Netrunner FAQ v.1.0 Vapor Ice Edition by Marc "Sparky" Schmalz with assistance from WotC R&D and Customer Services (especially Mischa Donders, Glenn Elliott, Eric Gum, Rich Redman, Charles Keith-Stanley, JD Wiker and Jon Wilkie) ------------------------------------ Q: What exactly am I reading right now? A: You're looking at the first edition of the Netrunner FAQ. Please note that this is a snapshot of a living document, and that changes will happen regularly, especially in the early months of Netrunner's existence. There are a couple of reliable ways to get the most current version of this document. It will always be posted to our World Wide Web site (http://www.wizards.com), and WotC Customer Services will send you a copy if you supply them with a self-addressed, stamped envelope. You can get the Customer Services contact information from page 59 of the rulebook. Please note that all page references in this document are for use with the Netrunner Limited Edition rulebook, which came with v1.0 of the game. These references may not work with later editions of the rulebook. ------------------------------------ Q: What happens to an agenda after it is scored? A: The player scoring the agenda gets the agenda points and the agenda card is removed from its old location and set aside. At this point, it can no longer be affected by the opponent. If the Corporation scored it, the Corporation can use any special abilities or effects of the card as long as appropriate. ------------------------------------ Q: What happens when the Runner draws a card from R&D or HQ that is not an agenda and does not have a trash cost? A: That card is returned to the location from which it came. If this is R&D and the Runner somehow accessed more than one card, the Runner must maintain the original order of the cards when he or she returns them. ------------------------------------ Q: What happens to ice after all the subroutines are broken? A: Nothing special. The runner has passed the ice and can choose to continue or jack out. The ice card stays in play, remains rezzed, and waits for the next runner to come along. The Runner isn't destroying the program; he or she is merely evading it. ------------------------------------ Q: When does the Runner have to increase the strength of an icebreaker? A: During an encounter with a piece of ice, the Runner has to decide if he or she wants to break its subroutines. If the answer is yes, then the Runner has to ensure that the strength of the icebreaker is equal to or greater than the strength of the ice. If it's not, the Runner will have to increase the strength of the icebreaker for it to be effective--most icebreakers allow for their strength to be increased. Any increase is good for the duration of the encounter with that piece of ice; the Runner does not have to pump strength up in-between subroutines, but the strength bonus is lost as soon as the Runner is past the piece of ice he or she is currently encountering. ------------------------------------ Q: How are nodes played? A: Nodes are installed vertically and face down, and only in subsidiary data forts. Nodes are not active until the Corporation rezzes them. Occasionally nodes can be advanced; this will be indicated on the card. The further the node has been advanced, the more effective it will be, as indicated on the node card. If the Runner ever accesses a node, the Runner can pay its trash cost to put it on top of the face-up pile of the Archives. ------------------------------------ Q: What's the difference between Mouse and SeeYa? A: Mouse exposes a card installed inside a data fort. Since ice is installed on a data fort and not in it, the Runner cannot reveal ice with Mouse. The Runner can reveal any installed card with SeeYa (note that cards in the draw pile of R&D, the HQ hand, and the Archives are not installed). ------------------------------------ Q: Will an I Spy counter on R&D reveal the Corporation's whole deck? A: No. I Spy counters reveal installed cards. The stack of cards is simply stored in R&D, not installed there. Same goes for the hand of cards in HQ. ------------------------------------ Q: What happens if the Runner has Loan from Chiba out and can't pay the bit at the beginning of his or her turn? A: Nothing happens. If a player suffers a penalty and can't fulfill that penalty (for example, is forced to spend more bits than possible) then the player must meet the conditions or parts of conditions as far as possible and ignore conditions or parts of conditions that he or she cannot fulfill. ------------------------------------ Q: In order to remove virus counters, does the Corporation have to skip three actions immediately after the mandatory draw? A: No. The virus cards state that the Corporation has to forgo three actions, not that it has to spend them. In order to spend actions, a player would have to have them immediately available to him or her, but a player can declare that he or she is forgoing actions during an opponent's turn. The virus counters are removed as soon as the Corporation declares that it is forgoing its actions, so at that time it no longer suffers the viral effects. Being required to forgo more actions than are left in the turn does not count as a penalty that can't be fulfilled: a player simply forgoes actions on succeeding turns until enough actions have been forgone. ------------------------------------ Q: When does the Runner become flatlined? A: Damage causes the Runner to discard a card for every point he or she takes. If damage ever forces the Runner to discard a card when he or she has no cards in hand, the Runner is flatlined; thus, the Runner is not flatlined if his or her hand is at zero cards or if he or she has a maximum hand size of zero, unless he or she is then required to discard a card. ------------------------------------ Q: Can the Runner use Signpost or The Springboard even if he or she doesn't have a base link card in play? A: Yes. Even without a base link card in play, the Runner always has a base link of zero. ------------------------------------ Q: When can a card's special effect be used? A: If a card special effect requires an action, it can only be used on its player's own turn. An effect that does not require an action can be used at any time that the Corporation can rez a card, though we did not specifically mention that in the rulebook (you have our humblest apologies on this one). Remember that the Runner always gets the first chance to use special effects, then the Corporation has its chance. The Runner cannot use a special effect after the Corporation has performed its effects, unless the function of that effect is to prevent other effects. ------------------------------------ Q: When can the Runner jack out during a run? A: Unless another card is in play, the Runner can only jack out between pieces of ice and after passing the last piece of ice on a data fort just before accessing its contents. ------------------------------------ Q: If the Corporation trashes three of the Runner's hardware cards with Power Grid Overload, who chooses the order in which they hit the Runner's trash pile? A: The Corporation chooses. Any effects caused by the trashing of those cards (for example, the Runner's having to trash programs due to reduced MU after memory chips have been trashed) are handled only after all those cards are trashed. ------------------------------------ Q: When the Runner plays Hunt Club BBS, can he or she choose a card and then wait for it to be revealed before choosing the next, or must the Runner choose all cards before any are revealed? A: Again, if an effect does more than one thing, all the events happen simultaneously, unless indicated otherwise. If the Runner plays Hunt Club BBS, all choices about cards are made before any of them are exposed. ------------------------------------ Q: Vapor Ops states, "Vapor Ops advancement counter: Gain [1]." When does the Corporation get the bits for those advancement counters? A: Remember that abilities in Netrunner are set up as "cost: effect." What the card means is that if the Corporation spends one of the advancement counters on Vapor Ops, it gets [1]. The Corporation can use this special function at the same times it can rez a card. ------------------------------------ Q: The Runner has AI Boon on Shell Traders with only one shell counter left. Can he or she pay off the last counter and install it in the middle of a run? What's its strength for that run? A: The Runner can pay the bit and bring it into play during a run, since it does not require an action to remove shell counters. This cannot be done during an encounter with a piece of ice, though, since no player can use effects during an encounter, other than prevention effects. AI Boon is considered to have a strength of 0, since the Runner only rolls for its strength at the start of each run, and is already in the middle of a run. Remember that the Runner cannot react to the Corporation's rezzing of an ice card by using his or her own special effects. ------------------------------------ Q: If the Corporation scores Ice Transmutation and uses it on a piece of ice that is subsequently derezzed but not removed from play, does that ice keep the extra subroutines when it is re-rezzed? A: Since the card hasn't left play, it remembers that it was affected by Ice Transmutation. If that same card had been returned to HQ (or trashed and recovered into HQ) and re-played, it would not remember the change. ------------------------------------ Q: What happens if an icebreaker gets a negative strength? A: Strengths can be negative, and the negatives need to be overcome when trying to break ice. ------------------------------------ Q: When the Corporation plays Team Restructuring, can it put both advancement counters on one card? A: No. It specifically states that the Corporation can only put one counter on each of the cards it chooses to advance. ------------------------------------ Q: The Runner has The Shell Traders in play, and takes two actions to bring two cards into play, putting Shell counters on them. Can the Runner remove a counter from both of them at the start of each of his or her turns? A: No. First of all, there's errata on The Shell Traders. The line "Remove one Shell counter from one card at the start of each of your turns" should be on its own line. It is not part of the action listed on the card. Each copy of the card in play allows the Runner to remove a single Shell counter from any card that has them. ------------------------------------ Q: Is Clown cumulative? A: Yes. If a Runner has two copies of Clown installed, all ice is encountered with its strength reduced by 2. ------------------------------------ Q: Can the Runner use Startup Immolator after using Dropp(TM) to break the subroutines of a piece of ice? A: No. Dropp(TM) ends the run before the Runner can choose to use Startup Immolator. ------------------------------------ Q: Can the Runner use Joan of Arc to prevent the trashing of Startup Immolator when it is used to trash a piece of ice? A: Yes. Joan of Arc can be trashed to prevent the trashing of Startup Immolator, and the piece of ice will still be trashed. ------------------------------------ Q: If the Runner has an icebreaker installed in an Imp, and the Imp is installed inside an Efreet, is the icebreaker's strength reduced by 1 or by 2? A: The icebreaker's strength is reduced by 1. When checking for penalties, the Runner only checks to see where the icebreaker is immediately installed. ------------------------------------ Q: Can the Corporation use Pacifica Regional AI to gain actions during the Runner's turn? A: No. It was left off Pacifica Regional AI, but the meta-rule is that neither player can use effects to gain actions during the other player's turn. Treat Pacifica Regional AI as though it reads "Use this effect only during your turn." ------------------------------------ Q: Can the Runner move programs that are already installed into a daemon when he or she installs the daemon? A: No, previously installed cards cannot be moved into a