Pandemic Legacy: Season 1
Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
Unlike most games, which fully reset every time you play, Pandemic Legacy carries some elements forward from one game to the next. Decisions you make in game 1 will be there in game 2, 3, and every game played with your copy of the game. Different groups will make different decisions and will have a different experience. What results is a game unique to the group that plays it.
Sometimes you will write on parts of the game, put stickers on cards or the board, or even destroy (tear up) a card. These changes are permanent. Writing on the board, applying stickers, and tearing up components are all permanent changes. In all other ways the game resets for the start of each game — the pieces on the board, cards in hand, outbreaks, etc. all start fresh.
Also, some elements of play are hidden and sealed off before your very first game. As you play, you will find instructions that tell you when to open these packages. Do not open the packages in the box until you receive instructions to do so.
Missing rules: Some rules, labeled A through Y, are missing throughout this rulebook. As you play, you will gain these missing rules and stick them into the rulebook. From that point on, the rules will be permanently changed.
Game Months
Pandemic Legacy is broken into 12 months, starting with January. If your group succeeds in a month, you move on to play the next month. If you fail, you get one more chance to succeed in the current month: start a new game with the current set of rules and objectives for the month you just lost. If you lose again, you must move on to the next month for your next game. (So each month is played once or twice.)
The Legacy Deck
The Legacy Deck contains cards that describe what happens over the course of the game's 12 months. It is arranged in a specific order — do not look through or shuffle these cards. At the start of a game, draw the cards and read them one at a time until you reach a card that says STOP on the back. That card will tell you when to continue drawing, which might be mid-game, at the end of a game, or at the start of the next month.
The Legacy Deck is not a one-way trip: even if you repeat a month, do not put Legacy cards back in the deck — just continue where you left off. If the deck becomes scattered, have someone who is not playing reorder it using the numbers in the corner of each card. Leave the Legacy Deck in the storing tray to keep it in order.
The Dossiers
The five dossiers contain the stickers that go onto the game. As you go through the Legacy Deck, you will come across cards that have dossier numbers or letters on them. When you do, open — and tear off using the precut corner — the dossier doors matching the numbers or letters on the card, one at a time, resolving each before opening the next. Some dossier doors contain one-time stickers; others create a card used from time to time in future games.
Setup
Set up the board for the current game (some setup steps are added later via stickers):
- Put all structures (initially only research stations) nearby. Separate the disease cubes by color into 4 supply piles. Place a research station in each city with a starting research station sticker — you begin the game with one in Atlanta.
- Set the infection rate marker to the leftmost space of the Infection Rate Track; place the outbreaks marker and cure markers.
- Shuffle the Infection Deck. Draw the top cards and infect the initial cities (placing 3, 2, and 1 cubes as directed).
- Deal each player a hand of City cards, give each a role, and build the Player Deck (City cards, Event cards, and Epidemic cards shuffled in according to difficulty).
- Read the Mission Briefing and the objectives for the current month.
Roles / Characters
Each player has a character with a special ability. Over the campaign, characters can gain upgrades (stickers that add new abilities) and scars (negative effects). Each character has room for 2 upgrades (except the Generalist, who has 4). Players may stick an upgrade over an existing one; upgrades can only be applied to characters that were in the just-played game.
On Your Turn
Play proceeds around the table. On your turn, do these steps in order:
- Do up to 4 actions.
- Draw 2 cards from the Player Deck.
- Infect cities.
Actions
You may do up to 4 actions each turn, in any combination (including the same action multiple times). Playing an Event card is not an action.
Movement actions:
- Drive / Ferry: Move to a city connected by a white line to the city you are in.
- Direct Flight: Discard a City card to move to the city named on that card.
- Charter Flight: Discard the City card that matches the city you are in to move to any city.
- Shuttle Flight: Move from a city with a research station to any other city with a research station.
Other actions:
- Build a Structure: Discard the City card that matches the city you are in to place a structure (a research station) there. Each city may contain one of each type of structure.
- Treat Disease: Remove 1 disease cube of one color from the city you are in. If this disease's cure has been found, remove all cubes of that color from the city instead. If the last cube of a cured disease is removed from the board, that disease is eradicated.
- Share Knowledge: Either give the City card that matches the city you are in to another player, or take that card from another player. The other player must also be in that city. (The Researcher may give any City card.)
- Discover a Cure: At any research station, discard 5 City cards of the same color from your hand to cure the disease of that color. Cover the disease icon with the matching cure marker. If no cubes of this color are on the board, this disease is immediately eradicated (flip its cure marker to its eradicated side). You may Discover a Cure at any research station — the color of its city does not need to match the disease being cured.
Draw Cards
After doing 4 actions, draw the top 2 cards together from the Player Deck. If there are fewer than 2 cards left when you are about to draw, the game ends and your team has lost (do not reshuffle the discard). After first resolving any Epidemic cards, if you have more than 7 cards in hand, discard cards or play Event cards until you have 7. Only Player cards count toward your hand limit.
