Pandemic: How It Plays, Who Should Buy It, and Where to Start

All players' pawns start in Atlanta. One research station is also placed in Atlanta during setup, since Atlanta is home to the CDC.

After setup, the players look at the City cards in their hands, and the player holding the city with the highest population goes first. Play then proceeds to the left after each player finishes infecting cities.

During setup you flip 9 Infection cards total: 3 cubes go on each of the first 3 cities, 2 cubes on each of the next 3 cities, and 1 cube on each of the final 3 cities. That places 18 disease cubes in total, each matching the color of its city, and those 9 cards start the Infection Discard Pile.

You choose the difficulty by using 4, 5, or 6 Epidemic cards, for an Introductory, Standard, or Heroic game respectively. Unused Epidemic cards are removed from the game. The rulebook suggests 4 Epidemic cards for your first game and 6 once you have mastered the Standard game.

Divide the player cards into face down piles as equal in size as you can, with one pile per Epidemic card being used. Shuffle 1 Epidemic card into each pile face down, then stack the piles to form the Player Deck with the smaller piles on the bottom. This spreads the Epidemic cards roughly evenly through the deck.

The infection rate marker begins on the left-most “2” space of the Infection Rate Track, so each player infects 2 cities at the end of their turn until the first epidemic. Each Epidemic card drawn moves the marker forward 1 space.

You may do up to 4 actions each turn, choosing any combination of the listed actions. Your role's special abilities may change how an action is done.

You either give the City card matching the city you are in to another player, or take that card from another player. The other player must be in the same city with you, and both of you must agree to the transfer. If the receiving player then has more than 7 cards, they must immediately discard a card or play an Event card.

Your hand limit is 7 cards. If you ever have more than 7 cards — after first resolving any Epidemic cards you drew — you must discard cards or play Event cards until you are back to 7. Only Player cards count toward the limit; your Role and Reference cards are not part of your hand.

Yes. During a turn, any player may play Event cards, and playing one is not an action. Event cards can be played at any time except in between drawing and resolving a card.

Normally Treat Disease removes 1 disease cube from the city you are in, but if that color has been cured, one Treat Disease action removes all cubes of that color from the city. If a city holds cubes from several cured diseases, you must still Treat Disease once for each cured color to clear them.

No. Pandemic is a fully cooperative game, so the entire team wins together or loses together. There is no individual winner or scoring between players.

The game ends the moment the fourth cure is discovered — the players win immediately. It does not matter how many disease cubes are still on the board, and you do not finish the turn or infect cities first.

If you need to place disease cubes and there are not enough cubes of the needed color left in the supply, the game ends immediately and the team loses. This can happen during an epidemic, an outbreak, or the infect cities step.

If a player is about to draw and there are fewer than 2 cards left in the Player Deck, the game ends and the team has lost. You never reshuffle the Player Discard Pile to form a new deck — the deck running out represents your team running out of time.

No, nothing happens. A disease is only eradicated if the last cube of a cured disease is removed from the board; clearing every cube of an uncured disease has no effect.

Resolve the full three-step epidemic sequence (Increase, Infect, Intensify) once, and then do all three steps again for the second card. Both Epidemic cards are then removed from the game, and you do not draw replacement cards for either of them.

The Quarantine Specialist prevents both outbreaks and the placement of disease cubes in the city she occupies and in every city connected to that city. Her protection does not apply to cubes placed during setup.

Yes. Players may freely examine either the Player Discard Pile or the Infection Discard Pile at any time. This lets the team plan around which cities may come back after an epidemic or which cards have already been used.

No. The Dispatcher may not use the Operations Expert's special move ability when moving the Operations Expert's pawn. When the Dispatcher moves another player's pawn as if it were his own, he discards cards for Direct and Charter Flights from his own hand, and a Charter Flight card must match the city the pawn is moving from.

Yes. The Medic's automatic removal of cubes of cured diseases can occur on other players' turns if he is moved by the Dispatcher or the Airlift Event. Entering a city this way triggers the same automatic removal as moving on his own turn, and it still does not take an action.