Pandemic FAQ
351 questions players ask · Updated Nov 8, 2026 · Full rulebook
Setup
- How many disease cubes are on the board after setup?
- Do the nine Infection cards flipped at setup go back into the Infection deck?
- Can an outbreak happen during setup?
- How many Epidemic cards do I use for each difficulty level?
- How do I shuffle the Epidemic cards into the Player deck?
- Can a starting hand contain an Epidemic card?
- How many cards does each player start with, and how many roles do I use in a 2-player game?
- Who goes first if two players tie for the highest city population?
- How many research stations are used, and where does the first one go?
- Where do the cure markers go, before and after a cure is found?
- If no cubes of one color are placed at setup, is that disease eradicated?
Actions and movement
- Do I have to use all four actions on my turn?
- Can I do my four actions in any order, and repeat the same action?
- Which actions need me to discard a City card?
- How many cubes does Treat Disease remove?
- If a city has cubes of two colors, can one Treat Disease action clear both?
- Can I discard the card of my current city to clear all cubes there?
- What if all six research stations are already on the board and I want to build another?
- Can I build a research station in a city that has disease cubes, and do cubes still go there?
- Does a Shuttle Flight need a card, and what are the cities that count?
Sharing cards
- In Share Knowledge, can I take a card from another player, or only give?
- Can players swap a card that does not match the city they are standing in?
- Can two players swap cards in one Share Knowledge action?
- Can Event cards be passed with Share Knowledge?
- Can Share Knowledge happen on another player's turn?
- Can I cure using cards held by a teammate who is standing with me?
Cures and eradication
- Do I need a research station of the same color as the disease to cure it?
- Can I cure two diseases at once with one set of cards?
- After a disease is cured, do its cubes stay and keep getting placed?
- When is a disease eradicated?
- Can I cure a disease whose cubes have never appeared, and is it then eradicated?
- If I remove the last cube of a disease before it is cured, is it eradicated?
- What happens to the cards of an eradicated disease?
- Do I have to eradicate diseases or clear the board to win?
Drawing cards and the hand limit
- Are the two Player cards drawn together or one at a time?
- Do I draw a replacement card after an Epidemic?
- Do I still draw two cards if I already have seven in hand?
- If I draw an Epidemic with a full hand, do I resolve it before dealing with the hand limit?
- When does the 7-card hand limit apply?
- Can I play or discard Event cards to get down to the hand limit?
- After Share Knowledge puts me over seven cards, can I cure before discarding?
- Which cards count toward the hand limit?
Epidemics
- What are the steps of an Epidemic?
- What if the Epidemic city already has cubes of that color?
- What if the Epidemic's bottom card is for an eradicated disease?
- What happens when two Epidemics are drawn together?
- After an Epidemic, do I still infect cities that turn?
- Why does an Epidemic take the bottom Infection card?
- What if the Infection deck runs out of cards?
- What raises the infection rate, and does an outbreak?
- Where does an Epidemic card go after it resolves?
Infections and outbreaks
- How many cubes does an Infection card place?
- What happens when an Infection card for an eradicated disease is drawn?
- Is the three-cube limit per city or per color?
- What color spreads to neighbours in an outbreak, and are existing cubes replaced?
- Does every outbreak, including chain reactions, move the outbreak marker?
- Can a city outbreak more than once in a chain reaction?
- Can the players choose the order of outbreaks in a chain reaction?
- Do I lose if an outbreak needs more cubes than the supply has?
- Do I resolve each Infection card fully before drawing the next?
- Does a cured disease still place cubes?
Event cards
- When can I play an Event card?
- Can I Airlift the Medic or Quarantine Specialist after an Infection card is drawn but before its cubes are placed?
- Can I play an Event between the steps of an Epidemic?
- Can I play Events between two Epidemics drawn together?
- How does One Quiet Night work, and does it stop an Epidemic?
- What exactly does Resilient Population do?
- How does Forecast work, and can I tell the others what I saw?
- Can Government Grant build a research station anywhere?
- Do Event cards count toward my hand limit, and can I play someone else's Event?
- How many Event cards are in the base game Player deck?
Roles
- Can the Researcher give any City card, and can she receive them?
- Can the Researcher use her power more than once per turn or on another player's turn?
- Can the Dispatcher make other pawns do things other than move?
- When the Dispatcher flies another pawn, whose cards are discarded?
- Can the Dispatcher split his actions between his own pawn and others?
