TLDR
- Netrunner influence is the deckbuilding system that limits how many cards you can borrow from factions other than your identity’s faction.
- Your identity sets an influence limit. Every copy of an out-of-faction card counts its influence cost separately.
- Three copies of a 2-influence card cost 6 influence, not 2.
- Influence is not something you spend during a game. Once your deck is legal, it has no additional gameplay cost.
- Good splashes usually solve a specific problem rather than simply stuffing the strongest available cards into a deck.
One of the first dangerous discoveries in Netrunner deckbuilding is realizing you can steal other factions’ toys.
Playing Anarch but really want that Criminal card? You may be able to use it. Building Jinteki but need a tool from NBN? Maybe. The catch is Netrunner influence, the system that stops every deck from turning into the same pile of universally strong cards.
Influence is one of the reasons the factions remain distinct while still giving players plenty of freedom. Once you understand how influence limits, influence costs, and out-of-faction cards work, building decks on NetrunnerDB becomes much easier.
And, more importantly, you can start making intentional choices instead of arriving at 18/15 influence and wondering which beloved card has to die.
What Is Netrunner Influence?
Netrunner influence is a deckbuilding restriction tied to your identity.
Every normal constructed deck has an identity. That identity determines several things about the deck, including:
- your faction
- your minimum deck size
- your influence limit
- any special deckbuilding rules printed on the identity
Your faction determines which faction cards you can include without paying their normal influence cost.
Cards from other factions are out-of-faction. Those cards use some of your available influence.
Think of influence as a budget for borrowing.
If your identity gives you 15 influence, you can include up to 15 influence worth of legal out-of-faction cards. You can spend all 15, use only part of it, or build entirely in-faction if you really want to.
Most constructed decks use influence because the opportunity cost of leaving it unused can be substantial. But there is no rule saying that a legal deck must spend every available point.
Where Do You Find a Card’s Influence Cost?
Most cards show an influence bar near the bottom of the card.
Under the current Null Signal Games rules, an influence value can range from 0 to 5. The number of filled circles in that bar is the card’s influence cost.
There is an important distinction here.
A card with 0 influence is different from a card with no influence value at all.
A zero-influence card can potentially be included out of faction without using your influence budget. A card that has no influence value cannot normally be included out of faction.
That distinction does not matter often when you are first building decks, but it is worth knowing because “zero influence” and “no influence” sound like they should mean the same thing. They don’t.
Netrunner Influence Is Counted Per Copy
This is the part that catches new players most often.
Influence is counted for every copy of an out-of-faction card in your deck.
Suppose you are building a Criminal Runner deck and want to include a Shaper card with an influence cost of 2.
Your cost would be:
- 1 copy = 2 influence
- 2 copies = 4 influence
- 3 copies = 6 influence
The current comprehensive rules use Diesel as an example. A single Diesel in a non-Shaper deck adds 2 influence. Two copies add 4.
You do not pay the influence cost once and then gain permission to include the whole playset.
This makes quantity one of the most interesting parts of splashing cards.
Maybe a card is fantastic, but three copies would eat 9 influence. You might decide two copies are enough. Or one copy may be worthwhile if you have enough draw or tutoring to find it consistently.
Suddenly card quantity is not only about probability. It is also about resource allocation before the game even begins.
A Simple 15-Influence Example
Imagine an identity with a 15-influence limit.
You want:
- three copies of a 2-influence card
- two copies of a 3-influence card
- one copy of a 2-influence card
The math is:
3 × 2 = 6
2 × 3 = 6
1 × 2 = 2
Total: 14 influence
The deck is legal.
Add another copy of that final 2-influence card and you reach 16. Now the deck is over its 15-influence limit and needs to change.
This is why NetrunnerDB’s influence counter becomes such a useful deckbuilding tool. Instead of doing the math manually every time you move cards around, you can see your available influence disappear as you build.
What Counts as Out-of-Faction?
The simplest case is a card belonging to another faction.
A Shaper card in a Criminal deck is out-of-faction. A Weyland card in an NBN deck is out-of-faction.
