The following are strategies and tips for the Fake News scenario. Please read the Wiki Rules. If you want to write new strategies, please use this page. Note: None of the strategies have been confirmed to work on Plague Inc: Evolved, neither have the strategies been confirmed to work at all by any Wikia Moderators. |
Strategy 1[]
This scenario might just be really easy because I got 3 Biohazards (69,500+ points, 369 days) on my 2nd try. Whatever the case, here's a thrice-tested strategy that got more or less the same results each time.
MANIFESTO: Shooting for something realistic and convincing, I took a socialist-style path (which gave a random bonus to Plausibility halfway through each time) which included the following:
- Type of News: Financial
- Started by: Communists
- Motive: Political Gain
- Target(s): The Elite
For best results, play the game at the slowest speed at first, because you will get slammed with a lot of red infect bubbles fairly early on.
For best results, play the game at the slowest speed at first, because you will get slammed with a lot of red infect bubbles fairly early on.
1. Begin in Sweden, and use the 1 DNA/Funds point to buy Word of Mouth. As soon as you get another point, spend it on Internet. Immediately, this should spawn half a dozen bubbles in random countries, which is why the early game is best played in slow speed.
2. As this is a very fast-paced and aggressive scenario, the following traits are best obtained in this approximate order, as soon as you have the points to afford them:
- Social Media Presence
- Influencers
- Hire Fake Experts
- Accusations of Bias
- TV Targetting
- Memes (optional but c'mon. Memes.)
3. Building Community is important to keep your Deceived population deceived, and so around this point turn focus to some of those traits:
- Community Development
- Fundraising
- Community Travel
- Peer-to-Peer Messages
4. A lot of this scenario is also a race between the Deceived population and the Informed population. Before the Fact-Checking ("Cure") starts, throw down a few more traits for increased plausibility:
- Talk Show
- Buy a TV Network
- Onboard Politician
- Onboard Political Party
- Tweet Mean Things
- Impersonate Fact-Checkers
- Buy a Newspaper
5. On lower difficulties, the Informed population will most likely be your primary opponent as you race to try and see how controls 50% of the population first, while on Mega-Brutal, the Fact-Checking ("Cure") will be more likely to sideline you if you're not watching it closely. As such, by the time the Fact-Checking starts or is around 2-25%, it's time to use tactics to crush these opponents. The abilities in Black/Dark Red are powerful trump cards to play if/when the cure starts moving too fast or if the Informed population starts growing too high, but even then with everything going on, don't forget to beef up your Virality/Plausibility/Community. Like before, snag these abilities as soon as your DNA/Funds points allow you to:
- Fund Opposition
- Unpopular Opposition
- Expand Victim List
- Expand Blame List
- Discredit Experts
- Misinformation Merge
6. By this point you should be fighting a very fast-paced battle between the Fact-Checkers and your Deceived Population. You will most likely have plenty of Funds to do what you please, but for speedy results, a few other traits can tie up the game nice and quickly:
- Harass Critics
- Exploit Institutions
- Discredit Information Sources
7. And lastly... Misinformation Reshuffle—This one is huge and will deck a large chunk of Informed people as well as lop off a big chunk of the fact-checking. If you've played your cards right up to this point, this is where you cinch an easy win because once you've deceived half the world's population, virality and plausibility max out, fact-check progress gets decimated, and the remaining half of the world gets swayed within seconds. If you have any extra funds at this point feel free to blow them off on some overkill, but otherwise, this tactic should net 3 Biohazards on any difficulty including Mega-Brutal, and a score somewhere around 69,000 (for Mega-Brutal). And all in all, it should only take about 400–450 days.
Strategy 2[]
Introduction[]
Strategy 1 didn't work for me on Mega Brutal, but after a few tries, I was able to beat this on Mega-Brutal. The key is to focus on getting the Funds and keeping the Fact-Checkers at bay. In order to do this, everything must be balanced.
Manifesto[]
- Type: Cultural Fake News
- Started By: The Elderly
- Motivation: Revenge
- Blaming: The Illuminati
- Starting country: China
For this strategy to work, you need a big population. You don't want to alert the world too soon, or they will be fact-checking way before you can cope. You need to build a solid base for your story before you get caught out.
Gameplay[]
Step 1: Start in China and collect your first Fund. Feel free to manually pause if you wish. Open up the manifesto, and set it as above, then move over to Growth, select "Word of Mouth" and evolve it to get started.
Step 2: Slow down the game and pop all the bubbles. Note: You don't need to slow down the game if you're quick enough.
