Setup for 4-Player a Game of Pandemic

Generated on 3/13/2026 3:38:00 PM EST
A direct link to this setup is https://www.BoardgameHelpers.com/Pandemic/LoadGame.aspx?id=0ac32bbf60ee4ae297b76d077c998aec

Like BoardGameHelpers.com? Maybe buy me a coffee or buy the microbadge on BGG.

Player Setup

Custom Setup Sequence

1. Place the board in the center of the table within easy reach of all players
1. [Lab Challenge] Place the Lab board next to the main board, then put the 5 petri dishes on the 5 circles
2. [Lab Challenge] Shuffle the Sequence cards & place the pile next to the Lab. Draw 1 Sequence card & put it face up on the upper sequence
3. [Hinterlands Challenge] Place the Hinterlands boards next to the main board
4. [Hinterlands Challenge] On the main board, place the 18 colored disks on the cities connected to the 4 Hinterlands areas, matching their colors.
2. Place 1 Research Station in Atlanta and the other 5 nearby in the supply area
3. Separate the disease cubes by color and place them nearby in the supply area
4. Place the Outbreaks marker on the “0” space of the Outbreaks Track
5. Place the 4 Cure Markers (vial side up) under their respective discovered Cure Indicators
6. [Lab Challenge] Replace the Cure Markers with the Cure Vials from the Lab
1. [Mutation] [Bio-Terrorist] Place the purple Cure Marker under its Indicator and the 12 disease cubes in the supply
2. [Mutation] Place the 2 On the Brink Mutation cards in the Infection Discard pile.
7. Place the Infection Rate marker on the 1st “2” space of the Infection Track
8. Choose your game’s difficulty level; Easy, Standard, Heroic, Legendary
9. Shuffle all the Infection cards and flip over the top 3, place 3 disease cubes of the matching color on each of these cities.
10. Flip over 3 more cards, place 2 disease cubes on each of these cities
11. Flip over 3 more cards, place 1 disease cube on each of these cities
1. [Hinterlands Challenge] Place 1 disease cube in each of matching color in each of the Hinterlands areas
12. [Bio-Terrorist] Deal 2 Infection cards to the Bio-Terrorist
13. Place the 9 revealed Infection cards face up into the Infection Discard Pile.
14. Place the remaining Infection card face down in the Infection Deck space.
15. Give each player an Actions reference card
• [Lab Challenge] Give each player a Lab Actions reference card
16. Give each player their assigned Role Card (see grid above)
1. [Bio-Terrorist] Give the Bio-Terrorist player the black pawn, a folded Location sheet and a pencil. The black pawn begins off the board
17. Place the matching colored pawns for these roles in Atlanta.
18. Remove the remaining Role cards from the game.
19. [Quarantines] Put 4 Quarantine markers in the supply (6 if using the Colonel role)
20. Remove the Epidemic cards from the Player Deck and set them aside.
21. Shuffle all of the Event cards and place 8 Event cards into the Player Deck.
• Exclude “Local Initiative” when NOT playing with [State of Emergency: Quarantines]
22. Put any unused Event cards back in the box without looking at them.
23. Shuffle the remaining cards in the Player Deck (City and Events)
24. Deal 2 cards to each player to form their starting hand.
• [Bio-Terrorist] Bio-Terrorist DOES NOT get a starting hand
25. [Mutation] Shuffle the 3 Mutation Event cards into the Player Deck
26. Divide the Player Deck into 5 facedown piles (for Normal mode), as equal in size as possible
27. Place 1 Epidemic card into each mini-deck and shuffle each one individually.
1. [Virulent Strain] Replace the standard Epidemic cards with Virulent Strain Epidemic cards, using the same rules as above.
2. [Emergency Event Challenge] Shuffle all of the Emergency Event cards and place 1 on top of each mini-deck; put the rest back in the box.
28. Shuffle all of the mini-decks individually.
29. Stack these mini-decks on top of each other to form the main Player Deck, placing smaller mini-decks on the bottom
1. [Hinterlands Challenge] Place the Hinterlands die on top of the Infection deck
30. Players look at the City cards they have in their hand.
31. The player with the highest City population goes first