History Main / InexplicableTreasureChests

* ''VideoGame/{{Prodigal}}'' has these in places like old mines, a graveyard, an icy cave, and an abandoned castle. Some chests will even drop out of nowhere after completing a puzzle, or defeating a miniboss in one case. Interestingly, some areas have chests that were already opened (although one of them does still have something inside)..

* Downplayed in ''VideoGame/CurseCrackersForWhomTheBelleToils'', where the only chests in the game are either ones where you're required to find an item for Claire, or the ones that won't unlock until you've completed the target challenge in the same room. The latter is justified, as it's explained that the target rooms and chests are there for Knight training. Claire also lampshades this trope when you bring the first item to her, saying that she hopes you didn't find it in some random chest.

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* ''VideoGame/DragonsCrown'' has these all over the stages, whether the stage is an in-use fort, or in the middle of the woods. The chests are always locked and require the NPC thief to open them (and his lock-picking can be interrupted if he's attacked). Enemy thieves occasionally appear to try and snag the loot first. The game also contains a spell that simply summons a high-level chest as if from nowhere.
* ''VideoGame/DynamiteDux'' has these littered throughout the stages. They give [[ScoringPoints points]] when touched.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Spinmaster}}'', treasure chests are everywhere on the ground. They often even fall from the sky or are carried by flying creatures. Some of the chests are flying on their own.
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[[folder:Hack And Slash]]
* In ''VideoGame/DiabloII'', many treasure chests are found ''in the open air, in the wilderness''. Most are not locked, and those that are are opened by one universal flavor of InterchangeableAntimatterKeys.
** Even in hell. To be fair, the chests there are ''skeletal cages, corpses and trapped souls''. Although most of them are called "Hidden Stash" or similar, which is really weird since they usually stand in the wide open and consist of neatly tiled skeletons and a flickering flame.
** The game also had various stashes under rocks and things that functioned identically to chests. Sometimes subverted with the chests/stashes being empty or already opened - but not too often. Occasionally, a fireball comes out.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}'', there are chests sitting in the midst of [[CopyAndPasteEnvironments barren, empty fields.]] What's even more bizarre is once you pilfer the chests, they ''sink through the ground into parts unknown''. [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality Blinking out would have been acceptable,]] but in a game already full of unsettling moments, what's one more MindScrew for the player?
* ''VideoGame/MinecraftDungeons'': There are lots of randomly generated chests full of loot, oftentimes found just lying around in the middle of nowhere.

* ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' games started to feature treasure chests lying around starting from ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar''. Depending on the game, they can contain various items from star coins to PlotCoupon items.

* The worlds of ''Flink'' are practically littered with treasure chests, which are also useful for throwing at enemies.

* ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'' has Mystery Data, large, floating diamonds that have stuff in them. This includes Green Mystery Data, which, oddly enough, regenerates.
** The Mystery Data in MMBN isn't inexplicable, though. In fact, it makes quite a bit of sense given the setting. The network is administered by various persons--and intended to be roamed freely by Navis, especially Navis belonging to kids. So it's entirely plausible that the Mystery Data is placed there ''deliberately'' as a treat for net-surfing Navis.

* The ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games (well, the portable ones, at least) leave ubiquitous orbs all over the place. Perhaps they are some kind of item ball?
** In the original Japanese, "Pokeballs" were called "Monster Balls", which does seem to imply that balls can be made to hold various things, not just {{Mons}}. This may explain the orbs as well as the HyperspaceArsenal.

* ''VideoGame/RomancingSaGa3'' - In the Devil King's Palace one of the chests actually has something inscribed on the inside of it [[spoiler: The inscription is actually a prayer required to fight the boss of a bonus dungeon, and if you're playing the game with a translation patch, another prayer which is the last step towards unlocking the DevelopersRoom for the patch.]]

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' does this. Most players get used to the idea to the point where they don't even notice this trope. Sometimes they may have FridgeLogic moments about it if it contains, say, cheese, but even then most don't really realize it. The only time it really calls attention is if two stacks of the same item are in the same chest. Seeing a stack of three apples followed by a separate stack of 2 apples listed as a separate item can really break the suspension of disbelief and make one begin to question the nature of the world...[[IncrediblyLamePun of warcraft]].

