Poptropica Virus Hunter Brain

Somewhere in Poptropica, an unknown citizen harbors within his bloodstream a dangerous new virus. Your mission: locate Patient Zero, and eradicate the disease before it spreads. Prepare for a perilous journey to the most far-out place of all — inside the human body!

Right away, there's something these residents know that you don't. Apparently a bunch of scientists in lab coats have stormed the island. Go left and talk to the guy listening to the radio. It seems like there's some anti-government pirate radio station on, broadcasting from nearby. Hmm... this is getting more serious than a few disturbed neighbors. Run right all the way and into the next area. Hey, that's not a pizza delivery van! Run into the store to follow that woman with the lab coat. But she's not inside! Talk to the clerk. She'll deny it. And she won't let you go into the Staff Only area to check. IT'S A CONSPIRACY, I TELL YOU!

Exit and run right, to what may be the most strenuous fitness center in the world. It's free equipment trial day, apparently. Run left and snap the blue resistance band. Grab it and exit, then run left to Main Street. Go to the guy with the radio and jump up to the bus stop awning. Jump from there to the bird's nest. Hey, is that a person up there? Use the Resistance Band on the hook there to climb up. It's the pirate radio broadcaster! He's saying something crazy about reptilian invasions... Talk to him. He wants you to check out the mysterious pizza delivery van behind the condos he sees. Those conspiracy theorists... by the way, here's an article on the New World Order he's talking about. But don't take it too seriously.

Run all the way left, to Knave's Landing. Run left and use the Dumpster to jump left. That van doesn't say Pizza Delivery Company, it says PDC! And why does it have such a huge antenna behind it? Talk to him too much and he'll race off, dropping some shredded documents. They don't mean anything to you, but take them to the conspiracy theorist. Now you'll have to assemble them again, which is pretty easy. (You only have to assemble the blueprints) One is a bogus pizza company thing, but the other things are more interesting: 'Secret Laboratory' sound suitably James Bond-ish, and the other is a staged conversation between an agent and a customer. We need to get to the bottom of this. He'll look through his phony credentials list... holy cow! That's like half of the American government services! We know where to find the PDC. To the movie rental store! Run right, to the next area, and walk in. Use the ID card and you're in!

Press the DOWN button on the elevator. That's one slick elevator! We need to talk to a Dr. Lange now. Run right... hey, what's this! You're being disinfected now. James Bond never had to go through this, where's the Secret Lab?! Continue right and talk to the two people there. Apparently, you're an immunopathologist now. Did James Bond have to... okay fine, I'll shut up about Bond now. Go right and talk to Dr. Lange. Uh-oh. Crayon badges! James--- Uh, oh. Now we've been recruited as a 'volunteer' for the PDC. It looks like someone in the town is infected with a super-virus: the (made-up) CC13 influenza. I think I know where we'll find this Patient Zero. Run all the way left, past Main Street, and to Knave's Landing. Enter and click on the trash bin. Yep, it's Dumpster diving again!

Hey, there's a Globochem employee: Joe Stockman, in #3. And... click on the airline's mail... he has traveled recently! Joe's at work. Leave the building and run right, to Main Street, then keep going past the video shop. Talk to the falafel cook. Hey, this is our window! He's delivering lunch to Globochem. Run after him. At Globochem, you can piggyback on his entrance. You're in! Climb the stairs, and make your way up. Gee, this looks like a fun place to work... not! At the very top left, we find our guy. You distract him with some Bucky Lucas thing, and so take his picture. Run, he's infected! Run all the way to the secret bunker under the PDC. Have you noticed the huge amount of Reality TV Island references here?

Present the picture to Dr. Lange. You'll be taken to the Secret Laboratory. In order to isolate the virus without Joe knowing, we have to... wait, we have to... did I hear that right? We have to get shrunk and go inside Joe Stockman?! This is madness! But unfortunately, you've volunteered. Stand in front of the giant laser ray... now this looks like James Bo---right. Before you know it, you're inside somebody's bloodstream. How does this happen to you? But this looks amazing! Move left, then down. Huh. Looks like this guy has been eating too much candy! Click on your ship, then click on the red spinning laser. Use this to cut through the layers of fat. Now, click on your ship and click the yellowish one that looks like a wheel. Bring it near the quivering blue nerve cell, and press the SPACEBAR. The muscle barrier will spread to admit you! Do this twice more to continue. Go up, until you encounter the cut. That looks nasty from this scale! Choose the coagulant tool from the left side of your ship. You can't move forward very far, so you have to shoot the cuts from a distance using the spacebar. Once they are sealed, you can move on. Virus alert! Quickly click your ship and choose the guns, the one on the very top. Again, press space to shoot the wave of viruses. The yellow bubbles that float out when viruses explode are power-ups that will increase the power of your ship's guns. This one is kind of easy! But I have a feeling that it's about to get a lot harder. Now watch as Joe Stockman greedily accepts the Chinese takeout... with a little bit more than dumplings and meatballs.

