Dead Man's Chest
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Dead Man's Chest
Not to be confused with the Dead Man's Sweater, which is a vanity piece that can be found in the Dead Man's Chest, as well as Trapped Chests, craftable Chests that also activate signals through wires but lack storage slots.
The Dead Man's Chest is a naturally-generated Gold Chest rigged with a large variety of traps in order to kill the player upon opening it. This setup usually includes 3–5 Boulder traps, 2–6 Dart Traps, and 0–3 Explosives, with a possibility of 1–2 Geysers if generated at depths in which lava can spawn naturally. The Boulder traps are set up above the chest, the Dart Traps are set up horizontally, and the Explosives are hidden underneath.
Dead Man's Chests will always generate alone, and never in an Underground Cabin.
The Dead Man's Chest will contain standard Gold Chest loot based on where it is found, as well as having a 1/3 (33.33%) chance to contain the Dead Man's Sweater.
Loot
Item | Quantity | Chance |
---|---|---|
![]() | 1 | 1/3 (33.33%) |
Notes
- The Boulder traps that are wired to the Dead Man's Chest are rigged with Actuators rather than Active Stone Blocks.
- Functionally, the Dead Man's Chest is similar to a Trapped Chest, as it can send signals via wires. However, it only spawns naturally, cannot be crafted, and has functional storage slots.
- The Dead Man's Chest will send out a signal whenever it is either opened or closed (with the ⚷ Open / Activate key).
- Fairies can lead the player to Dead Man's Chests.
- The achievement can still be obtained even if the Chest is renamed.
- If Autopause is active, the player will take damage from the Explosives upon opening a Dead Man's Chest. If they survive the explosion, they can access the contents of the Chest. All of the other traps will only be sprung once the player closes the Chest and exits the inventory.
- Attempting to use the Block Swap feature to swap out these Chests for harmless ones will still trigger the traps.
Achievements

Dead Men Tell No Tales • “You were so preoccupied with whether or not you could open the chest that you didn't stop to think if you should.”
Die within 10 seconds after opening a Dead Man's Chest. (Desktop, Console and Mobile versions)
Category:
Challenger

Tips
- While the combination of traps can prove deadly to even a player with end-game gear, most of them can be avoided by simply using solid blocks, and the Explosives can be mined.
- Dead Man's Chests are not highlighted by a Dangersense Potion, but the surrounding Explosives, Dart Traps, Boulder traps, and Geysers are.
- Using the Mechanical Lens or The Grand Design can easily reveal all the traps around the Chest, and provides lots of Wire and Actuators to harvest.
- The most evident giveaway of a Dead Man's Chest is the Boulder traps above it, as they are larger and generally easier to spot than the 1×1-tile Dart Traps and hidden Explosives.
- The Dead Man's Chest can only imitate unlocked Gold Chests. Other Chests (e.g. Water Chests) that a Mimic cannot disguise itself as are always safe to open.
Trivia
- The term "Dead Man's Chest" originates from a fictional sea song of the same name from Treasure Island, the 1883 adventure novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. The lyrics for the chorus are, "Fifteen men on the Dead Man's Chest— Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!"
- The term was also used as a film title in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, specifically the 2006 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
- It is harder to find the Dead Man's Chests in larger worlds, as the number of them only grow linearly with the width of the world (10–20 in small worlds, 15–31 in medium worlds and 20–40 in large worlds)
History
- Desktop 1.4.4: Stack limit increased from 99 to 9999.
- Desktop 1.4.0.1: Introduced.
- Console 1.4.0.5.4.1: Introduced.
- Switch 1.4.0.5.5: Introduced.
- Mobile 1.4.0.5.0: Introduced.