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| Name | Tier | Activation | Ranked | Description | Page | Notes | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Custom Code | 1 | Passive | No | When your character selects this talent they choose one icebreaker or piece of ice that they own. If they choose an icebreaker, whenever they use that icebreaker to override ice, they add an Advantage to the results. If they choose a piece of ice, whenever someone else attempts to override it, they add a Threat to the results. | 17 | Advantage isn't too useful for bypassing Ice, what you want is success die. | Decker |
| Complex Form Master | 1 | Passive | No | Your character must have a rank in the Resonance skill to take this talent. When your character purchases this talent, choose one Complex Form. When threading that Complex Form, you may choose one effect that normally increases the difficulty by 1. Instead, you may add this effect without increasing the difficulty. | 17 | Okay, but at most it saves 1 difficulty die on a roll you should be passing anyway. | Technomancer |
| Custom Rig | 1 | Passive | Yes | When your character selects this talent they choose one cyberdeck that they own. The amount of ice or icebreakers (your character's choice) that they can have on that cyberdeck is increased by 1 per rank of Custom Rig. (This may be a mix of ice and icebreakers, as long as the combined total increase does not exceed your character's ranks in Custom Rig). If your character loses their affected cyberdeck, they may choose a new cyberdeck to be affected by this talent. | 18 | Deckers need to use different icebreakers in order to bypass certain types of IC. To use a lockpicking analogy, some types of locks ( ICE ) might need specific lockpicks ( ICE Breakers ) This increases the amount of icebreakers that you can include on your system. | Decker |
| Defensive Sysops | 1 | Passive | No | When attempting to defend a computer system against intrusion (or when someone attempts to hack a computer owned or programmed by your character) your character adds two Setback die to their opponent’s checks. If your character has access to the computer system when the intrusion takes place, they are automatically aware of the intrusion | 18 | Increases your defense when people try to hack you. | Decker |
| Data Anomaly | 1 | Passive | Yes | Your character knows effective ways of masking your matrix persona. Add a Setback die for each rank of Data Anomaly to the opponent’s Computers check when defending against a Trace User action. | 18 | Alright on paper, although will only come up in dedicated 'Run' encounters. I.e. encounters where your character is in a network long enough for a Sysop to have a reasonable chance of finding your character. | Decker |
| Improved Resonance Spike | 1 | Passive | No | Your character must have a rank in the Resonance skill to take this talent. When your character selects this talent, they choose one type of IC (Barrier, Code Gate, or Sentry). Whenever attempting to override an IC of that type, they add an Advantage to the results. Page 20: 'Custom Code', but for Technomancers. | 17 | A tier 1 talent that adds a single advantage to one type of roll in one type of encounter 30% of the time is very bad. | Technomancer |
| Matrix Search | 1 | Active (Maneuver) | No | If your character has access to the Matrix, they may use this talent to upgrade the ability of the next Knowledge check they make during their turn twice and the difficulty of that check once. Your GM must spend a Despair to have your character learn some seemingly relevant and believable information that turns out to be completely (and possibly maliciously) false. | 21 | Generally okay, but the despair result kind of hurts. Since you learn negative information regardless of the rest of the roll. | General |
| Adroitness | 2 | Passive | No | When first acquired, choose a general skill. When making a check with that skill, reduce the time required by 25%. The GM may determine that this talent may not be used with certain skills or activities. | 25 | Not specifically a matrix skill, but its main use here in the book seems to be to reduce the time of matrix searches. | General |
| Codeslinger | 2 | Passive | No | When your character performs the activate program maneuver (page 132) in a hacking encounter, they can choose not to deactivate one other active icebreaker. They may have two icebreakers active at once. | 26 | Normally, deckers can only have one Icebreaker active at a time. This lets them have two active at a time, slightly improving their action economy. | Decker |
| Matrix Hunter | 2 | Passive | No | When your character successfully traces another character during a Matrix encounter, your character gains one additional trace. | 32 | Mainly useful for Sysops RAW. The homebrew that they recently added that lets runners trace the location of the system they are on also means that theoretically you could use this to better trace systems. Situational. | General |
| Technical Aptitude | 2 | Passive | No | When making a Computer skill check may spend 2 Advantage or 1 Triumph to reduce the time spent to complete the task by 50%. | 35 | Main use, like Adroitness, is to reduce the time of Matrix searches. | General |
| Encoded Communique | 3 | Passive | No | Upgrade the difficulty of checks to decrypt this character's coded messages without the proper cipher a number of times equal to Computers skill | 40 | Extremely situational. | General |
| Evasive Sprites | 3 | Passive | No | Your character must have a rank in the Resonance skill to take this talent. When a Sprite your character has compiled uses the Enact Command maneuver, the Sprite may attach itself to the command. Doing so means the Sprite may continue to enact the command for the rest of the encounter without encountering any IC guarding it again. However, that Sprite may not move to any other sub-system during the encounter. | 41 | How this is useful is that you enter a subsystem, take down the IC for a moment, then attach a sprite. Then, later, you can have the sprite activate a command. Such as 'Activate the offices alarm system at 12 am exactly'. Your TM still needs to be concentrating on the sprite itself, however, so this would only really come up in massive hitman-style encounters where time intervals like that are very important. | Technomancer |
