Bonus chest

The bonus chest is a chest that appears near the player's spawn if the "Bonus chest" option is toggled on the main menu. It generates with a semi-random collection of basic items to help the player survive early on and gather necessary resources, including tools, blocks, and food.

Generation
If the "Bonus Chest" option is set to "ON" in the "More World Options..." $$ or "Game Settings" $$ part of the "Create New World" screen, a single bonus chest is generated in the world, no matter how many players there are. It appears somewhere near the player's initial spawn point, with up to four torches generated around it on adjacent blocks.

The Bonus Chest option is not available in hardcore mode, thus making the bonus chest unavailable as well.

On servers, the bonus chest can be enabled by running the server with the --bonusChest argument.

Structure
Bonus chests contain a single chest surrounded by four torches. The torches may be overridden if the torch locations are obstructed by other blocks such as uneven ground, trees, or leaves, or they may instead float.