Infect Game Mode

Infect a Host

Main mode

The big green button on the main menu: infect a host and push through its organs, one boss at a time. It is the only Game Mode that earns XP and makes generations.

• Main menu button tagged “Collect: XP”
• XP per run: 1 per 3 kills, 8 per room cleared, 150 for a victory
• 8 organs in order: Nasal Passage, Lungs, Bloodstream, Lymph Node, Gut, Liver, Bone Marrow, Brain
• Each finished run becomes one generation of your lineage
• A victory means beating the Brain's boss: the host is fully infected
• Loaded run modifiers are used up by the run (as in every Game Mode)

Choose your point of entry

Level 3 · Gen 2

Once your lineage has reached deeper organs, a run can start in any organ it has reached instead of the nose.

• Opens with the “Start in deeper areas” milestone (Level 3 · Gen 2)
• Shows Areas 1–8: reached ones show their organ and boss, the rest read “Not reached yet”
• Area 1 (Nasal Passage) is the normal start
• Backing out costs nothing: modifiers are only used once the run starts

Head Start draft

Deeper starts

Starting past the first organ opens a draft to make up for the organs you skipped: pick 6 traits from a pool of 20.

• Always 6 picks from 20, however deep you start
• The same trait can show up twice; picking both stacks it
• Deeper starts roll rarer traits
• “Pick for me” fills your picks (rarer traits and synergies first); once full it becomes “Re-roll”
• Cards flag the SYNERGY a trait would complete with what you hold
• Pandemic Game Mode runs get the same draft, matched to your deepest organ

INFECTED! Landing on a host

Run start

Every run opens on an “INFECTED” title that slams in over a green pulse while the game picks the host you've infected.

• Hosts are usually people; about 1 run in 5 lands on an animal instead
• Infecting an animal adds it to the Codex
• Once host traits are introduced, a reveal card shows your host and its traits before the run begins
• In Pandemic Game Mode the hosts are locals with names from that city, and the animals are the city's own wildlife

Welcome to a new organ

First visit

The first time any of your viruses reaches an organ, a welcome card lists everything it unlocked.

• Which new gear tier can now drop
• How far gear combining now reaches
• Which named set that organ's boss drops
• A new starting point: future runs can begin there with a 6-trait head start

Leaving an organ

Confirm

Before you descend, the game asks you to confirm, because there's no coming back.

• Counts how many rooms are still unexplored
• Warns that anything left on the floor is lost
• Warns when a tumor is still alive: it will metastasize to the next organ at its current stage
• Choose Stay or Move on

Pausing fills the screen, with the run blurred behind it. On iPhone it has two tabs, Run (everything about the run you're in) and Settings; on iPad and Mac the two sit side by side.

• Status strip: organ, kills, extra lives, your host's name and age, and any host condition
• Traits: every trait taken, with stacks, plus a Synergies tab
• Stats: every stat for this run and where it comes from, with the traits you've picked up
• Resources: nucleotides, materials, RNA, modifiers found and gear found this run
• Modifiers: what's loaded, each upside and drawback, and any combo
• New this run: the briefing card of every first encounter
• Challenges: daily, weekly and milestone progress (collect rewards from the main menu)
• This room: its tier and every boon and drawback it carries
• Settings: sound, vibration, language, controller and keyboard, gameplay data and links, without leaving the run
• All its tiles and settings fit without scrolling

You can quit a run from the pause menu at any time, and everything goes back to how it was before the run started.

• “Your virus is cleared and everything goes back to how it was before this run: nucleotides, gear, materials, RNA, XP and modifiers.”
• Abandoning doesn't end a generation: it plays again next run with the same mutation
• No new mutation is chosen after an abandoned run

Run summary: results

Run end

The first page of every run's summary: how it went and what it earned.

• HOST INFECTED, or how your virus died
• Rooms cleared (sets survived in Endless Game Mode)
• Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine and Guanine collected
• New Codex entries discovered
• Materials and gear found, with the best piece's level and rarity
• XP gained, your virus's new level and any skill points
• Your generation's permanent legacy bonus and its kill count

Run summary: gear found

Run end

Every piece of gear the run found, ready to compare, equip or dismantle on the spot.

• Sorted by rarity and level
• Tap a piece for its stats, abilities, uniques and set
• Compared with what you wear in that slot: stronger, weaker or an empty slot
• Equip straight from the summary
• Pick pieces (or Pick all) and dismantle them for nucleotides

Your next generation

Lineage

After a finished Infect run you choose the mutation your next generation is born with.

• Choose 1 of 3 strains (1 of 4 with a second virus): boons, curses or a mix
• Picking the same strain again stacks it (“INHERITED ×N · AMPLIFIED”) and shows what it was before
• Some mutations turn the lineage into another virus
• Pandemic and Endless Game Mode runs skip this page

Total Infection

Victory

Beat the Brain in Infect Game Mode and the ending plays: every organ lights up in turn along a spreading line of infection.

• The 8 organs light up one by one
• “TOTAL INFECTION · You have fully infected the host”
• “The immune system has nothing left to send. The host is yours.”
• Stats: organs taken (8/8), rooms cleared, cells destroyed
• Continue leads to the usual run summary

Your special buttons

First runs

On a new save the special buttons arrive one at a time, so there's less to learn at once.

• Shift (your signature ability) appears after your first finished run
• The Ultimate appears after your second
• A notice points out each new button the first time