How to Play Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 – Spoiler-Free Campaign Rules
Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 begins with the familiar cooperative Pandemic structure, then permanently changes its board, characters, decks and rules as the campaign advances month by month. This guide explains only the starting public system and campaign framework.
Spoiler-free scope. No sealed package, hidden objective, later disease or story reveal is described here.
On your turn, take up to four actions
Actions include moving between cities, treating disease cubes, sharing city cards under the knowledge-sharing rules, building structures when allowed and discovering cures. Character roles modify these actions and create cooperative efficiencies.
Then draw Player cards
After actions, draw from the Player deck. City cards enable travel, sharing and cure discovery. Epidemic cards accelerate infection and intensify previously infected cities using the standard Pandemic epidemic sequence unless the campaign has introduced a rule that changes it.
Finish with the Infection phase
Draw Infection cards equal to the current infection rate and add disease cubes to those cities. If a city would receive a fourth cube of one color, an outbreak occurs and spreads cubes to connected cities instead.
Campaign games use objectives
Season 1 introduces objective cards and campaign-specific requirements. At the start of a game, use the objectives currently available and complete the number required by the current rules to win that month’s game.
The campaign changes permanently
Stickers, scars, city status, unlocked cards and other instructed changes persist between games. When the Legacy deck tells you to open a package, add a rule or destroy/alter a component, follow it exactly and keep the changed state for later sessions.
Winning or losing advances the month structure
A win usually advances the calendar to the next month. A loss allows another attempt at the same month under the campaign’s retry structure, with funding and other persistent changes adjusted as directed. Follow the Legacy deck before setting up the next game.
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Source: Z-Man Games: Pandemic Legacy Season 1. Checked September 20, 2026.