Last night we played a game and had a blast.

But we had a few questions about it afterwards.

Such as I started a run I suspected he had Cell Portal there so I had boosted Cypsis to 7Strength and approached his ice. The first Ice he rezzed I was strong enough to interact with but then I had to pay to pass his subroutines?

Here is the question, okay I have an Icebreaker, Shaper so I can boost for the run, but any Ice rezzed I still have to deal with the subroutine, but is the subroutine strength the same as the ices it is on, or is it just 1 credit to deal with it?

To be honest I am a little confused on this matter, if my icebreaker is strong enough to interact with the ICE I then deal with the subroutines as I encounter them.

But lets say I have a subroutine for a codegate on another Icebreaker card, but theat ice breaker is not strong enough to interact with that ICE. I know the main Icebreaker I am using is, so that other subroutine breaker, do I just pay the one credit to bypass the routine or credits equal to the strength of the card I am on.

Then when I finally made it to Cell Portal, my icebreaker was strong enough to encounter it, but I still get bounced back to the first ICE?

You have to use an icebreaker that is capable of breaking the type of ice you are encountering.

Let's say you have a Gordian Blade and a Battering Ram in your Rig

Gordian Blade breaks Code Gates

Battering Ram breaks Barriers

The first Ice you encounter is Wall of Thorns so you choose to increase the strength of Battering Ram to 5 by spending 2 credits, then another 2 credits are spent breaking the two Subroutines on the Wall of Thorns.

The next ice you encounter is Cell Portal

Because Cell POrtal is a Code Gate ice, you can't use the Battering Ram to break it, since it breaks Subroutines on Barriers. So you have to increase the level of your Gordian Blade to level 7 by spending 5 credits, then an additional credit to break the one Subroutine on Cell Portal.

Since the Subroutine is broken, you don't get sent back to the beginning, and instead just break through the ice. His Cell Portal remains rez'd however, since the Derez condition is on the Subroutine that you broke,

I hope this helps.

It does thank you.

We, or rather I, seem to be not grasping the ICE and Icebreaker and subroutine concept fully. Then Traps, can Icebreakers bypass them?

Well, you're first mistake is that you don't have to boost strength until you actually encounter the ice. There is no need to boost strength before a run.

Second misconception you might have is that you need an ice breaker to move on to the next ice. You never have to break subroutines if you don't want. If there is no "End-The-Run" subroutine, you can just take the hit, and keep going.

You don't even need an ice breaker to make a run (and honestly sometimes it's very useful to make several runs before you even install anything.

There is also no such thing as a "main breaker". You may always use any tools available that you have installed.

Such as I started a run I suspected he had Cell Portal there so I had boosted Cypsis to 7Strength and approached his ice. The first Ice he rezzed I was strong enough to interact with but then I had to pay to pass his subroutines?

Save your money, don't boost strength before a run, wait until you actually encounter the ice. I you want to break the subroutines you have to match strength and then pay to break.

If you actually boosted Crypsis to 7 before the run started he'd actually drop back down to 0 strength right away anyway. Ice breakers always go back to their base strength immediately after you encounter a piece of ICE (unless the card says otherwise, such as Gordian Blade).

If you don't want to break the subroutines, you don't have to boost strength or pay. Unless the ice has an unbroken subroutine that says "End-The-Run" you keep on going (except if you choose to jack out of course).

Here is the question, okay I have an Icebreaker, Shaper so I can boost for the run, but any Ice rezzed I still have to deal with the subroutine, but is the subroutine strength the same as the ices it is on, or is it just 1 credit to deal with it?

Once again, you don't have to boost before the run. Once again, you don't have to break a subroutine if you don't want. You can only break subroutines with an icebreaker that says it can breaker the ICE's type subroutines. The cost to boost strength and break subroutines depends on the icebreaker. Read the card and it will tell you.

To be honest I am a little confused on this matter, if my icebreaker is strong enough to interact with the ICE I then deal with the subroutines as I encounter them.

Yeah. You don't have to, though. Ice breakers usually can only interact with a specific type of ICE (except for AI's and such like Crypsis). However in order for the ice breaker to interact, you must match the strength (paying the credits). You can then break however many subroutines you want (paying the credits).

If you don't want to break the subroutines, or can't because you don't have the breaker, there is no need to pay any cash.

Example:

1) You approach an unrezzed ice and your only program is a Pipeline (sentry breaker) and you have 3 credits.

2) Corp rezzes Neural Katanna

3) You don't have enough credits to match strength and then break (costs you 4 credits to boost strength to 3 and then 1 more credit to break the subroutine for a total of 5 credits needed).

4) Since you can't break it, the subroutine fires and you take 3 Net Damage.

5) There is no "End-the-Run" subroutine, so you move on to the next piece of ICE (or to the server if it's the only ice that gets rezzed).

But lets say I have a subroutine for a codegate on another Icebreaker card, but theat ice breaker is not strong enough to interact with that ICE. I know the main Icebreaker I am using is, so that other subroutine breaker, do I just pay the one credit to bypass the routine or credits equal to the strength of the card I am on.

Be careful on your terminology. Runner cards don't have subroutines, only ICE does. There is also no such thing as a "main breaker", you may always use any of the tools you have available.

In this case you can only interact using the decoder Ice breaker. So if you want to break the subroutines, just boost it's strength (paying the cost on the card) and then break the subroutines (paying the cost on the card).

Then when I finally made it to Cell Portal, my icebreaker was strong enough to encounter it, but I still get bounced back to the first ICE?

It depends, did you spend the cash to break the subroutine?

I'm just going to through out a scenario here:

You have: 1 Crypsis (Crypsis has 1 Virus counter on it) and 1 Gordian Blade installed

Corp: 3 unrezzed ice.

