Shadow Plague
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The Shadow Plague, also known as Nox Eternis in-game, is a Special Plague added on October 25, 2016 in the Mutation 1.13 update for Plague Inc. It can be purchased for $1.99 USD or unlocked after beating the Simian Flu on Brutal or higher in Plague Inc., while it is available from start in Plague Inc: Evolved.
The Shadow Plague is a pathogen originating from Vampires, which can then spread to the human population after attacks of Vampire blood consumption, and has traits that help to create psychosis in humans, subjecting them to the Vampire's control.
Description
The Shadow Plague has two hosts: Vampires and Humans. Vampires kill people at a constant rate. All games start off with one, and Vampires infect humans in the country they're in once the player has evolved the Shadow Blessing trait. Vampires have a health bar which can fill or drain, and three active abilities: Blood Rage, Build Lair, and Vampire Flight (Therianthropy).
The game starts with no traits in the Transmissions tab, one Symptom, Shadow Blessing, and five traits in the Vampires tab, with Blood Thirst already evolved. Shadow Blessing costs 0 DNA to evolve, and unlocks all traits in the Transmissions tab, along with most of the Symptoms. It also makes the Plague vulnerable to a Cure.
Blood Rage always costs 1 DNA point to activate, unless the Brawler gene is present in the Plague's Genetic Code, and will cause the vVmpire to attack any Templar Command Posts or WHO laboratories regionally. If neither is present, the Vampire will begin to kill the country's population at increasing amounts per day. This generates DNA points and can also heal the vampire if Dark Ritual 1 & 2 are evolved. Blood Rages can be stopped by attempting to activate them again.
Therianthropy allows the vampire to move around the world, the shadow plague counterpart of Travel. Therianthropy must be evolved for Shadow Portal to work. The range of Therianthropy is initially small, but it can be expanded by evolving Travel Speed 1 and Travel Speed 2. The speed at which the vampire travels is only affected by Travel Speed abilities.
Vampiric Awakening is the most lethal symptom for the Shadow Plague, and eventually creates a new Vampire, after most of the infected die. That symptom is reusable. There are also symptoms that force the infected to become slaves, and they will bleed or sacrifice themselves to heal and help the Vampire.
Lairs can be built at any location in the country a Vampire is in. Lairs generate DNA, which increases with more population infected, similar to Ape Colonies in the Simian Flu DLC. Vampires automatically heal at a slow rate when in a Lair if not going on a Blood Rage, but there are Lair Healing traits that increase this rate. If the Templar Command Posts have activated their military protocols, they will send attack drones to target Lairs. If the Drone is not destroyed with a Blood Rage, the Lair will be quickly destoyed. Vampires can instantly teleport to any Lair if Shadow Portal is evolved. The Gene Shadow Spawn makes the Vampire harder to detect if it's in a country with a Lair in it.
The Shadow Plague, like all Special Plagues, is very different from the other Plagues, but it still shares a lot of similarities with the other Special Plague types. It has a new colour to show infected in the Worl Map, the colour purple. Like with the Neurax Worm, there is an alternative victory condition that involves evolving a trait that enslaves humanity. Like the Necroa Virus, the player has to deal with the Templar Command Posts, who function similarly to Z Com, in that they can kill the Plague's Vampires and Zombies, respectively. Finally, the player can set up lairs where Vampires can restore lost energy, generate DNA, and hide, which is similar to the Simian Flu's Colonies. Also, to an extent, WHO laboratories are somewhat similar to Gen-Sys.
If the Cure is finished, like normal, will all the infected quickly be cured and go back to being healthy. However, the player will be notified that humans with the cure have blood that will poison Vampires. And, as Vampires constantly kill for blood, their health will slowly go down over time, and the player will lose.
Unlike the other Plagues, it starts out with no Infectivity and steady Lethality (from needing to feed on blood) wherever a Vampire is located. Also, unlike the other Special Plagues, Vampires have very limited range in general without Shadow Portal and enough Lairs.
Advantages
Because there is only one individual infected with the Shadow Plague at the beginning of the game, and that individual can be moved to specific countries, it's possible to do great damage to the world population (or even demolish it completely if the number is low enough, such as in Where Is Everyone?) and cure effort before you are "noticed", as it doesn't begin without Shadow Blessing's presence. Abilities evolved to fight the Templars can also be used to weaken the world later on. It's also possible to use Blood Rage to completely wipe out the world population, though to do so would involve a great amount of time and patience, with or without the Templars.