* Treasure chests will show up in certain modes in the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series. Though how you encounter them and which items you get vary depending on the game. In ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS]]'', you can find trophies in Smash Run, custom parts, and equipment. While in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' World of Light has you obtain coins, spirit points, and spirits.

* Averted and lampshaded in ''A Nightmare in Sunnydale California''. When [[Series/{{Supernatural}} Dean Winchester]] starts rooting through a trashcan during a cutscene and an amnesiac [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy Summers]] expresses disgust, he points out that they're going to need anything they can scavenge because it's not like this trope is going to be in action. Which is ironic because due to their being trapped in a nightmare by [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy Krueger]], it very well ''could'' have justification for being played straight.

* Treasure chests will show up in certain modes in the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series. Though how you encounter them and which items you get vary depending on the game. In [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DS Smash Run]] you can find trophies, custom parts, and equipment. While in [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate World of Light]] you can obtain coins, spirit points, and spirits.

* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' at least had vaguely forest-y chests in forest-y areas. There were also the super "Sealed by a mysterious force..." chests, which existed in multiple timezones - careful use of AppliedPhlebotinum in the past would make better stuff appear in the chest in the future. And once you've grabbed the future loot, of course, you can safely go back and get the past loot too; grabbing the past loot first would make the chest disappear in the future, logically enough. One Ultimate Weapon (Marle's) had to be obtained this way.

* ''VideoGame/InexistenceRebirth'': You can find treasure chests in the game that will give you items like money an potions for opening them.

* Treasure chests are all over the place in ''VideoGame/LaMulana''. While some of these might make sense (since the ruins were inhabited, and the race of seventh children, the Four Sages in particular and your father are all trying to help you succeed), there's still an alarming amount of software scattered through the ruins, all compatible with your personal computer. And in the original version, this meant games for the MSX - a machine which was only popular for a short while, in one country, on the other side of the world.

* ''VideoGame/DragonsCrown'' has these all over the stages, whether the stage is an in-use fort, or in the middle of the woods. The chests are always locked, and require the NPC thief to open it (and his lock-picking can be interrupted if he's attacked). Enemy thieves occasionally appear to try and snag the loot first. The game also contains a spell that simply summons a high-level chest as if from nowhere.

* Made as blatant as possible in ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes''. The chests are orange and gold, there are exactly five during each boss mission, and they contain either trading cards or money. They are also ''half as tall as the protagonist''. A separate type of box contains health/battery powerups. Plus, any that you miss on a initial runthrough of the game are back, in the same place and with the same contents, when you do any additional runthroughs with a clear file saved. This is the only way to get HundredPercentCompletion, as the missions can only be done once per game.

* ''VideoGame/ThemsFightinHerds'' has treasure chests in the overworld and Salt Mine sections. Color coded wooden ones will contain salt, dynamite, or health while metal ones have a common-to-rare cosmetic.
* Treasure chests will show up in certain modes in the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series. Though how you encounter them and which items you get vary depending on the game. In [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DS Smash Run]] you can find trophies, custom parts and equipment. While in [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate World of Light]] you can obtain coins, spirit points and spirits.

* Subverted in some cases in the game ''VideoGame/BioShock1'', explained in others. There are instances where opponents will run to use health stations you also have access to [[spoiler:including a boss fight against Dr. Steinman, and hacking a station will cause it to harm enemies who try to use it]]. In addition, the random gear laying around is usually explained as having been left there [[spoiler:when the previous residents were killed or mutated beyond being able to use them]], or is bought from automated shops

* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' is riddled with inexplicable lockers, inexplicable safes, inexplicable gun racks and inexplicable toilets, all full of treasure for you to take. Due to the fact that nearly all loot is randomized this leads to unusual situations like finding weapons that are far more powerful than the ones nearby mooks are using. Or there are upgrades that mooks can't use or should be using (like buffs an advanced turret found when dealing with simple bandits or item that regenerates ammo). Or there are weapons that don't make sense being there, like sniper rifles in a tight winding caves or shotguns on sniper perches.
* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' has one map with lockers containing infinite amounts of either Pipe bombs, Molotovs, Pills or Adrenaline. Pills might have some sort of explanation behind it, but certainly not the bombs and Molotovs. And if the contents aren't weird enough, these lockers can spawn in office complexes, historical underground tours, incomplete buildings, bars, and strangest of all, ''a wedding''.
* ''VideoGame/SeriousSam II'' has got treasure chest items which yield points.
* In ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'', the stashes are metal boxes, backpacks or even small spaces like pieces of large pipe, all with various supplies, weapons and ammunition, either dropped by people when they were killed or hidden by those who wanted to come back later to retrieve them. Many of these are in dangerous locations no one would dare approach without reason, which justifies their status as secret stashes. Bizarrely enough, however, in the first two games, almost all of these caches are completely empty until you acquire PDA entries detailing their locations by searching particular corpses or buying the info off other stalkers. ''Call of Pripyat'' rectifies that: you don't need to get the info (which can't be collected off dead stalkers' PDA's either) to get the loot in the stash, you just have to know where it ''is'' and if you cant/won't [[GuideDangIt look at a guide]], good luck to you.

** The game also had various stashes under rocks and things that functioned identically to chests. Sometimes subverted with the chests/stashes being empty or already opened - but not too often. Occasionally, a fireball that comes out.

* ''Videogame/EverQuestII'' LIVES on this trope. Weapons, armor, and treasure in general doesn't drop off monsters. Oh no. They're found inside one of the four qualities of treasure chests that the monsters [[HammerSpace inexplicably]] carry around on them. This often overlaps with ImpossibleItemDrop, since you might kill a three inch tall fire beetle and it'll drop a Master treasure chest half the size of a bank vault.

* ''Website/GaiaOnline'' features multiple varieties. On the main site, and all of the flash games except for ''zOMG!'', you may occasionally run into a "Flying Magical Giftbox" or "Enchanted Chest", which must be caught by clicking on it, and grants you a random rare piece of clothing or furniture, depending on the color of the container being opened. In ''zOMG!'', inexplicable treasure chests (and crates, and baskets, and on one occasion a safe) are placed around the map. Opening them can grant a large number of regular drops, or (if your level is too high) nothing at all. Judging by their appearance, these chests appear to be Animated, and it is implied the safe was placed at its location by [[spoiler:[=NeXuS=] Corp]], but since you never see any of the chests ''move'', there's no explanation as to what they hell they're doing there.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/RuneScape''. There are many, many chests in the world that contain nothing interesting...and thus no tangible items of any kind for the player to claim. Effectively, they are nothing but scenery. Despite this, they still typically have a 'search' option. Most treasure chests that do contain valuables are locked and either must be unlocked with a key or be picked, and most but not all of these chest are located in places where it would make sense to find them like in tombs or in people's houses.

** Notice that most of these chests are guarded by mobs. That at least suggests that the chests aren't just scattered about and are in fact still being used by the enemies for storage. In fact, if a high level player-character is standing next to some hostile low-level monsters -- a player much much higher level than a monster can get within a few feet of it without being attacked -- and opens a chest, the monsters instantly attack him (as ineffectual as such an attack might be with such a level-difference).

* ''VideoGame/LegendOfKay'' features not only your standard treasure chest waiting in a corner, but also treasure chests materializing out of thin air as soon as the area is cleared of enemies.

* In ''VideoGame/MoonCrystal'', it seems that careless people have left their treasure chests on top of tree branches, roofs and even ship masts and so on.

* In ''VideoGame/NetHack'', chests spawn randomly in the middle of rooms. Many chest are locked. If you don't have anything normally used for opening locks like a [[SkeletonKeyCard credit card]] or a wand of opening then you can try to force the lock by prying open the lid with a bladed weapon, but this has the danger of destroying your weapon. If you don't want to risk your bladed weapon (or don't have one) then you can try kicking the chest until the lock breaks, but this runs the risk of shattering any potions contained in the chest. Alternatively, you can use a blunt weapon to try and bash the lock apart, though there's a chance you'll go overboard and smash the chest apart completely, along with some of the contents. Chests are sometimes booby trapped as well, blasting you with various unpleasant magic and possibly destroying some of your current inventory. And after all that, the chest in question can turn out to have been empty all along. Since monsters can't use containers, you use chests for safely storing items you don't want to carry around but you also don't want getting into the hands of any monsters. Although Gelatinous Cubes can and will devour chests and all their contents, so true security requires a little extra effort..

