Hey all,

This has been the topic of hot debate for a long time since I have started playing. I have looked all over and have found no information about it, and in the rule book it is not exactly clear either. Please let me know if this is glaringly obvious in the rules and somehow I have missed it.

Anyway, I introduced this game to my parents a long time ago and me and my mom play a lot. She loves to play NBN identities, and the ice that she plays does not have many 'end the run' subroutines. Therefore, playing with multiple crash spaces or the like has allowed me to be willing to suffer the subroutines voluntarily a lot, since I can take a tag and move on.

However, I don't always have the icebreaker for the ice that I am running into, so I wanted to clarify if I can approach a piece of ice, not have the icebreaker and just suffer the subroutines, and pass through (if the ice doesn't have an end the run on it, obviously).

Also, even if I do have the pertaining icebreaker, I need to raise the strength of it in order for the icebreaker to 'encounter' it. Does this mean 'encounter' it so I can break subroutines, or 'encounter' it so I can even do something with the ice at all?

I probably have missed this in the rules, so correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks a lot.

You can, absolutely, voluntarily eat as many subroutines as there are to eat. And you are also right in that you will simply pass right through (albeit a little worse for wear in many cases) unless the ICE has an "End the run" subroutine. Ichi 1.0 is not nearly as strong in the early game precisely because of this. Someone who has no programs can just spend a click to break the trace and sail through the first two.

As far as increasing Icebreaker strength to "interact" (I believe is the word used) with a piece of ICE, that is only for Icebreakers and, more specifically, for that particular Icebreaker only. For example, you cannot use Knight to enable another Icebreaker to break subroutines on the ICE it's hosted on. YOU "encounter" a piece of ICE, not your Icebreaker(s).

That being said, that also means that non-icebreakers do not need to "meet or beat" the strength of ICE (as they don't have strength anyway) to "interact" with them (D4V1D being a good example, though it has its own limitations written on it).

Fantastic

You can, absolutely, voluntarily eat as many subroutines as there are to eat. And you are also right in that you will simply pass right through (albeit a little worse for wear in many cases) unless the ICE has an "End the run" subroutine. Ichi 1.0 is not nearly as strong in the early game precisely because of this. Someone who has no programs can just spend a click to break the trace and sail through the first two.

As far as increasing Icebreaker strength to "interact" (I believe is the word used) with a piece of ICE, that is only for Icebreakers and, more specifically, for that particular Icebreaker only. For example, you cannot use Knight to enable another Icebreaker to break subroutines on the ICE it's hosted on. YOU "encounter" a piece of ICE, not your Icebreaker(s).

That being said, that also means that non-icebreakers do not need to "meet or beat" the strength of ICE (as they don't have strength anyway) to "interact" with them (D4V1D being a good example, though it has its own limitations written on it).

Fantastic. Thanks so much.

Whoops... typo. :/