Chests

Chests are objects that contain other objects, items, trinkets, pickups, enemies, and more. There are eleven types of chests.

Chest


Normal chests have no requirements to open. When opened, they will contain one of the following:
 * Pickups: If a chest spawns pickups, 1-3 of the following batches of pickups will spawn. The same batch can be chosen multiple times. If Isaac has, an additional batch of 1-3 pickups spawns, up to a total of 2-6.
 * 1-3 random coins
 * 1 random bomb
 * 1 random key
 * 1 random heart
 * A trinket
 * A pill
 * A smaller Chest

Golden Chest


Golden chests (or alternatively Locked Chests) require a key to open unless Isaac has Paper Clip or a golden key; trying to open it without the means to will push the chest instead. When opened, they'll contain one of the following:
 * Pickups: Follows the same pickup generation rules as normal chests, but spawns 1-6 batches of pickups instead. Mom's key also causes an additional 1-6 batches to spawn from locked chests, increasing the total to 2-12.
 * A Golden Chest item
 * A trinket
 * A card
 * A smaller Chest

If Isaac has Gilded Key, all chest spawns will be replaced by Golden Chests and their contents will be modified to allow them to spawn trinkets, cards, and/or pills (which Golden Chests normally can't give) alongside normal pickups.

See the following item pools for a list of items Golden Chests can contain: Golden Chest (Item Pool) and Golden Chest (Greed Mode Item Pool)

Reward Chances

 * Lucky Toe Increases pickups by 1
 * Doubles pickups
 * Poker Chip 50% chance to double pickups, 50% for no pickups and an attack fly

Random pickups when holding Gilded Key

Red Chest


Red Chests are most commonly found in Curse Rooms and Devil Rooms, but can also occasionally replace normal chests. If Isaac is holding The Left Hand trinket, all chests will turn into Red Chests. They can contain the following:
 * 2 Troll Bombs
 * 1 Megatroll Bomb
 * 2 Spiders, or 2 Striders in /
 * 1-2 soul hearts
 * A Red Chest pool item
 * 1-2 pills
 * Teleport to the Devil Room or Angel Room
 * If the Devil/Angel Room has not been encountered normally on the floor yet, it will actually change what's in the deal.
 * 1-3 Blue Flies
 * 1-3 Blue Spiders

Having the Daemon's Tail trinket changes the chances to get various rewards from a Red Chest.

Reward Chances

Stone Chest


Stone Chests (or alternatively Bomb Chests) are grey chests that have an appearance similar to stone. They are unique in that they will only open if hit by an explosion. They give the same rewards as Golden Chests. Stone Chests are most commonly found in Challenge Rooms, Curse Rooms, and Vaults, and they will occasionally replace normal chests.

Eternal Chest


Eternal Chests are similar in appearance to Golden Chests, except that they are a bright blue instead of gold and emit a pale glow, like a Soul Heart. They have the same requirements to unlock and rewards as locked chests, but with an additional feature; the chest will close itself after a few seconds, at which point it can be opened again for more rewards at the cost of another key. However, there is a 25% chance the chest will give nothing when opened, and if the chest contains nothing or an item, it will not reopen and cannot give any more rewards. They can be found in Angel Rooms and I AM ERROR rooms, and will very rarely replace normal chests and locked chests.

Eternal Chests are guaranteed to pay out at least once.

Spiked Chest


Spiked Chests are purple colored chests with spikes protruding from them. Opening the chest will deal half a heart of damage to Isaac unless he has a way to resist the damage, such as with invulnerability effects or ( or if it's on /, where they are free to open.)  can also open spiked chests without taking damage by swinging their bone club. They give the same rewards as normal Chests. They can be rarely found upon completing a room or in Greed mode Shops. Spiked Chests can also be opened without any damage being taken when using.

Unlike other chests, they do not appear on the minimap.

Mimic Chest


Mimic Chests appear similar to normal Chests (both for the sprite and the mini-map icon) until Isaac gets close to them, at which point they sprout spikes and act the same as a Spiked Chest. They can be distinguished from normal Chests by their darker, purplish-brown coloring, the grayish spots on each side of the latch where the spikes will sprout from and the bloodstain.

The sprite for mimic chests is different and looks more similar to a normal chest. Mimic chest can be identified with blood stain on the bottom right edge.

Old Chest


Old Chests are similar in appearance to Golden Chests, but have the color of a normal Chest and a worn-down appearance. They have the same requirements as locked chests. When opened, they contain one of the following:


 * 1-3 soul hearts (43% chance)
 * 3 trinkets (42% chance)
 * An Old Chest item (10% chance)
 * An Angel Room item (5% chance)

Old chests can be found through the effects of and inside I AM ERROR rooms.

Wooden Chest


Wooden Chests appear similar to normal Chests but have an appearance similar to wood. When opened, they contain one of the following:


 * 2 cards or runes
 * 2-3 pills
 * A Wooden Chest item

Unlocked by:

Mega Chest


Mega chests appear similar to Golden Chests but are larger in appearance. They require 1-7 keys to open. When opened, they contain one of the following:


 * 2 Treasure Room Items
 * Pickups:
 * 1-19 random coins
 * 1-9 random bombs
 * 0-6 random keys
 * 0-9 random hearts
 * 0-2 random cards or runes
 * 0-2 trinkets

Mega Chests have a set chance to replace any golden chest, and appear in one super secret room layout next to 2 keys. Before they are unlocked, Mega Chests are replaced by golden chests.

Unlocked by:

Haunted Chest


Haunted Chests appear nearly identical to normal Chests, but are slightly lighter in color and are haunted by a Polty. A haunted chest deals collision damage while the Polty is inside it. When Isaac tries to open a haunted chest, or after a few seconds of waiting, the Polty will emerge and throw the chest at him, breaking it open and dealing half a heart of damage if it hits. The Polty then acts normally. Haunted chests can be discerned from a distance by their slightly paler colors.
 * If the player leaves the room while the chest is in the air, it will disappear.
 * If Polties have been permanently destroyed by, approaching the chest makes it pop open with a pink puff of smoke.

Unlocked by:

Mom's Chest


Mom's Chest appears in. Mom's chest has no requirements to open. It contains a upon the first visit, and on later encounters, an item from the Mom's Chest item pool. Can't be copied by.

Trivia

 * The smaller chests occasionally spawned by regular and golden chests can, in turn, spawn even smaller chests. This chain of ever smaller chests can continue for quite some time on certain seeds. Any items spawned in these smaller chests will also be downsized accordingly.
 * Mimic Chests share the same name with a recurring Chest enemy that has appeared in Dungeons and Dragons and eventually in various video games. Mimic Chests in the games act as a chest but attempt to catch players off guard and attack them. The Mimic Chests in The Binding of Isaac, although not a living entity, may have mostly been inspired by the Mimic Chest's ability to act like chests and catch players off guard, which explains its nature.