🧬 T-MINUS 5 DAYS: THE RA VIRUS & RESISTANCE 🧬

📝 OPERATIONAL NOTE This guide is intended to give easy-to-follow guidance and does not endeavor to be a full explainer. We want you to be able to take a clear instruction and, by following it, increase your odds of success. Just like at the start of the game, there is a lot to know, and sometimes it is best to just know what to do and then fully understand it later.

In our first two guides, we covered hoarding resources and managing First Blood rallies. Today, we are bringing those concepts together to explain the central mechanic of Season 1: The RA Virus.

Here is what you need to know about getting infected, building your permanent resistance, and helping each other out.

1. THE INFECTION BAR & DEBUFFS

When Season 1 starts, your base's infection level will be exactly zero.

You get infected by engaging with corrupted seasonal mechanics—specifically by attacking Doom Elites, Doom Walkers, and the Corruptors guarding Strongholds. As your troops return from these battles, they bring the virus back with them.

The virus isn't a simple "yes/no" state; it is a stacking bar that fills from 0 to 100. As that bar climbs, your base suffers from escalating debuffs:

• Combat Penalty: Drastically reduces your squad's combat damage.
• Hospital Pressure: Causes your troops to randomly become seriously injured and flooded into your hospital.

😎 STAY CHILL Getting infected is inevitable. It is an intentional part of the game design, not a sign that you did something wrong or failed an attack. If your infection bar goes up, do not get upset or panic. We will treat it and keep moving.

2. VIRUS RESISTANCE (YOUR PERMANENT SHIELD)

To survive the debuffs and tackle higher-level targets, you must constantly increase your Virus Resistance.

The most important thing to understand is that Virus Resistance is a permanent stat. Unlike your infection bar, which goes up and down, every point of Virus Resistance you build stays with you for the entire season.

Here is how Virus Resistance actually interacts with the game and your infection:

• The Damage Check: Every corrupted target on the map has a specific Virus Level. Your Resistance must meet or exceed the target's level. If your Resistance is lower than the target, your troops suffer a massive damage penalty and take heavy infection. If your Resistance is equal to or higher than the target, you fight normally.
• Prevention, Not a Cure: Increasing your permanent Virus Resistance does not lower your current infection stacks. It simply acts as a stronger shield, preventing you from getting heavily infected during future attacks on higher-level targets.

3. THE RESISTANCE LOOP & BUILDERS

Because Resistance is your permanent shield, building it is your top daily priority. This requires a specific economic cycle (which is exactly why we instructed you to hoard your Stamina in the T-7 guide and run your First Blood rallies in the T-6 guide).

Here is The Resistance Loop you need to run every day to increase your permanent shield:

1. KILL: Rally Doom Elites & Hunt Doom Walkers ➔ (Earns Mutant Crystals)
2. BUILD: Spend Mutant Crystals ➔ (Upgrades Protein Farms)
3. HARVEST: Wait for Protein Farms to produce ➔ (Earns Immune Proteins)
4. RESEARCH: Spend Immune Proteins ➔ (Upgrades Virus Research Institute)
5. RESULT: Permanent increase to Virus Resistance!

⚠️ VITAL START-OF-SEASON NOTE Step 2 of this loop requires physical builders in your base. Building and upgrading your Protein Farms requires an active builder queue. Make sure you intentionally start Day 1 of the season with at least one builder completely free so you can jump straight into the loop.

4. CURING ALLIES (SYRINGES, COORDINATES, & NATURAL DECAY)

Since increasing resistance doesn't lower your current infection stacks, how do you actually get rid of the virus? There are two ways:

• Natural Decay: If you stop attacking corrupted targets, your infection bar will slowly drop on its own over time.
• The Syringe (Alliance Curing): When you are infected, an alliance member can click on your base on the map and hit a green "syringe" icon. This sends a scout plane to instantly lower your infection bar. This costs the helper a tiny amount of Immune Protein.

🧪 SYRINGE LIMITS & ETIQUETTE

Curing others brings rewards. Because of this, you should absolutely ask for cures! Curing an ally actually rewards the person providing the cure with seasonal points and loot chests while consuming a little bit of protein. You are not being a burden; you are actually doing your teammates a favor by giving them an easy way to earn their daily rewards. Note: it was not 100% clear to me who's protein is consumed, and I will update this guide once Season 1 starts to add that clarity.

Be aware, there are daily limits to how many times you can cure others for rewards, and limits on how much your own base can be cured by others in a single day. This may make it harder for you to get cures when you need them as others might be tapped out.

When you ask, you can use the in-game request feature. This will be displayed to the left of your screen and acts similar to the fire fighter request.