Gold Farmer

Gold Farmer 3[credit]

Ice: Barrier
Strength: 1
Influence: 3

Whenever the Runner breaks a printed subroutine on this ice, they lose 1[credit].

[subroutine] End the run unless the Runner pays 3[credit].

[subroutine] End the run unless the Runner pays 3[credit].

[Pay 15 gems to access this content]
Illustrated by N. Hopkins
Decklists with this card

Uprising (ur)

#116 • English
Startup Card Pool
Standard Card Pool
Standard Ban List (show history)
Printings
Uprising
Rulings
  • Updated 2020-04-14

    NISEI Uprising Release Notes [NISEI Rules Team]

    If the Runner breaks both subroutines on Gold Farmer with a single ability, such as Paperclip's ability, how many credits do they lose?

    The Runner will lose 2[c]. Gold Farmer's trigger condition is met for each subroutine that is broken, regardless of which or how many abilities are used to break them.

    If the Runner breaks both subroutines on Gold Farmer by using Corroder's ability twice, and then trashes Gold Farmer with Hippo, do they still lose 2[c]?

    As long as the encounter is happening during the Runner's turn, they will only lose 1[c]. The first use of Corroder to break a subroutine will meet Gold Farmer's trigger condition, resulting in the Runner losing 1[c] as normal. Then the Runner will receive priority again and can use Corroder to break the other subroutine. Once this happens, the abilities from Hippo and Gold Farmer both become pending in the same reaction window. The active player has the first opportunity to trigger pending abilities, so Hippo can trash Gold Farmer before the Corp has the opportunity to trigger their ability. Once Gold Farmer is uninstalled, the pending ability is no longer active, so the Corp is unable to trigger it even after they get priority.

    If this scenario happens on the Corp's turn, then the Corp will be able to trigger and resolve Gold Farmer's ability the second time before the Runner has the opportunity to trigger Hippo, so the Runner will lose a total of 2[c].

    In the previous scenario, what happens if the Runner uses Paperclip instead of Corroder and breaks both subroutines at the same time?

    Both instances of Gold Farmer's ability will be pending in the same reaction window as Hippo's ability. So on the Runner's turn, they can trash Gold Farmer first and avoid losing any credits. On the Corp's turn, they will still lose 2[c].

Reviews

This is the best end-the-run ice in the game*. It ALWAYS costs more to break than it does to rez. For almost every runner, this costs 4 to break with a breaker or 6 with no breaker, either of which are exceptionally high for a 3-cost ETR. In GameNET it reliably causes a 6-credit swing if they have a breaker, one of the most efficient ices in the game. Other ice that stand out on efficiency (e.g. Engram Flush, Slot Machine, Aiki, and Mausolus) usually lack end-the-run abilities or have gut-wrenching conditions (Data Ward is the most efficient ice in the game, but only if they're tagged).

Gold Farmer was removed from Standard because it is crazy-powerful in every matchup, on any server, against every possible configuration of breakers and breaker-alternatives. Among MANY other key applications, it is by far the most reliable setup piece for a turn 1 Daily Quest or Rashida install. (No breaker works well, paying through is a huge setback, and even Boomerang is no good). In GameNet, a single Gold Farmer takes Diversion of Funds from 2 clicks for a 9-credit swing to 2 clicks for a 3-credit swing. Ghastly.

Liabilities: none. It only ends the run, true, but at a cost of 3 it's best-in-class for reliably protecting assets and critical servers. This ice was concurrent with high-value, low-cost assets like Daily Quest and Wall To Wall and you absolutely could afford to spend 3 on a gearcheck to raise the cost of killing them. (Note: in Eternal, Parasite deals with it relatively easily, but losing a 3-cost ice to a Parasite is not the end of the world).

Gold Farmer is so rawly powerful that it has no adequate counterplay, but more than that, it's so powerful it's hard to imagine what counterplay COULD be printed, without gutting ice in general. If Gold Farmer's ability fires, it is virtually guaranteed to cause a 4-credit swing, which is an efficiency win for the corp even outside of GameNet. Even if the runner have a specialized breaker like Cleaver, which can break 2 subroutines for 1 credit, a 3-5 credit swing is still excellent for a 3-cost ice.

*Border Control has a phenomenal ability, but I'd give the slight edge to Gold Farmer in value over time. Gold Farmer is an A+ ice in every matchup, in every phase of the game.

(System Update 2021 era)
376

I would like clarification on the text of this card. If an icebreaker would break 2 subroutines at once, does "When the Runner breaks a printed subroutine on this ice, they lose 1credit" fire one time or two times?

(Uprising era)
2

It fires twice even if you used something like Tycoon to break 2 subroutines at once.

—

^ What they said

—

Remember the #Hippo/Cutlery/#Ankusa exception too - the moment you break the last sub with one of those, you trash the ice, which prevents the effect from firing.

—

On Paperclip it also fires twice. If you Hippo it with Paperclip, it doesn't fire at all.

—