* In the beginning of ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'' the blimp with the main hero crash lands in the wilderness quite a walk from the nearest town. You step just a dozen steps aside from the crash site and what do you see? A frigging huge treasure chest! And its contents change depending on the PC's race! And in most of the cases they don't match! (i.g. you'll get a bulking set of enchanted armor if you play as a flimsy elf.)

* Starting with part 2, the ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea}}'' series has treasure chests on specific story maps as well as random ones. In addition killing enemies can create chests. ''VideoGame/Disgaea2CursedMemories'' also slightly averts the trope in that enemies will attack chests with just as much, if not more, priority to attacking your party.

** ''Oblivion'' has an entirely different kind of inexplicable chest: the kind with a supposedly expensive and extremely difficult to pick 5-pin lock, which ends up containing twelve gold, a cheap set of scales, and a leek. Maybe the ancient elves just had really strange ideas of value.
** Some of the places you loot have been explicitly looted by others in the past, who tell you that you might want to check for what any "new inhabitants" may have brought with them. It makes sense, since a cave you've raided will gain new items when it gains new inhabitants -- though they may be only imps and giant rats.

* ''VideoGame/EternalSonata'' has treasure chests which almost always contain character-specific weapons. As if they [[{{Foreshadowing}} knew the party would be coming along...]]
* Averted in ''VideoGame/EvilIslands''. The few treasure chests that you find usually have some kind of background that you can check accesing the quest menu.

** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', there is a specific dungeon where most of the chests are empty, a clue that someone else has been through here recently. At the end of this dungeon you actually meet the unknown looter, who turns out to be [[spoiler: Locke, the [[InsistentTerminology Treasure Hunter]] of your former party, who got split up after the semi-[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt End Of The World As We Know It]]. After having him rejoin the party, he gives you the treasures he got.]]
*** More generally, certain chests contain marginally better loot when you return later in the game if you resist the temptation to crack them open on first sight. Which [[FridgeLogic has its own set of problems]] - it takes much convolution to concoct and explanation that doesn't involve the treasure "evolving" or something. They might be Schrodinger's Chests - their contents are not decided until the chest in question is opened.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' has treasure urns, which are A) randomly not there, B) Regenerate when you leave the area, C) Have random loot, particular to each chest, D) change their content if one of party members has a specific accessory equipped and E) somehow connected, [[GuideDangIt as opening any one of four seemingly arbitrary chests (including one right at the beginning) will make a later one]] (containing the InfinityPlusOneSword) [[GuideDangIt to not be there later on.]]

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrails'' has treasure chests found throughout everywhere; the landfield, the sewers, TheLostWoods etc. Each having a variant of being normal/rare items, a ChestMonster, or one that needs a RequiredPartyMember to open.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' rationalizes this with having research data on weapons scanned directly from the guns themselves and Shepard taking credits from lost datapads and computers. It gets a bit less justified when Shepard can get "salvage" from computers and medi-gel stations and have it instantaneously turned into credits without having to sell any of it.

* Special mention goes to the ''VideoGame/{{Mother}}'' series, where they aren't just treasure chests, but PRESENTS literally gift-wrapped for you. In ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'', this goes to the extreme in how Inexplicable these Treasure Chests are by some containing fireworks that go off when you open them, bursts of music, sound effects, and/or smells. One present is an entire ''onsen'' (hot spring) in a present. Which your ''entire'' team can bath in to restore health and PSI.

* ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'': Chests litter all manner of locations, waiting to be opened: Brown chests offer normal items; Red chests usually yield weapons, equipment or money; and Purple chests are unique in that Therion must be in the party to open these, and always contain a rare item.

** ''VideoGame/Persona4'' either justifies this or not depending on the dungeon, but plays it completely straight nonetheless. Given the TV World is pretty much the collective unconscious, some dungeons it makes a modicum more sense to find random chests: possibly Yukiko's Castle but definitely Void Quest, the JRPG parody. Less so when visiting the bath house or strip club.

* ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile'' has treasure chests in places that aren't even inhabited by sapient beings. Those chests might contain godly artifacts that the game urge you to return to Odin. Maybe the servants of Hel brought them there.

* The ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic'' series not only leaves treasure chests strewn about fields, but also [[https://youtu.be/xetp4WsUD6Q&list=UU3Q13RAmFVfDkYOWnnqFM2A#t=1m10s piles of gold, wood, ore, gemstones, even such things as pots filled with mercury can be found out in the open.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' has treasure chests in randomly-generated dungeons, often containing things like [[NoodleImplements string, some cocoa beans, a bucket and a vinyl record]]. Features a rare inversion, too; treasure chests are [[ItemCrafting fairly easy to build]], so if you're playing in a multiplayer server, you can place one in a hard-to-reach spot as an EasterEgg for another player.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'': Plays with this. Items, materials, traps and weapons are usually either harvested or found by searching in buildings, but you ''do'' find the occasional treasure chest lying around. They usually hold the best loot, and are often in out-of-the-way spots like attics or on rooftops. Luckily, they usually have a sound that plays when you wander near one. Oh yeah, and watch out for [[ChestMonster Mimics]], too.

* In ''Manga/BlackClover'', dungeons will occasionally appear from underground with no warning. Throughout the dungeon are a few scattered chests, with the best goods locked up in a treasury somewhere near the center. Scholars think the dungeons are long forgotten tombs of past wizards, but why they have chests outside of their treasuries is a mystery. Some of them are also mimics, which contrary to typical video game logic are simply living chests [[{{Squick}} full of pulsating organs]].
* In ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'', random chests can sometimes be found just lying round the titular dungeon. Unfortunately, a) on the most accessible levels they've long been picked clean, and b) some of them are actually predatory mimics waiting for an unwary adventurer on whom to munch.

* Fanfic/TheInfiniteLoops justifies this with the existence of 'Roguelike,' a creature who loops into various worlds as a native fairy or rodent and then sets about putting loot where it would be expected. Like all loopers, though, he's incredibly stir crazy, so he's taken to filling the dungeons with random stuff that can range from eldritch to funny to pointless to just plain weird.

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' book ''Literature/TheLastHero'', this sort of thing is accepted by the barbarian heroes of the Silver Horde as a regular occurrence in dungeons, along with medkits and similar items. When an outsider mentions how strange it is, they're shocked on realizing he makes sense, and begin to suspect something's not right with the world...

* The series ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'' has its heroes' powers based on video games, including the ability to turn their surroundings into a game level full of blocks, power-ups and treasure chests like these.

* ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'': The goblins have a token Poorly Locked Treasure Chest placed right in the middle of their warcamp for no reason whatsoever apart for serving as an incentive for the adventurers to raid the camp. A goblin confronts the seer of the tribe about it and tries to reason that, if they have to flaunt the chest like that, maybe they could at least ''use'' some of the magical items stashed inside to repel the impending attack. But respected customs are not to be discarded so easily just because it "makes sense", you know! When they do end up using the items, one of them turns out to be insanely dangerous for the wielder. It seems that fact just gotten lost amid the tradition.
* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': The lab complex where the Trolls spend most of their time is littered with chests full of random items. The reason they're always full is that the Trolls keep stealing one another's property and hiding it... in other chests. Meanwhile, John's game planet is covered in "Pyxis tubes" which often contain objects of variable worth, and function as that planet's mail system.

* There are actually monsters called Mimics in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' that are ''camouflaged'' as [[ChestMonster treasure chests]]. Think about that, either heroes were so blase about random chests that an evil wizard/mad god thought this was a good wheeze ''or'' there have been chests lying around dungeons long enough for this thing to evolve such a disguise! They polymorph into treasure chests until an adventurer finds this "unopened treasure" and gets stuck to one of the slime-covered pseudolimbs of the creature, letting the mimic try to take a bite out of the schmuck. They don't just turn into treasure chests; they transform into anything that could have a volume of 150 cubic feet (5 feet by 5 feet by 6 feet) such as a stout bed or large door frame, but they can't change their hard bodies and rough texture. Of course, anyone who gets close and inspects it is already too close.

