Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 · Board game rules
When do city cards and other effects/upgrades become permanent?
Quick answer
City card stickers and other upgrades become permanent the moment they're chosen as one of the two Game End Upgrades at the end of a game (win or lose), and they carry forward into all future games.
Details
After every game, whether you win or lose, the group must choose two Game End Upgrades. These upgrades are applied immediately and are not undone later, even though the board is cleared and City cards are discarded for the next setup [p.8 — WIN OR LOSE, THE GROUP CHOOSES TWO GAME END UPGRADES AT THE END OF THE GAME].
There are four types of upgrades you can choose, and each becomes permanent in a different way:
- Unfunded Events: You place an event sticker on a City card in the Player Deck, turning it into a combined City/Event card. This card keeps that sticker forever, in every future game, regardless of funding level [p.8 — GAME END UPGRADES / UNFUNDED EVENTS].
- Starting Research Stations: You add a starting research station sticker to a city that currently has a research station. From then on, every future game's setup will include a research station in that city [p.8 — STARTING RESEARCH STATIONS].
- Character Upgrades: You add an upgrade sticker to a character card. This stays on the card permanently and carries into future games, as long as that character isn't later lost [p.8 — CHARACTER UPGRADES].
- Positive Mutations: If a disease was eradicated in the just-played game, you may add a positive mutation sticker to the disease tracking area on the board, permanently making that disease easier to cure in all future games [p.8 — POSITIVE MUTATIONS].
Watch out: Regular City cards themselves are discarded and reset at the end of every game — only the stickers applied to them (like Unfunded Event stickers) are permanent. Also, Character Upgrades can only be applied to characters who were actually in the just-played game, and Positive Mutations only to diseases eradicated in that same game [p.8 — CHARACTER UPGRADES; POSITIVE MUTATIONS].