Everything You Need To Know About Elevation

Whether you’re a new player, a returning oldhead, or a committed veteran, Elevation is going to change the way you play the game. So let’s get you up to speed! Here is everything you need to know about Elevation. 

What is Elevation? 

Elevation, previously codenamed ‘Dawn’, is the latest expansion for Netrunner produced by Null Signal Games. It consists of full playsets of 82 brand new cards, exploring new design space and featuring new original art and narrative.

Elevation is designed as a companion piece to System Gateway. Together, these two sets are the Core Sets for Netrunner produced by Null Signal Games. They provide the foundation for modern Netrunner play, including the Startup and Standard formats. We recommend that new players acquire Elevation second, after System Gateway, as they move on from learning the basics of the game into more dynamic exploration and deckbuilding.

The cards in Elevation feature characters, locations and events from Kota Kalimantan, an imagined future megacity on the island of Borneo, during the construction of the space elevator known as the Mahkota Langit. You can read more about the world of Elevation here and see some of the concept art that drove the visual identity of the setting here.

What are the important dates? 

Elevation will be released for purchase, print-on-demand, and print-and-play on Thursday, April 24th, 2025. 

Following its release, Elevation cards will become legal for tournament play at Competitive-level on Saturday, May 10th. 

Organisers of Casual-level events may choose to allow Elevation cards at any time after release, provided they take steps to ensure that all attendees have access to the cards in time.

The release of Elevation will also trigger the rotation of certain older sets out of the Standard and Startup formats. You can find more information on rotation below.

How can I get the cards? 

Elevation will be available for purchase on the Null Signal Games store for customers in the US, Canada, Australia, the UK and the EU from April 24th, at a price of $45 US (or equivalent).

You can pre-order the set on our online store now!

Customers in other regions can purchase Elevation through our print-on demand partners. The set will be available through MakePlayingCards on release day, and will be made available on DriveThruCards at a later date.

And don’t forget to check if your local games retailer stocks NSG products! If they don’t but might want to, you can point them towards our retailer web portal.

In addition, like all of Null Signal Games’ sets, Elevation will be made available to print-and-play for free on this site on the same date.

Cards will be available in English from release day, with other languages becoming available approximately one month later.

What is ‘rotation’ and how does Elevation affect Standard and Startup? 

As new sets are released, some play formats are updated to maintain the card pool size and type of play experience those formats are designed for. ‘Rotation’ is the term used to describe the removal of older sets from the list of legal sets in a given format of play. With the release of Elevation, certain sets will cease to be legal for play in the Standard and Startup formats.

The sets that will no longer be legal in Standard are:

• All sets in the Red Sand Cycle
• All sets in the Kitara Cycle
• Reign and Reverie
• Magnum Opus (and Magnum Opus Reprint)
• System Update 2021

As a result, this is the full list of sets that will be legal in Standard:

• System Gateway
• Elevation
• The Ashes Cycle (Downfall and Uprising)
• The Borealis Cycle (Midnight Sun and Parhelion)
• The Liberation Cycle (The Automata Initiative and Rebellion Without Rehearsal)

In the Startup format, Elevation will replace System Update 2021. This is the full list of sets that will be legal in Startup:

• System Gateway
• Elevation
• The Liberation Cycle (The Automata Initiative and Rebellion Without Rehearsal)

Rotation FAQs

Q: Is System Gateway rotating?

A: No! While Elevation is a Core Set, it is not replacing System Gateway—it is designed to exist alongside it. These two Core Sets will not rotate at all under the current release model.

Q: Sure Gamble was originally printed by FFG—does that mean I can’t play it any more?

A: No! Despite being originally printed by FFG, Sure Gamble and Hedge Fund remain legal for play in both Startup and Standard by virtue of their reprints in System Gateway. Self-Modifying Code, Daily Casts, Cerebral Overwriter, Colossus and False Lead also remain legal in Standard by virtue of their reprints in the Ashes Cycle.

Q: What’s happening with the Uprising Booster Pack and the Midnight Sun Booster Pack?

A: They remain legal in Standard. The cards in those two Booster Pack products are secondary printings of cards printed in Uprising and Midnight Sun, so all cards in the Booster Packs remain legal for Standard just as all cards in those two full sets do.

Ok that’s all very cool but when can I see the new cards already?!

You’ll be able to see the bulk of the cards during Elevation preview season, which is scheduled to run from April 9th through April 22nd, leading up to release day on the 24th.

During the first few days of that period, we will be publishing a number of articles written by NSG staff and associates to give their insights into the narrative and creation of the new cards. Then we’ll hand the baton over to community previews on April 16, when a wide variety of Netrunner content creators and community spaces across the net will reveal more new cards—in many creative and perhaps unexpected ways…

But don’t worry! We won’t be keeping you completely in the dark until April 9th—some cards have already been previewed on this site, and we have a couple more special articles about Elevation in the pipeline over the next week and change. You can keep up with all the previews over on NetrunnerDB.

Join us in Kota Kalimantan when Elevation releases on April 24th 2025!