Infections
There are many diseases that can affect you in space! The following will come in handy for virologists, traitors, or any unfortunate soul who's come down with a case of brain rot.
Virology 101
The first, and most important way to prevent 99% of infections, is proper hazard wear, and knowing how to keep the infection from spreading.
The Clothes
The following will protect you, from the dangerous infections of space, each giving more and more (till total) protection against infection:
- Level-3 Bio Hood
- Level-3 Bio Suit
- Jumpsuit (virologist, CMO, geneticist, chemist, doctor, nurse suit, scrubs, Research Director)
- Latex Gloves
- Sterile mask
- Shoes (White shoes and Galoshes are the best)
- Private (clean) Internals
Isolation
If you or another crew member is infected, do not spread the infection further. Seek the isolation bay of the medical wing, or head to a room no one will enter but yourself and other infected.
Sterilization
Cleaning blood spills from the ground will prevent contact contamination, make sure blood is cleaned from the floor at all time. Any blood splatter out there could hold a dreaded space infection. Contact a janitor if you see blood on the floor, do not interact with the blood if you suspect possible infection chance. Any object or floor that has infected blood on it can infect anyone who handles or touches it.
Methods of Infection
The following are the various ways a disease can spread, keep this in mind at all times:
- Airborne - The most dangerous and quick spreading, if you are anywhere within the breathing area of the infected crew member, you have a chance to be infected.
- Direct Contact - Requires you to touch, been touched, or be extremely close to the source of the infection. The infection will be spread by the skin and bodily fluids of an infected person, but will not survive long in the air.
- Blood - The infection will be spread by the bodily fluids of the infected person.
- Special - The disease is not normally contagious and the affected crewman has been infected by a non-human vector source. You can work with the infected without risk yourself unless they expose you to the same vector source that infected them.
Curing an infection
Every infection is vulnerable to one substance (or combination of two). To find it, you can put an infected blood sample in the PanD.E.M.I.C 2200 machine or use a health analyzer on an infected patient. Administering the substance to the patient (may require multiple injections) should cure him. Alternatively, if you have produced a vaccine, a simple injection should cure the patient.
PanD.E.M.I.C 2200
This machine creates vaccines from the blood of people who have been cured.
Use:
- Take a blood sample with a syringe.
- Place sample into a beaker or bottle.
- Load beaker into machine.
- Select vaccine you wish to have.
- Take vaccine bottle it produces.
Additional uses:
- Reveals the cure to any infected blood sample without needing to inject a living creature.
Infection Listings
Thankfully, humanity has managed to cure and eliminate almost all of the diseases that plagued its infancy. However, the vast reaches of space have been found to harbor new illnesses that can affect the unprepared staff on Nanotrasen research stations.
| Disease Name | Vector Name | Source | Description | Spread | Cure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alien Parasite | Xenomorph | Alien rape | A facehugger has implanted an embryo inside of the body of the victim, which will grow until it kills and destroys the body while spawning a larva. | Special | Surgery |
| Zombie Infection | Romerol | Syndicate Uplink | A rare infection, which lies dormant in the victim. If the victim dies before it is cured, it will rise as an aggressive zombie, who will then transfer the infection to anyone it manages to scratch. The infection consists in a tumor located inside the head. | Special | Surgery |
| Brain Rot | Cryptococcus Cosmosis | Virus crate, random events | An infection that causes mental degradation. | Contact | Mannitol |
| Cold | XY-Rhinovirus | Virology, random events | Still around since the dawn of man, this disease is relatively harmless, causing fatigue and a runny nose. Will progress to the Flu when untreated. | Airborne | Rest and Spaceacillin |