- How does the Medic handle cured diseases?
- What does the Medic do for a disease that is not yet cured?
- Can cubes prevented by the Medic or Quarantine Specialist make me lose?
- What exactly does the Quarantine Specialist prevent?
- Does the Quarantine Specialist affect the cubes placed at setup?
- How does the Contingency Planner's stored Event work?
- How do the Operations Expert's powers work?
- Does the Scientist's 4-card cure work for other players' hands?
Winning and losing
Hands, solo play and editions
Pandemic: On the BrinkExpansion
- Does the Troubleshooter have to keep the card when she makes a Direct Flight?
- Can the Troubleshooter use a Charter Flight without discarding the card?
- If the Dispatcher moves the Troubleshooter by Direct Flight, is the card kept?
- How many Infection cards does the Troubleshooter look at at the start of her turn?
- Is the Epidemiologist taking a card an action, and can she also use Share Knowledge?
- Can the Epidemiologist take the card matching the city she is in?
- Can the Epidemiologist use her power once per player, or only once per turn?
- How many sample cubes can the Field Operative take in a turn?
- Do the Field Operative samples have to come from different cities?
- How does the Field Operative use samples to Discover a Cure?
- Can the Field Operative hold samples for two different cures?
- Do cubes removed by other means count as Field Operative samples?
- Can the Field Operative cure the purple disease with samples?
- Does Complex Molecular Structure change how many cubes the Field Operative needs?
- When can the Field Operative return samples to the supply?
- Is the Containment Specialist cube removal optional?
- When does the Containment Specialist power trigger?
- Does the Containment Specialist remove all cubes of a cured disease?
- In what order do the Containment Specialist and Mobile Hospital resolve?
- Can the Archivist discard a City card for an action and then take it back?
- Does the Archivist still have to stay within his 8-card hand limit after taking a card?
- Can players voluntarily discard cards so the Archivist can retrieve them?
- How many actions do you get if you switch to or from the Generalist during your turn?
- Does New Assignment change one player or every player?
- Does the New Assignment target choose the new role, and which roles are allowed?
- If New Assignment changes your role mid-turn, do you keep the old role's abilities?
- Can New Assignment make you Contingency Planner so you can replay Events?
- Can New Assignment be used to become the Scientist and cure while over the hand limit?
- Can the Dispatcher move more than one other pawn in a turn?
- When the Dispatcher moves another pawn, whose cards and abilities count?
- How do Contingency Planner and Events interact (cost, hand limit, replays)?
- When can the On the Brink Events be played?
- Can Forecast be played between Infection card draws?
- When can Rapid Vaccine Deployment be played?
- How are the cubes removed by Rapid Vaccine Deployment distributed?
- Can Remote Treatment be played between Infection draws or Mutation resolutions?
- How many cubes does Mobile Hospital remove, and when?
- Does Mobile Hospital remove a cube when the Dispatcher ferries another player's pawn?
- Does Mobile Hospital satisfy Government Interference?
- Can Special Orders move more than one other pawn, and who spends the actions?
- If Special Orders moves another pawn, which powers apply?
- Can Borrowed Time be played right after drawing it or after the Actions step?
- Can another player play Borrowed Time, Mobile Hospital or Special Orders on the current player's turn?
- How does Commercial Travel Ban work with bottom-of-deck draws and the hand limit?
- Who takes the card with Re-Examined Research?
- How many Event cards go in the Player deck with On the Brink?
- Can the On the Brink roles and Events be used at any player count?
- Can Pandemic be played with five players?
- What happens to the infection rate with the seventh Epidemic on Legendary?
- Can you build more than one research station in the same city?
- Can you take a Direct or Charter Flight to the city you are already in?
- How is the Virulent Strain chosen?
- Is the Infect step of a Virulent Strain Epidemic different from a normal Epidemic?
- Do later Virulent Strain Epidemic effects add to the earlier ones?
- Do Virulent Strain effects always resolve in the order printed?
- Do Virulent Strain Epidemic cards stop applying once the strain is cured?
- Do Lab samples or Field Operative cubes count when working out the Virulent Strain?
- What counts as treating a Virulent Strain cube for Government Interference?
- When does Government Interference apply, and does it cover flights?
- Can the Dispatcher, Airlift or Special Orders move a pawn out of a Virulent Strain city?
- Does Government Interference stop the First Responder from responding to an Epidemic?
