Guide to Virology
Departmental Head
Chief Medical Officer
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So you want to be a Virologist, creator of a lethal beneficial virus? Or just want to cure viruses that plague the station? Then this is the guide for you!
Here you will learn how to make viruses and how to cure them.
Virology 101
If you are a Virologist for the first time, read this part very carefully!
Viruses
Every virus behaves differently, from created viruses to event spawned viruses. Most viruses can spread themselves to other humanoids near the host in one way or another. These types of spread are:
- Airborne - The most dangerous and quick spreading, if you are anywhere within the breathing area of the infected crew member, you have a chance to be infected. Wearing internals stops further infections.
- Direct Contact - Requires you to touch, been touched, or be extremely close to the source of the infection. The infection will be spread by the skin and bodily fluids of an infected person, but will not survive long in the air. Wearing protective clothing and avoiding infected are great ways of not getting infected yourself.
- Blood - The infection will be spread by blood from the infected person. Beneficial viruses usually fall under this category.
- Special - The disease is not normally contagious and the affected crewman has been infected by a non-human vector source. You can work with the infected without risk yourself unless they expose you to the same vector source that infected them.
All viruses that spread with blood or above mentioned transfer by giving humanoids an infected blood sample using either a syringe, a pill or other types of food/drinks or by using the virologists agent item Viral Injector. Smoke grenades or syringe guns will not work. Every virus or vaccine only requires any amount of units to infect or cure somebody, 0.1 unit will work.
Each virus will not be visible on the Medical HUD till they reach a later stage, meaning at least at the halfway point of the stages (rounded up). For example, the Brainrot virus has 4 stages. The virus will then be visible starting at the 2nd stage. Any advanced virus has 5 stages total and it can be visible on the HUD starting at the 3rd stage depending on the stealth stat (see Advanced Diseases for more information).
Each virus also has their own chemical(s) that the infected needs to ingest for him to be cured. See Infection Listings for the cures for the known viruses. The virus has a chance to be cured once the infected humanoid has the chemical(s) in his body. Once the victim is cured he will be immune for that virus till he gets cloned or put in another body. A good idea is to get a blood sample of the person you cured to make a vaccine. See Curing A Virus for more details.
Tools
The following items will be used during researching:
Beaker (to mix viruses and store diseases and chemicals)- File:Eyedropper.png Dropper or Pipette (to carefully measure the units, right click on the dropper to set the transfer amount)
Pen (to label your beakers)
Flu or Rhinovirus Culture Bottle (to start your virus, found in your Smartfridge)
Biobag (For storing your virus samples and beakers)
Equipment
Should a virus start spreading on the station (or should you work on something nasty and use the monkeys for it), you have to keep your workplace sterile and yourself safe. For this, you will find these useful:
Level-3 Bio Hood (against On-Contact viruses)
Level-3 Bio Suit (against On-Contact viruses)
Internals (against Airborne viruses)
Latex Gloves (against On-Contact viruses)
Sterile mask
PanD.E.M.I.C 2200
This is your best friend while you do your job. Not only can this bad boy tell you what is in a blood sample. It can also duplicate any virus in that sample for further use research.
You can do the following with the machine
- See the statistics of a virus that is put into the machine.
- Make a new virus culture for later use (Use this when making advanced viruses)
- Make vaccines using blood from a patient that was cured from a virus prior.
- Name an advanced virus if it is not named yet
- Print a release form for named viruses
Curing A Virus
So you are tasked with curing a virus that is finally purging harming the stations inhabitants? Well you are just a few steps away from being the unsung hero!
Curing The First Infected
First priority is finding the crewmember who is infected and getting him to medbay into isolation as fast as possible. It is easier to cure a singular person compared to curing a whole station. A virus will not show up on the Medical HUD when the virus is in its early stages. You will need to use the Health Analyzer to find viruses still in their early stages. Once you have the infected you will want to get the cure in him as soon as possible. Once he is cured you will have to take a blood sample for the next step.
Getting The Vaccine
Once you have the blood of a cured subject you can start mass producing the cure. To do this you will need the PanD.E.M.I.C 2200.
- Put the blood in the PanD.E.M.I.C 2200. A syringe can be put into the machine
- Click on the create vaccine button next to the virus you want to make the vaccine for. If the blood contains multiple antibodies to different viruses you will have more than one option.
- Repeat till you have enough vaccine.
- Bring the bottles to the Chemists so they can pill the vaccine into pills. Make sure that they call it a suiting name else it might get lost in a pile of pills without people knowing what it actually cures.