| Cold 9 | ICE9-Rhinovirus | Admin fuckery | A rare disease that will progressively lower the victim's body temperature in addition to respiratory symptoms. | Contact | Spaceacillin |
| Flu | H13N1 Flu Viron | Virology, random events | A common illness, causes fatigue, high fever, and muscle toxicity. Rarely fatal, quickly spread. | Airborne | Spaceacillin |
| Anxiety | Excess Lepidopticides | Virus crate | Will cause feelings of anxiety and cause the victim to cough butterflies. | Contact | Ethanol |
| GBS | Gravitokinetic Bipotential SADS+ | Admin fuckery | An extremely dangerous illness caused by contagious micro-singularities that will cause the human body to be torn apart from the inside. The initial phase begins in the lungs and mimics flu symptoms. | Contact | Sulfur and Synaptizine |
| Jungle Fever | Kongey Vibrion M-909 | Admin fuckery | One of the most feared diseases in the galaxy, this is a disease carried by primates. A single bite or scratch is enough to fully infect a human. The result is spontaneous genetic reversion, and the affected individual will also become a monkey. | Special | Bananas, Death Squad |
| Magnitis | Fukkos Miracos | Virus crate, random events | An infection of magnetic bacteria that build up in the body. As the disease progresses any metallic items not bolted down near the infected person will be pulled toward them, even objects as large as canisters. Ingested iron will draw the bacteria to it and allow them to be excreted normally. | Contact | Iron |
| Pierrot's Throat | H0NI<42 Virus | Virus crate, random events | A brain disease that was brought back with the original explorers of Clown Planet that damages the basal ganglia, victims will have an uncontrollable urge to HONK. | Airborne | Bananas |
| Retrovirus | N/A | Admin fuckery | A DNA-altering retrovirus that will constantly mutate the genetic code of the host. Symptoms vary wildly from blindness to incredible fits of strength and green skin. | Contact | Rest or Mutadone |
| Space Retrovirus | S4E1 Retrovirus | Random events | A DNA-altering retrovirus that will copy the DNA of the first infected and apply it to every other infected. | Contact | Mutadone |
| Robotic Transformation | R2D2 Nanomachines | Roburgers, odd pizzas | A rare infection that slowly transforms the infected into a cyborg. | Special | Copper |
| Spanish Flu | 1nqu1s1t10n Flu Viron | Admin fuckery | A rare and deadly form of flu that causes an incredibly high fever. Those infected will die of internal burns without treatment or religious conversion. | Airborne | Spaceacillin |
| Wizarditis | Rincewindus Vulgaris | Hacked MagiVend | A rare illness, causes spontaneous robe growth, randomly speaking incantations, and finally random teleportation. | Airborne | Manly Dorf |
| Xenomorphic Transformation | Rip-LEY Alien Microbes | Admin fuckery | A rare infection caused by xeno-microbes, changing the infected's DNA to that of a xenomorph. Symptoms include severe pain and progressive insanity. | Special | Glycerol and Spaceacillin |
| Heart Disease | N/A | Random event | The game categorizes it as a virus, and it progresses in stages, like a virus, so it's listed here. | N/A | Corazone, Electric Shocks, Heart Replacement Surgery |
| Fungal Tuberculosis | Fungal Tubercle bacillus Cosmosis | Nuke Ops Uplink, Strange Seeds | A rare highly transmittable virulent virus. Few samples exist, rumoured to be carefully grown and cultured by clandestine bio-weapon specialists. Causes fever, vomiting, lung damage, weight loss, and fatigue. | Airborne | Salbutamol and Spaceacillin |
| Gondola Transformation | Tranquility | Raw Gondola meat | Consuming the flesh of a Gondola comes at a terrible price. Produces Pax within the victims body resulting in pacifism, lessened motor control of the arms, and eventually turning the victim into a Gondola. | Special | Condensed Capsaicin |
Advanced Diseases
You are able to create your own advance disease with different symptoms, which will have buffs, debuffs and bonuses!
You will start out with two advance diseases, the cold and the flu. The cold will have the sneeze symptom and the flu will have the cough symptom. They have almost no effect if they infect people, but you need them to acquire more symptoms.
