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50 free Pandemic (Board Game) trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Pandemic is the cooperative board game that proved working together could sell millions. Matt Leacock designed it after competitive games kept ruining evenings with his wife, modelled the theme on the SARS outbreak, and Z-Man Games published it in 2008. Players start in Atlanta, race four diseases across 48 cities, and either cure them all or lose together. These 50 questions cover the base game in detail: actions per turn, the hand limit, what triggers an outbreak, how many outbreaks end the game, and what the Medic and Scientist can do. Then the expansions: On the Brink's Bio-Terrorist, Mutation and Virulent Strain, In the Lab's team mode, State of Emergency's Hinterlands and Superbug. There are spin-offs from The Cure and Contagion to Reign of Cthulhu, Iberia, Rising Tide, Fall of Rome and Rapid Response, the three Legacy seasons, the Pandemic System licences, and a few questions on Leacock himself and his Forbidden series. Every answer is cited to a page we checked and comes with a short explanation, so you learn something even when you miss. Play it solo or print it for a game-night tiebreaker.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who designed Pandemic?
Matt Leacock
He began work on it in 2004 after competitive games kept souring evenings with his wife.
Q 02Which company first published Pandemic in 2008?
Z-Man Games
The same publisher went on to release every expansion, spin-off and the Legacy seasons.
Q 03In what year was Pandemic first published?
2008
Its first expansion, On the Brink, followed a year later.
Q 04How many diseases threaten the world in the base game?
Four
Players win only by discovering a cure for every one of them before the board collapses.
Q 05How many players does the base game accommodate?
Two to four
On the Brink added rules for a fifth player; In the Lab added a solo mode.
Q 06Which real-world disease event did the designer base the game on?
The 2002–2004 SARS outbreak
The theme turned out to be prophetic: sales rose again during COVID-19.
Q 07How many cities are on the Pandemic board?
48
Each has a matching Player card and Infection card in the two decks.
Q 08How many disease cubes of each colour come in the box?
24
Running out of cubes of any colour when you need to place one loses the game instantly.
Q 09In which city do all players begin the game?
Atlanta
It is home to the Centers for Disease Control, which is why the first research station sits there.
Q 10How many actions does a player take on each turn?
Four
They can be any combination of the eight possible actions, some of which require cards.
Q 11How many Player cards are drawn at the end of each turn?
Two
If either is an Epidemic, the infection rate rises and the discard pile is reshuffled onto the deck.
Q 12What is the hand limit for Player cards?
Seven
Excess cards must be discarded, though an Event card can be played instead.
Q 13An Outbreak happens when a cube would be added to a city that already has how many?
Three
Every connected city then gains a cube, which can chain across the board.
Q 14How many outbreaks cause the players to lose?
Q 21What was the first expansion, released in 2009?
On the Brink
It added new roles, rules for a fifth player and a semi-competitive Bio-Terrorist.
Q 22Which On the Brink role pits one player against the rest of the team?
Bio-Terrorist
It is the only expansion in which the game becomes semi-competitive.
Q 23What is the fifth disease introduced as a challenge in On the Brink called?
Mutation
It must be cured or absent from the board for the team to win.
Q 24Which On the Brink challenge makes one disease especially deadly via new Epidemic cards?
Eight
Running out of cubes or Player cards are the other two ways to lose.
Q 15How many roles did the original core game include?
Five
The 2013 second edition brought the count to seven.
Q 16Which role can treat all cubes in a city with a single action?
Medic
Once a disease is cured, that role clears its cubes without spending an action at all.
Q 17How many matching cards does the Scientist need to discover a cure?
Four
Everyone else needs five cards of the same colour.
Q 18What term describes one player dominating a cooperative game?
Quarterbacking
The so-called alpha gamer problem is not unique to this title.
Q 19Which two roles were added in the 2013 second edition?
Contingency Planner and Quarantine Specialist
Some second-edition prints were missing the line between Lagos and São Paulo.
Q 20Who co-designed the three expansions with Leacock?
Tom Lehmann
The expansions are On the Brink, In the Lab and State of Emergency.
Virulent Strain
Each replacement Epidemic carries its own nasty special effect.
Q 25In the Lab, the second expansion, added which two modes?
Solo and team play
Teams of two compete to be the most effective team.
Q 26In State of Emergency, which challenge has animals spreading disease to humans?
The Hinterlands
The same box added Emergency Events and the untreatable Superbug.
Q 27What colour are the fifth-disease cubes in State of Emergency?
Purple
They made the matching set in On the Brink redundant.
Q 28The 2018 10-year Anniversary Edition came in a metal box shaped like what?
A first aid kit
It added miniatures for each role, wooden cubes and a larger board.
Q 29Which spin-off replaced cards with dice in 2014?
Pandemic: The Cure
Its Experimental Meds expansion added a fifth disease in 2016.
Q 30In Pandemic: Contagion, players take on what role?
The diseases themselves
Unlike the base game it is not cooperative; the goal is to wipe out humanity.