Question about running traces.

[DoccSampson 10]

Scenario: If the corporation plays a sentry with a trace subroutine and the runner has a sentry icebreaker and chooses to break that subroutine, does the trace still fire?

Conversely...

If the runner does not have a sentry icebreaker, may he still bid against the trace subroutine, or does he automatically receive a tag?

Thanks in advance.

Edited December 10, 2015 by DoccSampson

[nungunz 221]

1. You broke the subroutine, the trace is part of the subroutine. I never has a chance to trigger.

2. The runner MUST bid if a trace fires, even if the bid is zero credits.

[DoccSampson 10]

Thank you for the clarification.

[Grimwalker 647]

If the runner does not have a sentry icebreaker, may he still bid against the trace subroutine, or does he automatically receive a tag?

 

The runner can try and beat the trace, but traces do not automatically give a tag when the runner fails. You do what the trace says, no more, no less. 

[Marinealver 8,073]

traces are hard things to make it work for the corp. First of all if it is tied to a subroutine the Runner can simply break the subroutine that contains the trace. Second is that traces are more like a bidding war and since runners tend to be so rich in this meta they never have a difficult time to outbid the corp on trace even at 0 link. Third is the effect of most traces are not that effective. Unless it is something like midseason replacements most traces only give a single tag in which the runner could use the last click and 2 credits to clear. So for the most part if you push them past two credits higher then what the runner has then the runner will simply spend 0 and just clear the tag with 2 credits.

 

In the end traces take more credits from the corp than from the runner.

[Grimwalker 647]

Try playing Sol with Surveillance Sweep.