Pandemic: Hot Zone – Europe
Pandemic: Hot Zone – Europe Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
- 1 Game Board
- 40 Player Cards
- 24 City cards
- 3 Epidemic cards
- 4 Event cards
- 9 Mutation cards
- 24 Infection Cards
- 4 Reference Cards
- 4 Character Cards
- 4 Player Pawns (1 each of 4 colors)
- 48 Disease Cubes (16 each of 3 colors)
- 3 Cure Vials (1 each of 3 colors)
- 1 Infection Rate marker
- 1 Outbreak marker
SETUP
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Place the board within easy reach of all players. Sort the disease cubes and cure vials by color and place them near the board.
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Place the Outbreak and Infection Rate markers at the start of their respective tracks, as shown.
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Give each player 1 Reference card. Give 1 random Character card to each player with a matching color pawn. Each player places their pawn on Genève. Return any unused Reference cards, Character cards, and pawns to the box.
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There are 24 Player cards with city names on them, and 4 cards labeled "Event." Shuffle these 28 cards together and deal 2 faceup to each player (3 each if you have only 2 players).
Then, divide the rest of these cards into 3 facedown piles (as evenly as possible). Shuffle 1 Epidemic card facedown into each pile. Stack these piles to form the Player deck (smaller piles on the bottom, if any) and place the deck on the board.
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Shuffle the Infection deck and place it facedown on the board.
Flip over 2 Infection cards. Place 3 cubes of the matching color on each of those cities.
Next, flip over 2 more cards and place 2 cubes of the matching color on each of those cities.
Finally, flip over 2 more cards and place 1 cube of the matching color on each of those cities.
Place these 6 Infection cards faceup in the Infection discard pile.
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The player with the highest city population on a card in their hand takes the first turn.
The Mutation cards add optional challenge, but they are not used during your first game; return them to the box. When you have experience with the game, if you wish to play with Mutation cards, see "Mutation Cards" on page 7 for rules and setup.
KEY CONCEPTS
Cooperation
Pandemic: Hot Zone–Europe is a cooperative game; all the players are on the same team and win or lose together. Each member of your team has a character with special abilities to help your team succeed, and each player keeps their hand faceup in front of them so that all players can see each other's cards.
Players can discuss and freely give each other advice. Everyone should offer opinions and ideas, but each player decides for themselves what to do during their turn.
Diseases
There are 3 different diseases threatening Europe, each identified by its own color and represented on the board by cubes.
Each city on the board has a matching Infection card. When an Infection card is drawn, place a cube in the matching city to represent the spread of disease there.
Disease cubes must be treated promptly; if the diseases spread out of control, you will lose the game.
Player Cards
Each player has a hand of Player cards, including City cards and Event cards. During the game, you discard City cards to accomplish certain goals and play Event cards for their unique effects; make sure to place any played or discarded Player cards in the Player discard pile.
Hand Size
A hand size of 6 cards applies at all times. Whether it is your turn or not, if you ever have more than 6 cards in your hand, you must discard City cards or play Event cards until you have only 6 cards left.
PLAYER TURNS
Players take turns in clockwise order, following these steps each turn. The first time you play, don't feel like you have to read the rules cover-to-cover and remember everything. Instead, you can read the rules for each step, then play that step, checking the rules as necessary if you have any questions.
- Do 4 Actions
- Draw 2 Player Cards
- Draw Infection Cards
1. Do 4 Actions
You can do up to 4 actions each turn. You can do the same action multiple times on the same turn. Actions are summarized on the double-sided reference cards. Some characters have actions only they can do.
Drive/Ferry Move your pawn to a city connected by a line to your city.
Direct Flight Discard a City card from your hand to move to the city shown on that card.
Charter Flight Discard the City card from your hand that shows the city you are in to move to any city.
Treat Disease Remove 1 disease cube from your city, returning it to the supply.
If this disease color has been cured (see "Discover a Cure" below), remove all cubes of that color from your city instead.
Share Knowledge If there is another player in your city and both players agree, you can do one of the following:
- Give the City card matching your city to that player.
- Take the City card matching your city from that player.
Reminder: Any time you get a card, check to be sure you have not exceeded the hand size of 6 cards.
Discover a Cure You must be in Genève, the research city, to do this action. Discard 4 City cards of the same color from your hand to discover the cure for that disease. Place the matching cure vial onto its cure space on the board.
