Kampala Ascendent, the final Data Pack in the Kitara Cycle for Android: Netrunner is available now from your local retailer or our website.

As the effects of a possible second Beanstalk ripple across Sub-Saharan Africa, corps and runners alike use this chaos to tear each other apart. War is on the horizon, and as corporations like Weyland look to waylay the construction of the Beanstalk, runners revel in the chaos, looking for a challenge, thrills, or profit. 

Kampala Ascendent brings the themes of the Kitara Cycle full circle, inviting you to look for cards that expand on the themes from the Revised Core Set for every faction. Furthermore, you can find a new Jinteki identity, a new Sunny LeBeau event, and a way to rob the runner of three of their clicks… unless they pay a terrible price.

Line Your Pockets

Criminals run for one reason: profit. While bringing down a corp for other factions is seen as a challenge or a thrill, Criminals see their actions as a means to an end: cold hard credits. If running doesn’t make you rich, what’s the point? Diversion of Funds  (Kampala Ascendent, 105) is one of the easiest ways for Criminals to be compensated for all their hard work. Taking two clicks and requiring a successful run on HQ, Diversion of Funds can be difficult to pull off, but that makes the reward all the sweeter. Instead of accessing cards for your successful HQ run, you may force the corp to lose up to five credits, while you gain a credit for every credit they lose. This drains the corp, lowering their defenses while lining your own pockets. The corp will have to spend precious time recovering these funds, while you are free to play more powerful events, purchase new hardware, and invest in icebreakers with your latest influx of income.

To recoup this loss, the Corp may resort to using their Hedge Fund  (Revised Core Set, 132) or other transactions to boost their credits. But of course, Criminals also have a contingency plan in place.

PAD Tap  (Kampala Ascendent, 106) is a free resource that allows you to gain a credit the first time the corp gains credits with a card ability every turn. This PAD Tap is not infallible—the corp can spend three credits and a click to trash the resource. But at what point is the tap annoying enough to spend three credits and a click? The runner gaining a credit does not directly hurt the corp; criminals are just taking a little bit of profit on the side. But letting the PAD Tap sit for too long can finance a runner's operations and take down the corp one credit at a time, unless they are willing to sacrifice their own tempo.

Permanent Side Effects

Of course, the corps have their own investments to make. NEXT ice work together to absolutely destroy any runner who dares to invade Haas-Bioroid’s servers. NEXT Diamond  (Kampala Ascendent, 112) is the ultimate in this NEXT defensive technology. Though it has a heavy rez cost, this cost is lowered by one for every other piece of rezzed NEXT Ice. As a six-strength sentry, NEXT Diamond will not end the run, but it will ensure the runner does not leave the server unharmed. Two subroutines give the runner brain damage and a third trashes an installed runner card. The runner is either going to have to spend an absurd amount of credits to get through NEXT Diamond, or face terrible, permanent consequences.

And in fact, should the runner choose to spend their resources on passing NEXT Diamond, Kampala Ascendent gives HB a brand new way to suffocate the runner of what little resources they have remaining.

Riot Suppression  (Kampala Ascendent, 113) is a powerful gray ops operation that can only be played if the runner trashed a corp card during their previous turn. In retaliation for trashing one of your valuable assets, you may force the runner to have three fewer clicks on their next turn, unless they choose to receive one brain damage. This is an awful choice for the runner, either completely destroying their momentum or forcing them to take a brain damage, which only gives them fewer options and ushers them one step closer to an untimely death.

Kampala Ascendent

Though the Kitara Cycle draws to a close, the war between the corps and runners rages on. With new tools being developed on both sides of the corp/runner struggle, who will come out on top in the Sub-Saharan League?

Complete your journey into Lake Victoria with Kampala Ascendent (ADN55), the final Data Pack in the Kitara Cycle for Android: Netrunner, available now from your local retailer or our website.