How to Play Pandemic Legacy: Season 1

Get Ready

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

Read the Mission Briefing

When playing a month for the first time, draw cards from the Legacy Deck until reaching one that says STOP, then read and integrate new cards

Set out the board and pieces

Place all structures nearby, separate cubes by color into 4 supply piles, and place a research station in each city with a starting research station sticker (Atlanta at game start)

Place outbreaks and cure markers

Put the outbreaks marker on the "0" space of the Outbreaks Track and place the 4 cure markers "vial" side up at the bottom of the disease tracking area

Place objectives

Put all current objectives in the objectives area of the board

Select Funded Events

As a group, choose which Funded Event cards go into the Player Deck, up to your current funding level (4 for first game)

Shuffle and deal Player cards

Shuffle selected Event cards with City cards and deal to players based on player count

Keep hands faceup

Players keep their hands visible at all times

Prepare the Player Deck

Divide remaining player cards into 5 roughly equal facedown piles, shuffle 1 Epidemic card into each pile facedown, then stack piles with smaller piles at the bottom

Select Characters and Starting Location

Each player selects a character and player color, receives the corresponding Reference card and pawn, and places pawns at any one research station (all characters must start together)

Place infection rate marker

Put the infection rate marker on the left-most "2" space of the Infection Rate Track

Infect initial cities

Shuffle Infection cards and flip 3 cards, placing 3 disease cubes on each city; flip 3 more cards, placing 2 cubes on each; flip 3 more cards, placing 1 cube on each (18 total cubes matching city colors)

Create Infection Discard Pile

Place the 9 drawn Infection cards faceup in the Infection Discard Pile

Use game winning bonus

Apply any bonus earned from winning the previous month (none for first game)

Determine first player

Blindly select one pawn from all player pawns; that player goes first with play proceeding clockwise

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Turn structure

Each turn consists of 3 steps: do 4 actions, draw 2 Player cards, then infect cities

Action flexibility

Select any combination of actions, and the same action may be performed multiple times

Drive/Ferry

Move to a city connected by a white line to your current city (lines wrapping off the board connect to cities on the opposite edge)

Direct Flight

Discard a City card to move to the city named on that card (cannot use in or out of rioting, collapsing, or fallen cities)

Charter Flight

Discard the City card matching your current city to move to any city (cannot use into or out of rioting, collapsing, or fallen cities)

Shuttle Flight

Move from a city with a research station to any other city with a research station

Build a Structure

Discard the City card matching your current city to place a structure there; if all structures of a type are built, relocate one from elsewhere

Treat Disease

Remove 1 disease cube from your current city; if the disease is cured, remove all cubes of that color instead

Eradicate a disease

When the last cube of a cured disease is removed from the board, flip its cure marker to the "ø" side and name the disease

Share Knowledge

Give the City card matching your current city to another player there, or take that matching card from them (both players must agree)

Hand limit enforcement

If receiving a card causes more than 7 cards in hand, immediately discard or play Event cards until at 7

Discover a Cure

At a research station, discard 5 City cards of the same color to cure that disease; place the cure marker over the disease icon

Draw Player cards

After completing 4 actions, draw the top 2 cards from the Player Deck

Handle Epidemic cards

If drawn, do not add to hand; instead resolve immediately:

Discard Epidemic cards

After resolving, discard them (do not draw replacement cards)

Draw Infection cards

Flip over cards from the Infection Deck equal to the current infection rate

Place disease cubes

Add 1 cube matching the city's color to each revealed city (skip if disease is eradicated)

Trigger outbreaks

If a city would receive a 4th cube of any color, an outbreak occurs instead

Advance outbreaks marker

Move the marker forward 1 space on the Outbreaks Track

Spread disease

Place 1 cube of the outbreak color on every connected city

Chain reaction outbreaks

If a connected city already has 3 cubes of that color, it also outbreaks (but cities only outbreak once per infection card)

Increase panic level

Place the next panic level sticker on each city that outbreaks

Panic level effects

Effects are cumulative:

Apply scars

Characters in an outbreaking city receive a scar

Play anytime

Event cards are not actions and can be played at any time except between drawing and resolving a card

Player decides use

The player who plays the Event card determines how it is used

Discard after use

Place played Event cards in the Player Discard Pile

Dispatcher

May move any pawn to a city containing another pawn, or move another player's pawn as if it were their own (using Dispatcher's scars/upgrades and cards)

Generalist

Has 4 upgrade slots and gets 5 actions per turn

Medic

Removes all cubes of one color with Treat Disease; automatically removes cubes of cured diseases from current city without using an action

Scientist

Needs only 4 City cards of the same color to Discover a Cure

Researcher

May give any City card from hand to another player in the same city (not just the matching card)

Character becomes lost

When receiving a scar with no available scar slots, or when present in a city that falls

Destroy the Character card

Rip up the card permanently