Greenland, I'm coming for you!

Ever had troubles infecting Greenland? This guide might help you.
It describes a strategy to get there reliably using the example of Bio-Weapon on mega brutal.
Learn how to control your plague!

The basic idea

To reach Greenland effectively the key, for most plagues, is to infect Russia ASAP and target it as much as possible to contaminate its ships. This guide presents a game plan trying to achieve just that, and turns out it's a reliable one to beat the game on mega brutal. Bio-Weapon is used as an example as its lethality can often be a problem by triggering governments to close land borders, air and seaports.

Toward the end of this guide you'll find videos (including one in French) illustrating the strategy and guidelines to adapt it to some of the other plague types.

Summary

Setup. Bio-Weapon, Mega Brutal, ATP-Boost and Patho-Stasis (rest up to you), Saudi Arabia or your prefered starting arid country (might have to adapt a bit).

Phase 1: Prison Break. Gene Compression I, II, III. Deactivate Modified Gene I. Rash. Sweating. Skin Lesions. Air I, II. Direction Russia.

Phase 2: Operation Greenland. Drugs I. Deactivate Modified Gene II. Cold I. Water I/II. Extreme Biarosol. Cold II.

Phase 3: The waiting game. Coughing. Pneumonia. Drugs II. Genetic Hardening I/II. Wait for Greenland to be infected if it isn't yet.

Phase 4: Closing steps. Depends on what you need to infect still. And if possible identify what country will be the last one standing and tailor your infectivity toward it. In my case (Sweden): Birds I, Cysts, Extreme Sensivity, Abscesses.

Phase 5: Press the kill button. Deactivate Modified Gene III (if you didn't unlock it yet) and all the other requirements toward Annihilate. Activate it when all countries are severely infected.

Setup

I play a game on mega brutal as I write this to make sure I'm not forgetting stuff.
Starting genes: ATP-Boost and Patho-Stasis (cf. Phase 1 to see why), others to your liking, they don't matter that much.

If you are curious though I used Darwinist (didn't help at all, Genetic Mimic might be a better choice), Native Biome (to get out of my starting country faster, Aerocyte and Aquacyte are also viable), Extremophile (all others are good choices as well, but maybe Urbanophile unless it helps with your prefered starting country).

Patient Zero from Saudi Arabia. Pick a different country if you'd like, but keep in mind an airport is mandatory (or a shared border with Russia) and an arid climat is a bonus as you'll be investing in Air I and II early to infect planes going to Russia.

Phase 1: Prison Break

The bio-weapon plague can randomly gain lethality. That's something you want to monitor as it may trigger governments to close their doors. For that reason, I tend to go for the 3 abilities that reduce odds of that happening (Gene Compression) right from the start and one level of Deactivate Modified Gene (it lowers lethality no matter if your plague already mutated or not). That's why you want the ATP-boost and Patho-stasis genes or this start will delay your plague too much (it also make Annihilate much cheaper).

Now is time to get out of your starting country as fast as possible (in my case, Saudi Arabia, a hot and arid country), with decent severity to boost your DNA gain from bubbles but without raising too much concern. My favourite symptoms to do this are Skin Lesions and its requirements, Rash and Sweating. Good infectivity, Necrosis is now available to be unlocked if needed, and Sweating will help with Russia.

That being done you need to prepare for phase 2 and invest in air I and possibly II. If you did start on an arid country it will kill two birds in one stone, a perfect transition. It will fasten the infection, help with neighbours and raise the odds that the plague will be among the passengers of futur boarding planes.

Phase 2: Operation Greenland

With Air II you'll start boarding planes with barely 1% of your starting country being infected.

As your desease starts spreading like a wildfire invest in Drugs I, it affects so many countries it'd be a waste not to. Get Deactivate Modified Gene II as well (don't worry if you killed a few before that, shouldn't matter) and it's now time to get the plague going within Russia as fast as possible. Cold I, Water I/II, extreme Biarosol, Cold II. Add livestock I if you feel it still take too long (I didn't need it). Don't forget to devolve lethal genes if they appear, you don't want the government to close borders yet. On a side note, at that point I'm only really missing Guinea, new Zealand and Greenland, the others I didn't infect yet have neighbours to take care of that.

