Challenge Mode

Challenge Mode is a special gamemode in Enter the Gungeon, activated by speaking to Daisuke in The Breach and spending 6 . Daisuke himself can be found in the upper right corner of the Breach, in the same room as the Sorceress, after being rescued from a Cell in the Gungeon.

While Challenge Mode is active each combat room within The Gungeon will be affected by 1-3 randomly chosen gameplay modifiers. The number of modifiers per room increases the deeper the player ventures into the Gungeons Chambers. Bosses in the Hollow and Forge have special unique modifiers that increase their difficulty.

After 30 failed attempts at Challenge Mode, Daisuke will lower the cost of activating the mode to 1 . Additionally, this will unlock Chaos Bullets if they have not already been unlocked.

Double Challenge Mode

Defeating the High Dragun with Challenge Mode enabled unlocks access to Double Challenge Mode, a harder version of the mode with twice the number of modifiers per room. Double Challenge Mode can be accessed by speaking to Daisuke again after Challenge Mode has already been activated and paying him a second fee.

Double Challenge Mode has no associated unlocks, as Daisuke readily informs the player.

Modifiers

When entering a new room, time breifly slows to allow the player ample opportunity to read and comprehend the current modifiers before combat begins. Only rooms containing enemies will gain modifiers.

Icon	Name	Boss Valid	Effect	Exclusive With
	Adrenaline Rush		Increases the game speed by 2.5% additively each time the player dodge rolls, up to a max of 150% game speed. In boss rooms, the game speed is only increased by 1% additively with each roll, and maxxes at 130% game speed. Game speed modifiers are removed when the room is cleared.
	Blobulin Rancher		Player projectiles that are destroyed upon collision with walls or obstacles will spawn hostile Blobulins. Piercing projectiles will not spawn a Blobulin so long as they have passed through an enemy before hitting a wall. If the Don't Blink modifier is active in the same room as this modifier, the player can purposely miss shots to get infinite money by killing the jammed Blobulins. This is not highly recommended if the player does not have contact damage immunity.	Ghost Of The Shell
	Cursed Ceramics		Spawns cursed pots randomly around the room, which can be destroyed. Standing near a pot will build the player's curse meter, increasing their Curse by 1 and destroying the pot when fully filled. If the Pot Shots modifier is active in the same room as this modifier, the cursed pots will fire bullets towards the player upon destruction.	Zone Control
	Dark Was The Night		Darkens the room and adds a cone of light to the player's vision. Certain enemies or objects have glowing parts that make them stand out in the darkness.
	Don't Blink		Darkens the room and adds a cone of light to the player's vision. Certain enemies or objects have glowing parts that make them stand out in the darkness. Enemies within the players cone of light are continually stunned and unjammed, however all enemies outside of the cone of light are jammed. The flashlight of this modifier can unjam enemies that are usually always jammed, such as the giant Spent spawned by Gummies. If the Blobulin Rancher modifier is active in the same room as this modifier, the player can purposely miss shots to get infinite money by killing the jammed Blobulins. This is not highly recommended if the player does not have contact damage immunity.
	Explosive Pyre		Enemies in the room explode when killed. All Bosses, Blobulins, Poisbulins, and the ball turrets spawned by the Ammoconda are not affected by this modifier. Effectively nullifies the Ghost Of The Shell modifier if both are active in the same room, as the explosive death of the enemy tends to kill the spawned Hollowpoint immediately.
	Final Attack		Enemies release bullets in all directions upon death. Enemies that already release bullets upon death, such as Shotgun Kin or Bloodbulons, will not release any additional projectiles. Enemies that only have a chance to perform their existing on-death bullet attacks (such as Red Shotgun Kin) will always perform their on-death attacks while this modifier is active. The bullets spawned by this modifier vary from enemy to enemy, with some enemies final attacks adopting the effects of their regular projectiles (IE: The final attack of King Bullats is made up of bouncy bullets). Other enemies may not create any projectiles at all. Bosses are unaffected by this modifier.
	Ghost of the Shell		Slain enemies have a 50% chance to return as Hollowpoints. This modifier does not affect Bosses, Hollowpoints, Blobulins, Bombshees, all small Bullat variants, or any enemy that already spawns another enemy on death. The Bells and Claymores spawned by the Mine Flayer only have a 25% chance to return as Hollowpoints. Is effectively nullified by the Explosive Pyre modifier if both are active in the same room, as the explosive death of the enemy tends to kill the spawned Hollowpoint immediately. Mousers spawned by the second phase of the Resourceful Rat are affected by this modifier, despite spawning in large numbers. This makes this modifier exceedingly dangerous in that phase of the fight.	Blobulin Rancher
	Gorgun's Gaze		The Gorgun's eyes will periodically appear in random locations and send out a petrifying wave which prevents the player from firing their weapon. The wave can be avoided by dodge rolling through it or looking away from it. If Shockwave is also active in the same room as this modifier, they will take turns triggering their effects.
	Gull's Revenge		Causes rockets like those fired by the Gatling Gull to rain down periodically at random locations near the player. This can damage enemies.
