The virus every lineage starts as. Its shots keep mutating between four types, its Antigenic Shift fires every mutation at once, and its Pandemic ultimate infects every cell nearby.
Role: The Shapeshifter. Colour: green
Available from the start (unlock level 0)
Base stats: 70 HP, 10 damage, a shot every 0.4 s, move speed 190
Passive: Antigenic Drift changes your shot type every 4 s (Standard, Piercing, Splitting, Explosive)
Signature (SHIFT): Antigenic Shift, a ring of 16 mixed bolts plus 8 s of double fire rate
Ultimate: Pandemic, a 300-radius wave that hits for 40 and infects every cell in reach
The only virus whose shots change colour with its shot type
Every 4 seconds your shot type mutates into one of the other three types at random.
Cycles between Standard, Piercing, Splitting and Explosive, never repeating the current type
The HUD shows DRIFT and the current type, in that type's colour
The Rapid Drift Lab upgrade makes shots mutate 0.4 s sooner per level
Switching types helps against memory B cells, which take half damage from the last shot type that hit them, and against the immune system learning to resist one shot type
From the Codex
Small mutations that gradually change a virus's surface proteins so antibodies recognise it less well.
Fun fact: This is why the flu vaccine is updated almost every year.
A viral wave that damages and infects every cell nearby.
Hits every cell within 300 for 40 damage
Infects survivors: they glow green and burn for 6 damage per second for 5 s
Lingering Fever (Lab): infection lasts +2 s and burns +3/s per level
The Superspreader Lab upgrade makes infected cells pass the infection to cells within 130 when they die (from the Liver on, each cell shrugs it off 25% of the time)
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.
