True. The breakouts is what makes the game tier 1 hard. Without it then you could just take your sweet time on every room until they were all done. Still wouldn't be easy perhaps, the game does have a quite steep learning curve, but without the breakouts would all just depend on patience and skills. With the breakouts its more difficult to plan routes and you have an invisible timer. It also forces you to fly through rooms with viruses to get to the breakout room, making you lose energy.

I think perhaps they should have included a timer going down for the core breakouts for every room. That would make a lot more sense. I'd consider that a possible design flaw. When you don't know how much time you have it sort of sucks because its a difficult choice to stay cleaning a room or leave. Nothing sucks more than leaving a 90% finished room... except of course getting game over because of breakout you didn't stop. It could help to do a test and time how long time you got, and then you could simply time it yourself with a clock. Its a bit of a hassle, but that could potentially make the game easier. Then you would know how much time you had left.

But a discovery I had is that you barely need to do anything to stop a breakout. Just shoot for a few seconds into the room with any gun, and you're allowed to leave it. You don't need any CMs or anything.

With level 4 you have time to clean three rooms before any core breakouts.

I finally made Level 4 this morning. I think the strategy works pretty good!

I think the order of doing rooms 1, 2, 3 and then take care of breakouts, then do room 6, at least is good.
Thereafter putting the blue 0 in room 4. Then take care of room 7 and 5(not sure if the order here matters). Then take out Room 4 last. Its the toughest room of the level, so its good have the other rooms done so you won't have core breakouts bugging you.

EDIT: 
I've updated the Guide For Level 4. I don't think I can improve it anymore at this point. Someone should try it and give feedback.  
- The only thing that would be good to have is to have timed how long you have with the breakouts. That could be helpful to add to it. 
- I'm also unsure about the Shield. There might be some way of finding use for it I haven't noticed. It could work inside the inner room of Room 5 if you don't have the SG anymore. 

Sweet. I think later ill time how long it takes for the first breakout and see if its constant.

Yes that'd be great. Then we have the strategy of level 4 on lockdown. Of course, It'd be good if you or someone else tested it.
For me at least I can't see ways to improve it now. I've finetuned it a lot. I think you still have to play well and not have bad luck though. Perhaps a really good player could do it on 1 continue.

So I'm now curious if Level 5 is harder or easier than Level 4? I've heard both.
8 rooms! Thats daunting...

The biggest thing about level 5 is A) Infinite continues, you're already that far. B) Theres a SUPER SUPER gun that does not go away when you die which is a huge plus C) I think there are also 4 of the virus spitter things to worry about. Those are always the hardest rooms to clear. IIRC I didnt think any of this was harder than the level before, just 2 more rooms.


OK, so I did a little testing on level 4 (I had to start the game over so I could get to level 4 so i can start there later)
I measured the outbreak and this is what I got (I just cleared the first room and timed everything else).

Nothing was 100% on time but the times were so close (within 10 seconds) im thinking its a set time.

~ 8 minutes first breach
~ 1 minute after another room breached. This continued until ALL rooms were breached.
~ 1 minute after all rooms breached, 1 room started blinking (interestingly not the same room as the FIRST breach)
~ 1 minute after that another room blinked
~ 1 minute after that another room binked
~ 1 minute after that the game started to end and to evacuate (approx 4 minutes after the first room blinked).

~ 19 minutes from start of level to game over on breaching alone.


This leads me to believe after x amount of time, rooms will start breaching randomly in y intervals.
Its possible after y seconds if the same room is picked after it breaches, it will start to blink.
Its possible after y seconds if the same room is picked AGAIN it will terminate the game.

Im going to try this again later tonight.

Okay, thats great work! If I understand this correctly that means you have 4 minutes from a room starts blinking(core breakouts) until evacuate?
Thats useful information. I'll add that to the strat for level 4. It would be interesting to know if its the same for level 5. Are they faster on level 5, I wonder?
Anyway, this means you can use a stopwatch, your mobile-timer or similar when a room starts blinking, and you can work on a room knowing you have 4 minutes until you have to stop the breakout. That can be a very useful factor to know.

I've only done a few test-runs of Level 5 so far. Tried to figure out what CM goes where looking at the maps you made, and surfing around the stage.

It makes sense to start with going from Room 1 to Room 4 to pick up the Green 1, then go to Room 8, place the Green 1 on the rooms virus spitter.. and then pick up the SG.
You need the SG anyway, and you get to place a CM in the process, so I think thats a good way to start off, and its pretty quick. I don't know where to go from there though.

