Cure Mode is a game mode in which the player leads an international health organization attempting to save the world from a deadly disease outbreak in a realistic and powerful simulation inspired by real-world pandemic responses.[1]
Investigation: Track the spread of disease and try to find patient zero.
Control: Raise awareness to help the world through the crisis. Determine the best way to slow the disease and preserve your Authority.
Quarantine: Lockdown countries or entire continents from borders to airports with heavy handed responses; without popular support, these will have significant consequences.
Research: Study the disease and work towards a vaccine. Decide how much time you have to test its safety and efficiency.
Economic Support: People won’t comply with poorly designed quarantine/lock down measures; use furlough schemes and other policies to drive community support and consensus.[2]
The Task Force is the equivalent of Genetic Code for Cure Mode, players can recruit one of the members from their Task Force before they start their game. These advisers can help the vaccine development to be faster, better control the lockdown, prevent the plague from spreading to other countries.
Traits
Quarantine
Continent Alerts
Trait
Description
Countries
North America Alert
Announce concerns over disease spread here. Focus on this continent and prepare to implement disruptive quarantine measures.
USA, Canada, Greenland, Mexico, Caribbean
South America Alert
Announce concerns over disease spread here. Focus on this continent and prepare to implement disruptive quarantine measures.
Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, C. America
Europe Alert
Announce concerns over disease spread here. Focus on this continent and prepare to implement disruptive quarantine measures.
UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Poland, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Baltic States, Central Europe, Balkan States, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey
Asia-Pacific Alert
Announce concerns over disease spread here. Focus on this continent and prepare to implement disruptive quarantine measures.
Japan, Korea, China, India, S. E Asia, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Philippines, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand
Africa Alert
Announce concerns over disease spread here. Focus on this continent and prepare to implement disruptive quarantine measures.
Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Angola, South Africa, Madagascar, West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Middle East
Travel Restrictions
Trait
Description
Close Air Access
Shut airports down if a country reports infection. Non-Compliance will increase if the public thinks it is unnecessary. Can be disabled at any time
Close Sea Access
Shut down ports if a country reports infection. Non-Compliance will increase if the public thinks it is unnecessary. Can be disabled at any time
Close Land Borders
Shut down land borders if a country reports infection. Non-Compliance will increase if the public thinks it is unnecessary. Can be disabled at any time
Force Lockdown
Enforce mandatory isolation if a country reports infection. Non-Compliance will increase if the public thinks it is unnecessary. Can be disabled at any time
Specific Quarantine
Trait
Description
Targeted Quarantine
Force a target country to shut border connections and lock down for 1 month. Non-Compliance will increase if the public thinks it is unnecessary.
Soft Targeted Quarantine
Targeted Quarantine now only shuts border connections. Softer restrictions more acceptable to the public
Distribute basic personal protective equipment including medical masks, face shields, goggles and hand sanitiser. Reduce Infection and slightly reduce Fatality rate
Protect supplies of essential goods by stockpiling raw materials and maintaining transport links. Reduce Infection and increase Vaccine Manufacturing speed
Improve Infection Prevention and Control practices at hospitals and care homes, brief staff, and stockpile PPE. Reduce Fatality rate and slightly reduce Infection.
Build new critical care hospitals and external triage centres to increase medical capacity. Reduce Fatality rate. Reduce Authority loss caused by high numbers of infected
Provide drugs like Dexamethasone to decrease severe inflammation and redirect the immune system to fight the disease. Significantly reduce Fatality rate
Apply strict criteria for hospital treatment to focus resources on patients with the highest chance of recovery. Significantly reduce Fatality rate but reduce Authority
Provide interferon-β proteins administered via inhalers, to trigger an immune response in the patient's lungs. Reduce Fatality rate and increase Vaccine Research Speed
Use the anti-body rich plasma of patients who have recovered from the disease to help treat others. Reduce Fatality rate and increase Vaccine Research speed
Set up Test and Trace department to identify symptomatic people and notify their contacts. Once established, significantly reduce infections in small outbreaks.
Acquire and provide state-of-the-art equipment to allow testing with very high sensitivity and specificity. Contact Tracing effective in larger outbreaks
Form a mobile team of investigators that can be deployed to target countries to enhance disease surveillance and response. Slightly reduces infections when present
Start to develop a vaccine. Identify potential antigen candidates, assess clinical impacts and conduct human testing. Required for Vaccine Manufacturing
International agreement delivers transparent knowledge exchange and efficient distribution of resources. Significantly increases Vaccine Research speed
Protect jobs by paying salaries of staff disrupted by Quarantine actions and boosting unemployment benefits. Decreases Non-Compliance from Quarantine measures
Adjust to the new normal by providing funds and resources to maintain education, wellness and human rights. Decreases Non-Compliance from Quarantine measures
Support economies with training programmes, tax cuts, business loans/bailouts and infrastructure spending. Decreases Non-Compliance from Quarantine measures
Identify backdoors in code to modify core routines. Warning - firewall will lock after intrusion detected
Cycle Suspension
Remotely inject command code level 068101108097121 Halt all nano-virus activity globally for one month
Cryptomining
Remotely inject command code level 099121098101114109105110101 Utilise the nano-virus to siphon additional resources over time
Bio-Weapon
Trait
Description
Declare Armageddon
Warn the world that humanity faces an extinction level threat from the pandemic. Significant increase in Authority
Expectation Management
Explain that it is impossible to protect every single country. Limit the authority damage per country. Reduce Authority
Extreme Measures 1
Deploy 'private contractors'. Field Operatives will take extreme measures to stop the spread of infection. Reduce Authority and increase Non-Compliance
Extreme Measures 2
Deploy black ops soldiers. Field Operatives will take large scale extreme measures to stop the spread of infection. Reduce Authority and increase Non-Compliance
Other
Trait
Description
Bypass Safety Measures
Compromise safety checks, weaken quality control standards and waive manufacturer liability. Take a significant risk to try to accelerate Vaccine Development
<Country> reports mental health support overwhelmed
<Country>'s hospitals overwhelmed
<Country>'s healthcare system collapsing
<Country> closes public transport
<Country> declares national emergency
<Country> closes all public buildings
<Country> declares martial law
<Country> establishes dirty wards
<Country> reports local infection clusters
<Country> reports infection growing exponentially
Leader of <Country> addresses nation
Government downplays disease in <Country>
<Country> declares homeopathy as key treatment
<Country> shuts down mobile networks
<Country> shuts down the internet
<Country> congratulates key workers
<Country> bails out banks
<Country> bans sale of alcohol
<Country> nationalises healthcare system
<Country> bans Plague Inc.
<Country> bans export of medical supplies
<Country> declares day of mourning
<Country> closes all hospitals
<Country> nationalises transport companies
<Country> moves government to secure bunkers
<Country>'s government has collapsed
Achievements
Combos
During the course of the game, there is the possibility that a certain combination of responses and operations will cause certain events or "combos" that may or may not help the player.
Video Call Software - (Note: This event refers to the Zoom software. This is a random event that is obtained if the global priority is greater than or equal to 15 and less than 50, and there must be at least 8 countries in lockdown.)
This mode was created with the help of infectious disease experts, including CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations).[4]
While scientific input was garnered from CEPI and other infectious disease experts, it is worth highlighting that Plague Inc: The Cure does not provide 100% accurate or realistic scenarios to the steps needed to be taken to end a pandemic threat, and the speed and scale at which they can be achieved. It is a game, not a scientific simulation.[2]
The default disease name in cure mode is PAX-19, reusing PAX-12 (trailer/default disease name in standard mode) whilst referencing COVID-19.
Cure Mode currently does not feature any Special Plagues.
Plague Inc. players were able to access Cure Mode for free until COVID was under control. The mode ceased to be free on July 1, 2022.