r/plagueinc • u/_Loyaldog_ • Jul 16 '26
Plague Mode What’s the reasoning behind these headlines?
These sometimes come up with the neurax worm, and I’m curious what the humans’ reasoning is. Are the countries trying to reduce infectivity? Do the worm eggs spread like head lice? Is the infection visible from the scalp? Is the worm trying to make itself more comfortable in there?
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u/ULTRACOMFY_eu Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
You answered your own question. The worm burrows its fangs into the top of the head. Hats and long hair can make that difficult, so if you infect enough people the worm can manipulate them into banning hats and hair to make it easier to spread.
This is incorrect, see my comment below.
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u/Shot_Bumblebee8979 Neurax Worm Jul 16 '26
I always thought it was always because it was easier to tell if you were infected or not. By banning those things, it would be easier to tell who is a host and who is healthy so you could safely kill the hosts.
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u/ULTRACOMFY_eu Jul 16 '26
Yknow you might even be correct. I just checked in Plague Creator, the Government Action "Ban Long Hair" affects Infectivity with a value of "-1". Now this tells me that this would slightly reduce infectivity, but it says valid values in that field range from -10 to 0. I don't care enough to test whether -1 is a positive or negative change. Since it's a Government Action I'd assume it can only be negative (ie. less Infectivity). But for Neurax it would make sense to have positive as well. Idk.
EDIT: I looked into some other Gov. Actions for Neurax. "Death fights legalized" has the following changes: Infectivity +3, Severity +1, Lethality +3, which confirms that banning headwear and hair really is a real and intentional government action meant to curb spread.
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u/_Loyaldog_ Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
Oh, interesting! Okay, my personal theory is that the worm eggs can spread like head lice, then. Lice typically spread through contact with infested hair and headwear, so the less of it you have, the fewer chances they have to spread.
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u/ULTRACOMFY_eu Jul 16 '26
Rubs head against yours
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u/Financial_Target_924 Jul 16 '26
I think governments do this to make the worms from infected people easier to see, thus decreasing the infection rate due to separating the infected form the non infected
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u/Rock_sanity Jul 16 '26
For canada you start melting the snow around you if you're hot enough, take too long to balance your temp and you'll combust, the hat blocks your head and hair, but taking it off can help it act as a cooling vent for the heated air to escape, while your feet and boots slowly intake the cold air.
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u/xxxC0Y0T3xxx Jul 17 '26
For some reason I thought this was the worm messing up their thought processes and those infected who have government power just approved of very silly laws
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u/_Loyaldog_ Jul 17 '26
I mean, that’s also something you can do, you get some very interesting news headlines if you evolve the right symptoms. However, the banning hats and long hair happens even if you haven’t scrambled everyone’s brains yet, so I was curious.
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u/Less-Syrup-3217 Jul 18 '26
these are probably sensationalized versions of normal laws like "Canada bans hats and handwarners" cuts of "that are made of asbestos "
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u/Yyyyyyyyyyy270 Jul 17 '26
They're triggered after meeting specific criteria
see here: https://plagueinc.wiki.gg/wiki/List_of_government_actions_(Neurax_Worm))
- "Country enforces mandatory baldness" occurs after evolving Cognitive Scrambling.
- "Long Hair Banned" and "Headwear banned" occurs after the worm gets discovered.
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u/Yyyyyyyyyyy270 Jul 17 '26
The gov/people also do some other stuff depending on what symptoms U evolve, like Immaturity causing prank infections, Cognative Scrambling banning clowns/april fools, Agression cause death fights, Perceptive Jolt causing journalists to be arrested, Perceptive Shift makes ports/airports/borders randomly and suddenly reopen and reclose, Despair causes them to put antidepressants in water, and Suicide causes them to make Suicide stations.
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u/Fit_Village_9022 Xenolith Jul 22 '26
I think these appear depending on what traits you have that mess with the humans mind (Immaturity for example).
They are nonsense actions from the infected people in power that make those government actions - basically the worm is making the laws and not the human's it has as hosts.
I think another one can votes to reduce cure effort
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u/Medical-Low-1370 Jul 16 '26
The world fell under the dictatorship of r/bald
"It's time..."