All That Remains Is Now Available for Android: Netrunner

The mining truck was a bumpy ride. They were in uncontrolled territory. No man’s land, empty, desolate…

As the megacorps of Android: Netrunner further expand their businesses within the walls of Heinlein, one runner’s ongoing quest for the moon’s legendary source protocols leads him out of the city and of its recycled atmosphere. There, in the dead space of uncontrolled territory, he risks everything for the sake of discovery. But if the hazards of lunar exploration don’t finish him off, what will he find?

All That Remains, the fifth Data Pack in the Lunar Cycle, is now available at your local retailer and online through our webstore!

With its sixty new cards (three copies each of twenty individual cards), All That Remains continues exploring the game’s lunar landscapes, along with its moon-based assets, resources, and Corporate agendas. Moreover, it further develops a number of subtypes and themes introduced earlier in the Lunar Cycle. You’ll find more grail ice, more constellation tracers, and a trio of deadly, ravenous dogs.

The Three Heads of Cerberus

“He only likes to eat live meat.”
    –MaxX

In All That Remains, the three Runner factions each gain an icebreaker inspired by one of the heads of Cerberus, the mythical three-headed guardian of the underworld: Cerberus “Lady” H1 (All That Remains, 99), Cerberus “Rex” H2 (All That Remains, 96), and Cerberus “Cuj.0” H3 (All That Remains, 94).

Throughout the Lunar Cycle, we’ve seen how moon-based Runners employ tricks that differ from those utilized by their earth-bound peers, and these three icebreakers share a use of hosted power counters that expands upon a theme of limited-use breakers that began with Overmind (Honor and Profit, 53) and took hold on the moon with D4v1d (The Spaces Between, 33).

Now, these three new Cerberus programs make it possible to build a fully-functional rig that consists solely of disposable icebreakers and that can crack into any server with relative ease. And now that the possibility exists, all that remains is to see how players manage to manipulate the efficiencies of these new rigs in order to make them viable.

Power counters have been a part of Android: Netrunner since the Core Set and Data Raven (Core Set, 88). They have appeared on Plascrete Carapace (What Lies Ahead, 9) and other cards from early expansions, but for the majority of the game’s existence, they have been used to track static effects, such as the strength of Draco (What Lies Ahead, 20) or Atman (Creation and Control, 40) after they have been rezzed or installed. However, whole swaths of the network take on different shape within the context of the Lunar Cycle, and power counters are fast becoming a new form of efficiency.

Whereas most icebreakers require you to spend credits both to increase their strength and to break ice subroutines, the new Cerberus icebreakers, like Overmind and D4v1d, require only that you spend credits to increase their strength. To break the subroutines, you need, instead, to discard a power counter; one power counter for up to two subroutines. Coupled with their relatively low install costs, this ability makes these icebreakers a fantastic bargain… for a limited number of runs.

Since each of the icebreakers comes with just four hosted power counters, you’ll need to put them to good use. You can maximize their efficiency by pairing them with a set of e3 Feedback Implants (Trace Amount, 24), and you can further increase the efficiency of your primary Cerberus by installing it on Dinosaurus (Cyber Exodus, 48). When you boost your icebreaker’s strength, you limit the number of credits you need to pay to match the strength of any ice you hope to break, and if that’s the only ongoing expense related to the use of your icebreaker, you’re establishing a tremendous measure of efficiency.

In fact, a clever Shaper – perhaps one like Exile (Creation and Control, 30) – might run a set of Cerberus icebreakers, using Test Run (Cyber Exodus, 47), Self-modifying Code (Creation and Control, 46), and Clone Chip (Creation and Control, 38) in order to install them on Dinosaurus at precisely the moment that they’re needed. Then, whenever the icebreaker’s hosted power counters run dry, the Shaper might recover his credits by pawning off the used icebreaker at Aesop’s Pawnshop (Core Set, 47).

Free Yourself from Your Earth-bound Origins

Even in the dead zones outside of Heinlein, the new lunar landscape of Android: Netrunner is full of surprises. Whether you build a rig full of power counters, shield your servers with grail ice, or hunt down Runners with deadly tracers, you’ll find that the game continues to move further and further from its earth-bound origins. Soon, the Earth will be a speck below you, and all of space will lie open before you. At that point, what will you hope to achieve? What of your past will stay with you?

Crack open the future, and discover new directions. All That Remains is now available at your local retailer and online through our webstore!

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