Pandemic

1 Game Overview

Pandemic is a fully cooperative game — everyone wins together or loses together. There is no individual winner.

Four diseases (represented by colored cubes) are spreading across a world map. Your team of specialists must travel the globe, treat infections, share knowledge, and ultimately discover cures for all four diseases. If you succeed, you all win. If the diseases spread too fast, outbreaks cascade, or you run out of time, everyone loses.

Pandemic is widely regarded as one of the best cooperative games ever made, and it plays differently every time due to the randomized setup and epidemic cards.

2 What's in the Box

• 1 board (world map)
• 96 disease cubes (24 each of 4 colors)
• 6 research stations
• 7 role cards
• 7 role pawns
• 59 player cards (48 city cards, 6 epidemic cards, 5 event cards)
• 48 infection cards
• 4 reference cards
• 1 infection rate marker
• 1 outbreak marker
• 4 cure markers (vials)

3 Setup

1. Place the board. Set the infection rate marker on the first space (2) and the outbreak marker on the start space (0).
2. Place 1 research station in Atlanta (the CDC's home city).
3. Shuffle the infection cards. Draw 3 — place 3 disease cubes on each city. Draw 3 more — place 2 cubes on each. Draw 3 more — place 1 cube on each. These 9 cards go face-up on the infection discard pile. Shuffle the remaining infection cards.
4. Prepare the player deck: shuffle the city cards and event cards together. Remove epidemic cards, divide remaining cards into equal piles (one per epidemic card), shuffle one epidemic card into each pile, then stack the piles in order. This ensures epidemics are spread throughout the game.
5. Deal player cards: 4 players get 2 each, 3 players get 3 each, 2 players get 4 each.
6. Each player takes a role card and matching pawn — all pawns start in Atlanta.

4 Turn Structure

Each player's turn has three phases in order:

1. Do 4 actions — choose any combination of the available actions (see below).
2. Draw 2 player cards — draw the top 2 cards from the player deck. If you draw an Epidemic card, resolve it immediately (see Epidemics). If you now hold more than 7 cards, discard down to 7.
3. Infect cities — draw the number of infection cards shown on the infection rate marker (2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4 depending on how many epidemics have occurred). Add 1 disease cube of the matching color to each drawn city.

5 Player Actions

You get 4 actions per turn. You can use them in any order, repeating actions if desired.

Movement Actions

• Drive/Ferry: Move to a city connected to your current city by a line on the board.
• Direct Flight: Discard a city card from your hand to fly directly to that city.
• Charter Flight: Discard the city card matching your current location to fly to any city on the board.
• Shuttle Flight: If your city has a research station and another city also has one, move to that other city for free.

Other Actions

• Build a Research Station: Discard the city card for your current location to place a research station there. (You start with 6 total.)
• Treat Disease: Remove 1 disease cube from your current city. If that disease is cured, remove all cubes of that color in the city for 1 action.
• Share Knowledge: Give or take a city card with another player in the same city — but the card must match the city you're in.
• Discover a Cure: At a research station, discard 5 cards of the same color to cure that disease. Move the cure marker to the cured position.

6 Player Roles

Each role has a special ability that breaks one of the standard rules. Roles are dealt randomly.

• 🔬 Medic: Removes all cubes of one color when treating (1 action). Removes cured disease cubes automatically just by being in that city.
• 🔭 Scientist: Needs only 4 cards (not 5) to discover a cure.
• 🔄 Researcher: Can give any city card (not just the current city's card) to another player in the same city.
• 🏗️ Operations Expert: Can build research stations without discarding; can move from a research station to any city by discarding any city card.
• ✈️ Dispatcher: Can move other players' pawns as if they were their own; can move any pawn to any city with another pawn for 1 action.
• 🌐 Quarantine Specialist: Prevents the placement of disease cubes in their current city and adjacent cities.
• 📦 Contingency Planner: Can pick up an event card from the discard pile and use it later.

7 Disease Mechanics

Infection & Cubes

Each city can hold a maximum of 3 disease cubes of any single color. If a 4th cube would be placed on a city, an Outbreak occurs instead.

Curing vs. Eradicating

• Cured: Flip the vial to show the cure marker. Treating that disease is now more efficient (Medic removes all for free; others still remove 1 per action, but it no longer triggers losing conditions unless you run out of cubes).
• Eradicated: If all cubes of a cured disease are removed from the board, that disease is eradicated. No new cubes of that color are placed for the rest of the game.

8 Outbreaks & Epidemics

Outbreaks

When a 4th cube would be placed on a city: move the outbreak marker forward 1 space on the outbreak track. Then place 1 cube of that color in each city connected to the outbreak city (that doesn't already have 3). If this causes another city to exceed 3 cubes, that city also outbreaks — creating a chain. A city can only outbreak once per chain.

Epidemics

When you draw an Epidemic card, three things happen in order:

1. Increase: Advance the infection rate marker one space (infections per turn go up permanently).
2. Infect: Draw the bottom card from the infection draw pile. Place 3 disease cubes of that color in that city. If there aren't enough cubes of that color, an outbreak occurs.
3. Intensify: Shuffle the infection discard pile and place it on top of the infection draw pile. Cities that were already infected are now more likely to be infected again.

9 Winning & Losing

Win Condition

Cure all 4 diseases. The moment the 4th cure is discovered, the players win immediately — even mid-turn. You do not need to eradicate; curing is enough.

Lose Conditions (any one of these = game over)

• The outbreak marker reaches the end of the outbreak track (8 outbreaks total).
• You need to place a disease cube but there are none left in the supply for that color.
• A player needs to draw a player card but the player deck is empty.

10 Strategy Tips

• Communicate constantly. This is the most important rule. Tell everyone what's in your hand, where you're going, and what you're worried about. Hidden information kills teams.
• Don't chase cubes; prevent outbreaks. One outbreak leads to more. Focus on keeping cities under 3 cubes, especially highly connected hubs.
• Collect cards for one cure together. Decide early who's gathering which color. Don't have two players collecting the same color.
• Use the Medic efficiently. If you have a Medic, route them through outbreak-prone regions. They're exponentially more powerful than other players at treating.
• Build research stations strategically. You only have 6. Place them near clusters of cities in the same color, not just in big cities.
• Watch the infection discard pile. After an epidemic, those cities will infect again soon. Keep them treated.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions