Sea of Thieves - How to Open Chests

Learn whether you can open chests in Sea of Thieves, and if so, what they contain and what to do with them!

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You'll be digging up a lot of heavy chests in Sea of Thieves, so it's only natural to want to know if you can open chests. While it might be obvious that you need to sell skulls and deliver animals on time, figuring out what to do with chests can be a bit more difficult. Thankfully, there’s a simple answer as to whether or not you can crack open a chest and take what’s inside.


How to open chests

Firstly, the answer to, “can you open chests in Sea of Thieves,” is both yes and no. There are two types of chests to be found while adventuring around the world: chests for the Gold Hoarders and treasure chests.

Sea of Thieves Gold Hoarder chests
Most of the chests you find in Sea of Thieves cannot be opened and must be sold to the Gold Hoarders. You'll get a lot of gold for selling them!

Any chest you find for the Gold Hoarders cannot be opened. These chests look all stylized, with broken iron, barnacles, lashings of gold, and sometimes even mystical elements. The only people that can open these chests are the Gold Hoarders, as they (according to lore), have a special key.

Typically, any voyage you buy from the Gold Hoarder will task you with digging up a chest. These chests are usually the ones you must sell. But as mentioned above, there is another type of chest.

Sea of Thieves open chest
Sea of Thieves has a new type of chest that can be opened, and you can store treasure in it!

Treasure chests are different to Gold Hoarder chests in that they can be opened! These chests have a separate interact button which when pressed, will pop the chest right open! What’s inside theses chests? Well you’ll just need to crack one open to find out.

But these treasure chests also serve another purpose. Once they are empty, you can take them to your ship and use them to store your own goodies inside. Got a few skulls to sell or a few mermaid gems to unload? Pop three into the chest and take the chest with you – it cuts down on the running back and forth.

These new opening chests can be found all throughout the Sea of Thieves. Find them washed up on shorelines or you can even get one from a few of the Shores of Gold Tall Tales.


When Sea of Thieves first launched, players could not opened chests. The only thing to do was sell them. But now, there is a special kind of treasure chest that can be opened and used to store things in. Be sure to check out the Shacknews Sea of Thieves guide for even more helpful articles.

Guides Editor

Hailing from the land down under, Sam Chandler brings a bit of the southern hemisphere flair to his work. After bouncing round a few universities, securing a bachelor degree, and entering the video game industry, he's found his new family here at Shacknews as a Guides Editor. There's nothing he loves more than crafting a guide that will help someone. If you need help with a guide, or notice something not quite right, you can message him on X: @SamuelChandler 

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