Procedural organs, sealed doors and genes, special rooms and room traits, traits across seven tiers, shot synergies, elemental power-ups, CRISPR and extra lives. No two runs play the same.
Before the first room
Every Infect Game Mode run starts by infecting a host, then dropping into the first room of an organ. As your lineage grows, you can choose a deeper starting point and new systems are introduced one organ at a time.
Each run lands on a random host behind a big "INFECTED" title, then the run begins underneath it.
Once your lineage has reached deeper organs, a map of 8 area cards lets you start in any organ you've already reached.
Starting past the first organ opens a draft: pick 6 traits from a pool of 20 to make up for the skipped organs.
On a brand-new save only DASH is on screen; your signature ability appears after your first finished run and the ultimate after your second.
The first time you meet an enemy, boss, room type, hazard or system, a short notice appears at the bottom of the screen without pausing.
Brand-new saves fight in compact single-screen rooms with one wave; bigger rooms, narrow corridors and longer fights open up as your lineage grows.
Procedural organs
Each organ is a branching map of connected rooms, generated fresh every run: different layout, room count, room sizes and mix of room types. Beat the boss at the far end to descend to the next organ, all the way from the Nasal Passage to the Brain.
The map grows as a tree outward from the start room, so it always has clear dead ends and no loops.
Where you arrive in each organ: a calm, already-cleared single-screen room.
Most rooms are fights, and they come in many sizes and silhouettes, some sprawling past the screen.
The first wave waits around the room unaware of you; later waves pour in as reinforcements already hunting you.
Doors seal while anything is hunting you and stay sealed between waves until the room is cleared.
Clearing a fight room heals you and can leave loot behind.
Beat the organ's boss to open a passage to the next organ; you're asked to confirm, because there's no coming back.
Each organ is a clean slate for pickups and power-ups, but some threats follow you down.
In Infect Game Mode, every organ you advance past your starting organ in a single run makes cells tougher.
Pickups you didn't collect stay exactly where they were: leave a room and come back, and they're still there.
The first organ: find and defeat the Mast Cell.
Reach the Alveolar Macrophage.
Ride the current to the Plasma Cell.
Break the Follicular Helper T Cell's command.
Get past the Paneth Cell's defensins.
Survive the Kupffer Cell's filter.
Take over the Hematopoietic Stem Cell.
Cross the barrier and defeat the Microglia to win the run.
Metroidvania gates
Every organ seals one door until you carry that organ's gene. The gene waits in a Gene Chamber, guarded by a key guardian mini-boss, somewhere you can reach without passing the sealed door.
A door the host has sealed shut: a mucus plug, a tight junction or a fibrin clot.
Dissolves mucus plugs, and mucus no longer slows you.
Slips through tight junctions, and your dash damages cells you pass through.
Dissolves fibrin clots, and platelet clots no longer slow you.
Not every room is a fight
Special rooms play by their own rules and are outlined in colour on the minimap. The Mutation Chamber and Gene Chamber are in every organ; altars, puzzles and event rooms arrive with the Special Rooms mechanic (Level 3), and tumor rooms with Tumors & Metastasis (Level 7).
An upgrade room where a loose strand of DNA drifts: a free mutation orb, a vesicle chest and a few nucleotides.
A key guardian holds this organ's gene; beat it, then take the gene to open the sealed door.
Bind all the receptors at once: light every pad before the first one fades.
Repeat the signal: watch 4 pads flash in order, then step on them in the same order.
Solving either puzzle releases a strand of DNA and a pile of loot.
A crossroads of 2–3 altars, each a bargain: something strong for a price. Step onto one, or walk away.
The doors seal and reinforcements keep pouring in; survive the timer for a reward.
Bathe in the pool for a random trait, often a rare one, at a price.
The doors seal around 9 host cells: burst as many as you can in 18 seconds.
A quiet host cell: slip inside to heal and lose the immune system.
Each organ holds two or three different event rooms, picked from Immune Siege, Mutagenic Pool, Lysis Chamber and Refuge.
A cancer grows here, a different one in every organ; destroy it for a huge payout before it spreads.
Every gift has a price
Each Trade-off Altars room shows 2–3 of these 5 bargains. Take one and the rest vanish. Max HP can never drop below 30.
