Beginner's FAQ

Corp - General

• Corp only gets a mandatory card draw and 3 clicks per turn.
• The Corp dies when he has to draw from R&D and has no cards remaining. This is known colloquially as being decked out.
• You cannot include Agendas from other factions: only your own and neutral Agendas.

Corp - Ice

• You can only rez ice that's being approached, but can rez assets or upgrades from anywhere almost anytime.
• Ice that's rezzed does not automatically get derezzed or trashed after the runner breaks it.
• Ice does not have an automatic "end the run" subroutine at the end of everything; that is to say, if the runner doesn't break through all the subroutines, he does not automatically get booted out of the server. He suffers whatever side-effects the subroutines inflict on him, and then he moves on past the ice.
• Ice can only be installed in the outermost position on a server, and the Corp has to pay an install cost for each additional ice on a server past 1. The second piece of ice costs 1c, the third piece of ice 2c and so on. This cost is paid immediately, upon the ice being installed. However, when installing ice, you can freely trash any other ice on that same server to lower your install cost.

Corp - Assets, Upgrades and Agendas

• Assets do not need to be advanced to be rezzed; you simply pay the rez cost and flip them up.
• It does not take a click to rez an asset.
• You can have either one asset or agenda in a remote server, but any number of upgrades. You do not need to declare what type of card you're putting down when you play it, but you do need to retain the play order (i.e. the runner must be able to identify which facedown card you played first, second, third etc).
• You cannot advance assets or ice unless they say they can be advanced.
• You do not need to score an agenda once it has been fully advanced. You can, of course, and probably should, but you do not need to. You also cannot score Agendas on the runner's turn, but may do so anytime during your turn without spending a click.
• You can only use an agenda's paid ability after scoring it: e.g. you can only spend a click to deal damage to a runner after you score that Private Security Force, not any time before.
• It costs a click and 1c to advance something. This means that an agenda with a cost of 3 will take at least two turns to score (play, advance, advance; then advance again on the next turn), and an agenda with a cost of 6 will take three turns to score (play, advance, advance; advance, advance, advance; advance).
• Facedown cards, when trashed or discarded, are sent to the Archives facedown. A card is considered facedown when it's an unrezzed card in a server, a piece of ice or a card that has been discarded from HQ. Corp can look at all facedown cards in the Archives at any time.

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Runner - General

• Runner has no mandatory card draw and 4 clicks per turn.
• The Runner does not die from being decked out.
• Damage requires you to randomly discard cards; you do not get to choose which card you want to discard. Usually, the corp just picks a random card to discard for each point of damage.
• Brain damage is also a type of damage and therefore, in addition to lowering your maximum hand size by 1, also forces you to discard a random card.
• Runner only dies from meat/net damage when brought down to -1 hand size, not 0.
• Runners cannot use stolen agenda abilities.

Runner - Events

• Playing a Run event like Account Siphon or Retrieval Run includes the run as part of the click cost, i.e. you don't have to spend another click to make the run. You only need to spend the one click for playing the event, and you get the run for free.

Runner - Programs

• Runner starts with 4 Memory Units (MU).
• The runner must use the correct icebreaker for the right ice (e.g. if a breaker says "break sentry subroutine", your ice must be a sentry), and the icebreaker must have strength equal to or exceeding the ice before it can even interact with it. Yes, that means when you use Wyrm, you must pump its strength to the ice's strength first before you can start lowering the ice's strength.
• Icebreaker strength resets between ice unless it explicitly says otherwise.
• Not all icebreaker strength can be pumped.
• You cannot trash a program except as part of an install action. However, once you start an install action, you can trash any number of programs off that single action, even if the new program would not bring you above your memory limit.
• You cannot move a program once it has been played. e.g. if you play a Datasucker followed by a Djinn, you cannot retroactively move the Datasucker onto the Djinn.
• A single program can only have a single host. Once the host is destroyed, all hosted programs go into your heap.

Runner - Hardware and Resources

• You cannot destroy hardware or resources voluntarily.

Runner - Runs

• Events cannot be played mid-run. For that matter, anything that costs a click cannot be used mid-run.
• However, you can use stuff like Self-Modifying Code or Clone Chip mid-run.
• Runner can choose to jack out when approaching any piece of ice except the first piece of ice. The order goes something like this: you approach the ice and decide if you want to jack out or continue; if you continue, the corp decides if he wants to rez it; if he does, you then encounter the ice, and whatever "on encounter" triggers fire.
• Runs are successful before cards are accessed. e.g. if you run with Desperado, you get 1c before you start accessing cards; if you have a Medium out, you add a virus counter before you count the number of cards you access, and so on.
• Runner only looks at one random card from HQ when accessing HQ. If accessing multiple cards (because of a special card effect), you must randomly choose the cards to access one at a time, and they are not returned to HQ until you finish accessing all the cards you wish to access.

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General

• You cannot do things "in response" to another player's actions unless they say "prevent". Therefore, if the Runner decides to Parasite a piece of ice and Datasucker it to death, you cannot rez Corporate Troubleshooter "in response" to this happening: the active player gets to finish all his actions, then you get to do whatever you want, then he gets to do any other actions and so on.
• If something has the keyword "prevent", you can use the paid ability to prevent the effect from taking place. e.g. the Corp plays Scorched Earth on the Runner. The Runner may then spend tokens from his Plascrete Carapace to prevent an equal amount of meat damage from hitting him.

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FAQ

>What happens when I'm running against Jinteki Personal Evolution with 6 agenda points and 0 cards in hand, and I manage to steal an Agenda? Do I die or win the game? - You win the game first, unless it's an Agenda like Fetal AI where you get hit with net damage the moment you access it.

>What happens if I access a Fetal AI/NAPD Contract and do not want to pay the additional cost?

• You must steal an agenda you access unless it has an additional cost, as is the case of Fetal AI/NAPD Contract. Even if you can pay an additional cost, you can always choose to decline it. If you choose to decline the additional cost, you do not show the card to the Corp and just put it back where you accessed it from.

>After using Crypsis to break a piece of ice, can I choose to trash Crypsis instead of removing a token (e.g. as a response to Will o' the Wisp)?

• Yes.

>If I try to bypass Tollbooth via Femme Fatale, do I still suffer the "on encounter" effects?

• No. Both Femme and Tollbooth's effects trigger "on encounter", so the active player's effects are resolved first. The runner then bypasses the ice, at which point the Tollbooth's "on encounter" trigger is no longer valid. The same is true for Inside Job, Data Raven etc.

>If I try to kill Tollbooth with Parasite + Datasuckers, do I still suffer the "on encounter" effects?

• Yes. Using Datasuckers is a paid ability, and you only get a paid ability window after you encounter the ice. Tollbooth says that you have to pay 3c or end the run; if you did not pay 3c, then you must have ended the run before you get a paid ability window to use your Datasuckers.

>If I get hit with a Chum's subroutine and then bypass the next piece of ice with a Femme Fatale, do I eat the net damage from the Chum subroutine?

• Yes, because you did not break the subroutine.

>Does Femme Fatale need to have strength equal to the ice in order to bypass it?

• No.

>Can I play Account Siphon and use Sneakdoor Beta at the same time?

• No. Account Siphon includes a run as part of the event, and that run must be made on HQ. Sneakdoor Beta costs a click to use, and you cannot use clicks in the middle of a run. Besides, even if you could, you would be making a separate run altogether that will not allow you to Siphon their funds.

>When I play Account Siphon, must I take the money and tags, or can I choose to forfeit its effect to just access HQ normally?

• Yes, as long as it says "you may". If you play Account Siphon and choose not to take any money from the Corp after a successful run on HQ, you can access HQ normally and do not gain any tags. Note, however, that the same is not true for cards like Security Testing which lacks the "may" clause; you must take 2c in place of accessing the first time you run it.

>If I play 2 Security Testings and choose the same server, do I get 4c the first time I run it?

• No. You get 2c the first time you run it, and nothing else thereafter. Security Testing says that the first time you make a successful run on this server, instead of accessing cards you get 2c. You must always opt to take the money the first time you successfully hit the server, but you can only use one "instead of accessing cards" ability at any time. Y