BlackICE - Lethal Netrunners

BLACK ICE

Lethal Netrunners

The netrunners learned your tricks. Now they defend against them.

"You've spent your whole career treating enemy netrunners as scenery, slow, harmless, a scanner tag that never fires. That was a courtesy. It has been revoked."

Night City's netrunners went to the same school you did. BlackICE gives them a career ladder: a rank 1-15 progression system that decides how fast they upload, how hard their hacks land, how well they shrug off yours, and which hacks they reach for. Push a quickhack into a high-rank runner and their BLACK ICE may reject it outright, wipe the queue you stacked on them, and at the very top of the ladder, send something back down the wire with your name on it.

More runners and Smarter hacks.

Every part of it is configurable in-game; from a light "the world feels more dangerous" tuning all the way to "why did I install this." Set it once and forget it, or dial the pressure to taste.

Bug reports, balance feedback, and screenshots of your death: join the Discord.

— HOW THE PRESSURE STAYS FAIR —

A mod that just makes enemies hit harder is a difficulty slider with extra steps. Everything in BlackICE 2. 0 is built so the danger is readable and answerable:

• []Every threat names its source: the red connection line, the upload HUD and the backlash warning all point at a specific runner you can go kill[/]

  []Rejection happens at a visible checkpoint: your upload runs and then fails where you can see it, instead of dying silently the instant you press the button[/]

  []The backlash warning runs on simulation time: scanner slow-time can't quietly eat your reaction window[/]

  []Native rules are left intact: upload prerequisites, interruption handling and animation ownership stay the engine's. The runners play by the same rules you do, just far better than they used to[/]

  []The exclusive threat stays exclusive: RAM Drain never stacks with another hack, so it's always one runner, one channel, one thing to break[/]

  []The unpredictable options ship off: repeat uploads and experimental simultaneous uploads are both opt-in.[/]

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  — WHAT'S NEW IN 2. 0 —

  Netrunner Ranks 1-15

  "The kid on the corner is a rank three. The thing NetWatch sent after you is not."

  []Every enemy netrunner carries a persistent combat rank from 1 to 15, derived from their rarity, their faction package, and your own level. The city levels up alongside you[/]

  []Rank drives upload speed, quickhack damage, resistance to your quickhacks, and which hacks they pick[/]

  []Higher ranks lean increasingly toward the dangerous and lethal end of their kit while still making valid native choices. No scripted, predetermined hack order[/]

  []Rank 10+ runners unlock the elite package and RAM Drain. That is not a MaxTac privilege anymore. A veteran ganger who lived long enough can carry it[/]

  []Optional scanner row displays NETRUNNER RANK in vanilla scanner styling, so you can read the threat before you commit. Off by default[/]