I've just received ANR as a gift and have only played a few games. i've searched the these forums and the google but didn't find what I was looking for. If I've overlooked it someplace, please point me in the right direction.

Lets say I rez: Wall of Thorns - ICE: Barrier - AP

Do 2 net damage.

End the run.

The person I teaching me the game said once the runner boosts his ice breaker's strength the subroutine breaker - say Barrier in the Wall of Thorns example - breaks the Barrier subroutine on the ice and the runner passes the ice. The AP subroutine is ignored because subroutines are an either/or thing.

But then I sat down with the rule book and read:

There is no limit to the number of installed cards
a Runner can use to interact with the encountered ice, but he
generally only needs one icebreaker.

and...

After the Runner breaks all of the ice’s subroutines and/or any
effects from unbroken subroutines resolve without ending the
run, he has passed that piece of ice.

I can see from the first line where his thought process is, but the second line seems to contridict the first - generally speaking.

Here's my interpretation: The runner must have one Ice Breaker program with enough strenth or boosted to +1 the strength of the Ice & subroutines on that program or any other active program to break all the subroutines on the Ice or take the effects of the subroutines not broken. So he could could use one program with Barrier he's boosted and another also boosted to break the AP subroutine. But if he doesn't break both subroutines he take the effect of the unbroken routines. Correct?

Hope I got all the vocabulary right. Thanks.

Junktrader

Hokay.

Wall of Thorns is Barrier and AP. That means that BOTH subroutines are considered Barrier and AP, not one is barrier the other is AP. A breaker that can break Barrier subroutines (or a breaker than can break AP subroutines) can break both of them.

Icebreakers only need as a minimum to match strength with the ICE, not exceed it (though exceeding is fine unless the card says otherwise.

The strength increase of your Icebreaker lasts until you have completed the encounter with the ICE (i.e. you pass it or you suffer the effects and the run ends, assuming the ICE has an end the run effect).

These examples all use Core set cards, so you can reference the text if required:

You have a Corroder installed. You encounter Wall of Thorns. You may spend 3 credits to boost Corroder from Str 2 to Str 5, the minimum needed to interact with the ICE. You may then spend additional credits to break the subroutines, because Corroder can break Barrier subroutines, and Wall of Thorns is a Barrier.

As long as you break the End the Run subroutine, you will pass Wall of Thorns. You may also use Corroder to break the Do 2 Net Damage subroutine if you wish; however suffering the damage will not end the run unless it also flatlines you.

Now, that other bit about using any number of programs I'll cover below.

Let's assume you have Wyrm, Corroder and Mimic installed and you encounter an Archer. Archer is Str 6. Mimic is only Str 3, and cannot interact with Archer. Mimic also cannot boost its own Str. Corroder can reach Str 6, but cannot break Sentry or Destroyer subroutines. This creates a dangerous situation.

Wyrm, as an AI, can break any kind of ICE type. However, it's prohibitively expensive, as we'll now see. Wyrm can only break subroutines if the ICE is Str 0. Wyrm can lower the Str of a piece of ICE. However, to interact with ICE, you must first match or exceed the ICE Str. Wyrm is only Str 1. That means you spend 5 credits to raise Wyrm to Str 6, a further 6 credits to lower Archer to Str 0, and a massive 12 credits breaking the subroutines (4 at 3cr each) for a whopping 23 credits!

But, you can use multiple programs. Let's instead spend 5 credits to make Wyrm Str 6 as before, then 3 to make Archer Str 3. Now you can use Mimic to break Archer at only 1 cr per subroutine. You just broke Archer for 13 credits instead (still expensive, but a much better proposition than 23!)

I hope that helps?

Ice have types. Subroutines don't.

Ice have types. Subroutines don't.

This is indeed correct, I sort of skipped that. When an Icebreaker says 'break barrier subroutine' what it in fact means is 'break a subroutine on a piece of ICE with the barrier subtype'. So any and all subroutines on a Barrier can be broken by a card that says 'break barrier subroutine'.

Thanks for your response. After reading it I realized I needed to do some more reading. I looked again at the card diagrams in the rule book. It turns out I was confusing the Ice sub-types and the subroutines on the Ice. I also found the rule:

It does not matter if the ice has additional subtypes, provided it has any subtypes referred to by the icebreaker’s ability. If an ability does not restrict itself to a subtype (i.e., “Break ice subroutine”), it can be used against any piece of ice.

The FFG tutorial on Youtube was also very helpful. I spotted several other mistakes we were making in trying to learn the rules. Thanks again for helping clear things up.

Edit note: formatting