There is one detail that may surprise returning players or newer deckbuilders reading the current comprehensive rules: neutral cards are also considered out-of-faction.
That does not mean neutral cards suddenly eat huge chunks of your influence. Their influence values determine what actually counts against the limit.
The practical lesson is simpler: do not assume that “neutral” means the influence rules do not apply to the card. Look at the card’s deckbuilding information.
The rules also prevent Runner decks from including Corp cards and Corp decks from including Runner cards. Influence does not let you cross sides.
You cannot spend 5 influence to put Hedge Fund in your Runner deck. Nice try.
Influence Does Not Cost Credits During the Game
Influence is purely a deck construction mechanic.
Once the game begins, you do not have an influence pool. You do not pay additional credits for an out-of-faction card. Your opponent does not get a bonus because you splashed something.
If a Criminal deck legally includes a Shaper card, that card functions normally when played.
The influence cost mattered while constructing the deck. After that, it has done its job.
That is useful to remember because card games often use similar-looking numbers as resources during play. Netrunner influence is not one of them.
Why Does Netrunner Have Influence at All?
Influence lets Netrunner do two things at once.
First, factions can maintain their own identities.
Shaper should feel different from Criminal. Jinteki should approach problems differently than Haas-Bioroid. If everyone could freely select the best economy, icebreakers, ice, damage tools, draw cards, and scoring tricks from the entire card pool, those differences would shrink quickly.
Second, influence prevents faction identity from becoming a prison.
You can still customize.
A faction might lack something your particular deck needs. Another faction may have a card that supports an unusual strategy. Or an out-of-faction card may make your identity’s ability work in a way its designers clearly expected players to explore.
Influence creates a cost for doing that rather than banning the idea outright.
That tension is where a lot of the fun lives.
The Best Influence Usually Fixes a Problem
A useful way to build is to stop asking:
“What are the strongest out-of-faction cards I can afford?”
Instead ask:
“What can my deck not currently do?”
Maybe your Runner deck:
- draws too slowly
- cannot find its breakers reliably
- struggles against a particular type of ice
- has plenty of long-term economy but weak burst economy
- cannot pressure a specific central server effectively
Maybe your Corp deck:
- has weak early economy
- cannot create the scoring window it needs
- lacks the right cheap ice
- needs better card selection
- has a matchup problem its home faction struggles to answer
Those are reasons to spend influence.
You are buying capabilities, not simply card quality.
A powerful splash that solves nothing may still make the deck worse because it used influence that could have repaired an actual weakness.
Don’t Automatically Spend Influence on Three Copies
This is another habit worth breaking early.
Three copies improve consistency. But three copies are not automatically correct.
Suppose an out-of-faction card costs 4 influence.
A full playset costs 12.
That leaves only 3 influence in a typical 15-influence deck.
Maybe that is correct because the entire deck depends on seeing that card. But if it is a situational tool, spending almost your whole budget on three copies can leave the rest of the deck unnecessarily rigid.
Ask how often you actually need to draw it.
If the deck has strong card draw, search effects, recursion, or another way to reach the card, one or two copies may be enough.
Influence encourages this kind of thinking.
A 3x card in-faction and a 3x card out-of-faction can have identical gameplay text while creating very different deckbuilding decisions.
Don’t Spend Influence Before Building the Core Deck
One approach I like for newer deckbuilders is building most of the deck in-faction first.
Get the basic structure working:
- Choose your identity and game plan.
- Add the cards the strategy actually requires.
- Build a functional economy.
- Add draw or card selection.
- Make sure Runner can actually run or Corp can actually defend and score.
- Identify the weak points.
- Spend influence to improve those weak points.
This works better than beginning with five exciting splash cards and constructing the remaining deck around the influence budget.
The splash should usually support the deck.
The deck should not exist to justify the splash.
Influence and Faction Identity
Another useful question is what your faction already does well.
If you are spending influence to duplicate something your home faction handles perfectly well, look closely at the opportunity cost.
An out-of-faction economy card might be slightly more efficient than your in-faction option. But if replacing it costs 6 influence and only marginally improves your economy, those 6 influence may do far more somewhere else.
