Run fast. Score big. Android: Mainframe is a fast-paced game of futuristic crime and cyberdomination for two to four players.

You are a runner, an elite cybercriminal capable of hacking through corporate servers with ease. When you receive an alert that the security protocols at Titan Transnational Bank have been deactivated, you know it’s time to go to work. However, you quickly realize you’re not the only runner to have received the alert, and you’re not the only runner looking to extract cash and data from Titan’s servers…

It’s one thing to slice and weave through corporate security. It’s another thing entirely to outhack rival runners. Can you do it? In Android: Mainframe, you and your friends compete for control of Titan’s various nodes. Establish your access points, reroute data pathways, and secure as many of Titan’s nodes as you can. In the end, the runner with the biggest haul wins!

~ Secure the Data ~

At the beginning of Android: Mainframe, you and your rivals mark your arrival at the Titan mainframe by placing your first access points. Then, each turn, you get to take a single action: you can establish another access point, execute a program, or pass. Your goal is to use the programs at your disposal to secure your access points so that they control as many of Titan’s vulnerable accounts as possible.

Most of the generic programs in the program deck allow you to place a specific number of partitions in a specific shape. You can rotate the shape, but you cannot mirror it. Nor can you place the partitions if you cannot place the whole arrangement. If you can place your partitions so that they enclose your access point — and only your access points — you secure that section of Titan’s mainframe, and it becomes immune to your opponents’ manipulations.

~ Runner Versus Runner ~

Titan’s defenses may be down, but that doesn’t mean your run will be easy. After all, you’re not the only runner in the mainframe, and programs do more than simply allow the creation of pathways of different shapes. They also allow you and your opponents to disrupt each other’s strategies. You’ll establish an access point; your opponent might move it. Another runner might lay down a line of partitions, seeking to secure her access point; you might delete two of those partitions.

In the end, trying to outhack your fellow runners may prove to be trickier than hacking through Titan’s defenses. To assert your dominance, you’ll need to think further ahead. You’ll need to envision the possible plays and keep your strategy fluid. You can’t let one or two disruptions break you, and you’ll need to be ready to pounce when the moment’s right. Above all, you’ll need to capitalize upon the unique abilities of your signature programs.

When you assume the role of a runner in Android: Mainframe, you don’t become some no-name, ordinary runner; you assume the identity of one of six of the Android universe’s most notorious cybercriminals. They run the gamut from a precocious teen wünderkind, to a calculating information broker, to a bioroid whose core directives have somehow been compromised and is, as a result, compelled to hack.

Each of these different runners comes with five highly thematic programs that are unique to him or her alone. These are also more impactful than the generic programs you’ll see flowing through the program stack, and the different ways that these unique programs can alter the game are almost startling in their diversity.

They can allow you to place extra access points, erase your opponents’ access points, replicate the programs that your opponents use, and even take multiple actions in a single turn. No matter your identity, your signature programs are important tools, and they lead to dramatically different play experiences as you swap runner identities from game to game.

~ Cyberdomination for Everybody ~

Titan’s accounts stand unsecured. You have only twenty-three seconds, but a lot can happen in twenty-three seconds. Can you hack your way to the top of the heap? Prove yourself the best of the best in Android: Mainframe!