How to Play Pandemic

Pandemic puts everyone at the table on one team against four diseases spreading across a map of the world. You win together or you lose together, and there is no score to keep. Either the team finds all four cures, or the world gets away from you.

This lesson covers the current Z-Man Games edition in our own words, with official terms in bold to match the rulebook. Our Pandemic explainer covers why it works.

Prefer to watch first? Watch It Played teaches the rules on video in its Pandemic How To Play video. Watch it, then come back here for the rules in writing and the rest of the course.

What is in the box?

A board of 48 cities linked by lines, in four colors. Each color is a disease: blue, yellow, black, and red. You also get 96 disease cubes (24 per color), 6 research stations, 7 roles with matching pawns, and markers for the infection rate, outbreaks, and cures.

There are two decks. The 59 Player cards are 48 City cards, 6 Epidemic cards, and 5 Event cards. The 48 Infection cards name one city each.

How do you set up?

1. Put a research station in Atlanta. Sort the cubes by color into four piles beside the board.
2. Put the outbreaks marker on 0. Set the four cure markers, vial side up, beside the cure indicators.
3. Put the infection rate marker on the first “2” space. Shuffle the Infection cards and flip 3: put 3 cubes on each of those cities. Flip 3 more for 2 cubes each, then 3 more for 1 cube each. Those 9 cards go face up on the Infection discard pile.
4. Deal each player a role card face up and a reference card. Put the matching pawns in Atlanta. Unused roles go back in the box.
5. Take out the Epidemic cards. Shuffle the other Player cards and deal starting hands: 4 cards each with 2 players, 3 with 3 players, 2 with 4 players.
6. Pick a difficulty: 4 Epidemics for Introductory, 5 for Standard, 6 for Heroic. Split the remaining Player cards into that many face-down piles, as even as you can. Shuffle one Epidemic into each pile, then stack them with the smaller piles on the bottom.
7. The player holding the City card with the highest population goes first.

For your first game, use 4 Epidemics. In the Introductory game, everyone plays with their cards face up.

What do you do on your turn?

Three parts, always in this order.

1. Do 4 actions. Mix and repeat them freely.

• Drive / Ferry: move along a line to a connected city. Lines that run off one edge of the map wrap around to the other.
• Direct Flight: discard a City card to move to that city.
• Charter Flight: discard the City card that matches where you are to move to any city.
• Shuttle Flight: move from one research station to any other.
• Build a Research Station: discard the City card that matches where you are. If all 6 are built, move one from elsewhere.
• Treat Disease: remove 1 cube from your city. If that disease is cured, remove every cube of that color there.
• Share Knowledge: give or take the City card that matches the city you are both in. Both players must agree.
• Discover a Cure: at any research station, discard 5 City cards of one color to cure that disease.

2. Draw 2 Player cards. If one is an Epidemic, resolve it right away. Then, if you hold more than 7 cards, discard or play Event cards until you have 7.

3. Infect cities. Flip Infection cards equal to the current infection rate, one at a time. Put 1 cube of the matching color on each city named.

Then the player on your left takes a turn.

What happens in an Epidemic?

Three steps, in order.

1. Increase: move the infection rate marker forward one space. The track reads 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4.
2. Infect: draw the bottom Infection card and put 3 cubes on that city. If it already has cubes of that color, fill it to 3, and it outbreaks.
3. Intensify: shuffle only the Infection discard pile and put it on top of the Infection deck.

That last step is the heart of the game: the cities just infected are about to be hit again. Then the Epidemic card leaves the game. You do not draw a replacement.

What is an outbreak?

A city holds at most 3 cubes of one color. When it would get a 4th, it outbreaks instead. Move the outbreaks marker up one, then put 1 cube of that color on every connected city.

If one of those already has 3, it outbreaks too: a chain reaction. A city that already had an outbreak while resolving the same card takes no more cubes from the chain.

What do roles and Event cards do?

Each role bends the rules in its own way. The Medic removes all cubes of a color with one Treat action. The Scientist cures with 4 cards. The Researcher can give any City card when sharing. The Operations Expert builds research stations without a card. The Dispatcher moves other pawns, with permission. The Quarantine Specialist stops cubes from landing on her city and every city connected to it. The Contingency Planner can take a used Event card back for later.

Event cards are the five special Player cards. Playing one is not an action. Anyone may play one at almost any time, even on another player’s turn, except between drawing a card and resolving it.

How does the game end?

Your team wins the moment it discovers the fourth cure, even with cubes still on the board. Curing a disease and then clearing its last cube eradicates it, so its cities get no new cubes. That helps, but it is never required.

You lose at once if:

• the 8th outbreak happens,
• you need to place cubes of a color and not enough are left, or
• a player cannot draw 2 Player cards after their actions.

That last one is the clock. The Player deck is how much time your team has left.