- When does Chronic Effect add two cubes?
- If Chronic Effect applies to an Infection card for a city that has a purple cube, is a purple cube also added?
- How does Rate Effect work?
- Does Rate Effect still work after the Virulent Strain is eradicated?
- What does Uncounted Populations do?
- How does Unacceptable Loss work?
- How does Hidden Pocket work?
- Where does an Epidemic's Infect step draw its card from?
- Does an Epidemic cause an outbreak if the city already has a cube of that colour?
- Where do the Mutation cards go during setup?
- What happens when a Mutation card is drawn during Infections?
- How do Mutation Event cards resolve, and where do they go?
- If an Infection card is drawn for a city that already has purple, is another purple cube added?
- If the drawn city's own colour is eradicated, is a purple cube still placed?
- How do purple outbreaks work in the Mutation challenge?
- Can a city hold more than three cubes, or is a mix of colours an outbreak?
- Can Resilient Population remove a Mutation card from the Infection discard pile?
- How do you cure the purple disease?
- Does curing purple work like curing any other disease?
- What is the win condition with the purple disease?
- Can the same five cards cure two diseases?
- When does the Bio-Terrorist play, and how many actions does he get?
- Can the Bio-Terrorist Infect Remotely in his own city?
- Which Bio-Terrorist actions are blocked while he is spotted?
- When is the Bio-Terrorist revealed?
- What does the Bio-Terrorist have to announce?
- How do capture and escape work?
- How many Player cards and Events are dealt in the Bio-Terrorist challenge?
- Can New Assignment give or take the Bio-Terrorist role?
- What happens if purple cubes run out in the Bio-Terrorist challenge?
- How do the non-Terrorist players win the Bio-Terrorist challenge?
- How does a purple outbreak work in the Bio-Terrorist challenge?
- May the other players hide information from the Bio-Terrorist?
- Is the Bio-Terrorist challenge recommended with five players?
- What is the Bio-Terrorist's hand limit, and where do his discards go?
- Where does the Bio-Terrorist start?
- Can Events be played during the Bio-Terrorist's turn?
- Can the Bio-Terrorist decline to infect?
- If New Assignment makes someone the Medic, are cured cubes removed right away?
- Do you draw both Player cards before discarding to the hand limit?
Pandemic: In the LabExpansion
- Can the Pilot use Drive/Ferry or Direct, Charter and Shuttle flights?
- How far can the Pilot fly, and can he pick up a pawn in a city he passes over?
- Does the Pilot have to treat a Virulent Strain cube in a city he flies over (Government Interference)?
- Can the Dispatcher or Special Orders move the Pilot, and can the Pilot fly or take a passenger then?
- Can the Field Director or the Mobile Hospital event move or help the Pilot?
- Can the Airlift event move the Pilot?
- Can the Pilot use Shuttle Flights or hop between research stations, and can he play Government Grant?
- Do you need Pandemic: On the Brink to play In the Lab?
- Can you play five players with In the Lab but without On the Brink?
- Can you play six players in the Lab challenge or the normal game?
- How many Event cards do you use with In the Lab?
- How many purple cubes do you need for Worldwide Panic and the On the Brink challenges?
- When combining the Virulent Strain challenge with In the Lab, must you add the two In the Lab Virulent Strain cards?
- Can I play the base game with just the In the Lab roles and events, without the challenges?
- Where does your old role card go when New Assignment swaps it?
- Can New Assignment bring back a role the CDC removed with Reassign Role?
- Can New Assignment change the CDC's role?
- Does Share Knowledge still cost an action in the Lab challenge?
- Can you still cure a disease with five cards of one colour in the Lab challenge?
- How many City cards does a cure cost in the Lab challenge, and can different players supply them?
- How many cards does the Scientist discard to Discover a Cure in the Lab challenge?
- Is Discover a Cure a lab action, and can I do it as the free action from building a research station?
- Can you Discover a Cure in the Lab with 3 City cards of mixed colours?
- Must the card used to Characterize a Disease match a vial symbol on the Sequence card?
- Can you re-characterize a research line with a different colour once it is characterized?
- Can a characterized Sequence card be swapped for a wild card and re-characterized as a different disease?
- Can Test a Cure be done more than once per cure?
- What does Test a Cure require, and is removing a cube from the board mandatory?
- When can I use a free lab action, such as the Researcher's or Local Liaison's, relative to drawing cards?
