Hi guys!

First of all Merry Christmas!

I have played this game only 3 times, and each time I realized we were playing it completly wrong!

I feel there are so many questions that the "manual" doesn`t cover, and while browsing the internet for answers, I feel like most of the people have their own understanding of the rules.

This subroutines part is what buggs me the most, if someone could help me I would really appreciate it!!!

Basically my question(s) are:

1. Supposedly I make a run on on the R&D, which is protected by an unrezzed Ice. When the corp decided to rezz the card against me, I realize that I do not have the corect type of icebreaker. (e.g. I only have Yog.0 against Heimdall) What happens?

a) Can I jack-out whitout suffering any of the subroutines?

b) If i do suffer the subroutines - are they 100% unavoidable?! Meaning, if the type of my icebreaker isn`t correct, can I still pay for the subroutines in order to avoid the whatever "damage" of subroutine, or i just suffer their damage?

2. If I make a run against a correct type of ice (e,g a Killer type against a Sentry type), and my strenght is equal or higher than the sentrys`, do I pass that ice completely? Meaning, do i slide through the subroutines without worrying about them? or do I still have to resolve them? (it makes no sense to still have to suffer or resolve them, but it`s really not clear for me!)

3. Can someone please list a complete icebreaker type vs ice type compatibility, because for example Heimdall is also a barrier, a bioroid, and AP - I know to fight a barrier you need a Fracter, but what do you need for AP, tracer, observer and destroyer(like Ichi 1.0, or Hunter)

Thanks so much!!!

Cheers!

1. a) You cannot jack out if it's the first ice you encounter. after you get past the first ice but before you encounter the second piece of ice you get to end the run if you wish. So unfortunatly for you, you will have to suffer all of the subroutines.

b) Nope they are pretty much unavoidable.

2. You break each or some of them. Some icebreakers will alow you to break up to 3 barrier subroutines for example. You don't have to break all of them if you don't want or can't. You can choose wich of the subroutines to break or have resolve.

Example:

ICE

- End the run

- Runner looses 1 click if aplicable.

I'm using my fourth click to make a run on HQ protected by said piece of ice, i have the correct icebreaker for the job.

I choose to break the 1st subroutine (otherwise i won't be able to get past the ice)

Now i could break the 2nd subroutine but i choose not to break it and it resolves.

(I've got no more clicks to loose)

I have now bypassed that piece of ice and can acces one card from HQ.

3. Sorry don't have the time for that right now: And to make matters worse: There is ice that can change it's type, such as Chimera and Lycan. My advice would be: Put the "Knight " (anarch faction) icebreaker in your deck.

Merry Christmas to you as well and welcome to Netrunner. Don't worry about getting things wrong, especially during your first few games, there are a lot of very easy mistakes to make and the manual isn't amazing in terms of teaching you how to play (although it does cover a lot of things, just not in the most easily understandable way for new players).

As for your questions:

1. You do not get to jack out after the ice has been rezzed. You approach a pice of ice, then you decide if you want to jack out, then the corp may choose to rez it and then you encounter the ice (and aren't allowed to jack out until you approach the next piece of ice or are about to access the server). When you encounter an ice you may break any number of subroutines (if able) and after that the remaining subroutines fire. There is no way to prevent them from resolving but depending on what they do it might be possible to prevent the actual effect.

2. Type and strength are just the requirements for interacting with ice, you still have to pay to actually break the subroutines. If you do that you're fine but if you didn't break all of them you do suffer the remaining ones.

3. The problem here is that subtypes can be a bit complicated. There are the three "big" ones, Barrier, Sentry and Code Gate and the corresponding breakers, Fracter, Killer and Decoder (and then there are AI breakers, which just means the breaker doesn't care about ice type) but outside of that ice can have a bunch of subtypes that classify it and may or may not interact with anything and icebreakers might not even have a subtype but still only break subroutines on a specific kind of ice.

The important thing is: The ability on your icebreaker that does the actual breaking always tells you what it can break. It doesn't hurt to know that Fracters break Barriers but what actually matters is that each fracter has an ability that reads "[cost]: Break Barrier subroutine". Deus X doesn't have a subtype at all but it has an ability that reads "[Trash]: Break any number of AP subroutines". That's how you figure out what types of ice you can break.

There are 3 main ice breaker types for each of the main ice types:

Decoders break code gates

Fracters break barriers

Killers break sentries

As long as you match at least one ice sub-type with an ice breaker you can interact with it (so to break routines on a heimdal 1.0 you need a fracter such as corroder).

Some ice have additional sub-types (such as destroyer, AP, trader, etc.). There are certain programs and icebreakers that interact specifically with these types but mostly it just provides some info on what the ice does (e.g. trader ice will trace and AP deals damage). Bioroid is a special one in that it indicates that a runner can spend clicks to break routines without having any form of icebreakers available (but that is very expensive in the long run).

