How to Beat Nano Virus Brutal Mode in Plague Inc.

Last Updated: March 28, 2019

The Nano Virus is a challenge in Plague, Inc. that is literally a race against the cure. As soon as you start your virus, the research for the cure will begin. This means that much of your efforts will be directed towards slowing down the cure and infecting without killing. Brutal mode makes this difficult, but with the right strategy you should be able to beat it without too much effort.

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Setting Up Your Logistics

1
Choose your genes. When starting the game, you will be able to choose a few upgrades for your virus. What you choose here will have a huge impact on how the game plays out, so choose wisely. There are a few suggested upgrades that you should pick to make this game easier:
- DNA Gene - ATP Boost. This will give you extra DNA points at the beginning, which is essential for slowing down the cure.
- Travel Gene - Aquacyte. Basically required to infect difficult islands like Greenland, Iceland, and New Zealand.
- Evolution Gene - Sympto-Stasis. This will keep symptom costs low.
- Mutation Gene - Genetic Mimic. This slows the cure progression, which is important because the search for the cure starts immediately.
- Environment Gene - Extremophile. This boosts the infection rate in every environmental condition.
2
Buy some initial upgrades. Before choosing a starting country, use your ATP Boost bonus to purchase a few starting upgrades. These will make your life much easier later on in the game, and will help mitigate the cure.
- Code fragment interception - This will help slow down the cure.
- Coughing
- Cysts
- Abscesses
- Insomnia
- Paranoia
Advertisement
3
Choose a starting country. Your starting country is very important, as this will determine how quickly the virus starts spreading. Most guides recommend starting in India due to the large population and proximity to China, though others suggest Saudi Arabia.
- As soon as you choose a country, work will begin on the cure.

Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Infecting the World

1
Evolve essential upgrades. At the start of the game, you should prioritize certain upgrades to give you a much better chance later on. As you start collecting DNA, evolve the following upgrades, in order as soon as you can afford them:^{[1]
X
Research source}
- Code segment interception
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Drug Resistance 1
- Genetic Hardening 1 and 2
2
Deal with sterilization. If you receive pop-ups informing you that planes or ships have been sterilized, you should prioritize the corresponding transmission methods:
- If airplanes are sterilized, evolve Air 1 immediately.
- If ships are sterilized, evolve Water 1 immediately.
3
Slow down the cure. Your next few upgrades are aimed at slowing down the progression of the cure. These symptoms make the cure more difficult, and should be evolved as soon as possible:
- Hyper-sensitivity
- Paralysis
- Coma
- Seizures
- Insanity
4
Increase the infection rate. The following upgrades make your virus harder to kill and more likely to spread. Evolve these quickly to increase the rate which your virus infects new countries and decrease the cure's research rate:^{[2]
X
Research source}
- Radical elements stabilized
- Water 2
- Air 2
- Extreme bioaerosol
- Drug Resistance 2
- Cold Resistance 1 and 2
5
Evolve more symptoms. Now that your virus is spreading, it's time to evolve some more symptoms. These will increase the infection rate, leading to an even quicker global infection:
- Pneumonia
- Sneezing
- Rash
- Sweating
- Anemia
- Hemophilia
- Skin Lesions
- Diarrhea
6
Harden your virus. There are a couple more upgrades that you should focus on to decrease the cure progress. These are not available until late in the game:
- Encryption Breached
- Drug Immunity

Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Destroying the Population

1
Use Replication Factory Overload. Once every country in the world is infected, this ability can increase the infectivity of your virus. The downside is that after a short time, the infectivity will decrease to lower than its original value, so only use this after all countries are infected.
2
Devolve random symptoms. Occasionally, your virus will randomly mutate. It's highly recommended that you devolve these symptoms as they appear, as they can start killing people before the infection spreads to everyone.
3
Shuffle your genes. Towards the end of the game, you will be racing against the cure. The Genetic Reshuffle ability will slow down the cure's progress, and is a good investment when you don't have much else to evolve. There are three levels, each of which will set the cure back.
4
Evolve every symptom once everyone is infected. When every person in the world is infected, you will receive a pop-up message. At this point, you're safe to evolve every lethal symptom, as you don't have to worry about infecting new people. At this point, the faster you can kill everyone off, the better.

Community Q&A

Question

What's the best thing I can do when genetic mimic isn't unlocked?

Community Answer

There's a trick to getting all the points. Save the game when you know you're going to win, and then keep loading it up and winning until you get all the genes.
Question

How do I beat brutal mode without genetic modifications?

Community Answer

The best way to do it is slowly spreading to stay in-noticed such as saving early to buy antibiotic resistance or genetic reshuffling. These upgrades come really handy later, because the government takes longer to find a cure.
Question

Greenland keeps shutting down its border and I keep losing. What do I do?

Community Answer

Infect Greenland or keep trying until an infected boat gets in there. If you infect Greenland, make sure to get Cold Resistance I and II.