Cure

Not to be confused with Cure Mode

The Cure is humanity's last defense against a plague. Once a plague becomes spotted, cure development starts shortly after (or when you fund Vaccine Research in Cure Mode).

The cure, once completed, causes development teams to rush all over the world to begin to rapidly heal the infected. Once all of the infected have been cured, the game ends in a defeat by cure, or victory by cure in Cure Mode.

Research Facilities[]

Research Facilities are a feature in the coding of Plague Inc. and Plague Inc: Evolved which mediate how much cure research money a certain country has.

They provide a major challenge for the player in the form of cure development. Each country has its own research facilities, and each facility invests $1,146.56 daily for the cure. There are a total of 340 facilities in the normal Plague Inc. world, with each country (or group of countries) having 2-10 of its own. Listed below are countries by how many facilities they have each in Plague Inc. The amount of money can be increased by government actions such as a martial law declaration.

Countries by number of research facilities (total: 340)[]

Note: During Sovereign default they have less total research facilities (282) and more in Golden age (446). And in Mirror Earth the numbers are inverted (Rich becomes poor, poor becomes rich, etc).

Country	Estimated Number of research facilities	Maximum medical research/day (in thousands of dollars)
India	6	6.8
China	10	11.4
West Africa	3	3.4
East Africa	3	3.4
USA	10	11.4
S.E Asia	4	4.5
Indonesia	4	4.5
Brazil	7	8.0
Pakistan	4	4.5
Russia	6	6.8
Japan	10	11.4
Mexico	5	5.7
Central Africa	3	3.4
Germany	10	11.4
Philippines	4	4.5
Colombia	4	4.5
Egypt	4	4.5
France	10	11.4
Iran	4	4.5
Korea	8	9.1
Turkey	5	5.7
Saudi Arabia	8	9.1
UK	10	11.4
Balkan States	5	5.7
Italy	9	10.3
Argentina	6	6.8
Spain	10	11.4
South Africa	8	9.1
Algeria	3	3.4
Central Asia	3	3.4
Sudan	3	3.4
Middle east	6	6.8
Ukraine	4	4.5
C. America	5	5.7
Central Europe	10	11.4
Poland	5	5.7
Caribbean	4	4.5
Canada	10	11.4
Iraq	3	3.4
Morocco	6	6.8
Afghanistan	3	3.4
Peru	4	4.5
Australia	10	11.4
Madagascar	4	4.5
Angola	3	3.4
Kazakhstan	3	3.4
Baltic States	5	5.7
Zimbabwe	3	3.4
Bolivia	2	2.3
Sweden	10	11.4
New Guinea	3	3.4
Libya	3	3.4
Finland	10	11.4
Norway	10	11.4
New Zealand	10	11.4
Botswana	3	3.4
Iceland	9	10.3
Greenland	3	3.4
Total	340	386.5

Country	Estimated Number of research facilities
Country	Default	Sovereign Default	Golden Age	Mirror Earth
India	6	6	10	6
China	10	14	14	2
West Africa	3	3	4	9
East Africa	3	3	4	9
USA	10	5	12	2
S.E Asia	4	4	5	8
Indonesia	4	4	8	8
Brazil	7	5	12	5
Pakistan	4	4	5	8
Russia	6	3	9	6
Japan	10	7	12	2
Mexico	5	4	9	7
Central Africa	3	3	4	9
Germany	10	10	12	2
Philippines	4	4	5	8
Colombia	4	4	5	8
Egypt	4	4	5	8
France	10	6	12	2
Iran	4	4	5	8
Korea	8	5	11	4
Turkey	5	5	9	7
Saudi Arabia	8	11	12	4
UK	10	6	12	2
Balkan States	5	5	6	7
Italy	9	5	11	3
Argentina	6	4	8	6
Spain	10	6	12	2
South Africa	8	5	11	4
Algeria	3	3	4	9
Central Asia	3	3	4	9
Sudan	3	3	4	9
Middle east	6	5	8	6
Ukraine	4	4	5	8
C. America	5	5	6	7
Central Europe	10	5	12	2
Poland	5	5	8	7
Caribbean	4	4	5	8
Canada	10	10	12	2
Iraq	3	3	4	9
Morocco	6	6	8	6
Afghanistan	3	3	4	9
Peru	4	4	5	8
Australia	10	10	12	2
Madagascar	4	4	5	8
Angola	3	3	4	9
Kazakhstan	3	3	4	9
Baltic States	5	5	6	7
Zimbabwe	3	3	4	9
Bolivia	2	2	3	10
Sweden	10	6	12	2
New Guinea	3	3	4	9
Libya	3	3	4	9
Finland	10	6	12	2
Norway	10	6	12	2
New Zealand	10	7	12	2
Botswana	3	3	4	9
Iceland	9	8	11	3
Greenland	3	3	4	9
Total	340	287	446	356

Trivia[]

In the scenario Sovereign Default, there are 282 active research facilities, with China having the most potential investment into a cure, spending at maximum $16,051.84 per day (the same amount as 14 facilities operating under key conditions).

