How to Play

Pandemic

2-4 players 45-45 min 7.5 Board Game Geek Rating

In Pandemic, players control disease-fighting specialists working cooperatively to cure four deadly plagues spreading across global cities. Each turn, players use four actions to travel, treat infections, research cures, or build stations. Epidemic cards accelerate disease spread while role-specific abilities aid strategy. Teams win by curing all diseases before outbreaks overwhelm the world.

Published 2008

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Set up the board

Place the game board and prepare all disease cubes and cards

Establish starting location

Place all player pawns at the initial research station in Atlanta

Deal starting cards

Each player receives player cards to form their starting hand

Prepare infection deck

Shuffle and place the infection deck, then draw initial infection cards to seed the board with disease cubes

Explain roles

Review everyone's roles and special abilities before beginning

Choose difficulty

Select Introductory game (open hands) vs Standard game (keeping player cards hidden)

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Take four actions

Choose any combination of the available actions on your turn

Move by car/ferry

Travel from one point on the map to an adjacent connected city

Fly by plane

Discard a card of the destination city to fly directly there

Charter a flight

Discard a card matching your current city to fly anywhere on the map

Take shuttle flight

Travel instantly from one research station to another research station

Build a research station

Discard a card matching your current city to construct a research station there

Treat a disease

Remove one disease cube from the city you currently occupy

Share knowledge

Give or take a card that matches the city both you and another player occupy

Discover a cure

Discard 5 cards of the same color while at a research station to cure that disease

Draw two player cards

After actions, draw two cards from the player deck

Discard to hand limit

If you exceed 7 cards, discard down to the hand limit of 7

Resolve infections

Flip infection cards equal to the current infection rate and place one cube of matching color on each revealed city

Resolve epidemics

When drawing an Epidemic card: a) increase infection rate by 1, b) draw from bottom of infection deck and place 3 cubes there, c) shuffle that card with the discard pile and place on top of infection deck

Resolve outbreaks

When placing a cube on a city with 3 cubes, place 1 cube on every connected city instead and advance the outbreak marker

Track chain reactions

Outbreaks can trigger further outbreaks in connected cities

Play event cards

Any player can use event cards at any time for no action cost