagues were added, these were Fungus and Bio-Weapon.^[3]
- In the Board Game, Fungus has certain abilities, these include Fungal Bloom, in which it obtains DNA by randomly spreading in empty countries, in other words, where there are no other diseases. There is also the Puffball ability which is related to future infections, this ability can increase its potency.^[4]

Stages of Evolution

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

Cure Mode Traits

Main Article: Cure Mode

Fungal Blooms^{[n 1]}

Inflammation^{[n 2]}

Skin Lesions^{[n 3]}

Necrosis^{[n 4]}

Abscesses^{[n 5]}

Paralysis^{[n 6]}

Fungal Spores^{[n 7]}

↑ Fungal Blooms: Fungal colonies slowly fill the air with hardened spores - increasing infection rate. Fungus prefers humid over arid climates
↑ Inflammation: Inflammation obstructs bodily processes. Swelling can obstruct breathing and be fatal
↑ Skin Lesions: Breakdown in the epidermis causes large open wounds which significantly increase infectivity
↑ Necrosis: Large swathes of infected tissue lose blood supply and become fatally gangrenous
↑ Abscesses: Pockets of infected flesh are painful and act as breeding grounds for the pathogen, increasing infection rates when burst
↑ Paralysis: Pathogen destroys motor neurons to cause paralysis. Can be lethal
↑ Fungal Spores: Bursts of plague spores are occasionally released to infect new countries. Fungus struggles to survive on boats and planes

Achievements

Achievement Name:		Unlock Fungus disease type
Achievement Description:		Unlock the Fungus by winning with a Virus on Normal or Brutal difficulty
Value:	20 pts	Difficulty:	Normal/Brutal

Achievement Name:		Fungus Victory
Achievement Description:		Win a game with Fungus on Normal Difficulty or higher
Value:	N/A	Difficulty:	Normal

Achievement Name:	Fungus Master
Achievement Description:	Beat Fungus disease type on mega-brutal difficulty
Value:	Difficulty:	Mega Brutal