In the scenario Golden Age, there are 375 active research facilities, with most countries having a 20% research budget. China has 14 research facilities, spending at maximum $16,051.84 per day.

Bolivia has the least amount of research facilities, in most scenarios. Except for the Mirror Earth scenario, in which Bolivia is the country with the most research facilities.

Anti-Cure measures[]

Plagues are more likely to be spotted through severity rises caused by gaining symptoms. To avoid early cure progress, avoid gaining severe symptoms.
- In Mega-Brutal difficulty, plague discovery can happen randomly even without severity later on in the game, forcing the player on an aggressive approach.
The amount of money countries will spend depends on plague severity, lethality and how important a specific infected country is to the rest of the world (may differ depending on scenario and plague type).
Delaying the cure is very important (General options are: Evolve Genetic Hardening 1 and 2 to slow future research, and evolve Genetic ReShuffle 1/2/3, or evolve stifling symptoms such as Coma, Seizures, Paralysis and insanity to further delay research. Lethality is also an option, as it can slow down a country's cure research speed by destroying its research facilities.
In Science Denial, if cure progress reaches 100% for the first time in a game, it will instantly reset to zero due to angry protesters destroying the main research facility. This effectively translates to the cure requiring twice the research in order to develop, or two cures being required.
Warnings will be issued in popups when cure development has reached 25%, 50%, 75%, 95%, and lastly, 100%.
You will be given the tip to use Drug Resistance abilities to delay the cure once it reaches 75%, and the tip to take some extra actions if it reaches 95%. Drug Resistance abilities do not affect the cure in any way, although they do unlock abilities that slow down the cure.
Even if the cure has been completed, doing anything that sets back progress (such as evolving Genetic Reshuffle/Coma or destroying Gen-Sys / WHO labs) will still bring down the cure progress by adding requirements, preventing anymore people from being cured and allowing them to be reinfected.
The more deaths, the less money governments can spend. Some government actions can restore broken flasks such as Martial Law.
Countries can no longer contribute towards future cure progress if their government has been destroyed.
How much money they are spending can be found in their information screen as well as their priority (research speed).
Abilities such as Genetic Hardening 1 and 2 as well as most traits (especially symptoms like Coma and Insanity) will increase the money needed to complete research. Genetic ReShuffle will actually decrease the total money already spent.
Another factor in cure speed is how much the researchers work, which depends on the difficulty setting. It is unknown how exactly this affects the cure progress, but it is obvious that the more they work, the faster the cure will progress.

Variations of Cure with other pathogens[]

Nano-Virus[]

Being a microscopic robot, the Nano-Virus is immune to conventional cures and is instead tackled by the Cure Broadcast, which is designed to activate the built-in kill switch that will shut down the bots.
- What makes the Cure Broadcast truly different is the fact that it starts at the beginning of the game, when the player does not have much DNA to get counter-cure traits. It also advances as fast as a regular cure does at maximum speed. However, Nano-Virus has many more options against the cure broadcast, significantly exceeding that of any other plague, and also possesses a much larger cure requirement than any other plague. It's best to obtain Kill Switch Stasis as fast as possible.
Conventional counter-cure abilities are still available and should also be taken into account. They are weaker than usual but stack with Nano-Virus' special effects.

Necroa Virus[]

Necroa Virus lacks many cure delaying symptoms and abilities otherwise present in most pathogens as well as a very low cure requirement.
Since zombies cannot be cured and continue converting living humans into even more zombies, the cure is of no relevance in a carefully planned game unless aiming for Not Another Zombie Game.

Simian Flu[]

In the Simian Flu DLC, the cure is instead developed by Gen-Sys, the company which developed and accidentally released the virus.
- They may set up labs near ape colonies to gather data and capture apes to use them in deadly experiments, as well as other countries with large ape population.
- If a Gen-Sys lab is successfully raided and overwhelmed by rampaging apes, cure progress is set back.