The Pandemic can create culture bottles (basically copies) of existing viruses, so you won't run out while experimenting.
Modifying Symptoms
To obtain a new symptom you need to mutate an existing virus. This involves adding a chemical to the virus, which will generate a new symptom. Rarer and harder to acquire chemicals will yield more potent symptoms. You will start with enough chemicals to create a powerful disease, as long as you use them carefully. You can also insert an isolated symptom into your main virus, by moving 1 unit of the isolated culture to the main mix with a dropper. It will not work every time and may need to be repeated a few times.
Basic chemicals
These are the basic chemicals for virus mutation. You can either add them directly to a virus to obtain a random level symptom, or mix them with other ingredients to get advanced chemicals, that will give you a specific level symptom.
- Virus Food: You can make virus food with Water and Milk. Virology lab has its own Virus Food Dispenser. Mixing this with a disease will give that disease a symptom up to level 2.
- Unstable Mutagen: You can use mutagen to mutate your disease and give it a symptom up to level 4. Virology starts with a 30u bottle of mutagen.
- Liquid Plasma: Plasma can be used to mutate your disease to give it a symptom up to level 6. Plasma in liquid form is generally in very limited supply, unless mining and chemistry cooperates with you. Virology starts with a 30u bottle of liquid plasma, and in some station layouts with extra plasma bars.
Advanced Chemicals
Using these will allow you to both save time and resources when trying to acquire the symptoms you want.
- Virus rations: Virus rations can be used to mutate your disease and give it a level 1 symptom. It is made by depleting Virus food with Synaptizine.
- Mutagenic Agar: Mutagenic agar can be used to mutate your disease to give it a level 3 symptom. It is made by mixing Unstable mutagen and virus food together.
- Sucrose Agar: Sucrose agar can be used to mutate your disease to give it a level 4 symptom. It is made by mixing Sugar or Saline Glucose Solution and Mutagenic agar together.
- Virus Plasma: Virus plasma can be used to mutate your disease and give it a level 6 symptom. It is made by mixing liquid plasma with virus food.
- Weakened Virus Plasma: Weakened virus plasma can be used to mutate your disease and give it a level 5 symptom. It is made by weakening virus plasma using Synaptizine.
Uranium Gels
These chemicals require large quantities of liquid uranium (obtained by grinding uranium bars). You'll require the help of mining to make these.
- Decaying Uranium Gel: Decaying Uranium Gel can be used to mutate your disease and give it a level 6 or 7 symptom. It is made by combining 1 virus food with 1 liquid Uranium.
- Unstable Uranium Gel: Unstable Uranium Gel can be used to mutate your disease and give it a level 7 symptom. It is made by combining 1 virus plasma with 5 liquid Uranium.
- Stable Uranium Gel: Stable Uranium Gel can be used to mutate your disease and give it a level 8 symptom. It is made by combining 1 plasma with 10 parts liquid Uranium and 10 parts liquid silver or gold.
Synaptizine
Synaptizine, aside from being a base chemical, will remove one random symptom to any virus it comes in contact with. It's important if you intend to isolate a specific symptom. For example, if you mutate your Cold virus and it acquires the Toxic Filter symptom, you can try and add synaptizine to it to create a virus which only has the Toxic Filter symptom.
Formaldehyde
Formaldehyde will neuter one random symptom when mixed with a virus. This disables its effects while keeping the attributes intact. This is useful for meeting threshold values without making the virus deadly.
Tips and Techniques
Dropper
When you're adding a chemical to a virus, you only need to add a single unit of it. This means you can use a dropper to add a single unit at a time, instead of using a syringe and wasting 5 units at a time. Since Liquid Plasma and Mutagen are in limited supply, it is a smart move to conserve your chemicals. Remember, you have to use the dropper in your hand once to set its transfer value to 1 unit.
