Runners are constantly modifying code, theirs and that of others. While their purpose in doing so is often directed toward achieving access into locked servers, these actions can have unintended consequences, warping and breaking the Net for other users.

Don’t get caught by illegally modified code! Check out the new Android: Netrunner FAQ (pdf, 3.1 MB) and tournament rules (pdf, 1.1 MB) to make sure you know what’s out there.

These changes will go into effect on January 1st, 2016.

The NAPD Most Wanted List will go into effect on February 1st, 2016.

A Word from the Developer

Greetings runners, executives, and androids!

The 2016 tournament season is swiftly approaching. This time of year, all the developers of our Living Card Games are going through months of correspondence and rulings, referring to notes from the previous tournament season, looking forward to what new cards will be released, and diving into the tournament rules and FAQ for their games in order to make changes, adjustments, clarifications, and simplifications that will address balance concerns and ease of understanding for the upcoming 2016 Store Championships. Android: Netrunner is no different, and today sees an update to the tournament rules.

Specific cards individually and in combination can come to dominate competitive play — chosen because of their unrivaled level of efficiency — frequently allowing a couple of decks or deck types to rise based on their strengths. Sometimes errata is necessary and can be the simplest means of addressing a card. In today’s update, we have decided to errata Wireless Net Pavilion (SanSan Cycle, 108) to be unique. This change is simple, easy to understand, requires little memory in the playing of the card, and will still allow for the decks that use it to function but make facing them less oppressive.

Other times, errata needs to be more extensive than that of Wireless Net Pavilion, either on the card, or on numerous cards. After a lot of studying and playing the most represented decks, I realized that Android: Netrunner has a built-in tool that is much more elegant than countless errata: the influence system created by Lukas Litzsinger.

The NAPD Most Wanted List

Today we introduce the NAPD Most Wanted List, which will go into effect on February 1st, 2016.

Each copy of a card from the NAPD Most Wanted List reduces an Identity’s influence limit by 1 when included in a deck. An Identity’s printed influence limit cannot be reduced below 1. This reduction occurs even if the card matches the Identity’s faction. 

The NAPD Most Wanted list is comprised of the cards identified as being overly efficient or too powerful, yet central to the decks dominating the metagame and appearing in a plurality of decks, regardless of faction. The initial list focuses on cards which are either too efficient specifically for the faction they are in, such as Cerberus “Lady” H1 (Lunar Cycle, 099), are so strong as to make other cards of that type ignored, such as Desperado (Core Set, 024) and NAPD Contract (Spin Cycle, 119), or simply too good with its current stats, such as AstroScript Pilot Program (Core Set, 081).

The full NAPD Most Wanted List can be found in Appendix A of the Android: Netrunner tournament rules (pdf, 1.1 MB), and goes into effect on February 1st, 2016.

Damon Stone
Lead Developer

Don’t let anything in the Net surprise you! Check out the new FAQ and tournament rules, and be ready for whatever you may face in the future.