	Gun Queue		Prevents the player from manually switching guns. Upon fully emptying a magazine, reloading, or waiting about 30 seconds, the next weapon in the player's inventory is automatically switched to. This disables dual wielding synergies for the duration of the room, such as The Submachinist. Bug If a player dies in co-op mode while this modifier is active, any guns they were holding will be lost. Upon revival, they will only have their original starter gun. For this reason, it is recommended that a player with low health either give their guns to the other player or heal to avoid this.
	Hammer Time		Spawns a Dead Blow that persists for the rest of the room, attacking the player.
	High Stress		Taking damage sets the player to half a heart for the next 5 seconds. Effectively means that taking damage twice in quick succession is almost always fatal. As The Robot does not have heart containers, it is not set to 1/2 a heart. Instead, all its armour briefly disappears, leaving a completely empty healthbar. Despite setting the player to 1/2 a heart, the player may still be counted as being at full health for Blasphemy.
	Last Bullet Standing		One random enemy in the room is rendered invulnerable until all other enemies in the room have been slain. This invulnerable enemy is indicated with a marker above their head. Once the enemy is becomes vulnerable, the marker changes to a . Harmless entities (such as Candle Rats), invulnerable enemies (such as Gunreapers), and enemies which explode upon death cannot be chosen as the target of this modifier. Transmogrification effects like Witch Pistol or Devolver can still transform the invulnerable enemy, removing their protection in the process. The invulnerable enemy can also be killed by being pushed into a pit, provided it is capable of falling.	Long Live The King
	Long Live The King		One random enemy in the room is marked as 'King'. All other enemies in the room are invulnerable until the King is slain. The king is indicated with a marker above their head. Harmless entities (such as Candle Rats), invulnerable enemies (such as Gunreapers), and enemies which explode upon death cannot be chosen as the target of this modifier. Transmogrification effects like Witch Pistol or Devolver can still transform invulnerable enemies. Invulnerable enemies can also be killed by being pushed into a pit, provided they are capable of falling. If the room contains a Wall Mimic, it is possible for the Wall Mimic to be designated as King. In these cases, it is impossible to clear the room until the wall mimic is discovered and slain,	Last Bullet Standing
	Poison Pursuit		A trail of poison goop follows the player for the duration of the room. This poison can afflict enemies. Bug If this modifier is active on the Resourceful Rats second phase, it may force them to take unavoidable damage during the boss intro, as the modifier becomes active before the player is given control of their character.
	Pot Shots		Minor breakable objects fire a bullet towards the player upon being destroyed. If the Cursed Ceramics modifier is active in the same room as this modifier, the cursed pots will fire bullets towards the player upon destruction.
	Rat's Revenge		Places flame traps at random positions throughout the room, which periodically produce bursts of damaging flame on a consistent timer. These traps permanently disable once the room is cleared. Bug The floor sprites of certain bossrooms (such as the second phase of the Resourceful Rat) layer over top of these flame traps, making them invisible.
	Shockwave		Periodically, rings of bullets linked with electricity will appear in room and expand outwards. Touching the bullets or the electricity will damage the player. The links between the bullets deal Electric Type damage, meaning that items that make the player immune to Electricity ( Battery Bullets & Hazmat Suit) will prevent damage from the links- but not the bullets. This modifier cannot be applied to rooms that have less than 150 tiles of floor space. If Gorgun's Gaze is also active in the same room as this modifier, they will take turns triggering their effects.
	Thermal Clips		Upon reloading an empty magazine, a pool of fire appears at the player's feet. Passive reloading (switching away from a gun and waiting for it to automatically reload) does not trigger this modifier.
	Unfriendly Fire		Player bullets that hit walls will ricochet and turn into hostile enemy bullets. These hostile bullets can hit both the player and enemies. This modifier does not affect beam weapons. In co-op mode, this modifier causes players to be able to hit each other with their projectiles- even before they ricochet. The players bullet modifiers still apply to projectiles that have ricocheted, including effects such as Remote Bullets. The player will not be harmed by their own bullets if those bullets inflict a damage type that the player is immune to. For example, the player cannot be harmed by fireballs if they have fire immunity.
	Zone Control		Spawns multiple supply crates in the room. The player can only fire their gun while standing within a marked zone around the supply crate. While standing in the zone, the area of effect VFX of all supply crates will begin to fill out from the center, as a form of progress meter. Once the circles are fully filled, all crates will disappear, and the player will be allowed to fire freely. Standing in the overlapping zones of multiple supply crates will increase the rate of the VFX filling out. Supply crates can block moving objects such as minecarts if they spawn on/are pushed onto the tracks. The Zone VFX renders layered under the hidden trapdoor entrance to the Resourceful Rat's Lair in the Black Powder Mine, potentially giving away its position.	Cursed Ceramics