Trade toughness for power.
Two random traits at once, for a chunk of health.
A full heal that gets you noticed.
Faster but more fragile.
Grab a pile of nucleotides and raise the alarm.
Level 11 unlock
Once Room Tiers are introduced, every room except the start rolls a tier from Common to Prismatic. Higher tiers carry more boons and more drawbacks, and they only apply while you're inside. The minimap outlines each room in its tier colour, and the pause menu lists the current room's traits. Opposite traits never share a room.
A plain room with no traits.
1 boon, no drawbacks.
1 boon and 1 drawback.
2 boons and 1 drawback.
2 boons and 2 drawbacks.
3 boons and 2 drawbacks.
3 boons and 3 drawbacks, outlined in cycling rainbow colours.
Boons and drawbacks
The 16 traits a tiered room can carry: 9 boons and 7 drawbacks. Their effects last only while you're in that room.
+60% nucleotides.
Cells have 25% less HP.
Cells move 20% slower.
You deal 20% more damage.
Detection rises 50% slower.
Clearing the room always leaves a mutation orb.
Clearing the room leaves a vesicle chest.
Clearing the room heals 20% of max HP.
Power-ups drop 3 times as often.
−50% nucleotides.
Cells have 30% more HP.
Cells move 20% faster.
Cells hit 25% harder.
Detection rises 60% faster.
Elite cells are 2.5 times as common.
You lose 1 HP per second while cells are hunting you.
The tissue fights back
Hazards arrive with the Hazards mechanic (Level 8); the organ that introduces them puts hazards in every fight room. Each organ has its own family, and they hurt cells as readily as they hurt you, so lure the immune system into them.
Bottomless gaps in the tissue. Dash over them; stop on one and you fall.
A glowing shaft: walk in and the current sweeps you into a freshly reshuffled layout of the same organ.
Sticky puddles that slow you to 40% speed while you stand in them.
Glowing nerve fibres in the walls: linger on one, or shoot it, and it fires a reflex blast that flings everything nearby.
Beating hairs that carry anything on them the way the arrows point.
Alveoli on the walls swell, then exhale a gust that blows you and cells away and clears enemy shots.
Solid cells drifting with the flow that shove you around and soak up shots from both sides.
Fibres strung across the room that slow you to under a third of your speed and snag cells too.
Every few seconds the gut wall clenches and a wave sweeps the room, carrying everything with it.
Ducts in the walls spray a jet of bile across the room after a flashing warning line.
A pod of young blood cells: burst it to heal, but fresh neutrophils pour out.
Two neurons that fire an electric arc between them every few seconds after a flickering warning.
Mutation orbs
Mutation orbs offer 3 traits and you choose 1 for the rest of the run (the game pauses while you pick). Each card shows the trait's tier, the tiers you already hold and any synergy it would unlock. Picking the same trait again stacks it: stat traits compound per pick, the rest add their strength together. Values below run from a Common pick to a Prismatic pick. Some families unlock as your virus levels up: status traits at Level 2, projectile traits at Level 4, defence traits at Level 9; power-up traits need Power-ups (Level 2), the cancer trait needs Tumors & Metastasis (Level 7).
Raises your damage.
You fire faster.
Raises your move speed.
Raises max HP and heals that much.
Adds projectiles to every shot.
Shots pierce through extra cells.
Your signature ability charges faster and refills right away.
Shots set cells burning.
Shots poison cells, stacking up to 10 times.
Shots have a 30% chance to slow a cell for 2 s.
Shots turn electric: they tear through shields, can shock, and arc to a nearby cell.
Shots burst on impact, hurting cells around them.
Shots jump on to more cells for 60% damage.
Shots bounce off walls and tissue.
Shots fly out to full range and come back, hitting again on the return.
Satellite virions orbit you and hit cells they touch.
You pulse damage around you on a timer.
Small homing darts bud off both your sides on a timer.
A shield that soaks hits and recharges.
Armor that absorbs 35% of each hit and regrows.
+1 extra life: next time you'd die, you go dormant and respawn.
Every dash bursts where you leave, then leaves a ring that keeps hitting.
Dash bursts leave a ring that sets cells burning.
Dash bursts poison cells and leave a toxic ring.