What? Where are you? It's dark, slimy, and there's food pouring out of a corner. Hey, it's the stomach! Move around a little bit to explore. Virus attack! This one is simple enough: just keep your spacebar pressed down, and point at any virus as soon as you see it. If they get too close from all sides, just move away from them and they will bunch up to follow you. This will make them easier to shoot. That was too easy! But wait. Looks like Joe got himself stabbed in the finger with a chopstick splinter. To the hand! Go to the bottom right of the stomach and move up until you see a passageway that you can click on. Click it and click the hand. Then hold on to your hats for a ride through the bloodstream!

Let's find that infection. You'll see a three-way fork. Take the fork down, and take the next fork up. Now it'll curve upwards. Skip the first branch off to the right, and take the second one. Then continue right until you see the infection. Oh, that's nasty... the hideous green blobs are the viruses, while the hideous white blobs are the white blood cells fighting the viruses. Well, that'll end quickly when Joe pulls out the splinter. But wait... they're attacking you now! And you can't move, you can only watch in horror as all your weapons and tools except the guns are confiscated by the immune system. They're scattered all over the body now! We can't get to the ones in the heart, brain, and arm without some of our tools (what a paradox), but the one in the mouth may be possible. To the stomach!

Move to the very top-left of the stomach. Joe's drinking some grape juice now, and that will work in our favor. As soon as the little trapdoor (the epiglottis) opens to allow the grape juice, click on it to move up to the esophagus. Now you'll have to eave the safety *cough* and... comfort *choke* of your nano-ship. Jump to the platform on the right and jump up when a bubble comes underneath you to take a ride. At the top, jump off right and onto the platform there. Walk right... there's the teeth! Jump on the first one and keep jumping your way right. Has this guy heard of the magical invention known as the toothbrush? Thank goodness there's no smell in Poptropica. At the end, you'll see our shield, nestled beside a gold tooth. Jump up, knocking the gold tooth, numerous times until the shield gets knocked out and you can collect it. Run back to the ship and click on it to re-enter the stomach... this time, with some better protection.

Yep, you read this paragraph title right. Move to the bottom left corner of the stomach and wait for the opening there to open. When it does, follow it down. In the intestines, there are drops of acid everywhere, which will cause damage to your ship if they touch you. So move quickly! When you see a huge blockage of gum and other assorted food scraps (Joe, Joe... what are you doing to yourself?), use your guns to fire through it. Around this time you'll experience another virus attack, but it's small and it will actually help to upgrade your guns. Make your way to the bottom of the intestines, shooting at blockages to open them. Holy cow, a coin! Too bad you don't have the electro-shock tool, or you could make the nerve move it. Go right, and on to the next area. Keep going right... uh-oh. A virus, and this one looks a little odd. No, two weird viruses! It gets worse. It's just one huge virus! Often, it will shoot down a sharp hook from the ceiling or the bottom. There's plenty of warning for this, so when this is about to happen, move away and then shoot at the tip. This will weaken the virus, and when you've done this a few times and things are looking desperate, the white blood cells will come to the rescue! They'll destroy the virus for you, and leave behind the Laser Scalpel. Use it to drill through the layer of fat to your right and you'll be back in the bloodstream. Click on the heart.

