Tabletop games
Pandemic
Z-Man GamesMatt Leacock2008
- players
- 2–4
- minutes
- 45
- years
- 8+
In the box
1 board · 48 City cards, 5 Event cards and 6 Epidemic cards · 48 Infection cards · 7 Role cards and their pawns · 96 disease cubes in 4 colours · 6 research stations · Cure, infection rate and outbreak markers
Official rules (PDF, publisher's site)
Box details
- Designer
- Matt Leacock
- Artwork
- Josh Cappel, Christian Hanisch, Régis Moulun, Chris Quilliams
- Publisher
- Z-Man Games
- Mechanics
- Action PointsChainingObjectivesCooperativeEvents
- Expansions
- Pandemic: On the Brink · 2013
- Pandemic: In Vitro · 2018
- Pandemic: State of Emergency · 2015
Where to buy it
Near you and online
In a shop
Within 50 km.
Online
Affiliate link: Marquoir may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.
The basics
A cooperative game: discover the four cures before the epidemics overwhelm the world. On your turn, take up to four actions (move, treat disease, build a research station, share knowledge, discover a cure), draw two player cards, then infect as many cities as the infection rate. The team wins as soon as the four cures are discovered, and loses if the player deck runs out, if a colour runs out of cubes or at the eighth outbreak.
Checked against the official rules · October 2026
The rules, step by step
Setup
Station in Atlanta, 9 cities infected, 4 to 6 Epidemics
- A research station is placed in Atlanta, where all the pawns start; the outbreak marker is on 0, the infection rate marker on the first “2” space.
- Nine cities are infected at the start: three with three cubes, three with two, three with one — eighteen cubes in all.
- Each player randomly receives one of the seven roles (Medic, Scientist, Researcher, Operations Expert, Dispatcher, Quarantine Specialist, Contingency Planner), then player cards without Epidemics: four each with two players, three with three, two with four.
- Difficulty: 4 Epidemic cards (introductory), 5 (standard) or 6 (heroic), split into as many equal piles, stacked to form the player deck.
- The player holding the city with the highest population starts.
How to play
4 actions, Draw 2 player cards, Infect cities
- Up to four actions per turn: move (drive/ferry, direct flight, charter flight, shuttle flight between stations), treat disease (remove a cube), build a research station, share knowledge (give or take the card of the city you are both in) or discover a cure (five cards of one colour at a research station, four for the Scientist).
- You then draw two player cards; above seven cards in hand, discard or play Events. Events can be played at any time, without using an action.
- An Epidemic card: the infection rate moves up one space, the bottom card of the infection deck infects its city with three cubes, then the infection discard pile is shuffled and put back on top of the infection deck.
- Finally, reveal as many infection cards as the infection rate shows and add one cube to each city. A city that should receive a fourth cube has an outbreak: one cube goes to each connected city, in a chain if need be.
- A cured disease with no cubes left on the board is eradicated: its cities are no longer infected.
Scoring
No points, Win or lose together
- No points: the game is won or lost collectively.
- Enter 1 for each player when the team wins, 0 when it loses.
End of the game
4 cures: victory, 8th outbreak: defeat, Deck empty: defeat
- Victory as soon as the four cures are discovered.
- Defeat if you must draw player cards when there are not enough left, if there are not enough cubes of a colour, or at the eighth outbreak.
Going further
Frequently asked questions · Rules on video · In the same family
Frequently asked questions
Is the game cooperative?
Entirely: all the players win or lose together. You play specialists who must discover the four cures before the epidemics overwhelm the world.
How do you win?
By discovering the four cures, one per colour, by discarding five city cards of the same colour at a research station. Finding the four cures wins the game, even if there are still cubes on the board.
How do you lose?
In three ways: not enough cubes of a colour left to place, eight outbreaks reached on the track, or the player deck running out. The time pressure is constant.
What is an outbreak?
When a city should receive a fourth cube, it has an outbreak: it spreads one cube to each neighbouring city instead, which can set off a chain reaction. This is the mechanism that makes you lose.
What are the different roles for?
Each character has a unique power (treating better, moving further, building for free…). Victory comes from combining the roles, not from one player going it alone.
Rules on video
Videos in French, hosted on YouTube.