A vaccine is spread just like a virus. So you can just take a sip from the bottle to cure yourself.
Spreading The Vaccine
Curing the infected will be easy once you have the vaccine. A single dose of, for example, 0.1 units will cure anybody and will make non-infected immune to the virus. However, the dosage amount does not matter, so you can use more or less than 0.1 units if you wish to. Be sure to get everybody cured otherwise bad things can happen.
Infection Listings
Thankfully, humanity has managed to cure and eliminate almost all of the diseases that plagued its infancy. However, the vast reaches of space have been found to harbor new illnesses that can affect the unprepared staff on Nanotrasen research stations.
| Disease Name | Agent Name | Description | Spread | Cure | Event |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alien Parasite | Xenomorph | An uncommon infection, caused by alien attacks. A facehugger has implanted an embryo inside of the body of the victim, which will grow until it kills and destroys the body while spawning a larva. | Special | Surgery | X |
| Beesease | Apidae Infection | A vicious disease which causes minor toxin damage followed by the host uncontrollably vomiting bees. The created bees are incredibly ill-tempered and will attack anyone they can, including the host. | Contact | Sugar | ✔ |
| Beserker | Jagged Crystals | This virus causes the host to shout with anger and punch those around them at random. When curing this disease, it's probably best you hand the affected person the medicine and then get out of punching range. | Not Contagious | Haloperidol | X |
| Brainrot | Cryptococcus Cosmosis | An infection that causes mental degradation and will cause the host to collapse in its later stages. | Contact | Mannitol | ✔ |
| Cold (A) | XY-rhinovirus | A weakened version of the common cold. It will cause the victims to start sneezing uncontrollably. This is an advanced disease. | Airborne | Orange Juice | ✔ |
| Cold | XY-rhinovirus | Still around since the dawn of man, this disease is relativity harmless, causing fatigue and a runny nose. Will progress to the Flu when untreated. | Airborne | Spaceacillin | X |
| Cold9 | ICE9-rhinovirus | A rare disease that will progressively lower the victim's body temperature in addition to respiratory symptoms such as sneezing and coughing. | Contact | Spaceacillin | X |
| Flu (A) | H13N1 Flu Virion | A weakened version of the flu that will cause the victim to have a nasty cough. This is an advanced disease. | Blood | Orange Juice | ✔ |
| Flu | H13N1 Flu Virion | A common illness which causes fatigue, high fever, and muscle aches. Rarely fatal but quickly spread and will cause minor toxin and organ damage. Having an affected patient rest can slow the progress of this virus. | Airborne | Spaceacillin | X |
| Food Poisoning | Salmonella | This illness is most commonly contracted by eating poorly prepared food and will cause weakness, stomach aches, and vomiting. This sickness will eventually pass on its own without a cure but can be more quickly fixed with either chicken soup or bed rest. | Not Contagious | Chicken Soup or sleeping | X |
| Fungal Tuberculosis | Fungal Tubercle Bacillus Cosmosis | A rare highly transmittable virulent virus. Few samples exist, rumoured to be carefully grown and cultured by clandestine bio-weapon specialists. Causes fever, vomiting, loss of breath, confusion, weight loss, and fatigue. | Airborne | Spaceacillin & Salbutamol | X |
| "GBS" | Gravitokinetic Bipotential SADS- | A virus which has evolved to mimic the deadly GBS virus. Unlike the actual gibbing virus however, this virus causes no damage and will never be fatal to the host. | Contact | Diphenhydramine & Sulfur | ✔ |
| GBS | Gravitokinetic Bipotential SADS+ | An extremely dangerous illness caused by contagious micro-singularities that will cause the human body to be torn apart from the inside. The initial phase begins in the lungs and mimics flu symptoms. | Contact | Diphenhydramine & Sulfur | X |
| Grave Fever | Grave Dust | A unique disease linked to the entities known as vampires. This disease will cause progressively more severe amounts of toxin damage, weakness, and oxygen deprivation as it progresses. | Not Contagious | Spaceacillin | X |
| Jungle Fever | Kongey Vibrion M-909 | One of the most feared diseases in the galaxy, this is a disease carried by primates. A single bite or scratch is enough to fully infect a human. The result is spontaneous genetic reversion, and the affected individual will also become a monkey. | Special | Bananas | X |
| Kingstons Syndrome | Nya Virus | A relative fast spreading virus which makes subjects act like feline at earlier stages. At the last stage it will transforming a Tajaran. The victim will afterwards continue to have innate feline issues like coughing up hairballs. | Airborne | Milk | X |
