In addition to varying the game difficulty setting, some players take on challenges to complete the game under artificial restrictions. Players typically attempt challenges in order to raise the difficulty level, test their skills, add variety to their play, and push the limits of what is possible in the game.

In addition to the challenges listed on this page, higher game difficulty settings such as Expert Plus, Expert++, Iron Man and Time Attack modes can also be considered as challenges. The challenges listed here can be attempted at different game difficulty settings, and can be combined with other challenges, such as No Items/Far Travel.

The Agent Alone challenge is to beat the game with just one agent, not counting agents who join the team for special missions.

• You may start with any two agents, but the second starting agent must not leave the starting room in the first mission, and must be “lost in the field”.
• You may take and keep items (including weapons) from the second starting agent, and use them to distract guards in the first mission, as long as they stay in the starting room.
• You must not add an agent to your team by rescuing them from a Detention Center. You may release an agent from their cell and use the agent to assist in that mission, but if so, they must be “lost in the field” in that mission.

The Agent Alone challenge was first proposed on the official Invisible, Inc. forum by Celestael. The challenge can be simplified by playing with the Lone Start mod, which allows you to start the game with just one agent; this adds to the difficulty since you cannot take items from the second agent, or use them to distract guards in the first mission.

The Pacifist challenge is to beat the game without harming any guards or destroying any mainframe devices.

• You must not knock out or kill any guard, including civilians.
• You must not destroy drones, Security Cameras or Turrets.
• You may carry and sell weapons which deal damage, as long as you don't use them.
• Using a TAG Pistol is allowed, as it does not deal damage.

The No Items challenge, or No Inventory challenge, is to beat the game without using any items (including weapons).

• You must not use any items, including weapons and special items such as Lvl1 Security Passcards or Vault Access Cards.
• You may carry and sell items, as long as you do not use them. You are allowed to receive rewards for carrying items such as a Site List or Valuable Tech out of a mission.
• You may install augments, as these are not used from the agent's inventory.

No Items is almost but not quite a stricter challenge than Pacifist, since in the No Items challenge you are still permitted to harm guards using hacked drones, Turrets or lethal Laser Panels.

The Far Travel challenge is to beat the game while only infiltrating missions which have the greatest travel time on the world map. If there is more than one mission option with the same greatest travel time, you may choose which to infiltrate.

The No Incognita challenge is to beat the game without using any programs.

• You must not use any active programs, and you must not start with or install any programs with passive effects.
• You may sell programs at Server Terminals.
• You may acquire new programs (e.g. from Program Compile side-missions), as long as you do not use them, and as long as they have no passive effects.
• You may use Incognita view to activate or deactivate devices or items such as Power Supplies, Turrets or the Transport Beacon.

The Snail Legs challenge is to beat the game starting with Dr. Xu and Archive Sharp, and without upgrading their Speed skill level. (This also means not installing the Kinesiology Brain Chip augment.) The challenge is named because these two agents have 1 AP less than other agents.

As an optional additional rule, you must also not use any items, augments or programs which give extra AP.

The Always Sprint challenge is to beat the game while only sprinting.

• Agents (and rescued Prisoners) may only move while the “sprint” ability is enabled.
• Peeking and observing guards' movements is allowed while not sprinting.
• If an agent (or Prisoner) does not have enough AP to enable sprinting (e.g. due to peeking or observing, or being encumbered), then they must not move on that turn unless they gain enough AP to enable sprinting first.
• Hacked drones and rescued Couriers, which do not have the “sprint” ability, may move normally.

The No Peeking challenge is to beat the game without peeking, observing guards' movements, or TAGging guards.

The Maximum Daemons challenge is to beat the game with various restrictions relating to daemons:

• The “daemon quantity” must be set to “more” as a Custom setting.
• You must start the game with Ritual as your breaker program.
• You must only use daemon-related programs; you must not use any other programs, with the exception of your starting generator.
• Whenever you have the opportunity to install a daemon-related program, you must do so, even if you have to sell a non-daemon-related program (other than your starting generator) to do so.
• You must not sell daemon-related programs.
• You may install non-daemon-related programs in order to sell them, as long as you do not use them, and as long as they do not have passive effects.
• As an optional additional rule, you must start the game with Faust as your generator program.
• As an optional additional rule, you must start the game with Central and Monst3r on your team.

The daemon-related programs are Bless, Brimstone, Daemon Sniffer, Faust, Fool, Hunter, Ritual and Taurus. It is recommended to play with the Scrolling Daemons mod as there will be many daemons active at the same time, and the Programs Extended mod which adds several new daemons and daemon-related programs. If playing with the New Items and Augments mod, it is recommended to disable “Starting Agents Rebalance” for the vanilla Antiviral Proxy effect.

The Maximum Daemons challenge was proposed by wodzu_93 and Anistuffs. Because the challenge requires starting with Ritual, it can only be attempted on the Nintendo Switch edition of the game, or when playing with the Switch Content mod.

The No Hacking Cameras challenge is to beat the game without hacking any Security Cameras. It is forbidden to fully break the firewalls on a camera, using Incognita or otherwise. Hacking Camera Drones is permitted, as is rebooting cameras using EMP effects (including Fool).

As an optional additional rule, you must not cloak or use Archive Prism's disguise.