* The eponymous ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'' had a token Poorly Locked Treasure Chest placed right in the middle of their warcamp for no reason whatsoever apart for serving as an incentive for the adventurers to raid the camp. A goblin confronted the seer of the tribe about it and tried to reason that if they had to flaunt the chest like that, maybe they could at least ''use'' some of the magical items stashed inside to repel the impending attack. But respected customs are not to be discarded so easily just because it "makes sense", you know!
** When they did end up using the items, one of them turned out to be insanely dangerous for the wielder. It seems that fact just gotten lost amid the tradition.
* In ''{{Webcomic/Homestuck}}'', the lab complex where the Trolls spend most of their time is littered with chests full of random items. The reason they're always full is that the Trolls keep stealing one another's property and hiding it...in other chests. Meanwhile, John's game planet is covered in 'Pyxis tubes' which often contain objects of variable worth, and function as that planet's mail system.

* In ''Webcomic/OurLittleAdventure'', Julie explains that either other adventurers leave the junk behind for some reason, or it's simply the work of the [[TricksterGod Lady of Fate and Fortune.]]
** Finding a [[http://danielscreations.com/ola/comics/ep0130.html cube]] apparently always means treasure.
* ''Webcomic/RPGWorld'' parodied this by having Hero make up [[https://web.archive.org/web/20080215135440/http://www.rpgworldcomic.com:80/d/20030427.html an almost plausible story]] about world-venturing pirates who hid their treasure all over the world in chests when their golden age of piracy came to an end. Reka, the resident pirate of the group, instantly calls him out on it.

* ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'', much like the Zelda series, has chests that appear out of nowhere when you vacuum up a boss ghost. They can contain normal chest-y items, like keys or money, but sometimes have bits of Mario's clothing; why some person and/or ghost decided to put Mario's shoe in a magically-appearing chest is anyone's guess.

[[folder:Action Adventure]]
* These show up in ''VideoGame/AdventureQuest'' occasionally, despite the fact that the game doesn't generally let you walk around and explore. They're treated as monsters and usually give you gold or potions.
** Lampshaded in one mission that all the monsters get their money from a Princess of Thieves of sorts. Some potions are given to you by [=NPCs=] as thanks for saving you or parts of quests.

* ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'' is full of these. While sometimes they ''almost'' make sense (like when they're buried or in the hold of the Ghost Ship), you really have to wonder how someone managed to haul them up Catcall Tower...

* ''VideoGame/GodOfWar''. Even [[BonusLevelOfHell Hades]] had chests full of magic and health.
** Magic chests they can maybe get away with. But Health chests in the Land of the Dead?

[[folder:First Person Shooter]]

* In ''[[VideoGame/{{STALKER}} S.T.A.L.K.E.R.]]'', the stashes are metal boxes, backpacks or even small spaces like pieces of large pipe, all with various supplies, weapons and ammunition, either dropped by people when they were killed or hidden by those who wanted to come back later to retrieve them. Many of these are in dangerous locations no one would dare approach without reason, which justifies their status as secret stashes. Bizarrely enough, however, in the first two games, almost all of these caches are completely empty until you acquire PDA entries detailing their locations by searching particular corpses or buying the info off other stalkers. ''Call of Pripyat'' rectifies that: you don't need to get the info (which can't be collected off dead stalkers' PDA's either) to get the loot in the stash, you just have to know where it ''is'' and if you cant/won't [[GuideDangIt look at a guide]], good luck to you.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' was a bit closer to justifying this trope than most [=FFs=] with the treasure chests and coffers, as they either appeared in dungeons, as most were populated by enemy beastmen (although how you keep finding chests and coffers in ruins abandoned for eons still doesn't make sense), and any other chests are found in special fights said to be sealed treasures with monsters in them(the chests in Limbus, however, are never explained, and were also the first kind to not be just brown or grey). Now, however, all monsters in the outside areas before ''Chains of Promathia'' have a 10% chance of dropping a chest of some sort. While the items help leveling, it's never been explained where all of them came from, especially considering some of the monsters that reveal a chest can't even ''carry'' one. How can a ''bee'' carry a giant, square box?