Shadow Plague[]

Unless Shadow Blessing has been evolved, Shadow Plague is invulnerable to cure research, and the only practical threats before that are starvation or Templar bases. Once the Templars are gone, a single Vampire can progress practically unopposed.
If the cure reaches 100%, then there will be a news pop-up saying that the vampire is being poisoned every time it feeds because people are injected with the cure. This could eventually cause the game to end in defeat.
Destroying Templar Bases before the cure will also destroy some flasks, reducing the amount of resources available for research.
Like the Gen-Sys labs, WHO also uses labs to speed up research dramatically. These are much more vulnerable than Templar bases and can be taken out easily.

Cure Mode[]

In Cure Mode, the namesake subject (also named Vaccine) is allied to the player and is their goal in achieving a victory. The cure must be properly developed before Authority is drained. When done, it is distributed to the rest of the world.

Mechanics[]

The cure is not 100% required in all cases for a loss, as the pandemic can suffer from an extinction scenario where it kills all the infected with lethality before it infects more, resulting in the humans winning without a cure. This occurs with often Bio-Weapon, though it can happen with other plague types when a country is isolated enough for the disease to kill all its hosts before the last people are infected or before another country is infected.

Cure development cannot be started until the plague has been properly identified via analysis without the relevant initiatives.
- The Bacteria and virus do not require an analysis.
Cure development undergoes two phases:
- Research: Begins after Vaccine Research is funded
  - Research can be accelerated/decelerated by various means.
    - Initiatives: Accelerated Research, Accelerated Manufacturing, Global Research Treaty, Global Manufacturing Treaty, Advanced Antibiotics, Convalescent Plasma, Monoclonal Antibody Treatment.
      - Flask bubbles spawned with Field Research can also accelerate its progress.
    - Patient Zero may be identified in the origin country, giving a 10% boost to cure progress.
    - If the experimental cure triggers adverse reactions, it will be set back 10%

It can also be accelerated by Improved Supply Chains, Global Manufacturing Treaty and Accelerated Manufacturing

Prion[]

Prion takes much more time to analyze due to its neuro-degeneration abilities without "Rapid Analysis".
Cure research from infected countries is also severely reduced without "Neural Enhancers".
Since its lethality is close to infinite, Extend Incubation 1/2 can help in delaying Prion's progress by increasing the incubation period, thereby delaying deaths, while Reassure Infected 1/2 reduces authority loss from panic.

Nano-Virus[]

Nano-Virus is still disabled via its cure broadcast instead of a regular cure. There is no manufacturing phase - once developed, the infected are cured at high speeds and the player wins.
- Research begins with "Develop Kill-Code".
  - It can only be accelerated by Kill-Code Supercomputing.
- When against Nano-Virus, the player has a set of special abilities regarding it to tackle its progress. However, if one of the initiatives in a category gets funded, the other will also bring adverse consequences, as Nano-Virus locks its firewalls, preventing the player from purchasing any more special abilities.
  - Hack Secondary Routines
    - Emotion Dampening - Increases authority, reduces authority loss from deaths and panicking.
    - Location Tracking - Increases tracing responses' effectiveness.
  - Hack Special Codes
    - Cycle Suspension - Paralyzes Pathogen for 1 month, preventing new infections or deaths.
    - Cryptomining - Gain resources over time.
  - Hack Climate Routines
    - Scramble Heat/Cold Resistance - Reduces effectiveness of the pathogen in Hot/Cold climates.

Bio-Weapon[]

Bio-Weapon is special in that while regular research is possible, the lack of any stalling methods and its skyrocketing infectivity/lethality as it infects new countries makes it basically unstoppable, however it may be stopped if the player were to completely quarantine the continent it started in.

Trivia[]

If the Immune Strain Cheat was activated with Nano-Virus the cure broadcast will still progress, although as usual it doesn't end.
Deaths caused by a plague will only start to be attributed to the plague in pop-ups once it has been confirmed and named. If the plague is not detected at all after everyone dies, it will never even be mentioned by scientists. This is particularly true for a full stealth Shadow Plague in the Where Is Everyone? scenario (as in any other case, there are simply too many people to waste the Vampire's time on).
Likewise, it is possible for a cure for any plague to start (and even complete) before any spotting is done due to global awareness when the plague is all over the place, especially on Mega Brutal difficulty and for the Nano-Virus.
In the scenario Sovereign Default, there are 282 active research facilities, with China having the most potential investment into a cure, spending at maximum $16,051.84 per day (the same amount as 14 facilities operating under perfect conditions).

In the scenario Golden Age, there are 375 active research facilities, with most countries having a 20% research budget. China has 14 research facilities, spending at maximum $16,051.84 per day.

Bolivia has the least amount of research facilities in any given scenario.
When the leaving country and destination country are wiped out while the research team is flying to the destination country, research and flying back is still done without anyone alive in either country.