In the past year I’ve noticed quite a bit of (completely understandable) confusion as to how to start playing Netrunner. I’m not going to go into the specifics of learning to play, or what kind of a game it is, since I think other people have done that much better than I can (You can watch this video from the lovely guys at Team Covenant if you’d like to do that).

Instead, I’m just going to talk about the practical bits of trying the game. If you have any questions at all please contact me and I’ll try my best to help.This is also very much a work in progress, as at this point I’ve been playing for almost 4 years, so I’m sure there’s a great many blind spots and assumed information that I’ve neglected to add. If you have any specific questions, please contact me at terence.cl.lui at gmail and I’ll try to answer them, and add them to this article. Alternatively, you can try one of the many community resources, which I will link Here.

What’s going on with Netrunner?

So in case you’re unaware, Android: Netrunner, as a published game, was recently cancelled by the company that had been doing it for the past few years. The exact reasons aren’t terribly important, but what you probably should understand is that officially printed supply of older sets at retail are probably going to dwindle as time goes on. However, you can still get sets of the game secondhand, or you can play free online. You can also look into getting sets printed yourself.

It’s also important to note that since it stopped being printed “officially”, a fan organization called NISEI has taken up the development and printing of new sets, as well as any tournament organization going forward.

Ok, but how do I actually start playing?

Well, this is going to depend heavily on how you would like to start. To me, the ideal way to play is in person, with a physical set of cards. My strongest recommendation is for you to find local Netrunner community, I can’t promise that each and every single person who plays Netrunner is perfect because I don’t know literally everyone, but I’ve met a large number of players from cities all over, and they are by and large very welcoming. If you’d like to find your community, I would recommend asking on Netrunner Dorks (The Facebook Group), on the Netrunner Subreddit, or signing up for the Stimslack and asking on there. You can also try the Stimhack Playgroup Finder or this boardgamegeek thread. If you’re can find your local playgroup, I would recommend contacting them before you show up for your first play session so that they can build some introductory decks for you.

If you’d like to start playing online, you can pretty much just go to Jinteki.net and start playing (as long as you know the basic rules of course). I might eventually write a step by step article about playing on there, but for now I’ll just say that players on there are generally very helpful, and if you ask for help in the main chatroom someone will likely come along soon. (Edit: There is a tutorial you can find here)

If you don’t wish to do either of the above, you will need to obtain cards for yourself

What should I get, and how do I get it?

So this question is actually fairly difficult to answer, because it is something that varies widely depending on your situation.

If you do not mind a little bit of fiddling with paper, I would recommend proxying your own sets. If you’re not a regular card game player, this means printing off a set on your home printer. Generally what you would do is purchase a few packages of card sleeves, either from your local card game store or online retailer. Then, you would find some sort of cardboard backing, which normally would be a bunch of cheap Magic commons (again, you can find them at your local card game shop) or just playing cards. Then you’d cut out the Netrunner cards you’ve printed off and put them with your backing inside of the card sleeves. I would recommend printing off a System Core at https://proxynexus.net to begin with. I’ve also written up a step by step article to doing that over here

https://gettingbetteratnetrunner.wordpress.com/2019/04/05/printing-off-a-system-core/

The publishing situation of Netrunner means that it is relatively complicated to find sets at retail. Currently, I would recommend finding a secondhand collection if you are able to. Any collection that you’re able to find will probably have a great many sets you’d need to organize.

If you still wish to purchase at retail and are trying the game for the first time, I would recommend purchasing a Core Set if you can find it. A Core set will look like one of the two boxes below and will have instructions on how to play, all the tokens that you need to play, and the cards necessary to build several introductory decks. They will also likely be on sale.

Netrunner Core Set

Revised Core

However, I’m going to point out here that while both Core Sets are a lovely way to start playing your first few games, there are a lot of expansions for if you’d like to continue exploring the game. The Core Sets were built to introduce people into the game, and not every card inside is legal for “Standard” tournament play at this point. However, if you’re planning on playing casually, this is not a big deal.