Setup for 5-Player a Game of Pandemic

Generated on 2/15/2026 12:17:31 PM EST
A direct link to this setup is https://www.BoardgameHelpers.com/Pandemic/LoadGame.aspx?id=f8d1dc19f42b4dd498842cedf0618b5a

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Player Setup

Custom Setup Sequence

1. Place the board in the center of the table within easy reach of all players
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. Place the Infection Rate marker on the 1st “2” space of the Infection Track
7. Choose your game’s difficulty level; Easy, Standard, Heroic, Legendary
8. Shuffle all the Infection cards and flip over the top 3, place 3 disease cubes of the matching color on each of these cities.
9. Flip over 3 more cards, place 2 disease cubes on each of these cities
10. Flip over 3 more cards, place 1 disease cube on each of these cities
11. Place the 9 revealed Infection cards face up into the Infection Discard Pile.
12. Place the remaining Infection card face down in the Infection Deck space.
13. Give each player an Actions reference card
14. Give each player their assigned Role Card (see grid above)
15. Place the matching colored pawns for these roles in Atlanta.
16. Remove the remaining Role cards from the game.
17. Remove the Epidemic cards from the Player Deck and set them aside.
18. Shuffle all of the Event cards and place 10 Event cards into the Player Deck.
• Exclude “Local Initiative” when NOT playing with [State of Emergency: Quarantines]
19. Put any unused Event cards back in the box without looking at them.
20. Shuffle the remaining cards in the Player Deck (City and Events)
21. Deal 2 cards to each player to form their starting hand.
22. Divide the Player Deck into 4 facedown piles (for Introductory mode), as equal in size as possible
23. 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.
24. Shuffle all of the mini-decks individually.
25. Stack these mini-decks on top of each other to form the main Player Deck, placing smaller mini-decks on the bottom
26. Players look at the City cards they have in their hand.
27. The player with the highest City population goes first