daemon. ------------------------------------ Q: The rules say the Runner can use two different icebreakers to get past a piece of ice. So can he or she match the ice's strength with one icebreaker, and use another to get past the subroutines? A: No. Each icebreaker checks only its own strength to see if it can break ice subroutines. ------------------------------------ Q: When does Dropp(TM) end the run? A: Dropp(TM) ends the run after the Runner finishes the piece of ice he or she was encountering when it was used. Future editions of Dropp(TM) will have the following word change to clarify: "[0]: Break all subroutines on a piece of ice and end your run." ------------------------------------ Q: If the Corporation has Wall of Ice in play on a data fort that holds an active Crystal Palace Station Grid, how much does it cost me to break it using Pile Driver? A: Crystal Palace Station Grid makes the Runner pay an extra [1] to break each subroutine on a piece of ice. With Pile Driver ([3]: Break up to four wall subroutines on a single piece of ice) the Runner will still have to pay an additional [4] to break the four subroutines of Wall of Ice. The total to break through would be [7]. Since the Runner pays to break "up to four" subroutines at a time, he or she can choose to pay only for those subroutines he or she wishes to break. ------------------------------------ Q: What if the situation above involved Dropp(TM) instead of Pile Driver? A: Dropp(TM) is slightly different. Again, the Runner has to pay [1] per subroutine he or she wants broken, but under Dropp(TM)'s corrected wording ([0]: Break all subroutines...) the Runner cannot choose to break only some of the subroutines. Payment must be made for all or none of the subroutines. ------------------------------------ Q: When the Corporation scores Subsidiary Branch ("Gain an action during each of your turns"), does he or she immediately get an extra action in the current turn? A: Yes. Barring interaction from other cards, the Corporation will have four actions per turn for the remainder of the game, including during the turn in which Subsidiary Branch is scored. ------------------------------------ Q: Some cards, like Hammer, Ramming Piston, and Pile Driver, say that when the Runner uses them he or she loses bits from stealth cards. What are stealth cards, and can the Runner use these icebreakers if he or she doesn't have any stealth cards in play? A: "Stealth" is another keyword that some of the Runner's cards have. Cloak, Invisibility, Vewy Vewy Quiet, and Raven Microcyb Owl are the only stealth cards in Netrunner v1.0. All of these cards allow the Runner to put bits on them from the bit bank and use those bits to pay for non-noisy icebreakers. If the Runner has any stealth cards in play, he or she will lose bits from them when using a noisy icebreaker. If the Runner doesn't have any stealth cards in play, he or she can still use those noisy icebreakers, though. Losing stealth bits is not a cost, but a penalty. Remember that if a player suffers a penalty and can't fulfill that penalty, then that player must meet the conditions as far as possible and ignore conditions or parts of conditions that he or she can't fulfill. ------------------------------------ Q: Stealth cards state, "If you use any of these bits, replace them at the start of your next turn." If bits are removed from a stealth card because the Runner uses a noisy icebreaker (and not because they're being spent), do those bits get replaced at the beginning of the next turn? A: Yes, even bits that are 'removed' will be replenished at the beginning of the next turn. ------------------------------------ Q: Several cards are installed with bits on them, and state, "If you use any of these bits, replace them at the start of your next turn." Where do I get these replacement bits, my bit pool or the bit bank? A: They are taken from the bank. Wording will be changed in v2.0 to make this perfectly clear. ------------------------------------ Q: For Techtronica Utility Suit, Zetatech Software Installer, and Poltergeist, from where is a player supposed to draw the bits that need to be placed on them when they come into play? A: The player gets those bits from the bit bank. The v2.0 wording will make this clear. ------------------------------------ Q: If I don't break Tutor's subroutine ([*] For the remainder of the run, all ice encountered has an additional subroutine, "[*] End the run," after all other subroutines), does Tutor modify itself to include that additional subroutine? A: If a Runner has been affected by Tutor's subroutine, all pieces of ice gain an additional subroutine at the time the Runner first encounters them. For this reason, Tutor doesn't add the subroutine to itself. ------------------------------------ Q: If one of the Corporation's subsidiary data forts has all cards removed from it, does it still exist? A: No. If a subsidiary data fort does not have a card installed in it or ice installed on it, it does not exist. ------------------------------------ Q: City Surveillance states, "For each card Runner draws, give Runner a tag unless Runner pays [1], in addition to any other costs, to avoid receiving that tag. You may rez City Surveillance just before the card is drawn." If it is rezzed when the Runner states that he or she is going to draw a card, can the Runner decide not to draw? A: No. The Runner cannot decide not to complete an action because City Surveillance is rezzed during that action. ------------------------------------ Q: If the Runner makes a successful run using Edited Shipping Manifests with no bits in his or her pool, can the bits gained from Edited Shipping Manifests be used to pay to avoid the tag with Nasuko Cycle? A: Edited Shipping Manifests states, "... instead, the Corp loses [1] and gives you a tag, and you gain [10]." The Runner must process these effects in order, so he or she does not get [10] until after the tag is given. At that point, it is too late to use Nasuko Cycle's ability to avoid receiving the tag. ------------------------------------