Laser scalpel! orders the doc. This is gonna get ugly. Okay, whatever, just use the laser scalpel to drill through the layer of fat under you right now. Move down and... uh-oh. The doc was right--this is gonna get ugly. Another massive virus boss! Don't try to shoot at him--this will only provoke him to wrap you in those sharp tentacles. Instead, wait until he relaxes and spreads out the tentacles, then come near with the laser scalpel active. Drill into him and he will start flashing red. Then, he'll give up and run away. But is he really gone? Drill through the next fat barrier... and there he still is! Same strategy, except when he bunches up his tentacles, get worried. He's about to charge! He'll move off once again. Follow him under the huge blood vessel and cut through the next fat barrier, a little above you. A big one like this... By this time you may be low on health. Move to the very top of the left atrium (the open area you're in right now) and shoot red blood cells to gain strength. They will explode and release blue health power-ups. Same strategy as last time on the big fellow. Now power through the next two barriers and pummel him with all you've got. (Something tells me this isn't how doctors do this, but whatever.) He'll shrivel up and die, and the white blood cells will start rushing in. What took them so long? Grab the coagulant tool. Then go backwards, all the way to the heart entrance. We're going to have some fun with the coagulant, that boss battle was too exciting.

Go to the hand. You'l get a message that Joe has a tissue hemorrhage. Move around, finding cuts, and use the coagulant to seal them as shown in the tutorial. Just shoot at the cuts from a distance until the blood flow stops. When you've got them all, you'll get a message that the hemorrhage has healed. Next, go to the stomach. Better hope you like grape juice, because you're about to get submerged in some! Go down, into the grape juice, and find the cut. Use the coagulant to seal it and you'll get a message that the stomach ulcer has been resolved. Back into the bloodstream now, and from there to the arm.

Looks like Joe is working out! This only makes it more difficult for us to navigate his arm. But never fear, the doc--okay, fine, I'll stop. Back to the trusty coagulant now. Use it to seal the huge cut in front of you. Now move forward and left. Seal the next cut and continue up. This next one is kind of tough. You see, the muscles have very sharp surfaces (no idea why) and this gap is very narrow. The timing will have to be just right, because even if you get past, there's a cut ahead that will push you back. So lean down on the spacebar to start firing coagulant and wait for them to start contracting (spreading apart). When this happens, rush ahead. The cut should be sealed by now. Continue down with this same strategy and turn the corner right. If you are like me, then you're going to be pretty low on health by now. So before sealing the next cut, shoot some red blood cells to collect health. Then continue right, up, and turn left. I would shoot the cut before continuing left, and after that go up. Now you have to do something strange. Go right above the muscle, moving past the first sharp part (and only the first). Then shoot the next cut from here, before continuing right. On to the next area. Looks like the sharp muscle surfaces were caused by tissue calcification, as reported by the ship right now. (Tissue calcification is when muscles become hard and stiff, instead of flexible). Go down in this area. Whoa! Those things that look like rocks are the root of Joe's arm problem. Use the laser scalpel to destroy them. Then go up and go right. Uh-oh... Joe's getting a cramp!

Joe is saved! Move left and grab the electro-shock, then use it on the nerves in the upper-left corner. The cramp will end, and you can leave this area. The next two can be done in any order.

Return to the bloodstream and click Brain. Shock the nerve ending there to clear the way to the brain. Move in and... oh great, another virus boss! This one is immune to weapon fire, but the minions that he created to attack you are not. He puts out four at a time and always stands on a neuron. And that will be his undoing. Don't waste fire on him, use it against the minions. Move to the bottom left and use the coagulant to seal that cut. Then let's take a look at the neuron here. Neurons can be moved around by using the electro-shock tool and pressing the spacebar on the small end. Then, it will follow your ship until it touches the big end of another neuron. To undo a change, just shock that neuron again.

The neuron here is the only one with electrical current in it (electrified ones will pulse with light). The strategy is to connect this one to another neuron to electrify that one and so on, creating a chain. As you may have guessed, this chain eventually leads to the neuron that the virus boss is standing on. Every time you shock him, he will move to another neuron and all the ones you changed will be returned to their original positions. When you've shocked him five times, he will be consumed by white blood cells. Why are these guys always so late? No wonder Joe got sick!

This next bit is simple. Go down the brain stem, back into the bloodstream. Hey, there's a new destination: you can now go into the mouth from the brain! Click on the mouth. Tooth cavity... what next? Activate the laser scalpel and move down and right. Get underneath the first row of teeth and move forward until you get to the sharp tooth sticking out the wrong way. Activate the laser scalpel, then drill the tooth away. Hey, I thought scalpels were about care and precision, not mindless blasting! Anyway, finish up the tooth here... virus alert! Fortunately, these are weak. Shoot through them until you get back to the top left corner, then re-enter the bloodstream. Click on Heart.

