Chests

This article is about the objects called chests. For the floor, see Chest (Floor). For other uses, see Chest (Disambiguation).

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 Mom's Key, 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

Locked Chest[]

Locked Chests (or alternatively Golden 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[]

Reward	% Chance	Gilded Key
1 Item	20%	20%
2-6 Random Pickups (see below tables)	58%	80%
1 Trinket	10%	0%
1 Chest	1%	0%
1 Golden Chest	1%	0%
1 Card or Rune	10%	0%

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

Reward	Base %	Daemon's Tail
1-3 Coins	35%	41.6%
1 Heart	20%	4.7%
1 Key	15%	17.8%
1 Bomb	30%	35.7%

Random pickups when holding Gilded Key

Reward	Base %	Daemon's Tail
1-3 Coins	25%	29.7%
1 Heart	20%	4%
1 Key	10%	11.9%
1 Bomb	20%	23.8%
1 Pill	5%	5.9%
1 Card or Rune	5%	5.9%
1 Rune	5%	5.9%
1 Trinket	5%	5.9%
1 Battery	5%	5.9%

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 Mega troll bomb
2 Spiders, or 2 Striders in Downpour/ Dross
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

Reward	Base %	In a Devil/Angel Room	Daemon's Tail	In a Devil/Angel Room & Daemon's Tail
Red Chest Item	10%	10.5%	11.3%	12%
Teleport to Devil/Angel Room	5%	0%	5.5%	0%
2 spiders/Striders	13%	13.6%	14.7%	15.6%
Mega troll bomb	13%	13.6%	14.7%	15.6%
3 Blue Flies	7%	7.3%	7.9%	8.4%
3 Blue Spiders	7%	7.3%	7.9%	8.4%
1 Soul Heart	7.5%	7.8%	3%	3.3%
2 Soul Hearts	7.5%	7.8%	0.3%	0.3%
2 Troll Bombs	15%	15.7%	17%	18%
2 Pills	15%	15.7%	17%	18%

Bomb Chest[]

Bomb Chests (or alternatively Stone 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 Holy Mantle ( or if it's on Chest/ Dark Room, where they are free to open.) The Forgotten 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 Magneto.

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. Damage from this chest is considered self-damage.

You'll notice with Guppy's Eye that the contents inside this chest will change whenever their spikes pop out. The only way to get the original drops is to open it with Flat File or Magneto.

Old Chest[]

Old Chests are similar in shape 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 Isaac's Tomb and inside I AM ERROR rooms.

Wooden Chest[]

Wooden Chests appear similar to normal Chests but have a wooden texture. When opened, they contain one of the following:

2 cards or runes (45% chance)
2-3 pills (45% chance)
A Wooden Chest item (10% chance)

Unlocked by: Defeat Mega Satan as Tainted Lazarus

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: Defeat Mega Satan as Tainted Isaac

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 gets close enough to a Haunted Chest, 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 Eraser, approaching the chest makes it pop open with a pink puff of smoke.

Unlocked by: Defeat Mega Satan as Tainted Lost

Mom's Chest[]

Mom's Chest appears in Home. Mom's chest has no requirements to open. It contains a Red Key upon the first visit (used to access the hidden closet), and on later encounters, an item from the Mom's Chest item pool. Can't be copied by D1.

Notes[]

Normal chests cannot contain cards or items.
Golden chests cannot contain pills.
Consider opening adjacent Red Chests before Stone Chests; Red Chests often contain Troll Bombs, which can blast Stone Chests open.
- Stone Chests can also be pushed to any position in the room, which can be used to save bombs by hitting multiple targets with one blast.
Opening any chest (except for red chests) while on Chest or Dark Room will spawn an item.
Chests of all types are considered pickups and will be doubled by Rune of Jera.
Empty opened chests may be rerolled into other pickups by using items such as the D20, but this must be done immediately, as opened chests will disappear upon leaving the room.
- Opened chests can no longer be rerolled.
Mom's Key cannot change the contents of a chest; it only causes the chest to spawn more pickups if it normally would.
Whenever a chest contains another chest, the smaller chest may also contain another chest. This can repeat as many times as the chance allows, but that chance is very slim by default. The smaller chest will have no different rewards than one of the same size.
- If these smaller chests contain an item, they will appear as tiny items.
All of the icons for the items in the Golden Chest pool are heads or, as is the case for Bob's Brain and Infamy, head-related.
- The Golden Chest pool also includes bags, such as IV Bag or Sack of Pennies.
For unknown reasons, chests can rarely transform into other types of chests upon re-entering a room.
If a chest contains an item, the opened chest will be considered an empty item pedestal to duplicate using Diplopia.
Prior to update v1.06.0182, Mimic Chests looked identical to normal Chests.
When using the Debug Console, a Golden Chest is referred to as a "Locked Chest" and a Stone Chest is referred to as a "Bomb Chest".
Currently Old Chests can solely appear with Isaac's Tomb effect and in an I AM ERROR room.
Holding Flat File will prevent the damage from Spiked Chest.

Unlockable Achievements[]

Mr. ME! - Open 20 Locked Chests.

Red Key - Open Mom's Chest in Home.

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.

Bugs[]

Bug!	If a smaller chest is present in a room, re-entering the room will make the chest appear in a regular size.

Bug!	Unless the player has enough keys or flight, the Mega Chest can block the way of a narrow passage way and may even deny access to many other rooms such as the Boss Room, possibly softlocking your run.