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Tips & Strategies (17)

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11
Miniature Painter
Expert Advisor
Inventor
Advanced Reviewer
50 of 52 gamers found this helpful
“Traps Must "Tell a Believable Story" to Work”

In Poker literature, it is recommended that your bluffs “tell a believable story”. This means that if the bluff doesn’t make sense and look like the hand you are representing, that you will be called and it will fail.

As the Corp player, your traps must be played in a manner where they could be agendas or assets as well. If you normally install an agenda and only advance it once, then triple advance it on the next turn to score it, then you can only advance your traps a single time or it will be obvious to the runner. Getting in the habit of installing and double advancing both traps and agendas will help disguise this difference.

Study your own play style and learn how to install/advance these cards in a similar manner to keep the Runner guessing as to what you are actually doing. Economically, the Runner has the advantage, but the Corp has secrecy and deception to counter this. Don’t squander this by “playing your hand face-up”!

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11
Miniature Painter
Expert Advisor
Inventor
Advanced Reviewer
47 of 49 gamers found this helpful
“Don't Run on Your Last Click”

As the Runner, you need to stay reactive to any surprises the Corp may have for you. Acquiring a tag on your final click can be devastating, allowing the Corp to trash valuable resources or even flatline you. To avoid this, do not run on your last remaining click unless there are no other options. This final click will serve as an insurance plan against tags. Then if its not needed, you can just draw a card or use it to gain some economy.

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3
Gamer - Level 3
My First Game Tip
38 of 40 gamers found this helpful
“Keep running R&D.”

Just as a quick tip: the value of running on R&D should not be underestimated.

As the runner you should be making runs on R&D as often as possible, ideally at least once a round. Not only do you have the chance to draw an agenda, but you will know what the corp will be drawing before the corp does. This allows you to alter your strategies and stay ahead; and in Netrunner, even more than many other games, knowledge really is power. Further, trashing their cards before they can even draw them gives you even more control of the game.

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3
Thunderstone Fan
AEG fan
34 of 36 gamers found this helpful
“Corporate Bluffing”

This is a simple tip but I find that it is very useful for my fellow Evil Corporation moguls.

Do not misunderstand that as a Corp, your bluff is actually Agendas. Yes, that is right. We bluff with Agendas. The whole sneaky misdirection we should achieve against the Runner is making them THINK that we have a nice, fat, rich agenda behind a veritable wall of ICE in a Remote Server, when in fact, the real Agenda is in a remote server that has maybe one ICE. The server that the Runner is eyeing is maybe a trap or something that will hit him with lots of tags.

To get the Runner in that mindset we have to sacrifice maybe one or two low point agendas by placing them behind such walls of barriers and putting a few ad campaigns or similar in light defended servers first.

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8
Gamer - Level 8
Mythic Kingdoms Backer 2020
I'm a Gamin' Fiend!
Champion
33 of 35 gamers found this helpful
“Keep Running!”

If the Corp has a lot of unrezzed Ice in play and just a moderate amount of cash, start running, and run often. It doesn’t matter if you get through, you want to force him/her to spend credits to activate Ice. This is cash they’re not putting towards advancements or rezzing other useful assets.

You can learn much about the Corp from what Ice is activated and not activated. Unactivated Ice may be too expensive to rez (though it may lead into a Trap as well). The Corp may not feel a server is not particularly worth defending if they don’t rez, so it may not be worth your time going after in later runs. Even if you don’t get through, you now know the Ice you’re facing for subsequent runs and can better prepare for them.

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4
Mantis Clan - Legend of the Five Rings
BoardGaming.com Beta 1.0 Tester
Tinkerer
Went to Gen Con 2012
55 of 59 gamers found this helpful
“Corporate Anarchy - Multiplayer Variant”

(These rules are based on the “Big Sell Out” rules for NR96 by Damian O’Dea)

Netrunner is a great game for 2 players, but the asymmetrical way it is structured makes it impossible to play with more than 2. Or so you would think! In this team-based variant, the Corps employ Runners to sabotage their rival businesses, and the Runners are all too happy to accept dirty Corp money to tear down parts of their corrupt system.

To play multiplayer Netrunner, you just need an even number of players. Everyone gets into teams of two, with each team having one Runner and one Corp. The Corp player’s Runner team-mate is his Agent, who he has hired to clandestinely destroy his rivals, and the Runner’s Corp team-mate is her Sponsor, her shadowy backer in the cyber-underground. Each team shares their Agenda points, but not credits, clicks, or other resources. Seat players next to their teammate, with the Corp of each team going first (so it goes Corp1, Runner1, Corp2, Runner2, etc.), and play to 11 points, with the following extra rules:

– Any time the Agent would make a run on or target her opponent with a card, she chooses an opposing Corp player to count as her opponent for the resolution of that effect. She may not run or target her own Sponsor. Similarly, a Sponsor may choose any opposing Runner to count as his opponent each time he plays a card, but may not choose his own Agent. The Jinteki Corporate identity’s ability only triggers when an agenda is scored by or stolen from them, and when an Agenda is stolen from them it can only damage the player stealing that Agenda.