Ice 1

1) Begin run on server and approach first unrezzed ice

2) Corp rezzes Neural Katanna (Sentry) and you encounter it

3) You don't have a sentry breaker, but you do have Crypsis (can break any Ice)

4) You decide that you don't want to break the subroutine and are okay taking the damage.

5) You take 3 damage, but continue on to the next ice because there is no End-the-Run subroutine.

Ice 2

1) You choose approach the ice instead of jacking out

2) The corp rezzes Wall of Static (Barrier)

3) This one does have a ETR subroutine and you want to get through it. You have no barrier breaker, but Crypsis can break it.

4) You spend 4 credits to break the one subroutine (3 to boost strength to 3 and 1 to break the subroutine) using Crypsis. Since you used Crypsis, he also looses a virus token (now down to 0 virus tokens).

Ice 3

1) You choose to approach the next ice instead of jacking out

2) Corp rezzes Cell Portal (code gate)

3) You don't want to get bounced back to the outermost ice and Gordian Blade can break code gate subroutines.

4) You pay 6 credits to break the subroutine (5 to boost strength and 1 to break the subroutine).using Gordian Blade.

Congratulations, you made it through all the ice at a cost of 10 credits, 1 virus token off of Crypsis, and 3 Damage (it's a steep cost). Now you get to choose to jack out or continue on to access the server.

It does thank you.

We, or rather I, seem to be not grasping the ICE and Icebreaker and subroutine concept fully. Then Traps, can Icebreakers bypass them?

Be very careful with your terminology. "Bypass" has a very specific meaning in the game. The only ice breaker that can "bypass" ice is Femme Fatale.

The term you are looking for is "interact with" or "break subroutine".

The only ice breakers that currently can break Trap-type ICE are AIs (like Crypsis, Darwin, Atman, etc). Depending on the trap Deux X could do it too, but it's a bit of a waste.

It does thank you.

We, or rather I, seem to be not grasping the ICE and Icebreaker and subroutine concept fully. Then Traps, can Icebreakers bypass them?

OK, you are running a server. In order to get inside, you have to get past the ICE.

So, you approach the outermost ICE. If the corp rezzes it (or has already rezzed it), you are now able to break its subroutines.

If you wish to break any subroutines, choose an Icebreaker that can break the ICE (most Icebreakers list a subtype -- Icebreakers like Crypsis that do not list a subtype can break any ICE, including Traps). Then, make sure that the Icebreaker has strength equal to or greater than the ICE. This is usually done by increasing the strength of the Icebreaker. Then you may pay to break any subroutines you wish to break.

Then any subroutines you didn't break fire in the order written on the ICE. If no "End the Run" subroutine fired, you may continue your run into the Server or jack out.

All of this is detailed on page 33 of the rulebook, but it's very terse there. I hope this helps.

Here's the way I explain it to new players:

ICE is a defensive program. Each ICE has a strength and one or more subroutines. ICE doesn't end a run unless one or more of its subroutines say "End the run."

When you run on a server and encounter a piece of ICE, the first decision you make is whether or not you want to break any of the subroutines on that piece of ICE.

If you don't want to break any subroutines, the Corp executes each subroutine in order. If none of the subroutines contains the phrase "end the run," you may continue on toward the server after suffering the effect of all subroutines.

If you want to break one or more of the ICE's subroutines, you first have to check that you have a suitable Icebreaker program installed. Check the ICE's type (Barrier, Code Gate, Sentry, or Trap), then check your installed icebreakers and see if you have one that breaks subroutines of the appropriate ICE type (Fracters break Barrier subroutines, Decoders break Code Gate subroutines, Killers break Sentry subroutines, and AIs break the subroutines on any piece of ICE, including Trap). If you have an appropriate icebreaker, you must first raise the icebreakers strength to match the strength of the ICE by following any directions printed on the icebreaker for raising its strength (some icebreakers, like Mimc and Yog.0, cannot raise their own strength). Once you have paid the credits to raise the icebreakers strength, you must pay a number of credits as indicated by the icebreaker to break each subroutine. Remember that you don't have to break all (or any) of the subroutines to continue on UNLESS one or more subroutines say "end the run." Once you pay the credits to break the subroutines you wish to break, any unbroken subroutines are executed by the Corp. If none of the unbroken routines contains "end the run," you may continue on toward the server.

Note that certain Haas-Bioroid ICE allows the Runner to break subroutines using clicks. The Runner does NOT need to use any icebreakers to do so – simply spend the clicks and break the subroutines.

Here's the way I explain it to new players: [snip]

That's a pretty comprehensive guide; however there is one thing which is missing. You don't *necessarily* have to increase the Strength of the Icebreaker. You DO have to get the Strengths to at least equal. This can also be (less commonly) achieved by reducing the Strength of the ICE (through Wyrm, Datasucker, Parasite or other means). This is most useful with Icebreakers which cannot boost their own Strength (such as Yog.0 and Mimic which you mentioned).

It's also possible to combine these effects, such as reducing the Strength of an ICE so that you have to spend less on boosting your Icebreaker (for example, bringing Tollbooth to Str 3 using 2 x Datasucker counters before boosting Gordian Blade to Str 3 by paying one credit. This saves having to boost Gordian Blade all the way to Str 5).

I realise this may potentially cause more confusion, but for the sake of completeness (and better understanding the Anarch Core cards) I thought I should mention it.

Some great answers and yes you have managed to clear up a misunderstanding.

I was playing with the shaper deck and on some of the cards it states the effects last until the end of the run, therefore I thought I should boost to the max before starting the run.

Also Traps threw us for a loop.

I think I have it sorted out now, I think....