p. 24 of the FAQ
"Does Binding a Spirit have to be done as a Downtime Action (and must therefore buy hits)?
No. Bound Spirits have an expiration date (a.k.a., number of services). Further, since they get to resist with
double Force, buying hits makes it nearly impossible to ever bind a higher Force spirit and get a useful number of
services out of it. As such, players may choose to either buy hits or roll. If a player is binding as part of his normal
Downtime between games and wishes to roll his dice, he should let his gamemaster know at the start of his next game
session and quickly get all rolls done before the game starts. Players may spend Edge on rolls made in this fashion,
but they are considered spent at the beginning of the game session and are unavailable until the GM allows Edge to
refresh.
What about Compiling a Sprite?
Same rules as Binding a Spirit apply to sprites." Emphasis mine. No GM fiat required, but do ask if they have time, and have your notes and dice ready. If you're prepped and know what you want and just need the GM to toss dice and tell you number of hits several times, you should be good. The Pet-ettiqute is the one part of my Technomancer guide that's even remotely relevant.
You can buy hits if you want. Honestly for the Compiling part I do, typically it's 2 net hits (12 dice v 6) and not enough Fade to matter. Then just 12 Dice v. 12 Dice until you've "won" enough tests to fill your stable. And yeah, minimum one week of down time, but you aren't restricted to a single activity if you only have a couple Sprites to Register. Spend you Karma and Nuyen, Register Sprites, whatever.
Anyway... ask a GM if you can do a bunch of Sprite stuff beforehand you may get an eyeroll. Ask if them to roll 12 dice 7 times and tell you the results, no problem. If 7 isn't enough, ask for another 7.