Phase 3: The waiting game

Until Greenland is infected, time to go back to those symptoms. Avoid the lethal ones still but get at least Coughing and Pneumonia to help with Russia and all the cold countries. I went for Drugs II as well to help further with Canada. And since they are cheap with Patho-Stasis, good time to go for Genetic Hardening I & II as the cure should still be under 10% (turns out I didn't need those but you might if it drags on).

Nine months after Patient Zero, Greenland is infected. And so are all the other islands. Just wait a bit more if not, won't take long.

Phase 4: The closing steps

Now that you did the hardest, time to secure the win. Before going lethal try to infect the last countries you missing, to do so depends on your world map. In my case the 3 nordic european countries were the thing to worry about so I went for Birds I (helps crossing land borders). Even if they didn't close the seaports yet I had DNAs to spare.

One second later, Sweden was the last country to be infected (others share borders with Russia) and I got a pop-up telling me Spain shut down airports (so far everything was still open). Since it looked like I'd have to deal with rich countries toward the end I went back to symptoms and invested in Cysts, Hyper Sensivity and Abscesses.

A few seconds later Sweden was infected as well. I already had Drugs II, if you didn't get it yet you should. Ever sat there watching at Canada infection level slowly ramping up? You were missing that ability.

Phase 5: Press the kill button

Now you can let lethal symptoms mutate. Unlock the remaining Bio-Weapon special abilities to reach Annihilate but don't unlock it just yet. Monitor the healthiest country, and press the red button when its infection reaches 50% (should be more than safe). Congratulations, you just won, and should have some DNA left to have fun with the rather short time mankind will last through this.

Possible improvements

My main goal was to explain what matters using an example on mega brutal to back my claims. it isn't perfect. To make it better:

• You can wait a bit more for Deactivate Modified Gene I
  
• Might have to pick the second and third ones sooner (or later)
  
• Once you got all islands you can go for Necrosis, will cash you some more DNA by killing people while speeding up the infection
  
• Pay attention to popups and adapt to the meaningful ones
  
• Keep tweaking!

Videos

This a different game that the one I played while writting this but still with bio-weapon and the same strategy:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=301891710

This time with bacteria, still on mega brutal but without gene nor using the plague special abilities. Still the same route to Greenland, specifics in the description along with time links to the different phases of the game.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=301891702

Same settings, but with French live commentary:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=301891698

Other plague types

The same strategy refined for the other basic types of plague is what I used to beat mega brutal. They play differently but the idea is the same, get out of starting coutry aiming for Russia, then Greenland, kill everyone.

But with bacteria, for example, you need easier access to symptoms as you don't have Bio-weapon's Annihilate for the end-game. So go for Sympto-stasis instead and abuse it to achieve the same goal.

On the opposite, virus let you get symptoms for free, so get Trans-stasis and enjoy the high mutation rate from all those transmissions.

But no matter what you should still pick your upgrades (mainly symptoms and transmissions respectively) in order to first deal with your starting country and then Russia. Air and water upgrades are still needed.

[Caralantha]

I'd like to know why people don't start in Greenland if it's so hard to infect.

[Solar System]

There is also Sweden which can be used to infect Greenland.

Or was it Norway or Finland?

[Ishawi1996]

I am able to infect greenland much easier even with bioweapon by following this guide. Greenland have always been most hated country.

[Linklex7]

Greenland has always been the hardest country for me to get. Sometimes, I get lucky. Other times, I might just have to start the disease in Greenland and upgrade my boat and water transmissions quick.

[[G] Firehawk]

i had a more patient approach
this is what i did with all plagues (apart from nano virus)
1. upgrade all transports
2. make sure that mutations dont happen
3. upgrade all abilities (appart from gernetic reshuffle)
4. play the waiting game (this may take up to 1 year (ingame))
5. once everyone is infected (you will need to save up dna points) press the 'kill switch' by
A: using bio weapon plague
B: upgrading every single symptom

[le жид 2]

Просто качните воду и все

[Lulero]

If you have specific request Jacques, just shoot. Even if this guide can be applied to a lot of the other plague types they are still some exceptions (like Necroa, check my uploaded videos for this one).

[[)Λ(] Ðas_LOLtraktor]

Very nicely done, my friend. With your guide's help I finally got through Bio-weapon. Hope to see more helpful guides like this on other disease types.