- Does the Lab challenge give extra actions, and can I do several lab actions in one turn?
- Who gets the free lab action when a research station is built with Government Grant?
- How many cubes can I put in a sample dish when I treat a disease?
- Can cubes removed by Events, the Medic's automatic removal or other abilities go into the lab?
- Do I need a research station to put a treated cube into a sample dish?
- Can a Medic or cured disease provide samples for the lab?
- When processing a sample, must I move every cube in the dish, and can I split them?
- When I move cubes into a dish that already holds cubes, are the existing ones affected?
- Can I return cubes from the lab board to the supply whenever I want?
- Is moving cubes from a dish to a Sequence card an action?
- When cubes go onto a Sequence card, must every open spot be filled, and does the order of colours matter?
- Can the spots of an eradicated disease's colour on a Sequence card be filled with any colour cube?
- Can I cure a disease if there are no cubes of its colour on the board and it isn't eradicated?
- If a colour is almost out of cubes, can one cube still be enough to sequence it?
- How do I open the second research line, and does building a second research station do it automatically?
- Can the second research line use a Sequence card for a disease already characterized on the first line, and when does the first line close?
- After discovering a cure, can I swap the new Sequence card for one already placed? What if the drawn card shows only cured diseases?
- Which edition of the Researcher and Epidemiologist powers should I use with In the Lab?
- Which pawns can the Field Director move with his free Drive/Ferry, and how far?
- Can the Field Director treat disease in his own city rather than a connected one?
- Can the Field Director take samples from adjacent cities, and does Improved Sanitation help?
- Can the Virologist use her pair-swap more than once when discovering a cure, and what happens to the cards?
- How does the Virologist's discard-a-card ability remove cubes?
- Can the Medic or Quarantine Specialist switch off their passive power?
- What are the purple-cube requirements for Characterize, Test and Discover in the Mutation challenges?
- When can Sequencing Breakthrough be played, and whose cure does it help?
- Does Sequencing Breakthrough reduce the purple city cards needed in the Mutation challenges?
- With Sequencing Breakthrough, which card combinations cure blue with the Virologist?
- What does Improved Sanitation affect?
- How does Infection Zone Ban affect an outbreak?
- Do face-up Events left as reminders count against my hand limit?
- How does Resistant to Treatment work, and does it affect the Field Operative's removal?
- In Worldwide Panic, does Rate Effect apply to a Mutation card?
- If purple is the Virulent Strain, what does Chronic Effect do?
- Should the three new In the Lab Events be added to the Player deck?
- Does a city that starts with three cubes plus a purple cube in Worldwide Panic outbreak at setup?
- In the Lab with the Bio-Terrorist, what happens if Sabotage leaves fewer stations than lines?
- Do the cure vials replace the wooden cure markers?
- Does the Regional Response Team bonus card cost one action?
- In the solo game, when does the CDC act and does it infect cities?
- In solo play with the Lab challenge, can the CDC take a lab action when no research station is present?
- In the CDC's Exchange Data action, which card has to match the city's colour?
- Can I use Share Knowledge with the CDC on my turn?
- If the CDC moves my pawn by Direct Flight, is a card discarded?
- How long does Commercial Travel Ban last in the solo game?
- Which roles are not used in the solo game, and can the CDC keep reassigning its role?
- Can the solo game be combined with other challenges, and how many cards are set aside?
- Can the CDC use Reassign Role or Exchange Data at a Vaccine Factory?
- How many cards does a cure need in the six-player Team Game?
- How many Bonus cards does the Team Game use, and what do they do?
- How are roles chosen in the Team Game, and who controls which?
- When the fourth cure is found, does the Team Game end immediately, and can Events still be played?
- Do team research stations count toward the limit of six, and who can use them?
- Do purple and Virulent Strain cures count for goal-card cure points, and is the last-purple-cube award an eradication?
- Which team gets the eradication award when an Event played by another team causes it?
- In the Team Game, do you still win if the last cure happens with no purple cubes on the board?
- Can teammates show each other Infection cards they have seen?
- Are Team Game prestige scores counted if the teams lose?
- How does the In the Lab Team Game work?
- Do the outbreak spaces left on an In the Lab goal count the skull space?
Pandemic: State of EmergencyExpansion
- Does State of Emergency need On the Brink or In the Lab to play?
- Can I play State of Emergency with only the new roles and events?
- How does a quarantine marker count placements when several cubes or chain-reaction outbreaks hit the city?
