Many threats of the sixth world are insidious and deadly... and thankfully rare. Critters such as insect spirits are unlikely to be encountered on your average run, unless you're specifically hunting for them, but unfortunately for runners the risk isn't exactly nonexistent. As a result many men and women in black trenchcoats are packing some form of countermeasure against such a threat.

So how much corner-case gear to you carry?

For instance my Face is never without two clips of KE IV capsules for her holdout, just in case a run turns into a bughunt... heck, in case a stuffer shack employee is a bug in disguise.

Ghouls are more vulnerable to conventional firepower, provided you throw enough at them to down them before they're within reach. Long bursts of gel rounds will work in a pinch as if you can knock them down then you've bought yourself time to run away!

Dragons... well, other than having a gauss rifle strapped to a blimp drone on stand-by, all you can really do is hope you don't run into one when you're not ready.

what other threats and precautions do you guys walk around with?

Special dispensations:
CanRay, I'm going to come right out and say that safehouses do not count as they're no-portable. Sorry.
KarmaInferno, if you could cut your pre-prepared answer down to about 10,000 words that'd be great. Not to stifle your creativity, you understand, but for loading times for readers on mobile devices.
... BTW how many preprepared answers have you got ready for this question?

bug spirits aren't really worse than other types of spirits. So as long, as there's one spirit-slaying team member, we don't really pack special. This could be a mage (Stunbolt (lame), Banishing (awesome)), an Adept (Killing Hands or Weapon Focus) or a Sam (APDS, Sniper, Gauss). I've never seen anybody pack something like FAB...

as for Dragons, just have a contact prepared to render your services. Or was it never cut a deal with a dragon? I forgot...

In SR3, a bug spirit was less threatening than other spirits, being one of the only ones (the only one?) with an easily exploitabe weakness.

Really? I tend to find that the equation is actually balanced the other direction.
Or even Better, A StunBolt that is restricted to Spirits Only - Called a Spirit Bolt. Far Less drain than even a Stun Bolt, even if it is pretty restricted.

Well, I hate direct damage spells and many others do, too. Mostly because of their low drain and being hard to resist. Banishing has so much flavor.

Sure... Banishing is awesome for flavor, but it is often the last choice, when all other methods have failed.
Most people are not willing to take the potential levels of Drain that Banishing entails, especially for very high Force Spirits (assuming you encounter any high Force spirits).

Seconded. In my experience it has usually gone something like this. "Stunbolt the nasty spirit. (or ball if there is more than one). What? Spell defence? Where is the mage? There isn't one? Sigh. Well I guess I can try to banish it. Guys, have the med kit ready. This could get ugly."

Sure, but considering that the spirit will probably kill you while you "flavor" it....

I just don't particularly understand the hate for direct spells. yes in the hands of a powergamer they can be totally broken (but what can't be?) and by all acounts of fiction I have read/played/written. mages are SUPPOSED to be feared, with good reason. best answer to a mage abusing the system (without slapping out house rules)? focused, and concentrated gunfire :3. (or a couple smacks to the head with the hardcover 4erulebook XD)

I find a well placed single shot they don't see coming with Ex Explosive Ammo to work wonders, then they can't get an overinflated ego...because I popped it.

Encountering a lone Bug Spirit isn't any worse than encountering a lone Spirit of Fire or whatever, and the answers are the same: Stunbolt/Manabolt, long bursts of Stick'n'Shock, high-damage weapons with APDS, or another Spirit to have duke it out with him.

The problem with most Bug Spirits is that when you encounter one, you're very likely to encounter more, much more, than one, and they tend to KEKEKE ZERG RUSH you.

The solutions to that are problematic, because there's a large number of bugs coming at you with Immunity to Normal Weapons. The answers involve one or two mages laying down Stunball/Manaball, with someone standing by to provide constant first aid to them to offset the drain. Close air support and powerful explosions help, as does simply piling into a chopper and getting the fuck out of Dodge.

Depending on their Force, suppressive fire with SnS.

Flamethrowers!

How can you use first aid to heal drain (stun damage)? That is something I'm always wondering. My GM says this is not possible and I tend to follow his explanation that first aid can only be used to heal physical damage (unless you say usage of painkillers requires first aid skill).

The rules let it work, so, it works. I guess it is painkillers or something.

