Overview
This is my guide to beating the Simian Flu on Mega Brutal. This is probably the longest plague to beat in the game, and as such if you’re looking to beat it in < 365 days then this isn't the guide for you. You should get 5/5 biohazard stars with this guide. Follow this guide and the Apes will rule the World!(NOTE: Most of this was just trial an error, and a lot of it was built from my casual guide. I also got some help from other guides, and would like to mention All Hail Spicy in particular for his guides. You should also take into account random events, though I didn't encounter any problems with them, you may and this is something I did not take into account when creating this guide since it's random.)
Introduction
Simian Flu – Mega Brutal Guide
If this guide is followed then you are guaranteed a win in Mega Brutal difficulty. I found this plague to be the toughest to master due to the time it takes to actually become effective. There are many random events that can change the course of this plague, and you have to stay on top of them by either changing the location of your colonies or other actions (which I will explain below).
Goes without saying that some random events can slow down the spread of the plague, and you may (small small chance) not be able to beat the plague in that attempt, but in the 5x I played this on Mega Brutal I never had any issues.
Let’s begin!
Genetic Code
The following is the best setup for this plague in my opinion:
As you can see, there are some new genes that you may not have already. To get them you need to win the game on Casual difficulty till you get them. I highly recommend doing so since they are actually quite important for beating this plague. I have created an easy fast guide to get these genes here
- ATP Boost – Early DNA is very valuable.
- Ion Surge – Devolving later on becomes very expensive, this helps.
- Aquacyte – Helps in infecting the islands (Greenland especially).
- Extremophile – I prefer this as it gives a minor bonus to all environments since there isn’t one for cold places specifically.
- Leadership – Quick colonies, and abilities are cheap to use.
Starting Country
So far I’ve been starting in either China, India or Saudi Arabia for all the plagues, but for the Simian Flu I found that these weren’t ideal countries. After reading some guides, getting some feedback from people on the discussion board I decided to start in Central Africa. I never finished the game when playing with Saudi Arabia or India, but that does not mean it won’t work for you – just that in this walk-through I’ve decided to go with some other country.
Phase One :: Initial Spread
NOTE: Devolve all lethal symptoms. Photobia + Neuro-Enhancement should always be devolved, no matter what.
To start off I prefer to make the apes smart so that we keep getting a good income of DNA ticking, plus this allows the virus to remain undetected for a while longer. Evolve the following:
- Simian Neuro-genesis
- Blood Gift
- Cutaneous Transfer
- Ape Colonies
Now start a colony in Central Africa. Further evolutions:
- Social Cohesion
- Cognitive Shift
- Education
- Primal Awareness
Once you have enough DNA, establish new colonies in West Africa, East Africa and Sudan.
Phase Two :: Transmission
Now we start evolving transmission to spread the virus far and wide! Evolve the following:
- Drug Resistance I
- Genetic Hardening I
- Water I
- Water II
- Genetic Hardening II
(At this point you can stop devolving symptoms except Photobia and Neuro-Enhancement.)
Wait till you get the following pop-up:
And now evolve Ape Rampage. Build colonies in India and China when apes there are infected, and whilst waiting, evolve the following:
- Air I
- Cold I
- Air II
- Cold II
(NOTE: Make sure from now on you use Ape Rampage on all Gen-sys labs that spring up all over the world. You need to make sure to click on the blue building roof-tops to destroy them. If you miss some Gen-sys lab then you won’t get 5 biohazards).
Phase Three :: Avoiding Drones
Evolve Organized Travel.
(NOTE: Now you will start getting attacked by drones. It is very important that you use the Organized Travel ability to move your colonies away from the red/blue circle attack range of the drones. I didn’t care when drones attacked areas where I had no colonies, it had not affect on the final outcome. While doing this you must continue to use Ape Rampage on Gen-sys labs springing up.)
Evolve the following and continue popping all bubbles:
- Extreme Bioaerosol
- Fomites I
- Fomites I
- Hominidae Bridge
- Fomites II
At this point you can let any symptoms evolve/mutate except for Neuro-Enhancement.
Chances are your virus is starting to spread far and wide now. We want to continue this spread whilst ramping up the lethality of the virus so that humans start dying off en masse. Evolve the following in no particular order:
- Pharyngitis
- Coughing
- Pneumonia
- Photobia
- Subconjunctival Bleed
- Subconjunctival Haemorrhage
- Blindness
- Headache
- Fever
- Coma
- Genetic Reshuffle I
- Hardened Reshuffle
- Genetic Reshuffle II
Conclusion
You win! Congratulations, you earned –