Alternatively one can start going to Room 6 immediately for the Super Super Gun that stays. That could be an option too.. but its a bit of a bumpy ride from the start to Room 6, so I personally think having the normal SG at first is good enough to start off with.

And using the logic from the strat from Level 4 figuring out the hardest room of the stage and save it for last. Its great to not having to worry about breakouts while you do the room that potentially takes the longest to clean.
I am not sure which room that is yet though.

Im not sure if its 4 minutes. It could just be if that room gets 'chosen' again for an outbreak. I will do another run for comparision once my power gets turned back on...


EDIT:

Got my power back on and tried it again.  Same results.  8 minutes before FIRST breach, 1 minute for each extra breach.  Once all breached 1 minute for each outbreak (flashing room).  After 4 flashing rooms game ends.  Approx 18:30

The only thing different was the order of the rooms.  Now im gonna try your level 4 strat.

Okay, very good to know. I'd say that gives you 4 minutes or so before you absolutely have to attend a core breakout.
Yes, let me know about potential flaws in strat.

After playing too Mutant Virus for a while I couldn't help but thinking about it when I stumbled over this clip  
https://gfycat.com/SparklingFaint...

Man, I'm playing around with level 5. I just realized that if I should be lucky enough to beat it I can't test things anymore without going through all the stages again.
Here's what I'm working on. 

Mutant Virus Guide for Level 5 (Work in progress)

1. Room 1
Fly til Room 4

2. Room 4
Get Green 1.
Clean room with your SF stream. Look at viruses and how they move in a repeating pattern. If you shoot it at the right time you can finish this room quickly.
Go to Room 8.

3. Room 8
Put Green 1 on top of virus spitter. The more accurate the better.
Get SG (Red 1).
Clean room with SG.
Be careful about the upper Proxy SSV, I am not sure if its a bug or just my game, if you're close to the upper SSV proxy the SSV flies into the upper pocket and stay there bouncing in there forever. If that happens you can't finish the room. Leave and come back to the room if this happen. The lower Proxy SSV goes into the lower pocket but doesn't stay. When travelling go under the lower SSV proxy.
When finished go to Room 7.

4. Room 7
Clean Room 7.
Grab Blue 1.
Go to Room 6.

5. Room 6
Put Blue 1 a little bit to the right of the virus spitter.
You can also take the Super Super Gun, which will stay even if you die(although it will still be swapped with other CMs).

6. Take care of core breakouts
Now its time to take care of rooms that are blinking. Go to the blinking rooms and shoot into them a few seconds and they'll go neutral again.
From this point on you have to deal with rooms that blink. They happen in any random room that is still infected. You have about 4 minutes from blinking to its game over.
Go to Room 5

7. Room 5
Clean Room 5. Its a quite easy room.
Travel to Room 1

8. Room 1
Grab Blue 0
Go to Room 3

9. Room 3
Put Blue 0 a little to the right of the lower virus spreader, as Blue 0 spreads vaccine to the left.
Go to Room 2.

10. Room 2
Clean Room. Be careful about the many SSVs in this room. They have repeating patterns.
Grab Green 0, which will leave the SG here.
Go to Room 3

11. Room 3
Put Green 0 over upper virus spitter.
Go get SG from Room 2 if you left it there.
Clean room.
Go to Room 1.
(Optional: Use the 8 second shield if you want to, but it will leave the SG behind.)

12. Room 1
Finish room 1
Go to Room 6

13. Room 6
Last room. This might be the toughest room left, but you shall at this point have put one CM here, and even if it doesn't match the vertical virus spitter it will help.
Do your best and eventually you'll make it. At this point you have all the time in the world as the other rooms are clean, meaning no more breakouts and time limit.

I tried your strat for level 4 and didnt get any success. The only thing I did different was to clear out room 2 before I entered room 3. But I lost both SGs and was left to do room 7 and 4 and was overwhelmed.  Trying those rooms without an SG is almost pointless because the virus is so strong you can clear a corner out and then within seconds everything you did goes awya.


I think using the Green 0 in room 6 is not a good idea, since its so easy and room 4 is so hard, which is where I really had the problem. I think after clearing 1 2 and 3, grab it from room 6, and use it in room 4, on the top, and then go into room 5 and grab that one and use it in room 4 on the bottom.