Mixing in Beakers
While your first instict may be to create a new culture bottle, adding a chemical to it and scrapping the whole bottle if it's not the symptom you want, it is a slow process due to the Pandemic's cooldown. A better way is to instead keep a culture bottle, an empty beaker, and a bottle of your desired chemical; add one unit of culture to the beaker and then mutate it with the chemical, and check the result. Then repeat until you have to replicate the culture bottle: this allows for 20 uninterrupted tries before having to make a copy.
Isolating Symptoms
When you get the symptom you want, you should isolate it, by making a new culture bottle with the symptom's name on and storing it in your fridge. You can then move 1 unit of the blood containing the isolated symptom into your work mix to add it. Doing this will make it much easier to build different viruses with the symptoms you have, instead of being locked in a single combination. Even better is if you use synaptizine to remove the base symptom, so you have the pure symptom ready to use.
Multiple symptoms
A virus can have up to six symptoms. There's a downside to having too many symptoms: they are less resistant and less likely to spread.
Understanding stats
After you're done mixing your disease, stats from the symptoms are added together to make disease stats. Viruses have a default of 0 in every stat.
- Stealth: If stealth is 2 or higher your disease will be hidden from medHUD and scanners. Generally it will also hide the warning signs of symptoms before they activate.
- Transmission: Improves the chance each tick to spread the virus, increases the amount of protection you need to prevent infection, determines the infection vector, and is needed to override other viruses.
- The infection vector is calculated with (disease's transmission - amount of symptoms). 2 or less is blood, 3 is fluid contact, 4 is skin contact, 5 is airbone. The Sneezing symptom forces sporadic airborne spreads, but does not otherwise affect this.
- When infecting someone who already has a virus, if the infecting virus' Transmission is higher than the other virus' Resistance, the latter will be overridden by the former.
- Stage speed: Increases the chance of advancing a stage each tick. It will be 2% or stage speed, whichever is higher.
- Resistance: Makes the virus harder to cure; determines the required chemical to cure, decreases the chance of it being cured each tick when in contact with the cure, and defines how resistant the virus is to being overridden by other viruses.
- Severity: A hidden statistic. The symptom with the highest severity defines the virus' severity; it affects the color of the medHUD icon, ranging from blue for positive viruses, to flashing red for extremely deadly diseases.
- The chance of it being cured every tick is 15 - resistance, but always between 10 and 20.
- The cure is determined by [resistance - (amount of symptoms / 2)].
| 1 or less | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 or more |
| Table Salt | Sugar | Orange juice | Spaceacilin | Saline-Glucose Solution | Ethanol | Leporazine | Synaptizine | Lipolicide | Silver | Gold |
Symptoms Table
Hover over the thresholds to see the effects of each.
| Symptom | Stealth | Resistance | Stage speed | Transmission | Level | Required Chemical | Effect | Threshold (hover mouse over for details) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome | -2 | 0 | -1 | -2 | 7 | Unstable Uranium Gel | Causes heavy suffocation damage, while giving a small chance of heart attacks. Becomes even more lethal if the mob has more than 120 suffocation damage. | Stage Speed 8, Transmission 8 |
| Alopecia | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | Unstable Mutagen/Sucrose Agar | Causes rapid hair loss. | None |
| Alkali perspiration | 2 | -2 | -2 | -2 | 7 | Unstable Uranium Gel | Causes the affected mob to burst into flames periodically, while also giving them small doses of Napalm and Chlorine Trifluoride. Makes victims explode on contact with water. | Resistance 9, Stage Speed 8, Transmission 8 |