| Eye for Detail | 3 | Active (Incidental) | Yes | After making a Mechanics or Computers check, may suffer strain up to ranks in Eye for Detail to convert that many Success to Advantage. | 41 | This is mainly useful if you overshoot your computers rolls and want to convert some of the excess computers die into advantage. | General |
| Fade to Black | 3 | Active (Action) | No | Your character must have a rank in the Resonance skill to take this talent. Once per encounter, your character may weave shielding datastreams to remove all Traces on your character. | 41 | This being an action, rather then an incidental is really rough. If you are being targeted enough that you are at risk of being found out, spending a turn in the matrix doing nothing to 'heal' the traces only increases the amount of time that you are in the system. It's better to try to resist traces with Data Anomaly then to heal them off with this. | General |
| Matrix Warrior | 3 | Active (Action) | No | While accessing a system using a Virtual Reality, your character may use this talent to make an opposed Computers versus Computers check targeting one other character on the system that they are aware of. The target suffers 1 strain per Success, and if they are using Hot-Sim Virtual Reality, they also suffer 1 wound per Success. | 46 | This uses computers, instead of resonance. Its essentially Scything Tirade for matrix encounters. There are a few situations where this is useful; mainly if there is only one Sysops, and you figure that you can knock them out with this before they can figure out your location. Generally a fun ability to plan out, especially if you go for Master down the road to downgrade the enemies die on the computer check. | General |
| Snare | 3 | Active (Action) | No | Once per session, your character may use this talent to make a Hard ( 3 Difficulty ) Computers check. If they succeed, once before the end of the encounter, you may spend a Story Point to force one character in the encounter to make a Daunting ( 4 Difficulty) Vigilance check as an incidental. If they fail, they are staggered until the end of their next turn, plus one additional turn per 2 Threat. | 49 | Flavor is VERY weird without context, but actually one of the best 'hacker' type talents in the book, if very niche - since it requires two subsequent successes. Idea is that you set up a little program in advance using the Computers check, then later on in the encounter can use that program to stun someone by overwhelming their commlink or such. Very good, since Staggered is such an amazing condition - it means they cant take actions that round. | General |
| Burn Through | 4 | Active (Incidental) | No | After making a successful break ice action, your character may suffer 3 strain to use this talent. If they do, they may perform a second override ice action on the same system as an incidental. | 52 | Used for deckers to improve their main action economy. Not usable by Technomancers, since they dont use the Break Ice action. | Decker |
| Reroute Processors | 4 | Active (Action) | No | Once per encounter, may take a Reroute Processors action, make an Average ( 2 Difficulty ) Computers check to reduce one of an artificial life form's characteristics by 1 and increase another of its characteristics by 1. | 59 | This is so situational I can't think of a reasonable use for it. I think the main use is to gradually, over a few encounters, raise up the agents on your tech to have 5 intellect/cunning for the purposes of running matrix searches? 'Artificial life forms' are extremely narrow in the book - limited to ( Arguably ) agents and sprites. Sprites aren't really worth it to use this on as they only last a bit. | Technomancer |
| Web Of Knowledge | 5 | Active (Action) | No | Once per session your character may make an Average (2 Difficulty) Knowledge (Professional) check during a Matrix encounter. If you succeed, your character knows the names, strengths, and other qualities of all ice (active or deactivated) on one system that you currently have access to, as well as all other characters that currently are accessing that system. Your character may spend 3 Advantage or Triumph from this check (whether or not they succeeded) to add 1 Success die to all Computer checks involving that system that they make for the remainder of the encounter. | 67 | Okay, but tier 5 is filled with amazing talents for hackers. | General |
| Ghost In The Machine | 5 | Active (Action) | No | As long as they have some sort of access point to the Matrix, your character may use this talent to make a Hard (3 Difficulty) Computers check. If they succeed, they may select one drone, vehicle, or piece of equipment involved in the current encounter and dictate its actions until the start of your character’s next turn. Alternatively, your character can select someone with cyberware or who is wearing powered armor or an exosuit and manipulate it until the beginning of your character’s next turn. This must be approved by your GM but could include shutting off cybereyes, directing the movements of cyberlimbs, or causing an exosuit to eject its occupant. Your character may spend 3 Advantage on the check to extend the effects for one additional round, or they may spend Triumph to extend the effects for the remainder of the encounter. | 64 | Probably the weirdest talent in the book, and the strongest one for a 'Hacker' type character. Whats good about this is that its a flat DC of 3 difficulty die, that you can get down to 1 difficulty die with Master on page 65. It requires that 'you' are in the matrix, but doesn't really care about the actual item itself. It bypasses all Ice, all Sysop features, all other mechanics in the book to simply let you just point at a tech thing and let you do something with it until the end of the turn. Technically, the truncated 'Combat Hacking' rules are similar to this in practice - since they *can* often be `do a roll to do a thing`. | General |