Kati Jones. On the surface she looks like a massive money maker. If you're in control, surely she'll be rolling you in the dough, right? I've wondered about this card's profitability ever since Netrunner Classic when it was called "Broker". Is she any better to use than just clicking for cash?

There had to be a way to get an answer, so I did what I always do in these cases. I asked Excel.

Fair warning, the next few paragraphs are math heavy. But a) there's a summary at the end and b) If you didn't like math, why are you playing Netrunner? =)

The True Cost of Kati

The trick is to figure out how much she's going to cost you to use. She costs money to install. Each time you click, you effectively "lose" 1 credit as a lost opportunity cost. After all, you could have spent that click to gain 1 credit instead.

Her base cost is easy to calculate. She costs 2 credits and 1 click to install. You'll then spend 1 click to empty her. So her base, fixed cost is effectively 4.

You're then going to build her up for n turns, where n is the number of clicks you spend pumping her up. This is her variable cost, and it is n credits.

Profit

The amount of profit you realize from Kati is going to be the number of credits you finally take off her, minus the costs you spent to build her up. The amount of money you take off Kati is revenue, but not profit. Her revenue is 3n (again, where n is the number of build-up clicks you spend on her).

So her profit is going to be her income minus her cost. Since the only variable is n, we can solve to find out how many "build up" clicks we need to spend to make her profitable (assuming any clicks above this numebr are pure proft).

Profit = 3n - n - 4

We want P to be at least equal to 0. Let's solve!

0 = 3n - n - 4

2n = 4

n = 2

So click her to build twice, then take off the money, and you've broken even. Each click beyond that is pure profit. Seems simple. But it isn't.

A Good Investment?

My original query was "is Kati better than just clicking for 1". The key is going to be looking at profit per click. The base $ action is 1 credit / click. When all's said and done, will Kati ever gain you more than 1 credit per click you put into her?

Remember that you need to put 1 click into her to install her, 1 click to remove all the credits from her, and n clicks to build her up. Or better put, clicks spent on Kati is n + 2

We've already determined Profit is 2n - 4.

We want a profit/click of at least 1 to be better than basic clicking. Let's solve!

1 = (2n - 4) / (n + 2)

n + 2 = 2n - 4

n = 6

All By Herself

Thus in order for Kati to be profitable, not only do you need to spend 2 build-clicks on her, you need to spend 6 build-clicks to be better than base clicking.

So yes, Kati can be profitable. But you need to spend at least 7 turns doing so. If you take any money off of her before you've click-built her 6 times, you're no better than just click-to-gain-1.

Of course this isn't taking into a account the clicks you're saving by getting 3 instead of 1 with your per-turn click. What happens when you take that into account?

Kati gives you 3 credits per click. If we're counting a click spent as -1, then we have to count clicks gained as +1. Let's revisit these numbers under this question:

Is Kati better than just clicking-for-1, assuming you click-for-1 twice per turn (to simulate what clicking 3 times would be like).

Kati's base cost is the same. 3n - n - 4. But now we're "gaining" 2 for each n we spend.

3n - n - 4 + 2n

= 4n - 4

The number of clicks spent on her are the same. n + 2.

What's her real cost?

Profit = 4n - 4

0 = 4n - 4

4n = 4

n = 1

She breaks even after 1 click.

And when does Profit/Click become 1?

1 = (4n - 4) / (n + 2)

n + 2 = 4n - 4

3n = 6

n = 2

Her profit / click, when you count the clicks she saves you, is after only 2 uses.

Conclusion

If you take into account the clicks she costs you to install and use, but claw back some of the clicks she saves you with her 3/turn, Kati Jones becomes profitable after putting just 2

clicks into her. On

Here's a chart.

Turn, $ if emptied, Profit

2, $3, -1, n/a

3, $6, 1, 0.25

4, $9, 3, 0.6

5, $12, 5, 0.83

6, $15, 7, 1

7, $18, 9, 1.125,

8, $21, 11, 1.222

8, $24, 13, 1.3