| Lycancoughy | Excess Snuggles | A fast spreading virus which makes subjects cough and experience unexplained cravings for meat at earlier stages. At the last stage patients will start regurgitating canines and start taking brute damage all over the body rapidly which makes this virus very lethal. | Contact | Ethanol | ✔ |
| Magnitis | Fukkos Miracos | An infection of magnetic bacteria that build up in the body. As the disease progresses any metallic items not bolted down near the infected person will be pulled toward them, even objects as large as canisters. Ingested iron will draw the bacteria to it and allow them to be excreted normally. | Airborne | Iron | ✔ |
| Non-Contagious GBS | Gibbis | A weaponized version of the GBS virus used by enemies of the corporation in assassination plots. The symptoms are identical to the more naturally occuring GBS virus. | Not Contagious | Cryoxadone | X |
| Pierrot's Throat | H0NI<42 Virus | A brain disease that was brought back with the original explorers of Clown Planet that damages the basal ganglia, victims will have an uncontrollable urge to HONK. | Airborne | Bananas | ✔ |
| Retrovirus | Unknown | This virus causes minor paralysis and odd sensations in the host during its early stages. Once sufficiently matured, the virus scrambles the hosts genetic data which can lead to horrible mutations. Sufficient amounts of bedrest also hold the potential to cure this disease. | Contact | Mutadone | X |
| Rhumba Beat | Unknown | A truely horrifying virus which causes the host to be compelled to rhythmically Rhumba before exploding violently. This virus seems to be a derivative of the feared GBS virus but with more dancing involved. | Contact | Plasma | X |
| Robotic Transformation | R2D2 Nanomachines | A rare infection caused by nanomachines in certain foods, effectively kills the infected as their body becomes metallic and their skin sloughs off before turning them into a cyborg. | Spread | Copper | X |
| Severe Anxiety | Excess Lepidopticides | A mysterious disease which causes confusion and jitteriness. When fully matured, this virus casues the host to cough up butterflies. | Contact | Ethanol | ✔ |
| Spanish Inquisition Flu | 1nqu1s1t10n Flu Virion | A rare and deadly form of flu that causes an incredibly high fever. Those infected will die of internal organ burns without treatment or religious absolution. | Airborne | Spaceacillin | ✔ |
| Space Kuru | Prions | An incredibly dangerous and often weaponized virus. Prions are found in food containing brains or in specialized bottles of poison used by enemies of Nanotrasen. The virus causes uncontrollable laughter, convulsions and will eventually kill the host. | Not Contagious | Incurable | X |
| Xenomorph Transformation | Rip-LEY Alien Microbes | A rare infection caused by xeno-microbes in certain foods, changing the infected's DNA to that of a xenomorph hunter. Symptoms include severe pain and progressive insanity. | Special | Spaceacillin & Glycerol | X |
| Wizarditis | Rincewindus Vulgaris | A rare illness, causes spontaneous robe growth, randomly speaking incantations, and finally random teleportation. | Airborne | The Manly Dorf | X |
Creating A Virus
You will be spending most of your time doing this part. Either for good or for worse.
Advanced Diseases
An advanced virus works a bit different compared to a "normal" virus. The most significant differences are.
- You can only have one advanced virus per person
- You can mutate advanced viruses using chemicals
- You can combine advanced viruses
An advanced virus can have up to 6 symptoms. You do this by mixing two virus samples. By the powers of RNG, you can get the desired outcome.
A virus has statistics that all symptoms will influence, and some symptoms will be more effective with certain stats.
Every symptom has these stats which have the following effect.
- Stealth, if the virus is visible to scanners or other devices
- Resistance, how hard it is to cure the virus
- Stage Speed, how fast the virus will reach its final stage making it act faster
- Transmittable, what the virus uses to spread to other victims
- Level, this is the level of the symptom. You will need different chemicals to generate symptoms with different levels. For example, the "Toxic Filter" symptom requires a chemical capable of generating level 6 symptoms.
Every symptom added will influence the statistics of the virus. Having more symptoms will lower the Transmittable and Resistance statistic. Thus having more symptoms is not always better in some cases. See Understanding Stats for more info.
Engineering The Perfect Virus
So you think you are ready to make a virus that can finally get rid of that abomination benefit the crew?
Before you start ensure that you have thought of a set of symptoms you want the virus to have. Once you have the symptoms you can begin.
The general method to get a symptom goes as follows.
- Get a virus sample in a beaker. Use the Dropper or pipette for this.
- Add 1 unit of the chemical you need for the symptom to the beaker. This makes the virus mutate a new random symptom.
