An encounter is the part of a run during the Confrontation Phase in which the Runner interacts with a piece of ice. The Runner encounters each piece of ice protecting the attacked server that is rezzed after approaching it. Each encounter is made up of two steps: first, there is a paid ability window during which the Runner is allowed to use icebreakers to break subroutines on the encountered ice, in addition to any other paid abilities s/he may wish to trigger; second, any unbroken subroutines resolve.
The encounter is part 3 of the timing structure of a run, and it follows these steps:
3 Encounter a piece of ice[]
First, "when encountered" conditional abilities resolve. All "when encountered" abilities must resolve before paid abilities can be triggered in step 3.1.
| Page 4, Column 2, Paragraph(s) 3, FAQ |
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| When the Runner encounters a piece of ice, he must resolve any abilities triggered by the encounter before he can trigger paid abilities or break subroutines. |
3.1 Paid Ability Window, icebreakers can interact with the encountered ice[]
| Page 18, Column 1, Paragraph(s) 1, Core Rule Book |
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| When the Runner encounters a piece of ice, he has the opportunity to break any subroutines on that piece of ice. |
| Page 18, Column 1, Paragraph(s) 2, Core Rule Book |
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| 'Breaking Subroutines': To break a subroutine, the Runner uses abilities on his installed icebreakers. The Runner can break the subroutines on the encountered ice in any order he chooses. There is no limit to the number of installed cards a Runner can use to interact with the encountered ice, but he generally only needs one icebreaker. Remember that before an icebreaker can interact with a piece of ice, the icebreaker's strength must be equal to or higher than the encountered ice's strength. |
3.2 Resolve all subroutines not broken on the encountered ice[]
| Page 18, Column 1, Paragraph(s) 1, Core Rule Book |
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| After the Runner finishes breaking any subroutines that he wishes to break, each unbroken subroutine on that ice triggers in the order listed on the card. If a subroutine ends the run, then the run ends immediately and no further subroutines on that piece of ice trigger. |
If no subroutines resolved that ended the run, the Runner passes the encountered ice and continues the run, either approaching the next piece of ice or entering the Access Phase if there is no ice remaining.
| Page 18, Column 1, Paragraph(s) 4, Core Rule Book |
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| After the Runner breaks all of the ice's subroutines and/or any effects from unbroken subroutines resolve without ending the run, he has passed that piece of ice. He then continues the run by either approaching the next piece of ice protecting the server or proceeding to the Access phase if there is no more ice to approach. |