Chests

This article is about the objects called chests. For the floor, see The Chest.

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:
- 1-3 random coins
- 1 random bomb
- 1 random key
- 1 random heart
A trinket
A pill
A smaller Chest

Golden Chest

Locked 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:

1-6 random coins
A Golden Chest item
A trinket
A card
A smaller Chest

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)

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, all chests will turn into Red Chests. They can contain the following:

2 Troll Bombs
1 Megatroll Bomb
2 Spiders
1-2 soul hearts
A Red Chest pool item
1-2 pills
Teleport to the Devil Room or Angel Room
1-3 Blue Flies
1-3 Blue Spiders

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 Holy Mantle ( or if it's on Error: The given stage ("The Chest") does not exist./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 chest's 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.

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:

Wooden Chest

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

Wooden Chest - Defeat Mega Satan as Tainted Lazarus.

Mega Chest

Mega chests appear similar to Golden Chests but are larger in appearance. They require 2-7 keys to open. When opened, they contain one of the following:

2 Golden Chest 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 Chest - Defeat Mega Satan as Tainted Isaac.

Haunted Chest

Haunted Chests appear nearly identical to normal Chests until Isaac gets close to them, at which point a Polty picks up the chest and throws it at Isaac, doing half a heart of damage and breaking open the chest. The Polty then acts normally. Haunted chests can be discerned from a distance by their slightly paler colors.

Haunted Chest - Defeat Mega Satan as Tainted Lost.

Mom's Chest

Mom's Chest appears in Home. Mom's chest has no requirements to open. Contains a Red Key upon the first visit. Contains a random Mom-related item or Red Key upon subsequent visits of Home.

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 Bomb 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 Error: The given stage ("The Chest") does not exist. 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

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.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth