Every run you play one virion trying to take over a host. All four viruses start with the same health, damage and fire rate. What sets them apart is their signature ability, their ultimate and their passives. Every virus shares a single lineage, so the level, skill tree, Petri Lab and gear carry over whichever virus a generation becomes.
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
Has no organ milestone bonuses
Art: a lipid envelope packed with club-shaped hemagglutinin spikes and fewer mushroom-headed neuraminidase spikes
Turns the immune system against itself. Cells killed by its shots go into a reservoir, and Integration Surge releases them as allies. Latency hides it completely.
Role: The Turncoat. Colour: pink-red
Becomes available at level 4, through the Reverse Transcriptase Capture mutation
Move speed 188, about the same as Influenza A; same health, damage and fire rate
Passive: +50% damage to bosses and Killer T cells
Starts every run with Integration Surge charged and a full reservoir
Signature (LATENT): Latency hides you for 4 s, you can't be hurt, and the cells around you wither
Ultimate: Integration Surge releases stored cells as allies and hits everything within 300 for 6x your damage
From the Gut on, kills by your shots also build up kamikazes
Art: a double membrane with a few large three-lobed spikes, cut away to show a cone-shaped capsid holding two RNA strands
Makes cells bleed. Its hits can start bleeds, Hemorrhage makes every cell nearby bleed heavily and hit softer, and Viral Hemorrhage hits every cell nearby for 6× your damage while healing you.
Role: The Hemorrhager. Colour: blue
The last virus to open: level 12, through the Filovirus Spillover mutation
Base stats match Influenza A (70 HP, 10 damage, 0.4 s shots, speed 190)
Passive: every hit has a 45% chance to make the cell bleed for 3 s (100% of your damage per second)
Passive: you heal 2 HP whenever a bleeding cell dies
Signature (BLEED): Hemorrhage, every cell within 240 bleeds at 260% of your damage per second for 5 s and deals 40% less damage
Ultimate: Viral Hemorrhage, every cell nearby takes 6× your damage, then bleeds for 6 s; you heal 20% of max HP
The HUD counts how many cells are bleeding
Art: a long filament curled into a shepherd's crook, studded with glycoprotein knobs
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.
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
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.
