What happens when you draw an Epidemic card in Pandemic?
Resolve three steps right away: Increase the infection rate, Draw a card from the bottom of the Infection deck and Infect its city with 3 cubes, then Intensify by shuffling the infection discard pile onto the top of the deck. You don't draw a replacement card.
The rule:
When you draw an Epidemic card in Pandemic, resolve three steps right away: Increase the infection rate, Infect the city on the bottom Infection card with 3 cubes, then Intensify by shuffling the infection discard pile onto the deck. No replacement card is drawn.
- Increase. Move the infection rate marker forward 1 space.
- Infect. Draw the bottom card of the Infection deck and put 3 cubes on that city, unless its disease is eradicated. If the city already has cubes of that color, fill it to 3 instead, and an outbreak happens there. Then discard that card to the Infection discard pile, so it gets shuffled back in the next step.
- Intensify. Shuffle only the Infection discard pile and put it on top of the Infection deck.
Then remove the Epidemic card from the game. You don’t draw a replacement.
If you draw 2 Epidemics at once, do all three steps, then do them again.
Example:
Mia's 2 draws are a City card and an Epidemic. She moves the infection rate marker, puts 3 cubes on the city from the bottom of the Infection deck, then shuffles the infection discards pile and place those back on top.
Why players argue about it:
The Intensify step is easy to get wrong: you shuffle only the discard pile and put it on top, so the cities already hit come up again soon.