- Put the sample in the PanD.E.M.I.C 2200 and see if you got the symptom you need. If so make a new culture. Naming your cultures accordingly will help you long term.
- Optional, remove the unwanted symptom using Diphenhydramine.
Doing this for each symptom in one virus sample will lead to a virus with a maximum of 5 symptoms, after the 4th symptom it will not be certain if the 5th will be generated or will replace an existing one. If you want to get the maximum out of your virus you can make two different virus samples with a combined symptom number of 6 and combine those till the result has all 6 symptoms.
Paperwork
Once you have your new designer virus you should get it approved by the CMO (Chief Medical Officer) as per Standard Operation Procedure. The PanD.E.M.I.C 2200 can make a form for you once you name the virus using the machine. A virus that spreads should be approved by the captain and vaccines should be prepared prior to releasing for crew that does not want to be infected by the virus.
Releasing The Virus
So you got the approval of your superior? Perfect! Now it is time to yell at the Chemists once more. They will be able to put the virus samples you made into pills. Be sure to remind them to name the virus! Else it will be called "Blood (1u)" which on its own is not that appealing.
Chemicals
The chemicals listed below are used when creating an advanced virus. Spending the time to make the specialised chemicals (for example Sucrose Agar) will reward you kindly.
As stated in Advanced Diseases, each symptom has a level. The chemicals below will be able to generate symptoms with a certain level, Indicated by the level field in the table.
| Name | Level | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Virus Rations | 1 | Mix Virus Food and Diphenhydramine. |
| Virus Food | 1/2 | Obtainable from the Virus Food Dispenser. |
| Unstable Mutagen | 2/3/4 | Created by Chemists. |
| Mutagenic Agar | 3 | Mix Virus Food and Unstable Mutagen. |
| Sucrose Agar | 4 | Mix Mutagenic Agar and Sugar. Alternatively, you can use Saline Glucose instead of Sugar to make it. |
| Plasma Dust | 4/5/6 | Created by grinding Solid Plasma (retrieved from the Cargo) in your blender. |
| Weakened Virus Plasma | 5 | Mix Virus Plasma and Diphenhydramine. |
| Uranium | 5/6 | Created by Uranium (retrieved from the Cargo) in your blender. |
| Virus Plasma | 6 | Mix Virus Food and Plasma Dust. |
| Diphenhydramine | - | Created by Chemists. Removes one random symptom. |
Symptoms Table
Listed below are all the symptoms you can mutate into a virus with their stats noted. Chemicals has a list of all the chemicals that can be used to achieve this.
| Symptom | Stealth | Resistance | Stage speed | Transmittable | Level | Required Raw Chemical | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alopecia | -1 | - 1 | -1 | 2 | 4 | Unstable Mutagen | Causes rapid hair loss. |
| Anti-Bodies Metabolism | -1 | -1 | -1 | -4 | 3 | Unstable Mutagen | Cures all diseases (except itself) and creates anti-bodies for them until itself dies. |
| Choking | -3 | -2 | -2 | -4 | 3 | Unstable Mutagen | Causes spikes of oxygen deprivation. Deals damage based on stage speed and stealth. |
| Coughing | -1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | Virus Food | Will force the affected mob to drop small items when coughing! |
| Confusion | 1 | -1 | -3 | 0 | 4 | Unstable Mutagen | Makes the affected mob be confused for short periods of time. |
| Deafness | -1 | -2 | -1 | -3 | 4 | Unstable Mutagen | Causes intermittent loss of hearing. |
| Dizziness | 2 | -2 | -3 | -1 | 4 | Unstable Mutagen | Shakes the affected mob's screen for short periods. |
| Eternal Youth | 3 | 4 | 4 | -4 | 5 | Plasma Dust | Makes you never physically older than young adulthood and prevents death by old age. |
| Facial Hypertrichosis | -3 | -1 | -3 | -1 | 4 | Unstable Mutagen | Makes you grow a massive beard, regardless of gender. |
| Fever | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | Virus Food | Heats up your body, based on transmittability and stealth. |
| Hallucinogen | -2 | -3 | -3 | -1 | 5 | Plasma Dust | Makes the affected mob be hallucinated for short periods of time. Available in Virus Crates. |
| Headache | -1 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Virus Food | Displays an annoying message! Should be used for buffing your disease. |
| Hyphema | -1 | -4 | -4 | -3 | 5 | Plasma Dust | Inflicts eye damage over time. Causes blindness if left unchecked. |
| Itching | 0 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Virus Food | Displays an annoying message! Should be used for buffing your disease. |