I tried to do that strat and it was... ok. I fucked up and missed putting the CMs over the virus spitters in Room 4, making it MUCH harder to really clear that room out. But room 6 without a CM is harder than I thought, since its spits virus in two directions constantly. I still think its a better idea as its more time consuming where as room 4 is just hard.

Good feedback...

- I used to clean Room 2 before Room 3 too in my later round. You can do them either way. I just felt the SG is more needed in Room 3, as its a harder room, so thats why I recommended starting there. If you lose it then Room 2 can be done with SF. For skilled players though its fine to do Room 2 first. 
- Yes, keeping the SG throughout is very tough, and its unfortunately needed. When I passed the level I had it. I'm not sure if there's a theoretical strat for keeping it besides skill + luck. If you can think of anything.. I'm just not sure. EDIT: Of course, one tip is if you have the SG and low energy, is to swap it with a CM, then die, get re-newed energy and take the SG back. I use that method often. 
- You might be right about not using Green 0 on Room 6, and using it in Room 4 instead. Thats interesting. The logic for me was obviously that it fits the spitter. I have actually never tried the room without doing it. What is good about the strat is that Room 4 is last, so even if you need some extra struggle there's at least no breakouts. 
I am not sure. I'd have to try Room 6 without the CM to have an opinion. If you do another test or two without it I'll trust your word for it too though. 

I tried it again and basically the same thing. Im not really in love with this strat. It works ok for the first 3 rooms but I think if theres an outbreak in a room, the virus gets MUCH stronger. There will be times im using the SG gun in a large area then POOF within seconds im surrounded. Room 7 and 4 are by far the hardest as is 3. Need to think of a better solution. Perhaps just leaving the first room and working elsewhere or using the CMs in better areas.

Also that first room is important, somtimes you'll get lucky and wipe out the middle area in little time, others you're down to 3 virus' and then its 3/4 engulfed again.

Weeell.. Admittedly the strat is designed to take care of the CORE breakouts, and to ignore first minor breakouts. I usually just let the first breakouts happen, so I can work on rooms, and attend the rooms first when they are blinking. If thats a good idea I'm starting to wonder. One could try to stop every first breakout too. But they happen every single minute according to your clock, so I just don't see how you're supposed to be able to get anything else done if you do that? You rarely are able to clean rooms within a minute. But you could try to go after the first breakouts more. I never tried that. You'd have to run around all the time. Not sure how to build a strat around that. Travelling takes time too, and sometimes energy as well.

I didn't find Room 7 to be that hard. You can work it out little room by little room. The SSVs are a bit annoying though, true, and in my strat its one of the last rooms to do so if you're out of lives it probably can be intense.. I suppose one could try to do it earlier? Too bad its so distant away. I found room 3 and 4 to be the most troubling ones personally. In the beginning Room 3 kicked my ass over and over, but after I understood the Proxy SSV was the one bringing the virus back all the time I started getting a better hang of it. Shooting through the tunnels without the proxy SVV going off sometimes worked magic, although it depended a bit on how the virus had spread too. I was able to push my luck at least. I think it makes sense to end with Room 4.

Its not a bad idea to save Room 1 for later. You can try that I suppose. I've had rounds where I struggled with the inner part too, while most times it went quickly. I think what happened for me when I beat Level 4 was simply that I had a good round. Most things went smooth. Usually at the end I'm hanging on to my last life or second to last life.. this time I had 4 lives to spare. And I used that strat pretty on the spot. I worry you are dependent on a good round. 

My progress with Level 5 is... okay. I think to start with Room 4, clean it, grab the Green 0 and go to room 8, put the Green 0 on its virus spitter seems like a good beginning strat. You can then grab the SG and clean room 8, and then clean Room 7 as well. Then my strat gets shaky. I had two very unfortunate rounds yesterday. Died to the core breakout timer twice, and both times just seconds before I was at the rooms. I was like "Are you kidding me!?". Perhaps just very bad luck, but I'm not sure..

I'm actually not sure if there's a golden strat that makes Level 4 or Level 5 a breeze, if that is what we are looking for. I think there's still an element of luck involved. Like if you lose your SG early in level 4 its probably over. No strat can help you with that. You just have to play carefully. There's also a luck factor with the breakouts. Sometimes the core breakouts happened in rooms I was going for anyhow, which is convenient, other times I have to travel through many many rooms and lose time and lose energy, and typically another one breaks out some other place meanwhile. That'll play out the rest of the round very different.

