Fast and quiet. It fires spike volleys, cycles through three variant forms, and its Superspreader Event turns a crowd of cells into a chain of outbreaks.
Role: The Superspreader. Colour: orange
Becomes available at level 8, through the Spike Recombination mutation
Move speed 205, about 8% faster than the others; same health, damage and fire rate
The immune system is slow to notice you: Detection rises 25% slower.
Asymptomatic Spread (Lab): Detection rises a further 5% slower per level
Immune Escape (Lab): a further 15% slower
From the Codex
How aware the host's immune system is of you, from 0 to 100. It's the bar next to the eye at the top of the screen, and the more it fills, the harder the immune system fights back.
Fun fact: Stay out of fights for a few seconds and the bar drains on its own. Refuge rooms drop it fast.
Every few shots, a fan of spike shots flies out on either side of your normal shot.
Every 5th shot fires 4 extra shots in a fan, each at 70% damage
Swarm form: every 4th shot. Swarm surge: every shot
Furin Cleavage (Lab): volleys fire one shot sooner per level (never more often than every 2nd shot)
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.
A fitter variant takes over: you move to the next form with a big boost for a few seconds, then keep a smaller boost until the next surge.
Fixed order: Swarm, Fury, Ghost, then Swarm again. Runs start in Swarm form, so the first surge brings Fury
The big boost lasts 6 s (Variant of Concern Lab: +1 s per level)
Doesn't raise Detection
The Variant button takes your form's colour; a ring of beads shows the order with your current form on top
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.
The spreading variant: spike volleys come far more often.
Surge: a spike volley with every shot
Form: volleys fire one shot sooner
Colour: gold
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.
Surge: +60% damage (+65% from the Gut milestone on)
Form: +15% damage
Colour: red-orange
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.
The immune-escape variant: faster, and cells hit you far less.
Surge: 50% faster (even past the usual speed cap), and you take 40% less damage
Form: 12% faster, and you take 15% less damage
Colour: ice blue
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.
Each exposed cell that dies bursts into an aerosol that hits, infects and exposes its neighbours, so one kill can sweep through the whole crowd.
Each aerosol reaches 95 and deals 18% of a cell's max health plus your damage
Bosses, mini-bosses and Killer T cells take 2x your damage instead
Cells it reaches are exposed for 2 more seconds, so the chain keeps going
Long chains are called out: OUTBREAK x2, x5, x10, x15...
From the Liver on (Difficulty 6 and up in Pandemic Game Mode), cells resist: an aerosol takes 7% of a cell's max health instead of 18%, and each cell it reaches shrugs it off 75% of the time (no damage, and the chain stops there)
From the Codex
Each infected cell releases new virions that go on to infect its neighbours, so an infection can grow exponentially.
Fun fact: A single flu-infected cell can release thousands of new virions within hours.