| Autophagocytosis Necrosis | -2 | -2 | 1 | -2 | 7 | Unstable Uranium Gel | Causes the mob's cells to decay rapidly, causing brute damage, constant bleeding and elevated hunger. | Stage Speed 7, Stealth 5 |
| Choking | -3 | -2 | -2 | -4 | 3 | Unstable Mutagen/Mutagenic Agar | Causes spikes of oxygen deprivation. Deals damage based on stage speed and stealth. | Stage Speed 8, Stealth 4 |
| Coughing | -1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | Virus Food/Virus Rations | Causes coughing. Spreads the virus if it's airborne. | Resistance 3, Resistance 10, Stage Speed 6, Stealth 4 |
| Confusion | 1 | -1 | -3 | 0 | 4 | Unstable Mutagen/Sucrose Agar | Makes the affected mob be confused for short periods of time, making them walk in random directions. | Resistance 6, Transmission 6, Stealth 4 |
| Deafness | -1 | -2 | -1 | -3 | 4 | Unstable Mutagen/Sucrose Agar | Causes intermittent loss of hearing. | Resistance 9, Stealth 4 |
| Deoxyribonucleic Acid Saboteur | -2 | -3 | 0 | -3 | 6 | Plasma/Virus Plasma | Gives a random disability. The disabilities are cured when the disease is cured. | Stage Speed 10, Resistance 8, Stealth 5 |
| Dizziness | 0 | -2 | -3 | -1 | 4 | Unstable Mutagen/Sucrose Agar | Shakes the affected mob's screen for short periods. (Bugged: Currently only displays an annoying message) | Transmission 6, Stealth 4 |
| Eternal Youth | 3 | 4 | 4 | -4 | 5 | Plasma/Weakened Virus Plasma | Makes you never physically older than young adulthood and prevents death by old age. Should be used for buffing your disease. | None |
| Facial Hypertrichosis | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | Unstable Mutagen/Sucrose Agar | Makes you grow a massive beard, regardless of gender. | None |
| Fever | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | Virus Food | Heats up your body. Will not reach damaging levels of heat unless resistance thresholds are met. | Resistance 5, Resistance 10 |
| Hallucigen | -2 | -3 | -3 | -1 | 5 | Plasma/Weakened Virus Plasma | Makes the affected mob have hallucinations for short periods of time. Available in Virus Crates. | Stage Speed 7, Stealth 4 |
| Headache | -1 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Virus Food/Virus Rations | Displays an annoying message! Should be used for buffing your disease. | Stage Speed 6, Stage Speed 9, Stealth 4 |
| Inorganic Biology | -1 | 4 | -2 | 3 | 5 | Plasma/Weakened Virus Plasma | The virus becomes able to affect inorganic species, such as Golems or Plasmamen. | None |
| Hyphema | -1 | -4 | -4 | -3 | 5 | Plasma/Weakened Virus Plasma | Inflicts eye damage over time. Causes blindness if left unchecked. | Resistance 12, Stealth 4 |
| Itching | 0 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Virus Food/Virus Rations | Displays an annoying message. Should be used for buffing your disease. Can do slight brute damage if the stage speed threshold is met. | Transmission 6, Stage Speed 7 |
| Metabolic Boost | -1 | -2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | Unstable Uranium Gel | Doubles the host's metabolism speed, making them process chems much faster than normal, but also increasing their hunger tenfold. | Stealth 3, Stage Speed 10 |
| Mind Restoration | -1 | -2 | 1 | -3 | 5 | Plasma/Virus Plasma | The virus strengthens the bonds between neurons, reducing the duration of any ailment of the mind. Heals brain damage, and can cure mild and heavy traumas if upgraded. | Resistance 6, Resistance 9, Transmission 8 |
| Nano-symbiosis | 0 | 2 | 2 | -1 | 7 | Unstable Uranium Gel | The virus reacts to nanites in the host's bloodstream by enhancing their replication cycle. | Stage Speed 7, Transmission 5 |
| Narcolepsy | -1 | -2 | -3 | -4 | 6 | Plasma/Virus Plasma | Makes the host drowsy and prone to falling asleep randomly. | Transmission 7, Resistance 10 |
| Necrotic Metabolism | 2 | -2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | Plasma/Weakened Virus Plasma | The virus becomes able to affect corpses and undead races, instead of lying dormant. | None |
| Necrotizing Fasciitis | -3 | -4 | 0 | -4 | 6 | Plasma/Virus Plasma | Causes brute damage over time, with more brute damage the less the virus' stealth is. Fatal if left untreated. | Resistance 7, Transmission 8 |