- Can I quarantine a city that already has cubes, and does it remove them?
- Do quarantine markers restrict pawn movement?
- What if all quarantine markers are on the board and I want to quarantine my city?
- When does the Colonel flip a quarantine marker, and can he do it with a discard or by being in the city?
- Can the Colonel place a quarantine marker in a city he isn't in or in a Hinterlands space?
- If the Quarantine Specialist prevents an outbreak or a cube placement, does the quarantine marker flip or the outbreak marker advance?
- Are quarantine markers used with the Bio-Terrorist challenge?
- How does a quarantine marker interact with Government Interference?
- Can a pawn stuck by Government Interference be moved out by another player's Event or in a Hinterland?
- Do Hinterlands spaces count as cities?
- How do you move into and out of Hinterlands spaces?
- How does the Veterinarian travel to and from Hinterlands spaces?
- Does the Veterinarian's two-cube removal work outside the Hinterlands?
- When do cubes get placed in a Hinterlands space?
- How do I set up Hinterlands cubes?
- Do Hinterlands rolls place cubes of an eradicated disease, and does that un-eradicate it?
- Does the Hinterlands die add purple cubes when the space already has purple, and do outbreaks spread purple?
- When is the Hinterlands die rolled with One Quiet Night, Logistics Failure or Chronic Effect?
- How does Share Knowledge work in a Hinterlands space?
- Can the Pilot build a Vaccine Factory?
- Where can the First Responder move after an Epidemic?
- Is the First Responder's treatment optional, and how many cubes does she remove?
- Does the First Responder move before or after the outbreaks from an Epidemic, and what about New Assignment?
- Does CDC Planes Grounded stop the First Responder or the Field Director?
- What cards does the Gene Splicer need for her special cure, and does Sequencing Breakthrough help?
- How do the Pharmacist's abilities work, and can he repeat them?
- Can the Pharmacist reveal a connected city card to treat cubes in a Hinterlands space?
- Does Patient Zero un-eradicate a disease?
- When does Patient Zero add its cube, and is it part of Infections?
- Does Patient Zero or Disease Hot Spot add a purple cube in the Superbug challenge?
- What if Patient Zero and another Emergency Event are drawn together?
- How does Disease Zones Expand work?
- When an Emergency Event adds cubes to several cities, when are the outbreaks resolved?
- How does Containment Failure behave with Advance Team and chain reactions?
- How does Advance Team prevent outbreaks, and when must I use it?
- What does CDC Planes Grounded stop?
- How does Limited Options work for players over the new hand limit?
- How does Logistics Failure interact with One Quiet Night and drawing cards?
- Does Time Runs Out stop the three-card draw on the turn you draw it?
- With Mutation, do bottom-of-deck draws and Disease Hot Spot add an extra purple cube?
- How does Emergency Response work with Treat Disease modifiers and as an action?
- How does Sample Delivery work?
- How does Infection Rumor work, and with Rate Effect?
- Can Emergency Conference be used in the solo game, or with CDC Planes Grounded?
- When the Dispatcher drives another pawn, from which city does the pawn move?
- Can the Superbug challenge be combined with Mutation, Bio-Terrorist, Virulent Strain or Lab?
- How are Superbug Infection cards set up and when are they drawn?
- How does a Superbug Infection card work when drawn?
- What does a Superbug card do when the city's colour is eradicated?
- Does the purple cube rule apply to Epidemics and Emergency Events?
- If a Superbug card is revealed by Forecast, or Rate Effect triggers when the purple cube is blocked, what happens?
- Can quarantines or Resilient Population interfere with Superbug effects?
- Does the three-cube limit apply to purple Superbug cubes too?
- How can Superbug cubes be removed, since Treat Disease can't?
- Do Superbug vaccine actions cost an action, and how many doses can I take?
- Can I Shuttle Flight between a Vaccine Factory and a Research Station?
- How do I cure the Superbug, and does the Scientist or Sequencing Breakthrough help?
- How do Superbug bonus cards work: hand limit, other players' turns and Isolated Disease Samples?
- What can the Regional Response Team bonus card do?
- When do I win the Superbug challenge?
- How does the Superbug work with the Lab challenge's sample dishes?
- Can the Dispatcher move the Medic to a purple city to clear cured Superbug cubes?
- Does the Containment Specialist remove cubes of every colour when entering a city, including Superbug cubes?