| Longevity | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | Unstable Mutagen | After a certain amount of time the disease will cure itself. Will immensely buff your disease. |
| Necrotizing Fasciitis | -3 | -4 | 0 | -4 | 6 | Plasma Dust | Causes brute damage over time, with more brute damage the less the virus' stealth is. Fatal if left untreated. |
| Sensory Restoration | -1 | -3 | -2 | -4 | 4 | Unstable Mutagen | Body starts to create its own Oculine, healing eye damage. |
| Revitiligo | -3 | -1 | -1 | -2 | 4 | Unstable Mutagen | Makes the mob gain skin pigmentation. |
| Self-Respiration | 1 | -3 | -3 | -4 | 6 | Plasma Dust | Body starts to create its own Salbutamol, effectively making oxygen unnecessary. |
| Shivering | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | Virus Food | Cools down your body based on stealth and resistance. |
| Sneezing | -2 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 1 | Virus Food | Forces a spread type of AIRBORNE with extra range! |
| Spontaneous Combustion | 1 | -4 | -4 | -4 | 6 | Plasma Dust | Sets your body on fire periodically, with amount of stacks based on stage speed, minus stealth. |
| Toxic Compensation | 1 | -4 | -4 | -2 | 4 | Unstable Mutagen | Slowly converts brute/fire damage to toxin. |
| Toxic Filter | 1 | -4 | -4 | -4 | 6 | Plasma Dust | Heals toxins in the affected mob's blood stream, based on stage speed. Available in Virus Crates. |
| Vitiligo | -3 | -1 | -1 | -2 | 4 | Unstable Mutagen | Makes the mob lose skin pigmentation. |
| Voice Change | -2 | -3 | -3 | -1 | 6 | Plasma Dust | Changes the voice of the affected mob. Causing confusion in communication. Available in Virus Crates. |
| Vomiting | -2 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | Unstable Mutagen | Forces the affected mob to vomit! Makes the affected mob lose nutrition and heal toxin damage. |
| Blood Vomiting | -2 | -1 | -1 | 1 | 4 | Unstable Mutagen | Forces the affected mob to vomit blood! Makes the affected mob lose health. |
| Projectile Vomiting | -2 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | Unstable Mutagen | Forces the affected mob to vomit with a larger spread! Makes the affected mob lose nutrition and heal toxin damage. |
| Weakness | -1 | -1 | -2 | -2 | 3 | Unstable Mutagen | Deals stamina damage to the host. |
| Weight Loss | -3 | -2 | -2 | -2 | 3 | Unstable Mutagen | Decreases the weight of the mob, forcing it to be skinny. |
| Viral Self-Adaptation | 3 | 5 | -3 | 0 | 3 | Unstable Mutagen | Massively buffs the adaptation of viruses, causing it to be stealthier, harder to cure but slower acting. |
| Viral Evolutionary Acceleration | -2 | -3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | Unstable Mutagen | Massively buffs the evolutionary cycle of viruses, causing it to be faster acting, better at infecting, but more easily detected and cured. |
| Mind restoration | -1 | -4 | -4 | -3 | 5 | Plasma Dust | Restores mob's senses by fixing brain damage, purging alcohol, LSD and histamine from the body and fixing brain damage. |
Understanding Stats
Every virus has a baseline for the statistics which the symptoms will add onto. Feel free to use this Nanotrasen-approved Virus Formulation Calculator to assist in synthesizing a well-crafted virus.
| Stealth | Resistance | Stage speed | Transmittable |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
After you are done mixing your disease, stats from the symptoms are added together to make disease stats. Here is what exactly they do:
- Stealth of 2 or higher will hide your disease from MedHUDs, Health Analyzers and Full Body Scanners. Stealth of 3 or higher will hide it from PanD.E.M.I.C 2200 machine.
- Transmission is determined as follows: (disease's transmission - the amount of symptoms). 2 or less is blood, 3-5 is contact (3 is by feet, 4 is by hands and 5 is touch in general), 6 or more is airborne. However, sneezing will allow the virus to spread airborne once it reaches stage 4.
- Chance of advancing a stage per tick is 2% or stage speed, whichever is higher.
- Cure depends on resistance and amount of symptoms: resistance - (amount of symptoms / 2)
| 1 or less | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 or more |
| Sodium Chloride (Salt) | Sugar | Orange juice | Spaceacilin | Saline-Glucose Solution | Ethanol | Teporone | Diphenhydramine | Lipolicide | Silver | Gold |
- Chance of it being cured every tick is 15 - resistance, but always between 10 and 20.
- Transmission affects how much protective gear you must have to protect yourself from it.