Epidemic Cards
If your draws include any Epidemic cards, do not add them to your hand and do not draw replacements. Instead, immediately do these steps in order:
- Increase: Move the infection rate marker forward 1 space on the Infection Rate Track.
- Infect: Draw the bottom card from the Infection Deck. Unless its color is eradicated, put 3 cubes of that color on the named city. If the city already has cubes of this color, add just enough to reach 3, then an outbreak occurs. Discard the card to the Infection Discard Pile.
- Intensify: Reshuffle just the Infection Discard Pile and place it on top of the Infection Deck.
After resolving Epidemic cards, discard them. It is rare but possible to draw 2 Epidemics at once — do all three steps once, then again.
Infect Cities
Flip over as many Infection cards from the top of the Infection Deck as the current infection rate. Flip them one at a time, infecting the city named on each. To infect a city, place 1 disease cube matching its color onto the city (unless that disease is eradicated). If the city already has 3 cubes of this color, do not place a 4th — instead an outbreak occurs. Discard each card to the Infection Discard Pile.
Outbreaks
When a city with 3 cubes of a color would receive another cube of that color, an outbreak occurs: move the outbreaks marker forward 1 space, apply the next panic-level sticker to that city, and place 1 cube of that color on every city connected to it. If a connected city already has 3 cubes of that color, it does not gain a 4th; instead a chain-reaction outbreak occurs there. Each city can only outbreak once per Infect step or Epidemic resolution.
If you cannot place a cube because there are not enough of that color left in the supply, the game ends and your team has lost.
Panic Level
As cities suffer outbreaks, they gain panic-level stickers, escalating in severity:
- 1 — Unstable: No effect.
- 2–3 — Rioting: No Direct Flights or Charter Flights in or out. Existing research stations are destroyed and no new ones can be built there.
- 4 — Collapsing: Discard 1 card of the city's color to Drive/Ferry into this city.
- 5 — Fallen: Discard 1 more card (2 total) of the city's color to Drive/Ferry into this city.
Scars
Characters can gain a scar from standing in a city that outbreaks. Scars are permanent negative effects applied to that character.
Event Cards
Playing an Event card is not an action. The player who plays an Event card decides how it is used. Event cards can be played at any time, except in between drawing and resolving a card. After playing an Event card, discard it to the Player Discard Pile.
Structures and Research Stations
Each city may contain one of each type of structure. You need to be at a research station to use the Discover a Cure action, and you can use Shuttle Flight to travel between two research stations. Destroy a research station in a city if it is rioting (if it was a starting research station, replace its sticker with a destroyed research station sticker). You cannot build a research station in a city that is rioting, collapsing, or fallen.
Game End (Win or Lose)
You win as soon as you meet the necessary number of objectives; the game ends immediately, even mid-turn or mid-outbreak.
You lose immediately if any of the following happen:
- The outbreaks marker reaches the last space of the Outbreaks Track.
- You are unable to place the number of disease cubes actually needed on the board.
- A player cannot draw 2 Player cards after doing their actions.
After the Game
If you win: You get the Win Bonus for the next month (described on Legacy cards). You start your next game at the beginning of the next month. Your Funding Level is cut by 2 (minimum 0). Record your new funding level.
If you lose: If this is the first time the month has been played, you must try the month again; otherwise move on to the next month. Your Funding Level is increased by 2 (maximum 10). Record your new funding level.
In either case, choose two Game End Upgrades, clear the board of all game pieces, and discard all City cards (they reset for the next game). Do not put any Legacy cards back in the Legacy Deck. If replaying the same month, your mission briefing and objectives are the same.
Funding cannot go under 0 or over 10.
Game End Upgrades
Win or lose, you choose two upgrades at the end of each game. You may choose the same upgrade twice.
- Unfunded Events: Add an event sticker to any City card in the Player Deck. That card is now both a City card and an Event card and can be used either way, but not both. These City/Event cards are available every game (unaffected by funding level). Each City card can only have one sticker; when you play it, you choose whether it is a City card or its sticker effect, never both.
- Starting Research Stations: Add a starting research station sticker to a city that currently contains a research station. A research station is placed in every city with such a sticker during the setup of all future games.
- Character Upgrades: Add an upgrade to a character that was in the just-played game.
- Positive Mutations: If you eradicated a disease this game, you may give that disease a positive mutation to make it easier to cure in future games (e.g., "Efficient to Sequence": the disease is cured as soon as one player discards the necessary number of cards, without an action, even on another player's turn).
Additional Rules
- Players may always examine discard piles.
- Your hand limit applies immediately after getting a card from another player.
- If you mess up a rule (since you can't go back): in most cases it won't matter — just note it and move on. If a mistake made a whole game clearly too easy or too hard, the group may decide to reduce or increase funding for the next game to compensate.
Learn the rules to the original game online at zmangames.com/pandemic-online-rules.html.