Dash bursts leave a chilling ring that can slow cells for 2 s.
Dash bursts leave a charged ring that jolts cells.
Makes dash bursts and their rings bigger.
Your dash becomes a teleport through cells and tissue walls.
A little helper virion follows you and shoots the nearest cell every 1.1 s.
Every power-up, CRISPR included, lasts longer.
Every power-up, CRISPR included, appears more often.
Every power-up starts and ends with a blast around you.
Every kill while a power-up is running keeps it going longer.
Elemental power-ups are stronger.
Deal more damage to tumors and their cells.
Common to Prismatic
Every offered trait rolls a tier that multiplies its strength. The odds below are for the Nasal Passage; every organ deeper raises the odds of every tier above Common, and from the Liver on, offers are never Common. The Mutagenic Pool's boosted roll is never Common either. Your virus's milestones cap the tier: Rare at first, Epic from Level 7, and up to Prismatic from Level 11 with 4 generations.
The baseline tier.
Green tier.
Blue tier, the highest a new virus can roll.
Purple tier.
Orange tier.
Red tier.
The top tier, shown in cycling rainbow colours.
Shot-trait pairs
Five traits change how your auto-attack behaves: Endosomal Recycling (return), Neuraminidase Boost (pierce), Fomite Ricochet (bounce), Lytic Burst (burst) and Cell-to-Cell Spread (chain). Every pair has its own synergy, there's no limit, and each one switches on with a SYNERGY toast the moment you hold both. Extra projectiles and Lateral Budding darts aren't part of it.
Returning shots already pass through cells, so pierce becomes power.
Every bounce becomes an extra round trip: shots fly back out again instead of fading.
Shots burst at the point where they turn around, right in the crowd.
Shots on their way back zap the nearest cell.
Each bounce restores a pierce and adds damage.
After passing through a cell, a shot's bursts get wider and stronger.
Chain jumps pierce like the shot that started them.
Every bounce off a wall sets off a burst where it hits.
Every bounce fires a chain jump at the nearest cell.
Every burst arcs to one more cell outside its blast.
Level 2 unlock
Power-ups drop from the first five cells you kill in a fight (never the last cell standing), so there's always a fight left to use them on. An elemental power-up turns up in about 1 fight in 8, with a random element; CRISPR, the rarest, in about 1 fight in 125. Several different ones can run at once, picking up one you already have adds its full duration, and all of them wear off when you enter a new organ. Numbers below are at base strength; Elemental Potency makes them stronger.
Like a star: for 10 seconds you're invincible and faster, and every cell you touch is cut apart.
Run over cells to shred them; nothing can hurt you.
Lightning arcs out of you and chains between cells.
Four flamethrower jets spin around you, setting cells burning.
Waves pulse out of you, pushing cells back and washing away shots.
You move much faster and blow enemy shots back at them.
Take far less damage while boulders orbit you, crushing cells and blocking shots.
Every cell near you is slowed, and may freeze solid for a moment.
Most hits miss you, and cells in the mist are poisoned.
Heal over time while bursts of light burn nearby cells.
A wide dark aura drains cells fast to heal you, drained cells burst into shadow novas, and your shots hit much harder.
Loot on the floor
What cells, chests and rooms leave behind during a run. Pickups from one organ don't follow you into the next.
A glowing DNA orb: touch it to choose 1 of 3 traits for the rest of the run.
A membrane bubble you walk into to burst open.
Piles of A, T, C and G from every cell you kill, counted on the HUD during the run.
The common gear-enhancing material.
Enhances gear from +1 upward.
The rare material for enhancing gear from +3 to +10.
A rare purple strand for advanced Petri Lab upgrades and skill tree respecs.
Equipable gear drops mid-run, with a NEW GEAR toast showing its level and tier.
A rare amber cyst labelled EXTRA LIFE: a stored incubation for this run.
Once Run Modifiers unlock, a finished modifier can drop and go straight into your stock.
Second chances
A run ends when your health hits zero, unless you hold a stored incubation. Extra lives arrive with the Extra Lives mechanic (Level 5).
When you'd die, a stored incubation is spent instead: you collapse into a dormant cyst and re-emerge a moment later.
Extra lives come from Dormant Virion drops and the Incubation Period trait, and last only for the current run.
