Every Infect Game Mode run is one generation of a single virus lineage. When a run ends you pick the mutation the next generation is born with, and every finished generation leaves a small permanent bonus to the ones after it.
Each Infect Game Mode run is one generation of your virus, born with at most one strain mutation. The lineage keeps a record of every generation and how its run went.
Generation 1 has no mutation; every later generation carries the strain you chose for it
Each generation records rooms cleared, kills, whether it took the host, and the traits it picked
Abandoning a run doesn't end the generation: it plays again next run and its recorded traits are cleared
Only Infect Game Mode runs make generations; Pandemic and Endless Game Mode runs don't count toward the lineage and use no strain. Pandemic Game Mode cities do get your lineage's legacy bonuses; Endless Game Mode runs don't
Fully infecting the host (the brain falls) counts as a host taken
From the Codex
What your virus passes on to the next generation.
Fun fact: Inheriting the same strain again stacks it and makes it stronger.
Filovirus generations are named after a variant, a place and the generation number, for example FLV/Cinder/Nairobi/9.
Format: FLV/variant/place/generation
Variants: Cinder, Garnet, Vesper, Thorn or Ember
From the Codex
A fictional filovirus inspired by Ebola: a long thread-like virion, often curled into a 'shepherd's crook'. Real filoviruses cause fever, bleeding and organ failure; some Ebola outbreaks have killed up to 90% of those infected.
Fun fact: Ebola was discovered in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now the DR Congo. The 2014–16 West Africa epidemic infected over 28,000 people.
Halovirus generations carry a lineage tag, a place and the generation number, for example HLV/HX.1/Bangkok/7.
Format: HLV/lineage/place/generation
Lineage tags: HX.1, HQ.2, HV.3, HZ.1, HK.4 or HX.5
From the Codex
A fictional virus crowned with a halo of spike proteins that bind receptors on cells in the airways. It spreads before symptoms show, or with none at all.
Fun fact: Real viruses with a crown of spikes are called coronaviruses, from the Latin for crown; the 2003 SARS outbreak was caused by one.
When an Infect Game Mode run ends, win or lose, you choose 1 of 3 strains for the next generation to be born with (1 of 4 once you have a second virus). Picking the same one again stacks it and makes it stronger.
Offers come from every strain your level and lineage have unlocked
50% chance one offer is the parent's own strain again, one stack higher
40% chance one offer is a jump to another unlocked virus
With a second virus open there are 4 offers, and the left one always keeps your current virus, so you can stay with the one you like
When a new virus opens by level, the next set of offers guarantees a jump to it once
Each card shows the virus the next generation will be (with an arrow, like Influenza A → Retrovirus, on a jump) and its type: BOON, MIXED or CURSE · BIGGER REWARDS
From the Codex
What your virus passes on to the next generation.
Fun fact: Inheriting the same strain again stacks it and makes it stronger.
Inheriting the parent's strain stacks it: each generation in a row makes it stronger. The card reads INHERITED ×N · AMPLIFIED and shows what it was before.
×2 is 50% stronger, ×3 twice as strong, ×4 two and a half times, and so on
Numbers have limits: damage tops out at +300%, move speed at double
Extra projectiles grow by 1 per stack, at most +2 over the strain's base
Envelope Shield blocks one more hit per stack, up to 4 per room
Lysis bursts grow with the stack: 18, then 27, then 36 damage
A stacked strain also leaves a bigger legacy (+25% per extra stack)
From the Codex
A change in a genome's sequence. Most are harmless or harmful, and a few help the organism survive.
Fun fact: Flu's RNA polymerase doesn't proofread, so it makes errors constantly.
Four special boon strains turn the lineage into a different virus for the next generation. The Retrovirus, Halovirus and Filovirus jumps open as your level rises.
Reverse Transcriptase Capture → Retrovirus: offered from Level 4
Spike Recombination → Halovirus: offered from Level 8
Filovirus Spillover → Filovirus: offered from Level 12
Segment Reassortment → back to Influenza A: offered once your lineage is another virus
A virus your lineage has already been stays open for jumps
Inheriting your own jump strain again keeps the virus and amplifies its bonus
A jump shows on the Family Tree as a thick dashed branch crossing into the new virus's lane, and adds that virus to the Codex
From the Codex
The viruses you can play, each with its own style.
Fun fact: A generation's mutation decides its virus: some mutations turn the lineage into a different one.
Every finished generation that carried a strain passes a small permanent bonus to all later generations. Its strain decides which stat; its kills and stack decide how much.
Tap Lineage on the main menu's virus card to see every generation as a branching tree, with one lane per virus.
The header counts your generations and hosts taken
Generations run left to right; branches cross lanes when the virus changes
Marks: a check for a host taken, an orange ring for the generation playing next, a ring in the strain's own colour for a mutation (thicker when stacked)
Tap a generation for its name, virus, strain and the traits it picked that run
Tap a virus for its card: one line on how it plays, then its passive, signature ability and ultimate, each in its own box as short lines with icons and the key numbers picked out (Influenza A's also says what infected cells do)
The card's Real World tab says what the virus is in real life, with a fun fact; a locked virus shows the same card greyed out, with the level that unlocks it
The title screen and main menu show your current generation number and name, or 'A new lineage begins'
From the Codex
What your virus passes on to the next generation.
Fun fact: Inheriting the same strain again stacks it and makes it stronger.