| Nocturnal Regeneration | 2 | -1 | -2 | -1 | 6 | Plasma/Virus Plasma | Heals brute and burn damage if the host is not currently exposed to light. Heals brute damage more quickly than burn damage. | Stage Speed 8 |
| Plasma Fixation | 0 | 3 | -2 | -2 | 8 | Stable Uranium Gel | The host absorbs plasma in the air and in their bloodstream, using it to stabilize their temperature and heal brute, burn, and toxin damage. | Transmission 6, Stage Speed 7 |
| Radioactive Resonance | -1 | -2 | 0 | -3 | 6 | Plasma/Virus Plasma | Heals brute, burn, and toxin damage while the host is irradiated. Higher radiation levels increase the healing speed. | Transmission 6, Increases healing speed |
| Regenerative Coma | 0 | -2 | -3 | -2 | 8 | Stable Uranium Gel | Causes the host to fall into a death-like coma when heavily damaged, then rapidly cures their wounds. | Stealth 2, Stage Speed 7 |
| Revitiligo | -1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | Plasma/Weakened Virus Plasma | Makes the mob gain skin pigmentation. | None |
| Self-Respiration | 1 | -3 | -3 | -4 | 6 | Plasma/Virus Plasma | Quickly heals oxygen damage, negating the need for air. | Resistance 8 |
| Sensory Restoration | 0 | 1 | -2 | 2 | 4 | Unstable Mutagen/Sucrose Agar | Restores mob's senses by fixing eye and ear damage and curing hallucinations. | None |
| Shivering | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | Virus Food | Cools down your body. Won't reach damaging levels unless thresholds are met. | Stage Speed 5, Stage Speed 10 |
| Silicolysis | 0 | 4 | -1 | 1 | 7 | Unstable Uranium Gel | The virus reacts to nanites in the host's bloodstream by attacking and consuming them. | Stage Speed 5, Resistance 7 |
| Sneezing | -2 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 1 | Virus Food/Virus Rations | Causes the mob to occasionally sneeze, spreading the virus to nearby mobs if they aren't protected. | Transmission 9, Stealth 4 |
| Spontaneous Combustion | 1 | -4 | -4 | -4 | 6 | Plasma/Virus Plasma | Sets your body on fire periodically, with amount of stacks based on stage speed, minus stealth. | Stage Speed 4, Stage Speed 8, Transmission 8, Stealth 4 |
| Starlight Condensation | -1 | -2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | Plasma/Virus Plasma | Heals brute, burn, and toxin damage while exposed to starlight. Heals toxin more efficiently. Actually being in space intensifies the effect. | Stage Speed 6, Transmission 6 |
| Tissue Hydration | 0 | -1 | 0 | -1 | 6 | Plasma/Virus Plasma | Heals brute and burn damage if the host drank water recently, or if they're wet. Heals burn damage more efficiently. | Resistance 5, Stage Speed 7 |
| Toxolysis | 0 | -2 | -2 | -2 | 7 | Unstable Uranium Gel | Purges all chemicals at a fast rate from the bloodstream. | Resistance 7, Stage Speed 6 |
| Viral Evolutionary Acceleration | -2 | -3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | Unstable Mutagen/Mutagenic Agar | Massively buffs the evolutionary cycle of viruses, causing it to be faster acting, better at infecting, but more easily detected and cured. | None |
| Viral Self-Adaptation | 3 | 5 | -3 | 0 | 3 | Unstable Mutagen/Mutagenic Agar | Massively buffs the adaptation of viruses, causing it to be stealthier, harder to cure but slower acting. | None |
| Vitiligo | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 5 | Plasma/Weakened Virus Plasma | Makes the mob lose skin pigmentation. | None |
| Voice Change | -1 | -2 | -2 | 2 | 6 | Plasma/Virus Plasma | Changes the voice of the affected mob. Causing confusion in communication. Available in Virus Crates. | Transmission 14, Stage Speed 7, Stealth 3 |
| Vomiting | -2 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | Unstable Mutagen/Mutagenic Agar | Forces the affected mob to vomit! Makes the affected mob lose nutrition and heal toxin damage. | Resistance 7, Transmission 7, Stealth 4 |
| Weight Loss | -2 | 2 | -2 | -2 | 3 | Unstable Mutagen/Mutagenic Agar | The virus mutates the host's metabolism, making it almost unable to gain nutrition from food. | Stealth 4 |
General Tips
- If you happen to run out of plasma, chemistry sometimes has an extra bar you can ask for.