Make your way through the heart like you did last time, except at the end, go up the blood vessel. It'll curve to the right, and leads to the lungs. Looks like our friend Joe is at the bus stop. Move up in the lungs. I wonder why it's so dark here? Perfect place for a boss fight... Go left, over into the other lung, and keep going down. And there's the boss! He looks like he's... tickling Joe's alveoli??? This one is fairly straightforward: he has four yellow arms, only one of which is activated at a time. You have to get in at a reasonable distance and just keep firing at the end of that arm until it breaks off and he moves away. He's pretty easy to find; he leaves a trail of mini-viruses in his wake. You know the drill with those. Just keep following him around and shooting his arms off until the white blood cells swoop in, fashionably late as usual, and finish the job. The virus has been contained, good... hey, what's happening?! Joe's going to... sneeze? Wait,... AH-CHOO! After such a hard fight against the viruses, you're blown away (har har) at how easily you can be knocked out. Finally, the doctors come rushing in and you grow back to your normal size. Just as you're dusting yourself off and waiting for the room to stop spinning, the doctor congratulates Joe for... saving the world?!! Hey, I did that! I want my credit!!!

Dr. Lange explains to you that this was a black-ops mission and... are you sitting down? ...and you can't tell anybody about your heroic actions, nor ever take any credit. WHAT THE---hey, gold! Is that for me?

Exit the building. What's gotten into that dog? It'll run off to the right, away from its owner. Talk to her. Apparently Belle, the dog, has been acting strangely since she ate something from the Dumpster. I'm getting a bad feeling about this... Uh-oh. The 'something' that Belle ate is from the PDC! Take it to the secret lab under the video shop and talk to Dr. Lange. The dog has ingested an extremely rare and deadly form of heartworm... sound familiar?... and we have to get into the dog again. But where is she?
Exit the video store and run right, to the Falafel stand. Pick up the leftovers, then run left to Main Street. There's Belle! Feed her the leftovers. Next thing you know, you're inside her mouth!

Move to the top of the mouth. Has this dog been chewing on rocks?? The whole top of her mouth is covered in cuts. Use the coagulant tool to seal the cuts. Watch out for the white liquid dropping from the ceiling, though. Then go right--whoa, look at those tentacles! Doubtless the result of the heartworm. Shoot at the two tentacles to make them disappear. At the bottom right of the screen, you'll spot the heartworm, the root of the problem. But it's blocking your way right now, so go right to the next area--the stomach.

This dog was probably sick before the heartworm--look at all this fat and undigested 'Pop Chow'! As usual, use your laser scalpel on the fat barriers and your gun on the dog biscuits to cleanse the stomach. Shoot the tentacles as you go. Beware, they move slowly at first and trick you into thinking that their range is smaller than it really is. Only get close just after they have whipped around. That said-- after you are done, go to the bottom left and enter the intestines. In this maze, there are muscles of three different colors (red, purple, yellow) with corresponding nerves that make them open or close. Time to equip the Electroshock tool!

The technique is simple: since each nerve makes one muscle open and one muscle close, go through the maze by triggering each nerve of each color only once. Shoot the tentacles as you make your way to the end. When you get to a dead end (a red muscle), go back the way you came by just going through the earlier steps in reverse order. Go back through the stomach to the mouth. Now the heartworm will part to let you through! Or is it just moving a little farther away? Anyway, go down to the lungs.

This area is heavily infected with the heartworm! The lung is covered in holes, from where tentacles will come out of from time to time. If you shoot at one enough, it will retreat into its hole for a few seconds. You cannot kill them all, they're like the Hydra... you have to just shoot a path diagonally to the bottom right and go through as fast as you can. Now you will be in the Heart.

The final showdown at last! The mighty heartworm is bunched up into a big circle right now, but it's split up into quarters. Shoot at a quarter from a little far off, and two tentacles will sprout out of that corner. Now move your ship as far away as you can and commence shooting on the tentacles--but not on another quarter! Then shoot out another quarter and repeat until all eight tentacles have been destroyed. It wasn't so mighty after all--the white blood cells will now crush it to smithereens, right on time as usual... not. Now go through the tunnel, to the mouth, and exit. You'll receive the Ace Pilot Costume as reward.

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