The daemons are just doing their jobs. Try not to disturb them.
—Incognita

Daemons are security measures with harmful effects. Daemons can be installed on mainframe devices, so that the daemon's effect is triggered when all firewalls on the device are broken. Daemons can also be triggered by the programs Faust and Fool, walking through an Infrared Emitter, using the Overclocked Neural DART, or by scripted events in some missions.

A daemon is installed on this device.

The following daemons can be installed randomly on some mainframe devices. Daemons are never initially installed on mainframe devices at mission difficulty 1, but always appear on some devices at mission difficulty 2 or higher, excluding Security Cameras. Daemons can also be installed on devices (including cameras) during a mission by triggering Fractal or Fractal 2.0, accessing the Primary Server Terminal in a Server Farm mission, or knocking out a Modded guard.

If a device has a daemon installed, it will appear in the Incognita view with a dark red textured border. The name of the daemon installed on the device can be revealed by hacking a Daemon Database, or by using Decker's Neural Networking ability, a Scan Chip, or the program Daemon Sniffer.

Daemons triggered by all causes other than scripted events are also chosen randomly from this list. The daemons Authority, Felix and Mask are never installed on devices in the OMNI Mainframe mission.

	Daemon	Duration	Description
	Authority	4–5 turns	While active, accessing Corporate Safes and some other devices will raise the alarm tracker by one step, and make the nearest guard investigate.
	Blowfish	—	Raises the alarm tracker by 1–3 steps.
	Castle	—	Raises the firewalls on a random device by 3.
	Chiton	3–4 turns	Temporarily raises every guard's armor by 1.
	Echo	—	Reboots and recaptures a random device.
	Felix	4–5 turns	Temporarily raises the firewalls on all Corporate Safes, but also increases their number of credits by 10%.
	Fractal	—	Installs new daemons on two random devices.
	Jolt	—	All knocked out guards recover 1 KO damage.
	Labyrinth	3–5 turns	Temporarily reduces every agent's AP by 2.
	Mask	3–5 turns	Temporarily hides information about daemons from the Incognita view.
	Modulate	3–5 turns	Temporarily increases PWR cost of all programs by 2.
	Paradox	2–3 turns	Temporarily prevents use of Incognita.
	Portcullis	3–5 turns	Temporarily reduces the effectiveness of breaker programs so that they break 2 fewer firewalls per use, down to a minimum of 1.
	Rubiks	—	Raises firewalls on all devices by 1.
	Siphon	—	Drains 2–5 PWR.
	Validate	—	Spawns an Enforcer at a guard entrance.
	Watchdog	3–5 turns	Temporarily gives all guards +1 KO resistance.

Found in the Contingency Plan DLC.

Scripted events

The following daemons are triggered by scripted events in the OMNI Mainframe mission.

	Daemon	Duration	Effect
	Countermeasures	3 turns	Makes all guards alerted, and makes one guard interested in Monst3r's position each turn.
	Failsafe	3 turns	Reboots and recaptures two random devices per turn.

Archdaemons

From mission difficulty 5 onwards in Endless mode, a random archdaemon will be triggered at the start of each mission. Archdaemons are never reversed.

	Archdaemon	Duration	Description
	Blowfish 2.0	—	Raises the alarm tracker by 10 steps, so the mission starts at alarm level 2.
	Castle 2.0	—	Raises the firewalls by 3 on 10 random devices.
	Fractal 2.0	—	Installs daemons on every mainframe device.
	Modulate 2.0	20 turns	Increases PWR cost of all programs by 2.
	Portcullis 2.0	Whole mission	Weakens breaker programs so that they break 2 fewer firewalls per use, down to a minimum of 1.
	Pulse 2.0	20 turns	Increases all item cooldowns by 3 turns.

Found in the Contingency Plan DLC.

Daemon reversal

Finally, our luck is turning about. Now press the advantage!
—Central

When a daemon is triggered by any cause other than a scripted event or the Overclocked Neural DART, it has a chance of being reversed. When a daemon is reversed, a random algorithm is triggered instead of the daemon.

The base probability of daemon reversal is 10%; the program Brimstone has a passive effect which adds another 10% to this probability, and Ritual has a passive effect adding another 5% to the probability. Even when a daemon is reversed, the bonus from Central's Antiviral Proxy augment is still applied.