Also, similar with Neurax Worm, player can also win by enslaving humanity instead of killing them by evolving the symptom Shadow Slaves (equivalent with Neurax Worm's Transcendence).
Additionally, the Cure Effort will not start unless Shadow Blessing is evolved, so Blood Rage can be used to increase the amount of DNA Points a player can work with.
It's possible to use Blood Rage to attack and completely consume countries, such as Iceland, to decimate the Cure Effort before you evolve Shadow Blessing, allowing you some room to work with when you evolve Shadow Blessing.
Therianthropy can be used to access Island Countries that are otherwise difficult to infect, including Greenland. If that wasn't enough, these island countries could also be wiped out if their population is low enough.
Disadvantages
Vampires will constantly feed in countries where they are located. This killings will be eventually be noticed if allowed to continue too long. This is bad for a weak Vampire, who can be easily killed by a Templar Base if it hasn't evolved sufficient Abilities. Also, if a country has been wiped clean of its population, the Vampire will starve if it is not moved to a new country unless the lair has full healing upgrades. This is because the huge healing rate overrides the starvation effect. Because you only have one Vampire to start off with, if that one Vampire dies, the game is over. Not only this, but if a country has a WHO Lab built, they can spend much more money to cure the Shadow Plague. However, the cure progress gets set back slightly if your vampire destroys the labs.
Also, the Shadow Plague is not a fast-spreading disease unless certain abilities have been evolved, making it hard to both transmit the disease and combat the Templars at the same time, the Templar Bases will even not be contributed if you infect the world quickly enough, though. Therefore, it is advised to concentrate on taking care of the Templars first before concentrating on spreading the Shadow Plague, especially on higher difficilties. It is also advised that the player stock up on large amounts of DNA Points before evolving Shadow Blessing. A good way to do so is to devour all the island countries. This will take time, but it will have two positive effects: decimate the cure effort and get more than enough DNA Points to evolve all symptoms, abilities, and transmissions at once, causing the Shadow Plague to spread at an alarming speed.
In addition to this, the Shadow Plague also does not have Abilities for directly combating the Cure Effort. It makes up for this with the aforementioned Blood Rage's ability, but it is still relatively limited, meaning it is best to take out the Templars before cure development could even occur.
Trivia
- Shadow Plague doesn't automatically mutate Shadow Blessing, allowing for the player to generate as many DNA Points as they want without fear of their Plague being revealed too soon.
- This plague contains references to Dracula, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Blade, Sesame Street, Twilight, and 30 Days of Night.
- Vampires reuse the “blargh” sound from Necroa Virus' Zombies.
- While the Blood Rage requires increasingly expensive upgrades in order to grow stronger, it may not be required to evolve up to Demonic Fury in order to fully defeat the Templars. A persistent player may find it simpler to evolve up to a lower ability, such as Shadow Blades, and slowly batter down Templar Bases. This may be preferable on higher difficulties over trying to grind for DNA Points to evolve Demonic Fury, as that can buy the Templar Bases too much time to setup.
Music
| Track Name | Audio |
|---|---|
| Nox Eternis |
Achievements
|
Achievement Name: | Vampire Master | ||||
| Achievement Description: | Beat Shadow Plague on mega-brutal difficulty. | |||||
| Value: | N/A | Difficulty: | Mega-Brutal | |||
Gallery
Shadow plague
Popup that appears after Shadow Slaves is evolved.
The world completely subjugated by the Shadow Plague.
Shadow Plague's basic information
An event that occurs with the Shadow Plague
Another event associated with the Shadow Plague
You may see this alert when you consume your first country
Popup after final Templar Base has fallen. The Vampire has taken damage from the Templar Base.
Shadow Plague's victory message on Plague Inc Evolved.
Transmissions.
Symptoms.
Vampires tab.
Multiple vampire lairs built in one game.
![Various sketches of the Shadow Plague Vampire[1]](/images/thumb/b/bd/ShadowPlagueVampireSketches.jpg/57px-ShadowPlagueVampireSketches.jpg)
Various sketches of the Shadow Plague Vampire[1]
Shadow Plague teaser
![Various sketches of the Shadow Plague Vampire[1]](/wiki/File:ShadowPlagueVampireSketches.jpg)
References
- ↑ NdemicCreations (July 26, 2021). "A baddie with a thousand faces... Our starting sketches for the Shadow Plague Vampire!". Twitter Retrieved on July 30, 2021.