* In ''[[VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins Ghouls 'n Ghosts]]'', treasure chests just seem to materialize when approaching them.

* While not treasure chests per se, the enormous pods which contain X's various upgrades in the ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' games are found littered all over the various Maverick's hideouts...placed there a century ago by X's long-dead creator, and left respectfully undisturbed by the Reploid criminals that now inhabit the area. By the time of ''X8'', there have been well over fifty of these capsules. Dr. Light was apparently a very busy man in his last days. X6 hangs a lampshade on it, at least - the first capsule you find has Dr. Light bemoaning how much trouble the future is in if you had to open ''this'' set.

* And finally, ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' had conveniently-hidden boxes containing [[EnergyBeings cyber-elves]] and Secret Disks.

* The monitors in the ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' series. Never mind how they got there, ''what powers them''? (Moreover, why is Robotnik so sporting that he'll have a bunch of them inside his bases?)

* In ''VideoGame/NetHack'', chests spawn randomly in the middle of rooms. Many chest are locked. If you don't have anything normally used for opening locks like a [[SkeletonKeyCard credit card]] or a wand of opening then you can try to force the lock by prying open the lid with a bladed weapon, but this has the danger of destroying your weapon. If you don't want to risk your bladed weapon (or don't have one) then you can try kicking the chest until the lock breaks, but this runs the risk of shattering any potions contained in the chest. Alternatively, you can use a blunt weapon to try and bash the lock apart, though there's a chance you'll go overboard and smash the chest apart completely, along with some of the contents. Chests are sometimes booby trapped as well, blasting you with various unpleasant magic and possibly destroying some of your current inventory. And after all that, the chest in question can turn out to have been empty all along. Since monsters can't use containers you use chests for safely storing items you don't want to carry around but you also don't want getting into the hands of any monsters. Although Gelatinous Cubes can and will devour chests and all their contents, so true security requires a little extra effort..

[[folder:Role Playing Game]]
* In the beginning of ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'' the blimp with the main hero crash lands in the wilderness quite a walk from the nearest town. You step just a dozen steps aside from the crash site and what do you see? A frigging huge treasure chest! And its contents change depending on the PC's race! And in most of the cases they don't match!(i.g. you'll get a bulking set of enchanted armor if you play as a flimsy elf.) Who's fooling around there, that's what I'd like to know.
** ...Maybe it was somebody's luggage? You do find corpses and bits of blimp strewn all over the area too, if memory serves.
*** That, or it was the random possessions of the imp who was guarding it. He even built a little camp around the chest.

* Lampshaded and invoked hilariously in ''VideoGame/ArTonelicoQogaKnellOfArCiel''. Who put the chests everywhere? Tilia did. '''''Over seven hundred years ago'''''.
** She just wanted people to visit the inside of the tower.
** Why is there a treasure chest in the sewer? Because nobody would ever want to go down there, obviously!
** Instead of just opening treasure chests, why not rummage their stuff in general?

** Ignoring the chests in dungeons, there are also InexplicableTreasureChests that appear in Georamas and other non-adventure areas. This is HandWaved in the first game which explains that [[spoiler:Seda has been putting them there to help you]], but the second game doesn't even bother explaining the Miracle Chests AT ALL.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', where items are stored in various types of lockers. Some are still empty.
** It further subverts a related trope by the fact that, while people in homes are normally fine when you come in and help yourself to all their possessions, at one point in the second ''[=KotOR=]'' when you waltz into an apartment and snag a few items, the apartment's occupant shows up to berate you for stealing his stuff. This, however, is a case of OneshotRevisionism.
** In the Manaan levels in the first game, a survivor of the attack is actually hiding in a (full-sized) locker, so they do serve some useful purpose, after all.
*** People on Taris will ask you to take what you want as long as you don't hurt them. This happened every time.

