Elisabeth L. 
Challenge mode is a submode that works on top of DeniedPixels’ main modes — Only Once Mode and Decay Mode. It adds a number-guessing requirement to every censored image. Instead of the censoring being the only barrier, you also have to correctly guess a random number within a defined range before anything changes. Combined with rate limits on how often you can attempt this, it creates an additional restriction layer that makes accessing censored content significantly harder.
How it works
When Challenge mode is active, a button appears above each censored image. Clicking it prompts you to enter a number. The extension picks a random number within your configured range, and you have to guess it exactly. Get it right and the image is temporarily accessible for a set duration. Get it wrong and nothing happens — the image stays censored.
That’s the core mechanic. The difficulty depends entirely on how you configure the number range and the access limits.
Number range
You set a minimum and maximum number that defines the guessing range. The extension picks a random number within this range each time you attempt a challenge.
A narrow range like 1–5 makes it relatively easy to guess correctly. A wide range like 1–1000 makes it extremely unlikely on any given attempt. You control the difficulty by adjusting these boundaries.
Access limits
On top of the guessing mechanic, you can set rate limits that cap how often successful access is allowed:
Max Reveals sets the maximum number of successful attempts allowed per time period. You pick both the number and the period — options include every 5, 10, 15, or 30 minutes, every hour, daily, weekly, or monthly. Once you’ve hit the limit, no more successful attempts are possible until the period resets, regardless of whether you guess correctly.
Access Duration controls how long the image remains accessible after a successful guess. Once the duration expires, the censoring reapplies.
These two settings together define how restrictive Challenge mode is in practice. A configuration like “2 successful attempts per day, 10 seconds each, within a 1–500 range” is far more restrictive than “20 per hour, 60 seconds each, within a 1–10 range.”
Using Challenge mode with main modes
Challenge mode doesn’t work on its own — it layers on top of either Only Once Mode or Decay Mode. In both cases, it simply adds the guessing button to censored or blocked images. The main mode continues to function exactly as normal — images still progress toward permanent blocking in Only Once Mode and still degrade through stages in Decay Mode. Challenge just gives you the option to attempt temporary access to the original image along the way, within the limits you’ve configured.
More submodes coming
Challenge is the first submode available in DeniedPixels. Additional submodes with different interaction mechanics are planned for future updates. Each will work alongside the main modes the same way Challenge does — as an additional layer on top of existing censoring behavior.