– The Sponsor’s Agent is considered to reside on her own central server, much like Archives, HQ, and R&D. The Sponsor may install Ice and Upgrades on this server as normal to protect the identity of its Agent, and Runners on other teams may make runs on this server after their first turn is complete. If a Runner successfully completes a run on another team’s Agent server, she’s hacked into that Agent’s personal system, and may choose to either give the Agent a tag, or pay credits equal to the cost of one of that Agent’s installed non-unique Programs or Hardware to trash it.

– The Agent may rez ice installed on her own server by spendng her credits after the Corp declines to rez that ice. Ice rezzed in this way derezzes at the end of the run.

– When an Agent steals an Agenda, she may score it as normal, or give it to her Sponsor, who immediately installs it in a server (discarding any Agenda or Asset there, if necessary). The Sponsor may advance and score this agenda as if it were his own, and gain any special benefits associated with it.

– If there are more than 2 teams, tags placed on Runners only count for the team that placed them, and every Corp’s Ice gains +1 strength during runs for each other player that made a run against them since the end of their last turn.

– The Corp gains the ability: Spend one click to transfer any number of your credits to your Agent on a 1:1 basis. Each credit for the Corp is worth more than each credit for the Runner, but they have to launder the money and thus lose a lot in the exchange. An Agent has no ability to transfer money to her Sponsor.

– Flatlined Runners do not necessarily lose the game. The Corp also gains this ability: Spend 3 clicks and forfeit a scored Agenda to return your Agent to the game if she has been flatlined. The Agent shuffles her installed cards, stack, heap, and grip together, discards all tags and brain damage, draws 5 cards, gets 5 credits, and enters the game as if it were her first turn. The Corp can rebuild her… they have the technology.

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5
USA
Book Lover
Video Game Fan
41 of 44 gamers found this helpful
“Don't Over-Advance Ambushes Too Soon”

Obviously, when playing as the Corp, one of the key aspects of the game is bluffing. When advancing ambushes (or even just assets to distract from the agendas), make sure not to throw down three or four advancement tokens too quickly. If you quickly advance it over a couple of turns, but then never advance it further (imitating an agenda that gets an effect for each advancement counter beyond the scoring requirement) or actually score it, it will become painfully obvious what is happening. In my experience, nothing is more of a deterrent to a runner falling into your traps than cards with a bunch of advancement tokens that suddenly get ignored and are never scored.

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11
Miniature Painter
Expert Advisor
Inventor
Advanced Reviewer
40 of 43 gamers found this helpful
“Corporate Card Play Pacing”

Conventional card game wisdom is typically to play every card in your hand as long as can afford to in an effort to develop faster than your opponent. As the Corp, this can often be wrong. Most of the time, you are better suited to only play one card a turn and maintain a full five card hand. This will decrease the odds of an agenda being accessed when the Runner hits HQ. Even if you don’t have one in your hand, you may draw one on the next turn. Sometimes Ice in your hand can be more helpful to protect HQ agendas than if it was in play.

What to do with those extra clicks? Use them to gain some credits or advance a card…

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11
Miniature Painter
Expert Advisor
Inventor
Advanced Reviewer
50 of 54 gamers found this helpful
“Maintain a Healthy Bank Account”

As a Runner, it is important to keep enough credits in your account so the Corp feels threatened. They will be less likely to install into remotes when they know you might be able to access. Even if you don’t have the ability to run yet, those credits will give you the potential from the Corp’s view and will keep them off balance.

When you have no credits remaining, the Corp can use this “opportunity window” to proceed with their plans without fear of interruption. Avoiding these moments will help you maintain pressure through the whole game.

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3
Miniature Painter
9 of 9 gamers found this helpful
“New Players - No End the Run?”

I hear this query from a few new players when first encountering ICE: If the Runner does not or can not ‘interact with’ or break a piece of ICE, does the Run End by default?

NO! *only* if the ICE has a Subroutine that states “–> End the Run” does the Run actually End. If the ICE has other Subroutines that the Runner cannot break, they trigger, and if the Runner is still alive, they continue with the Run and can then themselves chose to End the Run or continue on to the next piece of ICE or the Central/Remove Server.

e.g. Ichi 1.0 If you can survive the Brain Damage, you are free to carry on with your Run.