- Sugar can be hard to find, but you can use Saline-Glucose from any NanoVend Plus for Sucrine Agar.
- Wearing protective clothing is not necessary during virology research, but you should wear it in event of an outbreak or while experimenting on monkeys.
- If you're dealing with a virus too stealthy to analyze, you can try making a very infective virus to override it.
- Have in mind the disease you want to make before you start searching for symptoms: knowing the level of the symptom you're looking for may save you time and materials.
- While it's possible, you should refrain from using only plasma to get the symptoms you need, as it can run out very quickly, and without it you can only beg mining for more plasma bars.
The Black Death
Being a traitor virologist opens you up to a whole variety of cruel and interesting ways to create chaos on the station. Here's some tips to allow you to spread your worst creations.
- Here is where statistics become important: you need Resistance to avoid the cure being salt, you want Transmittability so your virus can spread, Stage Speed so it acts before the victim is cured, and Stealth to avoid it being noticed too quickly. You won't have them all on a single virus, so choose the direction you want to go with.
- A high stealth will allow the virus to incubate before the victim notices.
- A high resistance will make the cure so rare that it won't realistically be available to everyone. Beware of vaccines, though.
- A high stage speed will cause your virus to progress at extreme speed, giving targets less warning before acting.
- A high transmittability will allow you disease to spread itself without your help; it will also make it so you need more clothing to protect from infection.
- While it might seem a good idea to put many harmful symptoms on a virus, its stats will be lowered to the point it won't act before it is cured. Stick to one or two harmful symptoms, and add neutral ones to buff its statistics.
- All symptoms give out messages to the infected before they reach the stage where they activate. People will be aware of what is hindering/killing them. Consider investing in stealth to prevent this.
- Going around outside of virology with a biosuit will alert people that you don't trust your own virus: you might want to infect yourself with a harmless resistant virus, so people can see that you're infected as well, while you'll be immune.
- Remember that live and walking infected spread more than corpses. Consider making a disease that hinders many instead of one that kills a few. Although dead people can't work on a cure.
- A syringe gun filled with infected blood is a good way to spread viruses if you can't trick the crew.
- Sabotaging the Pandemic is usually a good idea, as it can create a vaccine for a cured virus which is cheap and easy to distribute, even if the virus is extremely resistant.
- Sabotaging the holodeck computer is also a good idea because its Emergency Medical simulation also contains a Pandemic.
- Sabotaging chemistry can stop them from making most of the chems that can cure viruses.
- Adding your virus to food the chef has cooked is a good way to spread your virus.
Virology Rework
Virology has been reworked to add threshold bonuses to symptoms. If the specified statistic goes over the threshold, the symptom will gain the relative bonus.
Neutering
You can now neuter symptoms, making them inactive, but still able to affect statistics. Use them to empower positive viruses without killing your patients. Adding formaldehyde (now in the smartfridge) will neuter a random symptom.
Stealth
Stealth no longer hides viruses from the Pandemic, but it will hide many early warning of infection instead.
Maximum Symptoms
Maximum amount of symptoms is now 6.