1.) Pick Virus. 2) Start in Canada, New Zealand, Cuba, Greenland, West Europe, or Madagascar. If you do not get there restart. 3) Sell the starting symptoms, and buy sneezing (unless it is what you started with, just keep it). 4) Buy 1-1-1-0 resistances but no transmissions (they trigger closures). 5) Once four countries are infected, sell sneezing to get rid of visibility. 6) Wait until all countries are infected. If Madagascar closes its shipyards/borders or is not infected in 30 days, restart. 7) Buy all four drug resistances AND sneezing, coughing, and vomiting. 8) After a few days, unlock tiers 2-3, (do not buy tier 4 ever!) keeping whatever symptoms it gives you. 9) Buy fever, fatigue, diarrhea, pulmonary edema, and hypersensitivity. Then save for kidney failure and ataxia. 10) keep this comment alive Thanks for the comment! I got 13th of all time by using this method
 "Pandemic 2"){kind=icon}
 "40xEscape"){kind=icon}
 "CycloManiacs 2"){kind=icon}