Besides, you can always just overcast it a bit.

Suppresive fire with APDS?

It's a bughunt? Take off and nuke the site from orbit. Only way to be sure.

For those with Nuyen to Burn.

Get some, keep the edge.

It's probably open to interpretation, but in my game, banishing is the only way to get rid of a Possession spirit without harming the vessel.

Well, a Spirit Bolt would harm the possessing spirit while leaving the Vessel unharmed. The joys of a restricted spell after all. Especially if you attacked it from the Astral Side (Since the spirit is dual natured)

Back to main topic, something I try to get on my characters is this:

Survival Gear
Two build points for the ability to go into nearly every environment the game has to offer. If your armor is an Evo HEL suit (which I fully endorse) and you buy a drysuit (OXSYS optional) then you're set for the only two conditions the above does not meet.

EDIT: Other than the above I tend to design my characters able to deal with any situation. My offense is intended to be mutually inclusive, and therefore fit for any encounter. Like this, from 0:15 - 0:40.

Ok, new toy from spygames: safejump system. sure, it'll ruin your expensive coat or whatever, but if you really need it then it's probably worth it.

You can still trim down some of the equipment. There are still some overlaps.

Are you talking about the Respirator/Gas Mask? That's because one is more socially acceptable than the other and easier to conceal. If you go with the drysuit and cybergill you'd obviously drop the diving gear from above. Would you care to include any other overlaps?

The tents - why do you need a polar tent, a desert tent and a normal tent? Even if you were to say that there a polar tent does not completely cover what a desert tent does and vice versa, why an additional tent? Similarly for survival kits.

Also I'd replace the gas mask with a Death Mask (SpygamesAttitude). I'd also cut down the polar survival suit and diving suit for similar versions of armored ones, unless the GM rules that the survival suit stack with normal armor.

Well, from experience, I can confirm that the three tents you listed are VERY DIFFERENT things. You do not want a Polar tent in the Desert, nor do you want a Desert Tent in Polar Conditions. The standard tent is definitely preferrable in temperate zones. They all have their purpose and niche. You would not pack all of them at the same time.

A few points to consider:

1) I made this list over a year ago, so some of the newer material wasn't out yet.
2) A polar tent "offers protection from cold, snow and wind," whereas a desert tent is for "heat, sand and insects," and a normal tent is a tent. One for each extreme of environment and the third for the middle ground.
3) A survival kit adds +2 dice for Survival Tests. A Polar kit adds +4 for that climate, and a Desert one adds +4 for deserts. Again, one each for two extremes and the third for the majority of everything else.
4) A Polar Survival Suit is armored and adds significant bonuses for polar conditions - climbing claws built in, a mask that negates all glare modifiers, the gloves can form a shovel, R6 Insulation and R4 Thermal Damping, among others.
5) There is no armored version of a Desert Suit, and wearing one adds an additional +2 dice for Survival Tests in that climate (which is a +6 when combined with the kit).
6) The reason I went with the Diving Suit over a wetsuit and OXSYS gill is because the diving suit gives you 2 hours of air at better depths than the gill does, although the gill is infinite.
7) Gas mask over a Death Mask (from Attitude, by the way) because a +1 to Intimidate isn't worth 175 to a survivalist (read: camper).

Overall the cost of what I've gathered is exactly two build points - a convenient number. Any significant changes would potentially change this, requiring alterations throughout. This is why I said you can add a spacesuit and other things on top of what I have posted; primarily because space travel is so remote that it would not be warranted in a general survival gear makeup.

I probably wouldn't let that work in my game. The spirit and the person are more or less one being during possession. You can call it a houserule if you want, I don't care. However, I've never actually seen a real player character with a spirit bolt, so it's never come up. My players have never felt like they could waste one of their ten or twelve starting spells for it.

then why would you punish them for doing so, if they ever did? (just asking, no offence is intented) but if its a spirit bolt, it CAN NOT harm anything non spirit, so I would let it work, but I can kinda see where you are coming from, where it just wouldnt affect him at all.

Actually, I did this with my last AI character. We always joked that the blimp would move 50 meters with every shot. But it was ALWAYS there.


Our group packs fairly heavy, but I must admit only 1 group of ours over the years ever packed anti-bug on a regular basis, and that was after we ran into one. Amazing convincer, that.