Cure

The Cure is humanity's last defense against a plague. Once a plague becomes spotted, countries will begin to spend money on cure development shortly after.

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.

Research Facilities

File:Plague Inc. World flasks.png

Cure flasks image

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).

• Normal Game
• Scenarios

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
	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.

How to stop the cure

• 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 symptoms later on in the game, literally 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, or make the plague deadlier to kill off valued research contributors as well as increase the required money to complete a cure).
• In Science Denial, if cure progress reaches 100% for the first time in a game, it will instantly reset to zero due to angry anti-science protestors smashing the labs.
• 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%. Strangely, Drug Resistance abilities does not impact the cure, only most of the traits it leads to.
• 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 dead people they have, the less money they can spend (Because of less researchers and taxpayers). However some government actions can restore broken flasks such as Martial Law.
• Countries can no longer contribute towards future cure progress once they gain the "Government has collapsed" or "Government has fallen" government actions.
• 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 Seizures) 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 can become immune to modern medicines making a conventional cure ineffective to almost useless. What takes place instead of the Cure is the Cure Broadcast, which is designed to activate the built-in kill switch.
• 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.
• While the cure meter rapidly builds up if left unattended, the Nano-Virus has many more options in the abilities section to delay the broadcast in return, and they can impact the cure research more than how conventional methods does. In addition, certain symptoms that can delay cure will have no base cost.
• It's best to obtain Kill Switch Stasis as fast as possible to significantly delay the Cure effort and allowing it to be slowed down to a crawl.
• However, conventional counter-cure abilities are still available, and should also be taken into account.

Necroa Virus

• Necroa Virus lacks many cure delaying symptoms and abilities and inherently requires less time for a cure to be researched, it also kills VERY slow on its own. However, Zombies cannot be cured. The only penalty with the cure being complete is that the Virus can no longer kill without zombies, as it cannot create zombies.

Simian Flu

• In the Simian Flu DLC, the cure is instead developed by Gen-Sys, the company which developed and accidentally released the virus.
• Once they admit that they created the Simian Flu, they will take over all cure research from governments and use existing data to speed up the cure dramatically.
• 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, the cure progress will take a noticeable hit due to lost research and players may gain some DNA as well.

Shadow Plague

• The Shadow Plague can not undergo cure research until Shadow Blessing is acquired. Therefore, it is entirely possible to win without the cure being developed moving, as Vampires cannot be used for research. However, the Templars will still be able to fight Vampires.
• If the cure reaches to 100%, then there would 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 remove a considerable amount of progress.
• Like the Gen-Sys labs, WHO also uses labs to speed up research dramatically, however, a Blood Rage is entirely possible to destroy it, damaging cure progress in the process, as well as giving you some more DNA.

Trivia

• The Nano-Virus broadcast will progress even if there is no cure for it (it will still gradually slow down to make it impossible for a cure to be made available). It will also show up as "not yet spotted" until scientists actually acknowledge the plague and "name" it.
• 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 or a wincon is reached, it will never even be mentioned by scientists. This is particularly true for a full stealth Shadow Plague in the Where Is Everyone? scenario (or any game for that matter but killing over 7 billion people with nothing but Blood Rage can be very, very time-consuming...)
• 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 plague type.
• 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 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.
• All classic symptoms except Total Organ Failure cause at least an additional 1% cure funding requirement (not the same as actual cure speed or progress), making evolving all symptoms a decent last resort to set back cure progress if not already done.

Gallery

Scroll down for more content Empty flask Full flask A screen of a cured Black Death plague Broken flask Cure (popup) In the Shadow Plague, if an untouched country has a lab and ignored, cure money can rise up to high numbers. RMS Cure report (popup) Cure bonus bubble Cure Counter in Plague Inc: Evolved The defeat screen in Plague Inc: Evolved when all infected are cured. The scoring screen for plagues that have been cured. Cure photo from Cinematic Trailer The world attempting to cure the plague