When an Icebreaker says "break up to X subroutines", does that mean I may decide how many subroutines (up to X) are broken? I'm asking this because I was thinking about using Leviathan against a Little Engine, where the third subroutine shouldn't be broken.

When an Icebreaker says "break up to X subroutines", does that mean I may decide how many subroutines (up to X) are broken? I'm asking this because I was thinking about using Leviathan against a Little Engine, where the third subroutine shouldn't be broken.

I can't find anything in the rules or FAQ beyond the fact that it's in the order of the Runner's choosing. Seems like "up to" could indicate that you don't have to go all out on it. You break subs one at a time.

Same with the breakers that break "any number of subroutines:" sounds like Runner's choice to me. I'd certainly allow an opponent to do it.

The Runner gets to choose whether they break a subroutine (if able) or not. Leviathan says "up to 3" which would include 0, 1, 2, or 3 subroutines. Go nuts.

Encountering Ice
When the Runner encounters a piece of ice, he has the
opportunity to break any subroutines on that piece of ice. After
the Runner finishes breaking any subroutines that he wishes
to break, each unbroken subroutine on that ice triggers in the
order as 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.


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.


Note: Breaking all subroutines on a piece of ice does not mean
the ice is trashed. A passed piece of ice remains installed and is
approached during every subsequent run against the server it
protects.


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.

Thanks. I was comparing this to Cerberus "Rex" H2, because those two are the only decent criminal Decoders. Peacock is garbage, Passport - while being useful in some decks - only works on centrals and Crowbar is a one-timer.

If you have to break a fair amount of Code Gates, Rex has to be installed two or three times a match. Which costs 2-3 clicks, 6-9 credits and if you don't plan to run dry in the late game, you also need some sort of recursion. While Rex is by no means a bad in-faction breaker, I have taken a second look at Leviathan here in comparison.

Let's see:

- Inazuma: 5 credits Gordian Blade (GB), 6 credits Force of Nature (FoN), 4c and 1 power counter Cerberus "Rex" H2 (Rex), 6 credits Leviathan (Levi)

- Enigma: 2c GB, 3c FoN, 1c+1pc Rex, 3c Levi

- Tollboth (including the 3c toll): 7c GB, 9c FoN, 7c+1pc Rex, 9c Levi

- Checkpoint: 6c GB, 8c FoN, 6c+1pc Rex, 6c Levi

- Little Engine: 7c GB, 8c FoN, 6c+1pc Rex, 6c Levi

- Archangel: 5c GB, 7c FoN, 5c+1pc Rex, 6c Levi

- IQ (5 cards in HQ, which is the standard): 4c GB, 6c FoN, 4c+1pc Rex, 6c Levi

- Bandwidth: same as IQ

- Turing: same as IQ

- Viktor 2.0: 5c GB, 6c FoN, 4c+1pc Rex, 6c Levi

- Viktor 1.0: 3c GB, 4c FoN, 2c+1pc Rex, 3c Levi

Those are only a few Code Gates, but we can see a trend here. Most of the time, Leviathan is in between Force of Nature and Cerberus "Rex" H2. So if you happen to run out of influence in Criminal (remember, Gordian Blade costs 6-9 inf), Leviathan is definitely an alternative to Rex. Maybe install Yog.0 alongside, for the small ones?

Leviathan is terrible.  just so, so bad.

The only thing in the game that it breaks reasonably is Orion, and you'd have to break it twice to get over wishing you had just used Corroder instead, three times to wish you can just use Lady instead, and about 6 times for Cyber Cypher

if you're in criminal and thinking about how to save influence by using in-faction decoders, just go Passport / Rex

you will always spend either 3, 6, or 9c to break with Leviathan.  every time you're only spending 3, you're breaking something 3 str or less that has less than 3 subs anyway (because no code gate in that range has 3 or more subs except Ireress and Salvage, two of the worst pieces of ICE in the game).

whenever you spend 6, you are, in many instances, spending way too much.

Lotus Field?  one of the most common code gates in the game: 3c Passprt, 3c +1pc Rex, 6c Levi

if you're spending 9, you're in trouble, or you're paying that extra 3c for Tollbooth.  and Leviathan doesn't stack up against that either.

who uses Checkpoint, Little Engine, or Bandwidth anyway?

also, Force of Nature is one of the worst breakers in the game, so Leviathan winning out against it really should not be a selling point.

seriously, just try Passport / Rex and thank me later.