This is especially noticeable as your decks improve.
At first, influence feels like permission to grab cool cards.
Later, it starts feeling like one of the tightest optimization problems in the deck.
That is a good thing.
Influence Can Change With the Identity
Do not assume every Netrunner identity uses exactly the same deckbuilding numbers.
Your identity is the source of your minimum deck size and influence limit, and identities can have additional deckbuilding rules.
System Gateway makes the concept easy to learn because its regular Standard-legal identities use a 40-card minimum and 15 influence. But that is not a universal rule for every identity in Netrunner.
Always read your actual identity.
And if you are importing or changing identities on NetrunnerDB, check the deck again afterward. Switching identities can change more than the ability at the top of your list.
Advanced Case: Alliance Cards
Some Corp cards have the alliance subtype.
Alliance cards can contain text that adjusts how their influence cost is calculated when your deck meets specific conditions.
These are basically special exceptions built into the card.
You do not need to understand alliance cards to understand normal influence. Just follow the card’s text when one appears in your deck.
The important broader rule is that the normal printed influence system can be modified by specific card abilities and identity restrictions. As usual in card games, specific instructions can alter the general rule.
Common Netrunner Influence Mistakes
Counting a card once instead of counting every copy
A 3-influence card does not cost 3 influence for the playset.
Three copies normally cost 9.
Assuming every card can be splashed
Some cards do not have an influence value and cannot normally be included out of faction.
Treating neutral as a separate free faction
Check the influence information on the card. Under current rules, neutral cards are considered out-of-faction.
Spending influence because you have it
Unused influence is not automatically a mistake. Badly spent influence can be.
Copying an old deck without checking legality
Netrunner formats and card pools change. A legal historical decklist is not necessarily a legal current Standard or Startup deck.
If you are using an older list, check the format and current card legality before printing or rebuilding it.
A Better Way to Review Your Influence
Before calling a deck finished, look only at the cards consuming influence.
Then ask one question about every group:
What am I getting for these points?
Your answers might be:
- 6 influence fixes my draw problem.
- 3 influence gives me a key tutor.
- 4 influence makes my breaker package cheaper.
- 2 influence covers a difficult matchup.
Those are clear jobs.
If the answer is “this card is pretty good,” consider whether that is enough.
Influence is scarce enough that every expensive splash should have a reason.
Netrunner Influence FAQ
How much influence does a Netrunner deck get?
Your identity determines the deck’s influence limit. There is no universal number for every identity, although 15 influence is common and is used by the regular Standard-legal System Gateway identities.
Do multiple copies each cost influence?
Yes. Influence is counted per copy. Three copies of a 2-influence out-of-faction card contribute 6 influence.
Do in-faction cards cost influence?
Normally, no. The influence restriction applies to out-of-faction cards.
Do neutral cards cost influence?
Current Netrunner rules consider neutral cards out-of-faction. Their actual effect on your influence total depends on their influence value.
Can a card have zero influence?
Yes. A printed influence value of 0 is possible and is different from having no influence value at all.
Do I need to use all my influence?
No. Your influence limit is a maximum, not a target you are required to hit.
Conclusion
Netrunner influence is what keeps deckbuilding open without letting faction boundaries disappear.
Your identity gives you an influence limit. Cards outside your faction consume part of that limit, and every copy counts separately. From there, the interesting question is not simply what you can splash. It is what your deck actually needs.
Start with a functioning in-faction core. Find the weaknesses. Then spend influence where it changes the deck the most.
Once you start treating influence as a limited problem-solving budget, deckbuilding gets much easier to understand. It also gets more interesting.
References
- Null Signal Games, Netrunner Comprehensive Rules v26.03, sections 1.4 and 2.12–2.14.
- Null Signal Games, System Gateway, including current identity deckbuilding information.
- NetrunnerAndroid, How to Use NetrunnerDB to Build and Print a Legal Deck and related deckbuilding resources.
Intent Sentence: This post helps new and intermediate Netrunner players build legal, more focused decks by explaining influence limits, out-of-faction cards, and splash costs, so they can use their deckbuilding budget intentionally.