As soon as you have 1 more Fund, Evolve "Internet" and pop all the new bubbles. Once done, head back to the Growth menu.
Step 3: You need to balance Virality, Plausibility and Community. As soon as you get the funds, evolve the following in order (Evolve them one at a time, even if you have the Funds. You don't want to miss out on DNA Bubbles):
- Influencers
- Media Outreach
- Out of Context
- Fabricate Data
- Tweet Mean Things (Adaptability)
- Accusations of Bias (Adaptability)
Step 4: By now, Funds will have slowed. Virality and Plasuabilty should roughly be similar and about 10 million people are informed while only about 1000 people are decieved. We now need to increase our funds again. Evolve the following in this order:
- Social Media Presence
- Bot Network 1
Step 5: You should have some funds now, so now it's time to focus on Community. Evolve the following:
- Community Development
- Deep Fakes
Step 6: By now, countries should start fact-checking the news, so balancing Community and plausibility is crucial. Virality is unimportant as it would natually spread and it speeds up fact-checking, so keep it as low as possible.
- TV Targeting
- Talk Show
- Impersonate Fact Checkers (Adaptability)
- Fundraising
- Community Travel (Pop the bubbles at this stage)
- Mainstream Media Coverage
Step 7: The world would now starting checking the facts with the cure meter at about 5%. Virality and Plausibility should be roughly similar and Community should be good enough. It's time to go on the defensive. At Mega Brutal, fact-checking will skyrocket, so as soon as funds become available, you should attempt to stop the fact-checkers.
- Impersonate Fact-Checkers
- Fund Opposition
- Harass Critics
- Unpopular Opposition
- Discredit Experts
- Discredit Information Sources
Step 8: Continue keeping the Fact-Checking at bay while increasing Virality and Probability. Do not forget about generating Funds.
- Buy a TV Network
- Bot Network 2
- Defamation Lawsuits (Adaptability)
- Buy a Newspaper
- Peer-to-Peer Messages
Step 9: By this point, additional Adaptability traits would be unlocked. Focus on stopping Fact-Checking. Go into the Adaptability and evolve the following:
- Co-opt 'Fake News' (editor note: what the heck is this trait?)
- Trigger Moral Panic
- Provoke Authorities
- Destabilise Government
Step 10: Both Fact-Checking and Funds would have slowed by now, so it's best to focus on everything at once now:
- Viral Chat Messages (Pop the bubbles at this stage)
- Hack Experts
- Podcasts (Pop the bubbles at this stage)
- Cat Memes
- Billboard
- Radio Targeting
Notes[]
I think it spends too much DNA on anti Fact Checking in early game. And spamming ReShuffles during late game is really helpful. Other than that this strategy is fine. I tested it on both mobile on PC and it works perfectly (3 Bio Mega Brutal). However this page is a mess so maybe some moderator should clear it up lol— Bihapove
Strategy 3[]
Manifesto
- Financial Fake News
- Started by: Kittens
- Motivation: Chaos
- Blaming: Aliens
- Starting Country: Greenland
Step 1: Start in Greenland, or some other island nation with a low population.
Step 2: People may tell you to balance Virality, Plausibility, and Community. They are lying to you! Plausibility and Community mean nothing if you want to get your plague spreading faster than high school gossip! Evolve the following Growths in this order
- Word of Mouth
- Internet
- Social Media Presence
- Podcasts
- Memes
- Bot Network 1
- Bot Network 2
- Online Video Production
- Viral Chat Messages
Don’t worry about the ratio of Deceived to Informed People. Just evolve the rest of your points into shifting the narrative of your fake news, and setting back cure research. You will win on Mega Brutal no matter what.
Step 3: Convince the fact checkers that they never should have gotten a job in the first place! Evolve the following Adaptabilities in this order
- Tweet Mean Things
- Focus on Irrelevant Details
- Claim Witch Hunt
- Impersonate Fact Checkers
- Co-Opt Fake News
- Fund Opposition
- Accusations of Bias
Now that fact checkers have completely given up on disproving your fake news, evolve the following symptoms. All remaining Informed people will become Unaware, and you will win on Mega Brutal. If you are lucky, you may even win with three Biohazards. Easy as pie (although pie isn’t very easy to make)!
Step 4: Evolve the following Adaptabilities
- Expand Victim List
- Expand Blame List
- Misinformation Merge
- Misinformation Reshuffle
Can confirm Strategy 2 works on PI:E. Consider purchasing more ReShuffles. — Bihapove