Fungus
| General Information | Strategy Guides Main Game - Cure Mode - Speed Run |
Cure Mode: Fungal spores cause unpredictable spread patterns. Difficult to contain.
May 23, 2012
(Version 1.0)- « 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 disease in Plague Inc. characterized by its problems in reaching to large distances, the pathogen has special abilities that allows to counteract this through the use of spores that can reach healthy countries by air streams.
Due to the improbability of this pathogen's spread, it is difficult to predict which countries will be infected first, occasionally causing the disease to have trouble infecting certain regions of the world properly.[Note 1]
As a result of these difficulties in spreading between different countries, it is necessary that the Fungus have to develop certain transmissions in order to help maximize spread across the world such as the Bird transmissions, which are notably much cheaper in DNA Points for Fungus than the other standard plagues.[Note 2]
On the other hand, Fungus has a relatively high infectivity bonus by default when spreading in humid climates than other standard plagues,[Note 3] similar to how fungal infections happen in real life.
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 its abilities as well as suffering a large penalty in arid countries.
This plague requires a much more patient and slower style of play, where the player will have to prioritize that the spores fall in the desired countries, preferably in areas far away from the starting point of the disease. Alternatively, the player can also execute from time to time much more aggressive tactics since it is irrelevant whether desolate islands close their ports or not, since spores can be used to reach those areas.
Additionally, Fungus has a different way of how the DNA refund system works, where on normal difficulty, the player can get two extra DNA points each time a trait refund is executed but on higher difficulties, the cost varies depending on how many times a refund has been executed where it starts at 2 DNA points but as more traits are refunded it goes relatively lower until it gets to the point that for each refund that is performed it is necessary to spend a certain amount of DNA points.[Note 4]
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 seaports 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. Due to the fact that fungal spores can spread rapidly through various regions randomly, it is unlikely to predict which countries will be affected next, making containing the outbreak much more complicated, thus it is necessary to implement continental quarantines at this point with the aim of trying to minimize the effects of Fungus, focusing mainly on countries where the spores have landed.
Although for lockdowns to be effective it is necessary for the player to try to establish research teams in all countries of the affected continent to avoid increasing future Non-Compliance, it is also important to acquire economic protection measures in case Fungus begins to spread rapidly in different continents, requiring much more quarantines.[Note 5]
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.[4] In addition, the fungus does not spread much by boats, airplanes or land borders.
Multiplayer
- « As ever, the fungus will find it hard to travel long distances, even by unscheduled flight. However the regular spores will give you a brand new mechanism to help you spread around the globe. This fungus is much happier in humid climates too... »
- — General Introduction to Fungus in the Multiplayer Mode (Evolution 18)[Note 6]
In April 2016, Fungus was added to the Multiplayer Mode, along with Parasite.[6] The pathogen has some problems in spreading in arid climates,[7] as it does not have the initial default bonus for this type of environment. Unscheduled Flights will cost more and escalate twice as fast compared to other plagues. The spore bursts will happen randomly.
