How to beat Nano-virus without cheats?

I'm stuck on Nano-virus at the moment. Basically it's the one where the world automatically knows you're there since the virus escaped from a lab. Is there a way to beat it easily without using cheats? (I don't have the full version)

Well the strategy really depends on your playing style. But if you're the kind that likes to be sneaky and infect half the world before setting off an alarm, you definitely won't like the Nano-virus.

The key thing to notice here is that the nano virus is highly unstable and will rapidly mutate (even more than the regular virus). This means that investing in animal transmissions will only increase the rate of mutation. You should use this to your advantage, but get the upgrades at the right time.

The cure work will start pretty quick, so don't bother fretting about which symptoms you want to evolve to avoid a worldwide alert. Just keep the lethality low until you've infected most of the islands in the world. Begin somewhere in India or China to rapidly spread the infection. IMO, genetic reshuffle is a waste of DNA points as it only pushes back research by 3-5 percent, so I recommend you spend points on genetic hardening (preferably level 2) instead. Once the infection is spreading fast, get the bird transmission upgrade along with the rat one. If you can manage to get level 2 on the bird one, it'll be great.

Don't wait for everyone in the world to get infected before pushing down on the lethal symptoms. Once the majority of the population on every island is infected, go for total organ failure. You will start racking in some serious points now, and the mutations will help in adding new symptoms to your disease. It won't be long before you destroy the world.

Just remember that the trick here is to keep the right balance for mutation rates. It's like fire - it can burn you if you don't handle it well, but it can guarantee victory if you use it right. You don't want to become too lethal too quick or else the governments will deflate you as quickly as you grabbed their attention. P.S. I found the nano-virus to be the most interesting disease in the game.

Even without the "full" version, I assume that you've unlocked several genes from your other playthroughs? If you haven't unlocked any genes at all, I'd highly recommend completing the game with the other infection types first, so you have a more complete toolkit for killing the planet.

Nevermind - apparently the "free" version keeps these locked. It will still be doable and the same tactic applies, just as you're missing the starting genes you'll need to go without the bonus DNA at the start, the additional infectivity and research against you will be slightly faster.

Killing the planet as a nano virus

The overall aim is to infect everybody as quickly as possible while simultaneously slowing down the research against you.

Before starting the game

Your ideal selection of genes is as follows;

• DNA gene - ATP boost

  This gives you additional DNA points at the beginning.

• Travel gene - Aquacyte

  The hardest part of infecting everybody faster than wiping them out is the remote islands. If you become too lethal early on, countries will shut down their borders and this will make winning difficult.

• Evolution gene - Sympto-statis

  This will keep the cost of purchasing symptoms low, since you're going to be spending a lot of points on abilities.

• Mutation gene - Genetic mimic

  This slows the cure progression, giving you more time to infect the planet.

Once you're in game, but before selecting a country, get some starting abilities like Code Fragment Interception (which further slows down the research against you) and some low level (not very scary) symptoms that aid infectivity - coughing, cysts and abscesses.

Next, get Insomnia and Paranoia, as these further decrease research towards a cure (by making the infected unwilling to seek advice on their condition).

Choosing a country of origin

Your starting country is important. The moment you select a country - work will begin on a cure.

The "first world" countries will have high quality medicines which will inhibit spread and slow you down and the "third world" countries do not have significant enough population density. Your best bet is to start somewhere in the middle east or India, due to high population density and proximity in relation to China.

Increasing infectivity

From here, it's really about the order you purchase your remaining abilities in. You're definitely going to want to work on Code Segment Interception as this reduces the speed of research against you. The same applies to Genetic Hardening and Drug Resistance although you're also going to want to keep increasing your infectivity through use of symptoms like vomiting and nausea.

Slowing down global research

These symptoms make the cure more difficult, thus slowing down research time, and you should evolve them as soon as possible:

• Hyper-sensitivity
• Coma
• Seizures
• Insanity
• Paralysis

Transmission methods

As you progress through the game you will receive messages about various methods of transport being cleaned (air filters on planes and boats, etc). When you receive these messages, act accordingly - if air is neutralized, evolve Water, if water is neutralized, evolve Air.

Becoming resistant

Among the abilities, there are several that increase infectivity while also slowing down research against you. These are important abilities and should be got as early as possible, most of the level one variants are quite cheap and will increase infectivity - especially in wealthier countries who have access to drugs.

• Drug resistance
• Cold resistance
• Radical elements stabilized

These two are also important but when you get them is up to you, I would personally get more symptoms before spending the points on these but these will further decrease the research speed:

• Encryption breached
• Drug immunity

More symptoms

By now your virus should be spreading rapidly, it's time to start heading down the path of becoming lethal but without causing too much panic, in order to stop countries from closing their borders for as long as possible. These abilities also increase infectivity:

• Sneezing
• Sweating
• Anemia
• Diarrhea
• Skin Lesions
• Rash
• Pneumonia

Kill all the things!

Once you've spread to every country in the world, evolve Replication Factory Overload. This ability will dramatically increase your infectivity for a short period of time, before reverting your overall infectivity to a lower level than you had before you evolved this ability. Therefore, only use it once you've spread to every country otherwise you could end up in a situation where you're cured before you've infected and killed everybody.

Ensure that your virus doesn't become too lethal that is starts killing people faster than it's infecting them in countries where you haven't completely infected, otherwise you will end up wiping out everybody in that country that is currently infected, leaving an uninfected population that you probably won't be able to reinfect before the populations of the surrounding countries have died out.

Once the entire planet is infected, evolve every symptom.