Tips&tricks for the Death campaign (as of bulid 0.90.1)

[GombaPorkolt]

So as I wasn't able to publish a guide (Steam doesn't like me apparently D':) I'll do it here.

Hi all, I'm trying to make a somewhat compact "tips&tricks" type of guide for the Death campaign, I will add more as I come across some. So basically having competed the whole capmpaign, and Morgue on Lethal (still doing my Lethal run), I'd like to compile a list of some tips&tricks you could use (and I used) to make the game easier for you, not only on Lethal, but in general.

Boosters:
I only have 3 booster slots as of now, but they seem to be more than enough for Lethal runs, as long as you know the stage's setbacks/advantages you aim to play.

Environment:
- Slow Hands is not advised. I haven't tried playing with it, and allthough you CAN make use of it (mainly on Lethal) if you really wanted to, you'll miss some points either way, and yes, losing that juicy 3-point bacteria will p*ss you off, but believe me, there are better things to use that slot for (and better boosters in its category), so let that slip. You won't explicitly LOSE a game because of not having that.
- Quick Collapse: it can help you out really good, especially on Lethal, when you can't afford that much time. Definitely a must-have.

Recovery:
As far as this cluster goes, I've never ever used a single booster from this category, haven't really found it useful. BUT if I had to recommend a booster from it:
- Slow Treatments: Treatments are slow as they are, let alone with this booster. Can buy yourself some precious time with it, although, as I said, I haven't used any boosters from this tree yet, but with 5 slots, I imagine I'd take this one.

Risk Factors:
This is another category I haven't touched yet, but I can say 2 things about it
-Overweight: This can be really useful if you want to finish that pesky patient off real quick, as the easiest system to target (the one which can have the most negative effects on it) is the circulatory system, so boosting its weaknesses even further makes for a fatal and quick collapse.
- Random Risks: I can imagine it being useful for some people, like when playing a stage like Headstart or Cardiac Arrest, when the paient already has some weaknesses, and you just add 2 more on top of them, it can be a real headstart, athough it might backfire with them goint to the doctor too early (or docs starting operations and stuff earlier)

Diseases:
Well, this is the category where 2 of my fav boosters are. Sadly, you can only pick one, so you should plan your choice according to the stage (and difficulty) you play.
- Collateral Damage: I think I don't have to explain why this booster is one of the most essential ones. It makes systems go down one after another even faster, provided you took down at least one system.
- More Symptoms: This can be useful on Lethal (just won a match because of it!), as it takes more time to diagnose (and eventually, cure) your diseases, this way, winning some precious time for you. Mostly the agressive strategy works (with Collateral Damage), but there are times when the time you win by this is more precious.

Economy:
Now, this is where the tricky part comes in. Literally apart from maybe Emergency Bonus, every one of those boosters can be used to your advantage, it boils down I think what kind of player you are. Me? I like the Head Start bonus as it gives me 15 Bio Points, for which I can pre-evolve some risk factors, or even the fear of hospitals stage 1 and 2 all in once, and so I only have to gather resources for upgrading the diseases or some more risk factors, basically giving myself a huge head start.

Some gameplay tips:
Surprisingly, it's EASIER to win a round on Lethal when starting out with either the "Young and Healthy" mode OR the "Perfect Lifestyle". Why? Because since the patient is not sick, they will not go to the doctors, you are not limited to time in these ones, and can collect resources, silently evolve risk factors and hinder the treatment (with evolving bad doctors 1-2, fear of hospitals stage 1-2, countryside), before even starting to hurt the poor patient. Not to mention that the latter 2 are already given to you on the "Perfect Lifestyle" stage. I literally won the Young and Healthy on Lethal with just spending the first at least 15 minutes collecting Bio Points and hindering the patient/doctors before evolvig any diseases.