Wooof. I'm working on picking this game up now, it's something I played at a friend's house a lot as a kid but could never figure the damn thing out. I've got a grudge against it now, so this is a good reference!

Yes, if you want to help out with the perfect strategy to playing this game its very welcome. Its a challenging game though, so be warned.  

I've had some bad rounds on Level 5 now. It sucks when you start struggling with rooms you didn't before. Room 8 for me I used to clean with not too much problem, but now its like I can't beat it anymore.. I've become worse at it somehow.

Thats how im feeling on level 4.  I think the first time I played it I beat it.  Altho I WAS using a real NES instead of emulating it.  I hate the emulators cuz it doesnt feel right and its harder for me to play.

Sick if you beat it on first try. Then perhaps all this strategy is just senseless.

I dont believe that.  Im convinced theres a reason for all of it.  I think in the manual it mentions something about being able to beat rooms quick and I think thats the key.  Putting things in the right area to beat it quick.

It definitely feels like there is a way to beat the levels quickly, specially by making proper use of the items they give us.
I am occupied with the NA NES contest thingy for now, but once that is done with, I will put in serious effort here.

I tried the level 4 strat again and I still didnt like it. The first few rooms were ok but I got crushed cuz I kept getting killed with my SG gun getting surrounded by the aggressive virus in those bottom rooms (mainly room 7, and weaving thru room 4). I remember when I did beat it I think i saved room 2 and 3 for last.

Im gonna have to look at the map and rethink a plan.

I'm still 'stuck' at Level 5, so I can't really play Level 4 and test that at the moment. The strat worked pretty good for me though.
I'm not sure if re-arranging the room order makes it easier to keep the SG gun... If you have low life you can swap it with another CM, die, get new energy and the the SG again. Thats what I do all the time at least.

I have started playing a bit differently now though. At least on Level 5. I used to wait until the core breakouts happen before really acting on them.. but after gaming over to several emergency evacuations now, I feel even unfairly sometimes, I've started to go paranoid and try to even out every pink room too. Seems like that actually could be a lot smarter, even though it means flying like a maniac between the rooms all the time. My last round on Level 5 might have been the best one in a while. Sadly I lost too many lives stupidly early on so I died, but I managed to clean 4 rooms, and almost another one, and I had the other rooms quite under control. I think almost beating 5 rooms is the best I've ever got.

I've been changing my strategy on Level 5 too. I still start going to Room 4, and I'm able to clean it very very quickly every round now. Instead of going to Room 8(which I've started to hate with a passion) I've been the last rounds going to Room 3 instead. The Green 1 fits perfectly there too. Then I take the shield, and go into Room 2 and grab the Green 0.. and I go to Room 6, put the Green 0 there and get the SG that stays. THEN its a rush between stopping every single breakouts and cleaning the rooms. Because the breakouts happen so randomly they sort of decide what room to go for and which room you'll try to clean next. So I don't really try to do them in order, although I still think it can be strategic to do easier rooms first if possible.

When you have the rooms somewhat under control its time to choose a room nearby and beat it QUICK. On Level 5 speed becomes a huge factor. I'm wondering if I recommend doing Room 8 as the last boss. That room is evil, I tell you..

Holy goat. I can not believe it.. I beat the game.  

The console has been on for over a week. Now the poor guy can finally get some rest.

Ahh congrats! Now I know why you couldn't use the other strats. You should have just emulated it to help the other levels  

Thanks, guitarzombie. I was almost dead so I was just mentally preparing to be happy to beat 7 out 8 rooms, which I would have been happy with too honestly, but then the evil Room 8 sort of lucked out after a while.

My memory of level 4 is so fuzzy, but yeah, I realized with level 5 at least that because of the crazy random breakouts one shouldn't really force oneself to do rooms in any particular order. Some CMs should be used in some particular places, thats true, but I think the key really is to stop the breakouts, then beat a room, then stop to do a room, then stop breakouts, then do a room, then stop breakouts, etc... The last couple of rounds for me which has been good, I did the first couple of rooms in order(and I would again if I played the level again), but after the breakouts I stopped trying to do them in order.

I also noticed I didn't always need the SG. I beat at least three first rooms with only the SF. The virus are often strong when you enter an infected room, but if you manage to build yourself a pocket its actually do-able with the SF.