Room Traits

Infections spread faster in cells rich in the nucleotides and energy a virus needs to copy itself.

Destabilizing mutations make a virion fall apart easily outside the cell.

Defective polymerases slow a virus's replication, a trick used to make live-attenuated vaccines.

Mutations that let a virus bind its receptor more tightly make each virion more likely to infect a cell.

Many viruses spread before symptoms appear, staying under the immune system's radar.

Error-prone copying makes RNA viruses mutate fast, exploring new variants constantly.

Tiny membrane bubbles cells release to ship proteins and genetic material to other cells.

Fun fact: Some viruses hijack vesicles to travel hidden inside them, invisible to antibodies.

Persistent viruses replicate slowly and steadily without killing their host cell.

Short bursts of elemental power, and the rare CRISPR.

Fun fact: Different power-ups run at the same time, and they follow you into the next room.

The building block of DNA and RNA: a sugar, a phosphate and a base (A, T, C, G in DNA; A, U, C, G in RNA).

Fun fact: Influenza stores its genes as RNA, so it uses U in place of T.

A host with strong prior immunity (from vaccination or past infection) fights the virus off faster.

A fever speeds up both viral replication and the immune response.

Inflammation speeds tissue repair, helping the host recover from damage.

Some people's innate immunity reacts strongly and early, catching infections fast.

Immune cells exist in resting and activated states. Activated cells are bigger, multiply, produce more weapons and live longer; trained memory cells respond faster on a second encounter.

Fun fact: An activated T cell can divide every 4 to 6 hours, turning one cell into thousands within days.