Unique Modifiers

Bosses in the Hollow and the Forge have special modifiers that modify their attack patterns. These modifiers are unique to each boss, and always appear on that bosses fight.

Icon	Name	Boss	Effect
	Something Wicked	High Priest	Simple candle enemies appear randomly in the bossroom throughout the fight. These candles do not attack the player, but leave a pool of fire goop when slain. This fire is special, and does not dissipate until the High Priest has been defeated. Candle enemies do not deal contact damage unless they are Jammed.
	Extremely Bad Chess	Kill Pillars	Large rectangular patches of poison goop periodically appear in a checkerboard pattern on the floor throughout the fight.
	Night's Watch	Wallmonger	Two invincible Sniper Shells appear on top of the Wallmonger, periodically firing at the player throughout the fight. These snipers, despite being invulnerable, can still be transmogrified into Mutant Bullet Kin by the explosion of the Big Boy.
	Dragun Rage	High Dragun	Makes all of the Draguns attacks much more difficult: Most bullets travel much faster. The Dragun's stream of fiery bullets aimed at the player bounces off of the wall. It fires more bouncing bullets in quicker succession. It fires two rockets instead of one. It fires nine homing skulls instead of five. In phase 2, the circular safe zones are much smaller. Dragun Rage is always accompanied by High Stress.

Related Unlocks

• Chance Bullets - Reach the Black Powder Mine with Challenge Mode enabled.
• Chaos Bullets - Defeat the High Dragun with Challenge Mode enabled, or fail 30 attempts at Challenge Mode.
• Double Challenge Mode - Defeat the High Dragun with Challenge Mode enabled.

Notes

• The Elevator Room in the Breach is boarded off while Challenge Mode is active, preventing access to Shortcuts.
• If enemies spawn into a previously empty room by using Lament Configurum, the Drill, or a Challenge Shrine, modifiers will activate. Gun Fairies that spawn from broken pots when no other enemies are present will as well.
  • Each wave spawned by Drill will have a different set of modifiers, even if multiple happens in the same room.
• Each phase of the Lich boss fight will have 3 random modifiers instead of a unique one.

Trivia

• Blobulin Rancher is a reference to the game Slime Rancher.
• Cursed Ceramics is a reference to Curse Jars from Dark Souls II.
• Explosive Pyres is a reference to the game Destiny.
• Ghost of the Shell is a reference to the anime Ghost In The Shell.
• High Stress's effect and icon are a reference to the game Darkest Dungeon.
• Extremely Bad Chess is a reference to the game Really Bad Chess.
• Don't Blink is a reference to a Doctor Who episode.
• Thermal Clips is a reference to the Mass Effect series.
• Night's Watch is a reference to the Night's Watch who patrol the great Wall in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, and its TV show adaptation Game of Thrones.
• Dark was the Night is a reference to the song "Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground" by Blind Willie Johnson.
• Hammer Time is a reference to the catchphrase "Stop, Hammer Time" in the song "Can't Touch This" by MC HAMMER.
• Something Wicked is part of a quote from Shakespeare's Macbeth.
• Dragun Rage may be a reference to the Pokémon move Dragon Rage.

Gallery

• 

  A Bullet Kin made invulnerable by the Last Bullet Standing modifier.

• 

  The same Bullet Kin, now vulnerable after all other enemies in the room have been slain.