- Try to "evolve" or "buy" the nurses'/doctors' strike while patient is in the ER, not only for the achievement, but that's when you'll need time the most anyways. I know it's hard to time it like that, but well worth it.
- The circulatory system is the easiest to hit, with it having the most factors that can hinder it.
- Next up is the muscular and respiratory, both having I think the same amount of risk factors associated wit hthem, it's just f you evolve EVERY SINGLE factor that harms the circulatory system (ant only that), you will end up more collateral harm to the muscular than the respiratory, so after circulatory, muscular is a great plan.
- If a targeted system is at like ~15%, but the docs cured every disease you've evolved, but you still can buy like 1 or 2 but for a hefty price, you don't really have to. that system is dead sooner or later, and if you've gone so far as to having a system's health below or around 15%, other systems have started to fail I'm pretty sure. Target another one, the one with the least health or most risk factors as destroying that WILL continuously deal damage to the previous system as well and is probably easier AND CHEAPER to target than the one with maybe one like 14-21 points disease you could buy.
- Not every disease affects only its system, so you should look at the little arrows down at the bottom of the bio screen when picking which disease to evolve, it may hurt another systems, giving you some advantage.
- Collect, collect, collect...!!! When you feel like you've bought every Risk Factor and hindered the doctors enough, and you are ready to storm whichever system you chose. Don't wait only until you have enough points to buy the first 1 or 2 diseases, wait until you have like at least 25-30 Bio Points. Mainly on Lethal, if you buy only 1 or 2 diseases, the doctors will cure it in an instant. But if you buy like 4-6 of them, they will take some time to figure that out.
- Don't buy all of the diseases in one sytem. It's just a waste of BP. As I said above, if a targeted system's health is below 15%, it's as good as dead (ofc transplant is always an option, but meh, 90% of the time it's dead) so instead, start focusing on other systems. Not only will this confuse the docs even more but will start to hurt another system as well.
[EDIT]: - On the stage "Perfect Lifestyle", as far as I know, the boosts which the patient receives are not randomized, they are the same every time (abiding the game's rules, as they are all the "Lifestyles" from the bio map of the same name in the Life campaign), so a good starting system to target first would be skeletal, as it only has one bonus. ALSO, I'd advise you to start this stage with the booster that gives you 2 randomly pre-evolved risk factors, as 1) that might give you a weakness for the skeletal system, and 2) it hinders some systems for free.
[EDIT #2]: - There are a lot of diseases in other systems which affect the nervous system, and I often endded up having 2 debuffs on any other system than my primary one (the one I was targeting first), and 0 on the nervous system, still, by the time the first system reached a critical state, the nervous system only had ~70-50% health left, even though I haven't bought any diseases for that system yet. Pay attention, in that case, the nervous system is a good spot to go for next.

Well, here you go, some tips&tricks which I found useful and thought I'd share those with you all. Any comment, feedback, correction, kittens, puppies, antibiotics, whatever is appreciated, please tell me your ideas/strategies as well!

DON'T FORGET: THIS IS AS OF VERSION 0.90.1!!!

[DryGin Studios]

Nice one. I will soon try to comment/add new tips. Maybe build a complete Wiki one day.

[GombaPorkolt]

Just tested my theory out that the stages where the patient is healthy are a bit easier because of no time restrictions (them not going to the doctor because of preexisting diseases), it is true, just completed "Perfect Lifestyle" on Lethal.

[Non-flesh Interface]

Originally posted by GombaPorkolt:

- Collateral Damage: I think I don'T have to explain why this booster is one of the most essential ones. It makes systems go down one after another even faster.

What you said sounds more like "Quick Collapse" booster.
Collateral Damage booster works only for diseases which damages other systems. For example, Stroke deals damage to nervous system but its primary system is circulatory. If you get this booster, P.E.'s damage to nervous system increases but it doesn't change damage to circulatory system.

[GombaPorkolt]

Originally posted by Zippahi:

Originally posted by GombaPorkolt:

- Collateral Damage: I think I don'T have to explain why this booster is one of the most essential ones. It makes systems go down one after another even faster.

What you said sounds more like "Quick Collapse" booster.
Collateral Damage booster works only for diseases which damages other systems. For example, Stroke deals damage to nervous system but its primary system is circulatory. If you get this booster, P.E.'s damage to nervous system increases but it doesn't change damage to circulatory system.

Yes I know, it was just a not clearn enough explanation, I know Quick Collapse, yes, but I meant that when a system is taken down, that is (as I wrote: "one after another"). I corrected that nevertheless, thank you for notifying me.