Plague Inc: Evolved

Xenolith arrived as a new disease type, built around XNA, xenoforming, GCOM intervention, asteroid impacts, and its own difficulty rules. The free Plague Legacy scenario also returned the game to its 2012-era setup, while April’s Xenolith tuning substantially changed how its research and planetary damage systems behaved.

• Xenolith systems: Brutal and Mega Brutal difficulty reduced passive XNA, accelerated research, and increased ability costs. Excess stored XNA and repeated asteroid impacts reduced passive gains, while GCOM teams ignored inert xenoformed land and continued deploying disruptors after disruption ended. Humans also deployed Meteor Defense more intelligently, and Frequency Shift worked against Prototype Disruptors.
• Plague Legacy: The free scenario recreated the original 2012 version of Plague Inc., giving returning players a dedicated throwback scenario rather than another standard disease or campaign variation.
• Scenario and disease balance: Leprosy received a higher score multiplier, revised DNA and trait costs, lower starting infectivity, and an updated Leprosy Score Mod, making three-biohazard runs more attainable. Zombies vs Earth and Herd Immunity also received revised scoring, while Herd Immunity’s victory requirements changed.
• Xenolith progression and data: Xenolith’s danger-event and achievement unlock conditions were adjusted, its genes counted toward Unlocked Genes statistics, and the world population model was updated to 8,212,708,793 people. The Peripheral Verge Outbreak launch crash was also removed, and rare crash situations received stability improvements.

Outbreak Mode launched as the game's biggest addition, introducing daily disease challenges with unique mutators, origin countries, and permanent post-victory upgrades. 2025 World Update refreshed global data and events, while Plague Legacy and several Planet Of The Apes scenarios broadened the scenario lineup.

• Outbreak Mode systems:
  • Outbreak Mode: Added a new challenge every 24 hours, with unique disease and human mutators changing each run.
  • Permanent Pathogen Upgrades: Let victories unlock lasting upgrades that made Plagues stronger and more versatile.
  • Daily Global Rankings: Ranked infectiousness scores against players worldwide for each outbreak.
• World and scenario content:
  • 2025 World Update: Updated populations, added an accurate Olympic Games event, and introduced a legacy scenario.
  • Plague Legacy: Added a free scenario set in 2012.
  • Planet Of The Apes: Extinction: Added a scenario about a human coalition responding to the Simian Flu.
  • Simian Antharax: Combined Anthrax with ALZ-113 into a deadlier strain.
  • 7 Million Apes in Greenland: Added a scenario centered on seven million apes in Greenland.
  • Necroan Flu - Remastered: Expanded the combined Necroa Virus and Simian Flu scenario.
  • Simian Flu (Movie Version): Added a film-focused take on the Simian Flu.
• Balance and platform support:
  • Mad Cow Disease: Lowered the score thresholds for two- and three-biohazard results and reduced Fish Event randomness.
  • Outbreak Mode achievements: Reduced the requirements for Outbreak Survivor, Veteran, and Legend.
  • Steam Deck: Improved the handheld experience and fixed several controller and cursor issues.

Greenland International added a new scenario centered on Greenland opening to the world through a new international airport. The game also spotlighted Featured Custom Zombie Scenarios and Featured Vampire Scenarios, expanding its community-made challenge pool with new Necroa Virus and Shadow Plague variations.

• Greenland International: Added a scenario built around Greenland’s newly opened international airport, with the expected consequences for disease spread and travel. The accompanying update also made menu scrolling independent of frame rate and fixed the invisible Simian Flu Colony issue.
• Featured Custom Zombie Scenarios: Added a selection of community-made Necroa Virus scenarios:
  • Ultimate Necroa-Virus added custom traits, combinations, and events.
  • Ant Zombies explored the real-world zombie-like disease affecting ants.
  • Slightly More Accurate Zombies offered a more scientifically grounded take on zombies.
  • Instant Zombie Action focused on a more aggressive zombie virus.
  • Realistic Zombie Virus Mod provided a customizable zombie-virus setup.
• Featured Vampire Scenarios: Added several community-made Shadow Plague scenarios:
  • The Shadow Plague: Aftermath explored what followed a Shadow Plague victory and hinted at the Neruax Worm.
  • Vampires added custom symptoms, abilities, and endings.
  • Vampire Plague 2.0 retold the Shadow Plague concept through a Dracula-focused story.
  • Ultimate Shadow-Plague delivered a large collection of custom Shadow Plague content.
  • Insider Threat - Vampires centered on vampires infiltrating governments.
• The Cure DLC: Fixed broken multiplayer UI after playing the mode, corrected misplaced cheat icons and missing text, and resolved an issue that could award negative DNA for popping an opponent’s starting-country bubble.

Popular Scenarios for June 2023 delivered the window’s biggest addition, featuring “Just a Cold...” and “Rise of the Seerks” among other community-made scenarios. April also brought five creator-authored scenarios that expanded the game’s stranger, more experimental plague setups.

