Daemon Node vs DC34 CTF
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
Daemon Node
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DAEMON NODE You're a hacker. Not the movie kind. The real kind โ the kind who plans an attack for weeks before pressing Enter. Cipher recruited you. AESTHETIC No cyberpunk neon. Mr. Robot โ phosphor green terminal on black. IRC dialogue. Tools named like real life: nmap, john, psql, tshark. Plausible OSINT: HIBP, search engines, KvK registries, Wayback archives. GAMEPLAY - One-handed landscape play. - No keyboard input โ everything is tap-based. - Five sections: Chat, OSINT, Terminal, Evidence Board, Darknet. - Tiered hint system: Cipher steps in when you're stuck (your grade pays for it). - Grades S/A/B/C/F per mission. Moral verdict tracked separately in M3. WHAT'S NOT IN THE APP - No real network connections. 100% offline. - No functional hacking tools โ everything is scripted fiction. - No data collection. No ads. No IAPs. - No third-party SDKs, no trackers. LANGUAGES French and English, fully translated. ACCESSIBILITY VoiceOver compatible. Dynamic Type supported. REQUIREMENTS iPhone, iOS 18 or later, landscape mode.
DC34 CTF
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DC34 CTF is a capture-the-flag game built for DEF CON 34. Fourteen channels are dark. Your job is to light them up. Download before the con. The app locks until the convention opens. When the doors open at LVCC West Hall in Las Vegas on August 7, it unlocks and the game begins. FOURTEEN CHANNELS. ONE FINAL TARGET. Every channel is a different kind of puzzle. Some are cryptographic. Some are physical. Some require hardware your phone didn't know it would be using. No hints. No walkthrough. Figure it out. The challenges span XOR ciphers, steganography, DTMF tone analysis, radio direction finding, Bluetooth beacon hunting, geolocation, reverse image search, physical navigation, NFC, speech recognition, and more. Your phone's full sensor suite is in play โ camera, microphone, GPS, accelerometer, compass, Bluetooth, NFC. PRIZES The first three players to complete all fourteen channels and claim the final flag receive physical prizes: gold, silver, and copper coins. Finishers four through thirteen get pins. Your rank is permanent โ logged to the live leaderboard the moment you scan the hand. THE LEADERBOARD A live in-app finishers board tracks every player who completes the game, ranked by completion time. Watch it fill up in real time. THERE IS MORE The app has secrets that have nothing to do with the flags. Some people will find them. Most won't. REQUIREMENTS iOS 17 or later. Game Center must be enabled โ the app authenticates silently at launch. Several challenges require network access, Bluetooth, NFC, location services, camera, and microphone. Grant permissions as the game asks for them or miss the challenges that need them. The app is locked until August 7, 2026 at 9:00 AM PT. Show up at DEF CON 34, LVCC West Hall, Las Vegas. You can play anywhere, but final flag unlocking prizes is only available in-person.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Daemon Node at daily against DC34 CTF's every 3 days. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Daemon Node ships an update daily, DC34 CTF every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on September 13, 2026 and September 28, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Daemon Node | DC34 CTF |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Daily โ better | Every 3 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad โ better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 17.0 โ better |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Nicolas STEPHAN | Jeremy Yablan |
In-app purchases
Daemon Node
No in-app purchases
DC34 CTF
No in-app purchases









