Please note that this part of the guide is based on Normal Difficulty only...

The Necroa Virus may well be one of the most difficult plagues to wipe humanity out with…but it turns out the key to victory was simple; a migration of millions of zombies to obliterate Z Com in their home country.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning shall we?

Before you unleash your Necroa Virus upon the world, you must modify your genetic code. All being equal in this game (and playing through the diseases once systematically), we should all have 4 slots available to us. The first is the DNA Gene, and you should have two options here; ATP Boost or Cytochrome Surge. I suggest Cytochrome Surge for the long-game advantage. Next you have the Mutation Gene; Darwinist, followed by the Travel Gene; Teracyte…and finally the Environment Gene; Xerophile.

Make sure you have all these and you just have to name your zombie virus and you’re good to go…

Now all you need to decide is WHERE to unleash yourself. If I’ve learnt one thing from pounding my head against a wall failing several times with this and other plagues, it’s that your starting location is vital. Starting in a cold or hot country will give your plague a resistance to the cold or heat, respectively.

On this occasion, I chose to start in New Guinea because those damn southern Islands always seemed to close borders before I could infect them…

My key focus was on getting the virus ocean born. So I focused on transmition vectors with a little drug and cold resistance when I neared such countries. I ignored the symptoms as such mutations drew too much attention for a cure. If I could spread fast…and when they’re on to me, crank up the severity and lethality, surely I can win.

I was right it turned out. Here’s how I began with my mutations/evolutions of the Necroa Virus:

Zootonic Shift
Saliva 1
Saliva 2
Water 1
Birds 1
Water 2
Drug Resistance
Cold Resistance 1 (or Heat Resistance 1 if you choose to start in a cold country)
Bat 1

And possibly Blood 1, I don’t accurately recall that one. Regardless, I sat back and let the virus take hold and mutate as it easily spread over the oceans and land, effortlessly infecting the wildlife. My virus mutated along the Insomnia line to slow future research, much to my pleasure.

I waited until I had 100+ DNA and the cure had reached 50%...trying to allow the virus to spread as much as possible for me to mutate/evolve it into an unstoppable zombie plague. Here’s how I did that, following in the wake of my Insomnia line of evolutions/mutations and downwards (in that tree of sorts) as you’ll see in the options (leaving upward ones alone):

Cytopathic Reanimation

Then I went to say hello to some special abilities…in the abilities bit. I chose the following to maximise infection into isolated islands and overwhelm Z Com I knew would come soon after my virus began to raise the dead and try to kill them to stop the virus and make me loose…BOOOOOOO, just die you bastards, I’m winning! :P

Horde Instinct 1
Horde Instinct 2
Horde Vocalization
Horde Pheromones

Now, if you have 40+ DNA still, go pick something to increase lethality if it’s low or non-existent and combat effectiveness of your zombies (keep working down the mutation/evolution tree for that)…

…now you need to get any remaining isolated country’s infected ASAP with a zombie horde migration…that Z key ability to your left middle of the screen. Once you’ve done that, wait for that damn Z Com facility to drop, and then use as much DNA horde migrations as you need to overwhelm that country. Make sure to migrate from countries with the highest zombie count to maximise the rate at which you both overwhelm and kill that country off.

The cure should grind to a crawl, then a halt as your pretty zombies rise up to rule the world and wipe out those pesky humans…let’s face it, they had it coming! :P

You’ll also need to ensure that low-infection countries get extra zombie migration loving from you, but all being well (and Z Com wiped out) you should soon win through to rule the world with your pretty zombies…awwww, ain’t they cute!

...I get the feeling some of my puns and light-hearted humour is lost on some of you. Anyway, this part of the guide is for success with the Necroa Virus on Brutal (dare I say, plus) Difficulty.

Thus far, this part is also a work in progress, but here's the theory so far...

Unlocking the genetic modifications as you repeatedly play plagues on any difficulty, you'll need; Cytochrome Surge, Genetic Mimic, Suppression and Extremophile. Once you have these modifications locked into your genetic code, just name you're Virus and go infect India.

Now we need the ability to randomly mutate again and spread across the land…FAST. To that end, evolve Zootanic Shift and Birds 1 ASAP. After that, chase down Saliva 1, Saliva 2 and Water 1 (then Drug Resistance 1 and Cold Resistance 1 if you travel to rich or cold country’s)…getting Water 2 and Bats 1 ASAP to increase your transmission vectors and mutation chances ASAP, even further.

Now, like on Casual or Normal Difficulty, wait for the cure to reach 50%...and apply the same old zombie mutation tactic noted above.

Good luck…