Being knocked out during an Immune Siege or Lysis Chamber fails the room, not the run.
Health comes back in set amounts as you make progress.
The SKILL button
Equip one active skill from the skill tree and it gets its own SKILL button with its own cooldown. Each has 3 ranks: every rank adds 35% strength and cuts the cooldown by 12%.
Blast every cell near you and knock them back.
Turn to mist: untouchable and 60% faster for a moment.
Heal a chunk of health and take half damage for 4 seconds.
Move, dodge, let it fire
You steer and dodge; your virus aims and fires on its own. Play with touch, keyboard, mouse or a game controller.
A floating joystick appears wherever you touch the left side of the screen.
Your virus fires on its own at the nearest cell it can see.
Hitting a cell before it notices you deals 2.5× damage and shows AMBUSH.
A quick burst of movement you can't be hurt during, with a moment of protection after.
Your class's signature ability charges as you kill; tap it when the ring is full and glowing.
Your ultimate charges as you hit and kill cells, and glows when ready.
Keys are laid out like a controller's face buttons.
The pause button (top right) freezes the run.
Reading the screen
Everything you need mid-fight sits around the play window: health top left, the immune system's mood top right, buttons bottom right.
A heart and a health bar with exact numbers; a trail drains after each hit so damage reads clearly.
An hourglass with ×N at the end of the health bar shows stored incubations.
A pill beside your health shows your virus's live state.
The organ's name and how many of its fights you've cleared, e.g. "x/y fights".
The eye meter tracks how aware the immune system is of you, from 0 to 100.
An L-number beside the eye shows how much the immune system has learned.
A thin bar with a hurricane icon under Detection shows how far ahead your build is.
A flame shows the Immune Alert level, and a hexagon counts the nucleotides gathered this run.
Shows the rooms you've been in and the ones next to them.
Under the minimap, a line lists the genes you're carrying (MUCOLYTIC, FUSION, PLASMIN).
The boss's name and health bar across the top of the play window.
Shows WAVE n / total, cells left, and one pip per wave.
During a Siege or Lysis Chamber, a countdown pill shows the time left and what's happening.
Each running power-up lists its name and seconds left, one per line.
A red line warns when the immune system has started resisting one of your shot types.
Counts down to the tumor's next growth or spread, with its stage and spread count.
DASH, your signature ability, ULT and SKILL in a staggered cluster, each ringed by its charge or cooldown.
A game that grows with you
New players aren't buried in systems on run one. Each mechanic unlocks for your whole save the first time any virus reaches its level, then it's introduced in your next run: a NEW MECHANIC UNLOCKED notice the moment it first shows up, and (except the Cytokine Storm) a guarantee that it appears in that organ. Only one is introduced per run. Trait milestones follow the same level, shared by every virus in your lineage.
Elemental power-ups and CRISPR start dropping from the first cells you kill in a fight.
Trade-off altars, receptor puzzles and event rooms (Siege, Mutagenic Pool, Lysis Chamber, Refuge) start appearing.
Cells can come in stronger tiers with affixes like Shielded, Swift or Vampiric, and drop better loot.
Dormant Virions can drop from tough enemies, each an extra life.
Filling Detection to 100 sends elite hunters that follow you from room to room.
Most organs now grow a tumor that spreads over time and follows you if left alive.
Each organ's living hazards appear, along with abyss pits and drop shafts.
Other viruses competing for the host can appear after a fight.
At high Detection the host may take antivirals, a vaccine booster or interferon.
Rooms roll tiers with boons and drawbacks, outlined on the minimap.
A build that gets too strong fills the storm meter and draws adapted cells.
Lean on one shot type and cells start resisting it; the L level appears by the eye.
Each host now carries hidden traits, revealed when you infect it.
Burning, poison, chill and shock traits can be offered.
Skip ahead to any area you've already reached, with a 6-trait head start draft.
Bursting, chaining, bouncing, returning and orbiting shots.
Trait offers can roll purple tier.
Stolen Membrane shields, Glycan Armor and the Incubation Period extra life.
Trait offers can roll orange, red and Prismatic tiers.
Next up
XP, a three-branch skill tree, the Petri Lab, modifiers and hundreds of challenges.
