Hardware: Cybernetic • Install: 1 • Influence: 2

When you install Titanium Ribs, suffer 2 meat damage.

You choose the card(s) from your grip to trash whenever you take damage (including the damage taken by installing Titanium Ribs).

Criminal • Matt Zeilinger • Chrome City 45
All sets:
Links: Decklists | ANCUR
Titanium Ribs
MWL Entries

No MWL Entries for this card.


No rulings yet for this card.


While this card certainly isn't universally good, there are a few situations where this card can certainly come in handy. Titanium Ribs is certainly the bee's knees vs PE, especially when comboed with I've Had Worse or Synthetic Blood. Titanium Ribs + I've Had Worse can literally save your life against Scorched Earth when they try to use Traffic Accident to dodge the IHW. These are, of course, fringe cases, and a card that's only marginally useful against a handful of identities normally isn't worth the card slot. Where TR really shines is in self damaging decks.

The most obvious combo is Amped Up and Wanton Destruction, giving you five clicks to burn the Corp's entire hand, with no chance of discarding the all-too-important Destruction. The best time to use it is when you KNOW you'll be damaging yourself often. Enter Stim Dealer. Many people don't know/realize that Stim Dealer is NOT unique, thus allowing you to gain a whole lot of clicks , and only suffer the brain damage every third turn. Since you know you'll be taking damage often, Titanium Ribs (along with some kind of hand-size increase like Cyborg Skull, Health Insurance, Japanese Paper Airplanes, or A Nice Suntan) will mitigate the consequences of this repeated damage.

It certainly isn't a card for every deck, but don't count out Gabe's Freaky Wolverine Skeleton entirely.

(The Universe of Tomorrow era)
I've paired this with Stim Dealer. It's a fun combo. —


No, I'm seriously asking. Why would you install this? 1 credit is reasonable for the benefit and so is 2 meat damage, but both? That's a big ask for a card that only sort of helps you with a situation that you don't want to be in to begin with.

Chrome Parlor mitigates most of the issues, but if Titanium Ribs isn't worth it in the first place then it isn't worth including another card just to make it almost playable. And that's not even addressing the fact that one or the other is going to take precious influence that you could spend on good cards.

TL;DR: the worst of the cybernetics introduced in this pack. Sad times.

(Chrome City era)
Right now? It combos with IHW. If you run 3 IHW, this gives you a) sightly better meat damage protection or b) slightly cheaper draw. Also, if there's one faction that plays vs Jinteki and thinks 'Oh jeebs, please don't net damage my corroder'...it's criminal. Interestingly, not sure how this interacts with Chronos Jinteki. If that ID is popular and it negates the 'corp chooses' ability, it might see play as 1x utility. —
for what its worth pruneface, since they're simultaneous triggers (whenever you take [net] damage) the active player would choose. So if the runner hits a Shock!/Snare!, or takes damage on an Ice, the runner will choose the card. If the Jinteki player uses Ronin, Neural EMP, etc then the corp will choose the card. —
That's not how it works, Pax. The "You" doesn't automatically mean "the active player." It's the same argument as Shell Corp, "It doesn't explicitly say 'bank' so it comes from the corp's credit pool." —
I'd also add that it combines well with Paper Tripping if you are fearing Midseasons. If you have enough down to survive just one turn of meat damage assault then your biggest fear is losing the Paper Tripping from hand during that turn of attack. —
With Titanium Ribs you can use Stimhack and Amped Up without fear, that you lose important cards. —
I think skulljack is far worse than ribs. Ribs could fit in decks with the other cybernetics cards + I've had worse + stimhack and it would be pretty decent in this kind of self-damage style deck —
Does not really only concern this card, but it's worth noting that one could use Muresh Bodysuit to reduce the meat damage costs for all these new cybernetics cards. —

The use of this card is so narrow, one of the few reasons i could ever imagine installing it (as an anarchist) is , if i want to wanton destruction, and have to amped up first, it will guarantee don't eat my won-tons by being to high. other wise i have NFID why you would waste a slot possibly running multiples so you can ditch them.

(Chrome City era)
Considering not everyone is a master of acronyms, what does NFID stand for? —
Something along the lines of No Flapjack Idea, I believe. —