Pandemic: Hot Zone – North America
Pandemic: Hot Zone – North America Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
- 1 Game Board
- 38 Player Cards
- 24 City cards
- 3 Epidemic cards
- 4 Event cards
- 7 Crisis 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 Atlanta. 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 Crisis 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 Crisis cards, see "Crisis Cards" on page 7 for rules and setup.
KEY CONCEPTS
Cooperation
Pandemic: Hot Zone–North America 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 North America, 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 Atlanta 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
Bridget is in Havana and wants to get to San Francisco to Treat Disease. She has the Indianapolis and Dallas City cards in hand. During her turn, she does the Direct Flight action and discards the Indianapolis card to move directly to Indianapolis, Drives to Dallas, then does the Charter Flight action and discards the Dallas card to move directly to San Francisco.
Share Knowledge Example
Bridget is in Calgary with the Calgary City card in hand, and Char is in Seattle with the Seattle City card in hand. On his turn, Alan Drives twice from Chicago to Calgary, does the Share Knowledge action to take the Calgary City card from Bridget, then Drives to Seattle. On their turn, Char can do the Share Knowledge action to give the Seattle 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
Toronto and Montréal both have 3 blue cubes on them. During the "Draw Infection Cards" step, the Toronto Infection card is drawn. Instead of placing a fourth cube on Toronto, a blue outbreak occurs. Blue cubes are placed on New York and Chicago, and instead of placing a fourth cube on Montréal, a chain reaction outbreak occurs in Montréal. Blue cubes are placed on Boston and New York, but not on Toronto, because Toronto 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.
- You do the "Draw 2 Player Cards" step, but 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.
CRISIS CARDS
After you have played the game a few times using the basic rules, you can test your skills against dangerous and unpredictable Crisis cards.
Setup
Shuffle all 7 Crisis cards facedown. During step 5 of setup, in addition to shuffling Epidemic cards into 3 separate piles, shuffle a number of Crisis cards facedown into each pile to adjust difficulty as follows:
- Standard difficulty: 1 Crisis card per pile.
- Heroic difficulty: 2 Crisis cards per pile.
Return the unused Crisis card(s) to the box without looking at them.
Play
When you draw a Crisis card, resolve its effect. Some Crisis cards have an immediate effect, while other Crisis cards remain in play until the next Crisis card is drawn. Just like Epidemic cards, do not draw another card to replace a Crisis card.
If you draw both an Epidemic card and a Crisis card when drawing Player cards, resolve the Crisis card first. If you draw 2 Crisis cards at once, you choose the order to resolve them.
FINE POINTS
- If you draw an Epidemic or Crisis 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 Atlanta 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.
- If the "Hot Spot" Crisis card would place cubes on a city that already has 1 or more cubes of that color, instead fill that city to 3 cubes, then an outbreak occurs.
CHARACTER CLARIFICATIONS
- The Dispatcher's second effect moves another player's pawn to a city connected to that player's city, not to a city connected to the Dispatcher's city.
- The Medic's automatic removal of cubes can occur on other players' turns (such as if he is moved by the Dispatcher or the "Airlift" event).
- The Researcher's effect is limited to giving any City card, not taking.
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 Atlanta). 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.
- The Researcher and Dispatcher effects are slightly altered.
- Crisis cards can be added to increase the difficulty.
CREDITS
Game Design: Matt Leacock
Producer: Michael Sanfilippo
Editing: Justin Kemppainen, Steven Kimball
Graphic Design: Dan Gerlach, Samuel R. Shimota
Cover Art: Atha Kanaani
Character Art: Chris Quilliams
Art Direction: Bree Lindsoe
Managing Art Director: Samuel R. Shimota
Managing Game Designer: Justin Kemppainen
Publisher: Steven Kimball
Playtesters: Jeff & Sarah Erwin, Bree Lindsoe, Kahla Gleason, Jasmine Radue
Special thanks to Donna Leacock, Hillary Carey, Chris and Kim Farrell, Rich Fulcher, Ken Tidwell, Corbin Nash, Jim Cote, Steve Duff, Wei-Hwa Huang, and, for additional testing, Beth Heile and John Knoerzer.
Very special thanks to Tom Lehmann for his assistance.
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.
© 2020 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.