• Popular Scenarios for June 2023: Added a featured selection built around scenarios such as “Just a Cold...” and “Rise of the Seerks.”
• Plague-focused scenarios: Neurax + Scenario offered a new take on the Neurax Worm, while Prehistoric Plague V2 Scenario reflected on its creators’ choices.
• Wildcard community scenarios:
  • Chaotic Death Scenario introduced an all-powerful plague scenario by Makasim_Minecraft/Subnautica.
  • Creative Mode Plague Scenario: Unlimited Power! let players create the plague of their dreams.
  • Never Gonna Give You Up Scenario warned players against trusting links on the internet.

Frozen Virus Special Pandemic entered Plague Inc: The Cure’s Cure Mode on October 20, 2022, adding unique initiatives, abilities, and tactics. Featured Scenarios also expanded the scenario rotation with themed community creations, while The Cure’s access model changed from free to paid.

• Cure Mode: Frozen Virus Special Pandemic added a distinct pandemic type to The Cure, built around its own initiatives, abilities, and tactics.
• Scenario Creator rotations: Three named rotations brought new scenarios to the game:
  • April 2022 Featured Scenarios added Flanderization, The Parasite of The Void, Among Us Transformation, Meresis Program.Future, and N34-N9.
  • Popular Scenarios July 2022 added Tiny Desk Engineer, Mega Bacterium, The Spycrab-100, Necroan Flu - Remastered, Ancient Virus, and Dad Jokes.
  • Festive Featured Scenarios added holiday content including Santa’s Little Helper and other Christmas-themed scenarios.
• The Cure access policy: Plague Inc: The Cure became a paid DLC on July 1, 2022. Existing owners retained access, but purchases did not transfer between platforms.
• Board Game and scenario handling: The Board Game scenario’s incorrect end-game message and DrillZero event issues were fixed, alongside percentage problems on the statistics screen. A cancel button was also added for failed unpublished-scenario loads.

The Tokyo Olympics update was the biggest player-facing addition to Plague Inc: Evolved, refreshing the Olympics events around Tokyo. The game otherwise received targeted Disease X and Cure Mode adjustments rather than a major expansion or new mode.

• Tokyo Olympics: Updated the Olympics events to Tokyo in July 2021.
• Disease X and Cure Mode: Disabled achievements in Disease X, reordered the Cure Mode disease list, improved Disease X tooltips, and corrected Disease X replays, completion icons, and Cure Mode cheat unlocks.
• Scenario Creator: Fixed the Scenario Creator’s re-publishing hang, starting-DNA display issue, Rural map filter button, localized text problems, and related Scenario Master achievement issue.

Plague Inc: The Cure released on January 28, 2021, transforming the outbreak simulator into a global pandemic-response campaign built around lockdowns, research, contact tracing, and vaccine development. The period also delivered four new scenarios and Disease X – The Next Pandemic, while making The Cure free to Plague Inc: Evolved players until COVID-19 was under control.

• The Cure expansion: Players managed an international response rather than spreading a pathogen, allocating resources, dispatching research teams, tracing contacts, controlling public awareness, investigating patient zero, and developing a vaccine. They also imposed quarantine measures on individual countries and entire continents to slow transmission.
• Save the World mode: The new response-focused mode asked players to balance disease progression against healthcare management, with outbreak investigation, public compliance, quarantine policy, and vaccine research forming its core systems. The Cure’s narrative events also received improved trigger conditions, giving more Cure Mode events a chance to appear.
• Scenario slate: Yellow Fever, Roko’s Basilisk, Koel: The Bombing Campaign, and Cold War: Bio Weapon expanded the scenario roster with disease outbreaks, an AI thought experiment, a bird-bombing conversion, and a 1962 Algeria-set bioweapon campaign. Disease X – The Next Pandemic followed as another new scenario.
• Balance and platform changes: Authority Loss and disease-analysis times were reduced on Casual and Normal difficulties, while quarantine-measure serialization was improved. The legacy 32-bit macOS build moved to the macos32bit Steam branch for users on macOS 10.6, and Cure Mode’s Plague and Black Death scenarios received targeted fixes.

Fake News Scenario was the biggest addition to Plague Inc: Evolved, letting players create their own fake-news story and manipulate the world with modern tools and psychological tricks. Linux 64-bit support also arrived, while the supplied record contained no other major content drop for Evolved.

• Fake News Scenario: Players created custom stories and used psychological manipulation to deceive the world. Follow-up fixes addressed the end-game graph, Fake News achievements, and scenario and cheat-mode unlock issues introduced in version 1.17.0.
• Linux 64-bit support: Plague Inc: Evolved added native Linux 64-bit support.
• Tracked record: Beyond Fake News Scenario and Linux 64-bit support, the supplied Plague Inc: Evolved entries were limited to small fixes and planned work rather than additional shipped content.

Halloween Event: Shadow Plague Mode introduced a vampire-infestation game mode on October 29, 2018, giving Plague Inc: Evolved a major scenario outside its usual disease simulations. Scenario Creator also received a steady stream of community content, including monthly popular-scenario drops and standalone scenarios such as Science Denial and Ultimate Board Games.