There is one type of breaker that can interact with any ice and that is AI breakers (e.g. crypsis and the aforementioned knight. These can be expensive to use, but allow you to face check when you have to or break trap ice.

For a list of ice interactions check out cardgamedb.com. It allows you to search the carpool for specific types and subtypes (so you could search for fracters and/or barriers to see what is out there).

One last point: each faction specialises in different breakers so it is necessary to go out of faction to pick up the "best ones". Anarchs are good for fracters, shapers for decoders and criminals for killers. Picking up more efficient breakers over the in faction options is one area to think about spending influence (a lot of decks spend influence to get corroder in for breaking barriers).

2. Type and strength are just the requirements for interacting with ice, you still have to pay to actually break the subroutines. If you do that you're fine but if you didn't break all of them you do suffer the remaining ones.

Hey everyone!!

Thanks so much for the answers!

Still one more thing that I don`t understand from this, is... if i have e.g a Killer with strenght of 3 and the corp has a Sentry with strenght of 5, can I still avoid effects on subroutines (by of course paying clicks or credits, or whatever the cost)? ----- If this sentry has 3 subroutines and I raise my Killer`s strenght to 5 and I break 1 subroutine, does my strenght reset (to 3) for the next subroutine?!

This seems to me kinda of overpowering for the Corp, I don`t see how a runner can win like this, I kept drawing cards with "-" or "0" or"2-3" strenght and the corp had above 3 strenght always.

Thanks!

Happy playing!

Strength doesn't reset between subroutines. Once you've raised your Breaker's strength to match (or exceed) the ice's you can use it to break any number of subroutines (provided you can pay for it). The strength doesn't reset until the encounter with the ice ends unless your breaker says otherwise.

This seems to me kinda of overpowering for the Corp, I don`t see how a runner can win like this, I kept drawing cards with "-" or "0" or"2-3" strenght and the corp had above 3 strenght always.

Thankfully icebreakers will keep their strength for an encounter with a piece of ice, but thinking about how much it costs to break through ice is a good line of thought for both the corp and runner to be basing their decisions on. As the game progresses the corp should rez more and more ice, increasing the cost for each run made against that server. Eventually the runner has to be saving a lot of credits to make a run against that server (but at this point they'll likely have their full rig out and taxing too much money is likely the only thing now that will keep them out - for a turn or two).

So taking a Heimdal 1.0 encounter as an example: if you have Corroder you would need to pay 4 credits to get up to strength and then pay 3 credits to break all its routines for a total of 7 credits. But you don't have to break everything, you could just get to strength and avoid the brain damage (5 credits) or click through the end the runs (2 clicks) taking one brain damage but getting through.

If the corp stacked two of these together on a single server it would then cost you 14 credits to break in using Corroder. An alternative breaker like Battering Ram might work out better here as it keeps its strength during a run, on the first heimdal it would cost 3 to get to strength and 4 to break all the routines (7 credits again) but now the second heimdal only costs 4 to break for a total running cost of 11 credits.

I get it all now!!

We played today 4 games, and we finally got the game correctly! It`s not so hard after all, but as a beginner it just leaves many questions unanswered!

Thanks for the help!

Happy holidays

I'm a beginner too, so if this is not on the Mark please correct me. However, one way of explaining it is - you don't need the same icebreaker type to go past ice. Likewise you don't need the same strength as the ice to go through either. You can potentially go past the ice without either condition met. However in order to break a subroutine you do need to meet these conditions. This means that If there is an "end the run" subroutine on the ice, you'll need matching breaker type and equal strength to proceed. If there is no"end the run" subroutine, you can go through regardless, taking the damage or other effects as detailed on the subroutines.

I'm a beginner too, so if this is not on the Mark please correct me. However, one way of explaining it is - you don't need the same icebreaker type to go past ice. Likewise you don't need the same strength as the ice to go through either. You can potentially go past the ice without either condition met. However in order to break a subroutine you do need to meet these conditions. This means that If there is an "end the run" subroutine on the ice, you'll need matching breaker type and equal strength to proceed. If there is no"end the run" subroutine, you can go through regardless, taking the damage or other effects as detailed on the subroutines.

Point being ICE doesn't stop you unless it Ends the Run or Flat-lines you through damage. Which is something Corps should always take in mind and that is why most played Ice are ones that end the run.

However if you pass the piece of ICE you can then choose to jack out before the next ICE encounter. Lets say for example there is a rezed ice with 3 subroutnes that do 1 net damage and a unrezed piece of Ice in front of it. You encounter the first piece of ICE which is unrezzed, the corp rezzes it and you end up suffering 1 net damage for an unbroken subroutine, you see the other piece of ICE because it was already rezed and know it will flat-line you so you then choose to jack out after taking the subroutines of the first piece of ice but before you encounter the second piece of ICE. Which is why corporation like to keep ICE unrezzed and stack credits as a surprise.