Strategies for Runners?

[djrr]

How do you handle your runners?  Do you just use them as cannon fodder or do you equip them?  I am playing on hard and I have been equipping them.  I get them some decent armor, decent weapons, and take them to the Dr. to bring them up to 9 HP.

Problem is they end up getting killed and I lose a few 1,000 of equipment.  Just had my martial arts expert die with my taser gloves   I lose a bunch of money this way since they are all vulnerable to drones without nano armor.  Only way to ensure survivability is to spend the $$$ on nano armor and nano med kits, otherwise drones with 4 attacks can take them out before you can get initiative again.

How do you do it?  Invest in them or just let them die? or hire cheap mercenaries and just let them die?

[fallen]

djrr - I always invest. Investment also means running around gang-land a bit to get their XP up.

[grävling]

I have the same rules for runners as I do for CK -- Do not go into BS, KH or Corps land until you have 6AP or more. A little bit is ok -- taking a run from the Black Rose into the Secrets of Steel Club is unlikely to get you killed (though I have had it happen), but if you start taking jobs to the Intercontinental Center, you will end up a corpse. New runners are to be protected, they need significantly more AP (and firearms if they are shooters) before they are any good for you.

My runners all get hard armour (Infiltrator Suit from Tekka's House of Guns). Taser gloves for martial artists. 2 raptor IIs for gunslingers. A mk251 bounty for sniper runners. An M21 Assault Rifle for AgentExs. When it is time to spend a lot of time in corps land, I get the dermal implants from Saytek for everybody. I don't ever bother with hacker or face runners, its easier to train something that can fight to negotiate and hack than it is to train those 2 sorts to keep themselves alive. And while I am now experimenting with Gunslinger runners, now that dual shot has made them more lethal, I am not sure they are worth it, either.

If robots are constantly killing you then you need to rethink your killing robots strategy. Your martial artist runner can become a drone killer with significantly high brawling and cyberware claws from Saytek's, and getting her a Steel Enforcer to use as a second weapon before that time can give you a bit of protection, but in general your martial artist should not be the one whose job it is to kill drones. That is best done with an Assault Rifle or a Plain Rifle (such as the 251 bounty). And whoever's job it is to shred robots needs to concentrate on that job until the Predator Drones, Horizon Drones and Cannons are dead. (A martial artist can take down those lightwing sorts of flying tin cans, as they are poor in both HP and MP)-- it's the Predator Drones that need physical damage.) If your martial artist bites it, somebody else is not doing their job.

Another thing may be contributing to runner death is using Cover in fights (costs 2 AP) to avoid damage. Most of the time it is better to save your AP for running away so you don't get surrounded by hostiles.

Dogs can be good at killing robots, and dogs are cheap. New pups need protection while their AP is low, of course. Get them into a synthsuit or better before you take them anywhere, even gangland, however, or you will just bury them.

But mostly what you need to do is cancel escort jobs that you took from women in the street asking you to go to Corps KH and BS land. Take the reputation hit. Stay alive.

[hissrad]

My runners get used as cannon fodder. If they survive long enough to get recruited then they get looked after. There's only 2 runners that I treat as allies when I first get them, but they are both connected to Made,Not Born...

[942]

I think sometimes (most at the beginning)
cannon fodder is pure gold to distracted enemys from you or persons you have to escort (particulary when there's a large group of enemys) and especially when you play sniper, to get your enemys away from you to shoot them in the back(maybe not very nice but that's new boston )
But later you should spend the time xp and money to build the runners which fits in your team and playstyle and convert them. (A well geared/built teammate is always lucrative) When i'm right, with the newest update you have a chance to get your invested gear back so there's nothing wrong in doing so.