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| Stats | VS Mode | Co-op Mode |
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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 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.[8]
- 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.[9]
Stages of Evolution
Cure Mode Traits
- ↑ 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
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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 | |||
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Achievement Name: | Fungus Victory | ||||
| Achievement Description: | Win a game with Fungus on Normal Difficulty or higher | |||||
| Value: | N/A | Difficulty: | Normal | |||
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Achievement Name: | Fungus Master | ||||
| Achievement Description: | Beat Fungus disease type on mega-brutal difficulty | |||||
| Value: | Difficulty: | Mega Brutal | ||||
Gallery
In-Game
Fungus' 3D Model in the PC Version
Disease's Old Icon used in the Early Builds of the Game
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Board Game
Fungus Evolution Slide in the Plague Inc.: The Board Game
Notes
- ↑ "The Fungus plague type is somewhat difficult to get a solid strategy for, mainly because of the randomness of spore burst infections; There is no way to predict which ones will get infected first. Because of this, and fungus' weakness on ship and plane transmission, this strategy can sometimes fail. There is no guarantee that it'll succeed every single time" - Quote from the Fungus Created Equal Mega Brutal Guide (2014)[1]
- ↑ "Fungus is a special pathogen than the other standard plagues, where the DNA costs for some traits are altered such as the Bird transmission, where it is much cheaper than Virus or Bacteria, making these traits much more accessible to the player in order to quickly increase transmission across land borders." - Quote from the Fungus Performance Analysis (2024) (Section: Pathogen Adaptability)[2]
- ↑ "In this particular case, Fungus takes an extra month to reach approximately 6000 cases in an arid country than in a humid one. This video was tested on normal difficulty without the use of genes or cheats." - Quote from the Fungus Performance Analysis (2024) (Section: Pathogen Adaptability) (See Screenshot of the Scenario Creator)[2]
- ↑ "Fungus is something special when performing DNA Refunds, in the normal difficulty to return each trait gives you 2 DNA points but in much higher difficulties such as Brutal and Mega-Brutal, initially gives you 2 points but the price changes depending on how many refunds you perform, where it was noticed that some refunds only gave 1 point and then 0 points. Afterwards, each refunds no longer gave additional DNA points but now you have to pay DNA to return the traits, this price goes up much more if you make more refunds." - Quote from the Fungus Performance Analysis (2024) (Section: DNA Refunds) (See Video)[2]
- ↑ "The less people infected, the less powerful the spore eruption. Implement lockdowns as soon as possible. Note: countries without intel yet will begin causing non-compliance problems. Send Field Operatives to "unknown" countries to resolve it. Two things can happen: cancels lockdown of that country if no one is infected, or non-compliance dramatically drops." - Quote explaining the functions of Fungus in Cure Mode (2021)[3]
- ↑ Although the press release implies that Fungus has an additional bonus in Multiplayer in humid climates, in fact, it has the same default efficiency as the other plagues, only that this version of Fungus has a much harder time spreading in arid climates as it has no bonus, see the variables in the base game files.[5]
References
- ↑ YoItsSpicy (2014-08-16). "Plague Inc. Created Equal: Fungus Mega-Brutal (3 Biohazard) Guide". Yo Its Spicy Gaming Blog Retrieved on December 29, 2024.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Seb (2024-12-14). "Analyzing the performance of Fungus in Plague Inc.". Gem Vidi-o Navi Retrieved on December 28, 2024.
- ↑ u/DBClass407 (2021-05-19). "How fungus in cure mode > Comment". Reddit Retrieved on January 2, 2024.
- ↑ Pravus (2021-01-30). "Plague Inc: The Cure - Fungus Mega-Brutal Guide § Minute 5:35". YouTube Retrieved on January 2, 2024. Quote: “We also have access to anti-fungals, which resets a fungal infection bonus, now i don't know what that bonus is exactly, I believe it impacts humid countries the most”
- ↑ Multiplayer Fungus Statistics - Game Files (See fungus #56971.txt)
- ↑ "Parasite, Fungus and Steam Controller come out to play!" (2016-04-21). Ndemic Creations Official Website Retrieved on April 19, 2022.
- ↑ Reine (2016-05-04). "(90% winrate) Co-Op OP Fungus strategy". Steam Guides Retrieved on January 14, 2025. Quote: “Hydrophobe (Fungus struggles in arid climates but feels good in humid areas; this gene negates both effects).”
- ↑ "Plague Inc: Armageddon out now!" (2019-12-04). Ndemic Creations Official Website Retrieved on April 19, 2022.
- ↑ Nieva, Jason (2019-04-19). "Plague Inc.: The Board Game's Armageddon Expansion Now On Kickstarter". Player.one Retrieved on April 25, 2022.
External Resources
- General: Reddit - True Achievements - Steam Discussions - Steam Guides
- Regional: Naver Blogs (Korean) - Zhihu (Simplified Chinese)