Curing diseases is how you win the game; you must cure all 3 diseases to win. Curing diseases makes the Treat Disease action more effective against that disease, but keep in mind:
- Curing a disease does not immediately remove cubes already on the board.
- Curing a disease does not prevent new cubes from being placed on the board.
Flight Example
Char, the Virologist, is in Madrid and wants to get to Kyiv to Treat Disease. They have the Hamburg and København City cards in hand. During their turn, they do the Direct Flight action and discard the Hamburg card to move directly to Hamburg, Ferry to København, then do the Charter Flight action and discard the København card to move directly to Kyiv.
Share Knowledge Example
Bridget, the Pilot, is in Minsk with the Minsk City card in hand, and Char, the Virologist, is in Kyiv with the Kyiv City card in hand. On his turn, Alan, the Quarantine Specialist, Drives twice from Praha to Minsk, does the Share Knowledge action to take the Minsk City card from Bridget, then Drives to Kyiv. On their turn, Char can do the Share Knowledge action to give the Kyiv City card to Alan. During each Share Knowledge action, both players agree to give or take the card.
2. Draw 2 Player Cards
After doing actions, draw the top 2 cards together from the Player deck. If there are not enough cards left in the deck to draw 2 cards, do not shuffle the Player discard pile to form a new deck. The game immediately ends and all players lose (see "Losing & Winning" below).
Epidemic Cards
If your draw includes any Epidemic cards, immediately do the following:
- Increase: Move the Infection Rate marker 1 space to the right on its track.
- Infect: Draw the bottom card from the Infection deck and place 3 matching cubes on that city. If that city would have 4 or more cubes of the same color, fill it to 3 cubes instead, then an outbreak occurs (see "Outbreaks" below). Discard the Infection card to the Infection discard pile.
- Intensify: Shuffle all cards in the Infection discard pile, including the card drawn from the bottom during the "Infect" step, and place them facedown on top of the Infection deck.
After resolving Epidemic cards, return them to the box. If you draw 2 Epidemic cards at once, do the 3 steps above, then repeat them. Epidemic cards are not drawn into your hand and do not count toward your hand size. Do not draw another card to replace an Epidemic card.
3. Draw Infection Cards
One at a time, flip over a number of Infection cards equal to the current infection rate (indicated by the Infection Rate track). For each flipped card, infect the matching city and discard the card to the Infection discard pile.
To infect a city, place 1 matching cube on that city. If the city already has 3 cubes of that color, do not place a fourth cube. Instead, an outbreak occurs in the city (see "Outbreaks" below).
If you need to place a cube, but there are no cubes of that color left in the supply, the game immediately ends and all players lose (see "Losing & Winning" below).
It is rare but possible for the Infection deck to run out of cards. If it does, shuffle the Infection discard pile to form a new deck.
Outbreaks
If you would place a fourth cube of the same color on a city, an outbreak of that color occurs instead. Do not place a fourth cube in the outbreaking city. When an outbreak occurs, move the Outbreak marker down 1 space on the Outbreak track. Then, place 1 cube of the outbreaking disease on each city connected to the outbreaking city.
Chain Reaction Outbreaks
While resolving an outbreak, if you add a cube to a city that already has 3 cubes of that color, do not place a fourth cube. Instead, after you resolve the outbreak in the current city, a chain reaction outbreak occurs in each of those cities.
When a chain reaction outbreak occurs, move the Outbreak marker down 1 space. Then, place cubes in the connected cities.
Do not add a cube or advance the outbreak marker for any cities that already had an outbreak or chain reaction outbreak while resolving the current Infection card.
Chain Outbreak Example
Dublin and Glasgow both have 3 blue cubes on them. During the "Draw Infection Cards" step, the Dublin Infection card is drawn. Instead of placing a fourth cube on Dublin, a blue outbreak occurs. A blue cube is placed on London, and instead of placing a fourth cube on Glasgow, a chain reaction outbreak occurs in Glasgow. Another blue cube is placed on London, but not on Dublin, because Dublin has already had an outbreak while resolving this Infection card.
Turn End
After drawing and resolving Infection cards, your turn ends, and the player to your left takes the next turn.
EVENT CARDS
Players can play Event cards at any time, even during other players' turns. Playing an Event card is not an action, and the player who plays the card chooses how it is used.
Event cards cannot be played while you are already resolving a card. This means that once an Infection card is drawn, it's too late to play an Event card to stop that cube from being placed (or an outbreak occurring).
