Chest

Chests are blocks that store items. A single chest can store up to 27 stacks of items or blocks and can hold from 0 to 1728 blocks. A large chest is created by placing two chest blocks adjacent to each other, however, large chests cannot be created directly beside each other. Large chests have 54 storage slots and open as a single chest with six rows of slots. A large chest can hold from 0 to 3456 blocks. The top three rows in the interface correspond to the eastern or northern chest block and the bottom three to the southern or western chest block.

A chest is opened by right-clicking on the chest and closed by pressing the button or the inventory button (default ). Items in chests can be quickly transferred to and from a player's inventory by shift-clicking on the item; this will move all items in the slot to a free slot in the inventory and vice versa. For more control, all the items in a slot can be picked up with left-click, or half the items with right-click; then use left-click to place all items being moved, or right-click to place a single item at a time.

Destruction of a chest will drop all of its contents where the chest was destroyed. If one half of a large chest is destroyed, the corresponding items from the destroyed chest block will be dropped and the remaining chest block will continue to function as a small chest. The items in a large chest are organized so that the bottom half of the inventory is concentrated into the South or East side of the large chest, depending on how the chest is oriented.

Chests will face towards the player when placed. Chests can be surrounded by other blocks on all sides, but the top must have a one block clearance (exceptions to this exist, see Bugs below). Chests occur naturally in dungeons, where they are guarded by a monster spawner, in abandoned mine shafts, in strongholds and in NPC villages.

Bonus chest


A bonus chest will generate in the player's spawn if the Bonus Chest option is enabled in the World Options menu. This option is suggested for new players who are unfamiliar with the game's mechanics, but does have other uses such as getting food in an Ocean biome and not having to waste time getting basic starting items. Up to four Torches will spawn around the chest in adjacent horizontal and vertical squares. Bonus chests contain up to ten item stacks, chosen from the following list:

Each world seed's Bonus Chest will always contain the same items. Due to blocks in the way, sometimes a Bonus Chest will not spawn resorting in total loss of the chest. In other cases the chest will not appear but the items it held will be on the ground. Torches will sometimes not spawn for the same reason or else appear as items on the ground. These issues are probably unintentional and therefore a bug.

History
Chests were added in the Indev January 24th update.

A special version of the Chest, the Locked Chest, was used as an April Fool's joke on April 1st, 2011 in version Beta 1.4. It was removed on April 5, 2011.

Previously, if a chest was placed next to a large chest it would attempt to "connect" with the large one, changing its texture to that of half a large chest. However, this is purely visual; they would still act like two separate chests, but as seen in the picture, you could connect multiple chests together and get a glitched "Huge Chest". Additionally, if one attempted to open a chest connected on all four sides, the game froze and the client crashed. This was partially fixed in Beta 1.1_02, however it was still possible if the chest was not placed horizontally adjacent to a large chest or if placed in the location of a fluid. The game would no longer freeze, but instead display a graphically glitched, fully functional chest screen. This bug was completely fixed in Beta 1.5, however any chest previously created in this way still functions.

In the Adventure Update, chests were majorly changed:

Before the Beta 1.8 Adventure Update, chests and double chests had a different model and texture: and, and did not show an opening/closing animation. As of Beta 1.8, the chest's texture is not in the terrain.png file. Instead, it is in the folder "item" under "chest.png" and "chestlarge.png," with the former being a chest on its own and the latter being the double chest. However, prior to 12w21a, the chest particles were still based off terrain.png and for the Locked Chest texture. Chests used to be solid blocks, but are now tile entities, which means they no longer showed the block breaking animation and are also slightly smaller than they were before. A large chest is now created by placement of two adjacent chest blocks, and can't be created directly beside each other.

In Beta 1.8, when shift+clicking objects from a chest into an already full inventory, or from the inventory to a full chest, Minecraft would crash. Beta 1.8.1 was released solely to fix this bug, although it still happens.

In Beta 1.8, chest opening and closing sound was the same sound file as a door, although this was replaced in the 1.0.0 sound update, and chests now have a new sound.

Before the Beta 1.8 update, the front of the chest (with the latch) faced away from any adjacent solid blocks, or face west if placed independent of other blocks. The viewpoint of players had no effect on the orientation of placed chests.

As of 1.2.4, Cats will try to sit on chests, making them unopenable. This is only meant to annoy the player. This can be prevented by placing a solid, but "transparent" block (such as a fence) above the chest.

In 1.3.1, the 'bonus chest' option was added to the Options menu, and chests were no longer the only source of Cocoa Beans. Also, Jeb removed the original textures for chests from the terrain.png file. This freed seven slots. A variant of this chest utilizing the same structure but a different texture was added, called Ender Chests.

In 1.4.4 (pre-release), Chests and Ender Chests have a smaller hitbox.

Bugs



 * When opening a chest in rapid succession from closing it, the chest will remain open.
 * Some chests in a 1.7 save file will be black when you enter the world in 1.8 but will still open. However, this bug can be fixed by updating the chest by placing a block next to it then removing it.
 * Some chests from 1.7 will appear rotated, including inside a wall, when viewing them in 1.8. Recreating half the chest corrects this.
 * It was possible before Beta 1.8 to attach torches above and to all sides of a chest, by attempting to place them on a block above or under the chest in rapid succession.
 * If you are killed while having the chest GUI open and you transfer items from the chest to your inventory after you are killed, those items will be lost.
 * In SMP, in cases of moderate to severe lag, if you exit the chest, the lid might stay open. Reconnecting to the server might fix this.
 * When the bonus chest is enabled, depending on the terrain that is generated upon creating a new world, the chest may spawn inside of a leaf block that destroys the chest and spills its contents everywhere.
 * If dropped, the chest will move left and right in addition to up and down.
 * As of 1.8, chests no longer show a breaking animation. This is most likely due to an incompatibility with their altered models and textures, and the fact that they now are able to show an opening and closing animation.
 * Breaking chest blocks will create oak plank particles.
 * Sometimes the chest stays open, and closes when right clicked, but opens again when you exit the chest GUI.
 * For players with old or integrated graphics cards, ever since the Beta 1.8 lighting update, chests as well as Signs will flash black at random intervals, or just stay dark (still visibly a chest, just darker).

Trivia



 * Chests usually require a space of air above it to be used, as blocks directly above will prevent the chest from being opened. Certain blocks placed over the chest still allow the chest to open. These are:
 * Liquids: Water and Lava.
 * Plants: Leaves, Cactus (With a water source block on top), and Farmland.
 * Translucent Blocks: Glass, Slabs, Stairs, Monster Spawner, Snow, Ice, Fence, Cake, Beds, Glowstone, and Chests.
 * Non-Blocks: Torch, Redstone Torch, Redstone Wire, tripwire, Redstone Repeater, Pressure Plates, Lever, Ladders, Rails, and Sign.
 * Please note that ocelots also prevent chests from opening
 * Chests can catch on fire, but the fire cannot destroy the chest itself.
 * Sometimes the chest top will not close after the player is done using it (this happens most often in Multiplayer), this is caused by right clicking on the chest (once to open it and again before the chest interface has loaded mainly caused by small amounts of lag).
 * Chests cannot be pushed or pulled by pistons.