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11
Miniature Painter
Expert Advisor
Inventor
Advanced Reviewer
24 of 26 gamers found this helpful
“Equal Card Pools”

LCG’s are drastically less expensive than CCG’s. A new player can build up to a full existing pool of cards quickly, and comparatively, with a much smaller investment. Despite this, many play groups will contain players with a wide range of card pool sizes.

In casual play, restrict your card pool to match your opponent’s. This will level the playing field. He won’t have to deal with the newest powerhouse meta-changing card. It will speed play time by avoiding the inevitable “What does that do?” questions. He won’t be overwhelmed and discouraged from continuing in his pursuit of the game. Lastly, you will benefit from new challenges, working within his boundaries without the crutch of net-decking.

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3
Miniature Painter
7 of 7 gamers found this helpful
“More is More”

A large part of mastering Netrunner is to understand the potential risks and rewards, and the only real way to achieve that is to play the game.

There is a learning curve to the game, but the steep part of that curve is in determining what cards, tactics and strategy your open is deploying and therefore will inform your own card-play and risk analysis decisions.

So simply play more games, play against different opponents, play as both Corp and Runner, play using all Factions/Identities, play using bad opening hands, play with infrequently-used cards, just play!

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6
Went to Gen Con 2012
Book Lover
41 of 46 gamers found this helpful
“First play - don't start new runners against Jinteki”

While going up against Jinteki teaches runners the powerful lesson of “honeypots can equal braindeath”, the sheer number of traps in this corporation’s deck can also kill a burgeoning interest in the game. Save the Jinteki challenge for once the runner knows a little more about the rules of the game.

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8
Gamer - Level 8
Expert Recruiter
Count / Countess
BoardGaming.com Beta 1.0 Tester
16 of 18 gamers found this helpful
“Runners: Run Early!”

As a runner, it is enticing to spend all of the early game building your rig. But I advise you to run as early as you can, especially on HQ. Also, whenever the corp is low on credits. It can be a game-changer to pull an early agenda that isn’t well protected, or to test which pieces of ice the corp can’t quite afford to rez yet. Most cheap ice is going to be “End The Run” anyway, and forcing the corp to pay for that can mean they can’t afford to play better operations, or to rez nastier ice.

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5
Tasty Minstrel Games Fan
Eminent Domain Fan
14 of 16 gamers found this helpful
“Deck Minimums”

As a Runner, it’s better to stick to your deck minimum (usually 40 or 45) to increase the odds of getting the cards you need. As a Corp player, this is a little less necessary, and I usually run 49 cards in my Corp deck. It gives me a little more insurance again the lose condition of the deck running out, and you usually want to pack in a bit more ICE and economy cards.

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7
Pet Lover
Treasure Chest
The Gold Heart
Novice Advisor
18 of 26 gamers found this helpful
“For even more fun, switch sides.”

While it’s not required at all I think playing both a corp deck and a runner deck at some point helps you to better understand the game. For fun try treating it like Memoir 44′ and switching sides.

Play out one game as one side, trade decks and play the other adding up the total agendas each time to see who the true winner is. This also lets you know if there is any lopsidedness in the construction of the decks so they can be tweaked later.

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5
Tasty Minstrel Games Fan
Eminent Domain Fan
12 of 17 gamers found this helpful
“Alternative Ways To Track Clicks and Credits”

The credit tokens that come in the core set are really really nice, but I find they don’t always work well for how I visualize and organize things in my head. Same goes for a friend of mine. So here’s what we use to track credits: dice. Personally, I prefer dice with Arabic numerals on them (1, 2, 3, etc), but my friend prefers to use the ones with the pips (little indented dots). This is simply preference and a matter of readability. We still use the backsides of the credit tokens as advancement tokens, we just also make sure to keep track on our dice. This helps players who don’t like having a big pile of tokens to wade through.

Also, I find myself forgetting to use my click tracker because it’s not necessarily that hard to keep track of 3 or 4 actions. However, if there’s a distraction or a run or whatever has obscured that, you’re suddenly in a bit of a pickle if you forgot to keep track. So I don’t use the click tracker and click token. Instead, I use the Bad Publicity/Tag tokens. It’s much easier for me to just flip over a token at the beginning of my turn, as each side is visually different, so if my attention is suddenly drawn elsewhere, I can just look at how many tokens have been flipped and get right back on track. Also, if you’re like me and like to sleeve your cards, this frees up a card sleeve to use on an actual addition to your deck.

This might seem like a small issue, but folks that have visualization/organizational issues or just different ways of keep track of things might appreciate the option.

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