LOSING & WINNING
The game immediately ends and all players lose if any of the following occur:
- The Outbreak marker reaches the last space of the Outbreak track.
- You need to place a cube on the board, but there are no cubes of that color left in the supply.
- During the "Draw 2 Player Cards" step, there are not enough cards left in the deck before drawing (either 1 or 0 cards are left).
When the cures for all 3 diseases have been discovered, the players immediately win the game!
You do not need to remove all cubes from the board to win. After your team discovers the cures for the diseases, local doctors are able to treat anyone still affected by them with the cures your team discovered.
MUTATION CARDS
After you have played the game a few times using the basic rules, you can test your skills against diseases that grow and develop new traits with Mutation cards.
Setup
Shuffle all 9 Mutation cards facedown. During step 4 of setup, in addition to shuffling Epidemic cards into 3 separate piles, shuffle a number of Mutation cards facedown into each pile to adjust difficulty as follows:
- Standard difficulty: 1 Mutation card per pile.
- Heroic difficulty: 2 Mutation cards per pile.
Return the unused Mutation cards to the box without looking at them.
Play
When you draw a Mutation card, place it next to the board. Each Mutation card has a continuing effect until its disease is cured, modifying either the "Treat Disease" action or the "Draw Infection Cards" step for the color shown. More than one Mutation card can be in play at a time, including multiple of the same color.
If you draw a Mutation card after the corresponding disease has been cured, that Mutation card has no effect; discard it.
FINE POINTS
- If you draw an Epidemic or Mutation card on your turn, you do not draw a card to replace it.
- The hand size of 6 Player cards applies at all times. If you receive a card from another player or draw cards during your turn that give you more than 6 cards, you must play Event cards or discard City cards until you have only 6 cards in hand.
- You must be in the research city (Genève) to do the Discover a Cure action.
- You win immediately when you discover the third cure. You do not need to remove the remaining cubes from the board.
- When an effect refers to "your city," it means the city your pawn is currently in.
- Whenever an effect allows you to interact with another player during your turn (moving their pawn, giving/taking cards), both players must agree.
- Due to outbreaks, a city can have up to 3 cubes of each color on it.
CARD CLARIFICATIONS
- Containment Specialist: If the city you enter has two or more diseases that have 2 or more cubes, remove 1 of each of those colors.
- Pilot: When you skip a city while flying, ignore all effects of entering or leaving it (for example, the Containment Specialist's ability).
- Highly Contagious: If you meet the condition on multiple Highly Contagious cards, draw +1 Infection card for each.
DIFFERENCES FROM PANDEMIC
If you've played the original Pandemic, Pandemic: Hot Zone differs as follows:
- There are only 3 diseases (instead of 4).
- During setup, the number of cards drawn is slightly different.
- To discover a cure, players need only 4 cards (instead of 5).
- There is only 1 research station (in Genève). Players can't build more research stations or take shuttle flights.
- There are only 3 Epidemic cards in the player deck, and all of them are used every game.
- Diseases cannot be eradicated.
- Some role abilities are slightly altered.
- Mutation cards can be added to increase the difficulty.
CREDITS
Game Design: Matt Leacock & Tom Lehmann
Producer: Michael Sanfilippo
Editing: Justin Kemppainen, Steven Kimball
Art Direction: Samuel R. Shimota with Bree Lindsoe
Cover Art: Atha Kanaani
Board Art: Dan Gerlach
Graphic Design: Dan Gerlach with Samuel R. Shimota
Character Art: Chris Quilliams
Back of Box Layout: Sarah Swindle
Marketing Copy: Megan Robinson
Management Team: Beth Erikson, Justin Kemppainen, Todd Michlitsch, Samuel R. Shimota
Head of Studio: Steven Kimball
Special Thanks: Anna, Colleen, and Donna for testing this during lockdown.
Z-Man Games is committed to diverse representation and accessible gaming for all. If you have any concerns or suggestions, please contact us through our website.
For solo play and rules on combining this game with other Hot Zone games, see www.zmangames.com/pandemic-hot-zone
Europe cards have the globe icon.
© 2021 Z-Man Games. Pandemic and Z-Man Games are ® of Z-Man Games. Hot Zone is a TM of Z-Man Games. Gamegenic and the Gamegenic logo are TM/® & © Gamegenic GmbH, Germany. Actual components may vary from those shown.