• Shadow Plague: The Halloween Event added the vampire-focused Shadow Plague mode, while the Halloween Sale offered Plague Inc: Evolved at a discounted price.
• Popular Scenarios: The Scenario Creator expanded through several featured-content updates.
  • Popular Scenarios Update February 2018: Added ten community scenarios, including SCP-1104 “Nose Crab” and Tide Pod Challenge.
  • Popular Scenarios Update June 2018: Featured Cat Army, SCP-008, Fort It Battle Royale, Terminate the Terminators, and other player creations.
  • Popular Scenarios Update July 2018: Highlighted Bunny Love, Star Wars, Cat Apocalypse, Infinity War, Virus-X, and The Meme Virus.
  • Popular Custom Scenarios Released: Added Demons, Zombies, and Garlic Bread among ten featured scenarios.
  • Popular Scenarios Update - October 2018: Added Bowsette, The Last of Plagues, Waluigi’s Rage, Kaiserreich, and six other popular creations.
• Standalone Scenario Content: Science Denial challenged players with a world that rejected science, medicine, and disease, while Ultimate Board Games replaced infection with a race to create a best-selling board game. The update also added 16 new achievements.
• Platform and Competitive Changes: Mac 64bit Version Support made the Mac build run natively on 64-bit OSX, while ELO Maximum Set to 10k raised the competitive rating ceiling. The November update also fixed Custom Scenarios Using Multiple Cheats, Shadow Plague Government Actions in Scenario Creator, and ELO Matchmaking Issues.

Three new Official Scenarios—Mad Cow Disease, Where Is Everyone?, and Flight Club— delivered the period’s biggest content drop, challenging players with prion management, vanished populations, and a world built around advanced air travel. Offline Custom Scenario play and Mobile Scenario Creator Content also expanded the ways players could build and access outbreaks.

• Official Scenarios: Mad Cow Disease, Where Is Everyone?, and Flight Club added three distinct challenges, while the same update introduced four new achievements.
• Scenario Creator expansion: Offline Custom Scenario play let players use community scenarios without an internet connection, and Mobile Scenario Creator Content gave PC players access to scenarios made with the mobile creator. The BOARD GAMES Scenario Creator Competition also encouraged new player-made scenarios.
• Popular Scenarios: Community-made content received regular curated additions through named monthly updates.
  • Popular Scenarios for June 2017 highlighted Cabin Fever and Fidget Toys, while Popular Scenarios Update July 2017, Popular Scenarios Update - August 2017, and Popular Scenarios Update September 2017 featured themes including werewolf invasions, dinosaur takeovers, Zika-inspired outbreaks, and dystopias.
  • Popular Scenarios Update November 2017 featured Cassandra: Neurax VS Bioweapon and Anime Epidemic alongside eight other player creations.
  • Popular Scenarios Update January 2018 highlighted Kharaa Bacterium, The Corruption, Cult of Nyarlathotep, SCP-682, Chimerae, and other popular scenarios.
• Scenario Creator support: The May 2017 Scenario Creator changes fixed crashes caused by outcome variables and corrected the Shadow Plague transmission value, while the November 2017 Scenario Creator update fixed Event Lab country-name saving and government-action variable resets.

Shadow Plague Expansion shipped on November 10, 2016, introducing a sentient, mutagenic pathogen and a vampire campaign built around consuming humanity, creating slaves, using Blood Rage, transforming into a bat, and covering the world in darkness. Competitive Multiplayer and Co-Operative Multiplayer Mode also added head-to-head and two-disease team runs, while Scenario Creator expanded the game with custom plagues, events, and scenarios.

• Shadow Plague: The expansion added a distinct vampire-focused campaign, and the Shadow Plague later became available in Scenario Creator with all of its labs and narrative mechanics. Brexit Events also entered the simulation.
• Multiplayer: Competitive Multiplayer and Co-Operative Multiplayer Mode arrived with new evolutions, abilities, genes, and multiplayer AI. Parasite stole DNA from opponents’ corpses, while Fungus used spores to overcome long-distance travel; five multiplayer genes included Search and Destroy and Peekaboo.
• Scenario Creator: Custom Scenarios Creation Tools and 20 Unique Scenarios broadened the sandbox with custom plague types, events, strains, and environmental conditions. Featured community scenarios included Undertale, Dank Memes, Frostbite Fungus, Martian Flu, Luck of the Draw, and Social Disease.
• Core systems: 10 Different Disease Types covered pathogens from bacteria to bio-weapons and zombies, while Advanced Statistic Tracking, Game Replays, and the Random Name Generator added more ways to monitor and personalize runs.
• Balance: The July multiplayer rebalance strengthened Parasite’s DNA theft to 45%, reduced Virus devolutions, made Bioweapon easier to cure, and reworked Benign Mimic’s duration, scaling, and cure impact.