Pandemic: In the Lab - Tips & Strategies

When you build a research station you get a free bonus lab action – do not forget this, it can be VERY helpful and sometimes the very reason for building a new station if you can’t move to one easily.

Processing a Sample, note that from all the cubes from one dish must go to one card, you can not send part to one Sequenced card and part to another. Likewise, all cubes in a dish must be moved together. These are key elements to remember when you are placing cubes to be processed.

To Test a Cure remember to remove a cube of that color from Any city and put it back in the supply. This can be very helpful if you can’t get to a city before it outbreaks via moving across the board.

Each of the Pandemic expansions include unique, discretely marked, role cards. The role cards of In The Lab give players an additional action and or ability not found on the other role cards. These bonus actions can be critical in winning the game, as “the lab” requires additional steps to cure diseases.

When my husband and I play, these are a couple things I’ve noticed that we regularly do and it seems to help.

Generally it’s good to try to Sequence two diseases (the most you can have at one time) as soon as possible, in order to do this you do need a second research station set up.

When you go to Characterize, which means assigning the card you have flipped over a specific color and vial, if we flip over one of the ‘any’ cards we pick based on what color we have the most on the board. If its pretty even then we look at who will most likely be completing this step and what cards they have available.