** Well, it ''IS'' New York City...
* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' has armor like dog suits and robot parts in briefcases around the dungeon (which is the main characters' transformed school, no less), almost as if some Cosmic Being knew you had a fighting dog and battle android in your party...
** Given [[spoiler:a cosmic being has a wiretap on the main character's soul]], this may well be the case. And given the nature of Tartarus, the briefcases and their contents are among the ''least'' bizarre things.
** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' either justifies this or not depending on the dungeon, but plays it completely straight nonetheless. Given the TV World is pretty much the collective unconscious, some dungeons it makes a modicum more sense to find random chests: possibly Yukiko's Castle but definitely Void Quest, the JRPG parody. Less so when visiting the bath house or strip club.
** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'': While you do play as a PhantomThief exploring a MentalWorld, there's still no real explanation for why a museum, or subway station, or cruise liner, or ''a bank with actual vaults'', would bother securing valuables in treasure chests you can lockpick.

** ''VideoGame/Disgaea2CursedMemories'' also has enemies that become chests but this only happens if the last attack was made with a bow. No explanation is given as to why this is.

* Monsters in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'' drop their loot in one of three types of treasure chests (Wooden, silver, or gold) that inexplicably pop out of their bodies once they meet their demise. It's a little odd to see the tiny monsters like bunnivs and fliers leaving behind chests that are twice as big as themselves.
** There are also a few traditional treasure chests in places that actually make sense, such as ancient sealed vaults.

Probably the most ridiculous manifestation of this trope comes in instances where ''[[MoneySpider monsters]]'' [[RandomDrop drop chests]]. It isn't so ridiculous for bigger baddies who could just swallow whole convoys, boxes and all, but what about [[MoneySpider smaller creatures]] which could fit into the [[{{Hammerspace}} boxes themselves]]? [[note]]One possible FanWank: In the game world, [[GoryDiscretionShot those aren't the chests you're opening]].[[/note]]

* ''VideoGame/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' has a series of hidden treasure chests in each level. Some of the chests contain a set item, which can boost a character's stats and make the character even stronger. You need to use each character to uncover the chests.
* Ultimately explained in ''VideoGame/TheImmortal'', when at the end [[spoiler:Mordamir reveals he put the chests throughout the dungeon so that his student would survive to bring him his amulet. (Of course, many players don't survive that long.)]]
* The ''VideoGame/WorldOfMana'' games from ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana'' on feature chests that inexplicably spawn from defeated foes.
* All the items you need in ''VideoGame/{{Ufouria}}'' are to be found in chests scattered everywhere.

* These show up in ''VideoGame/AdventureQuest'' occasionally, despite the fact that the game doesn't generally let you walk around and explore. They're treated as monsters and usually give you gold or potions.
** Lampshaded in one mission that all the monsters get their money from a Princess of Thieves of sorts. Some potions are given to you by [=NPCs=] as thanks for saving you or parts of quests.
* ''VideoGame/CaveStory'' has some fun with this. At one point, you find a live dog inside a treasure chest. Its item screen description tells you that the dog really likes chests, and has gotten in the habit of sleeping in them. At another point, you have to collect jelly from [[FlyingSeafoodSpecial flying jellyfish]]. You would expect that this would involve collecting the stuff off the body of the jellyfish, but instead, the defeated jellyfish drops a treasure chest containing the jelly in a jar.
* Treasure chests are all over the place in ''VideoGame/LaMulana''. While some of these might make sense (since the ruins were inhabited, and the race of seventh children, the Four Sages in particular and your father are all trying to help you succeed), there's still an alarming amount of software scattered through the ruins, all compatible with your personal computer. And in the original version, this meant games for the MSX - a machine which was only popular for a short while, in one country, on the other side of the world.

* In ''VideoGame/LostKingdoms'', red treasure chests contain magical fairies and monster cards which can only be used by people with ultra-rare runestones like the player...
* The 2003 video game of ''VideoGame/{{The Hobbit|2003}}'' has treasure chests everywhere, including part way up trees in Mirkwood. They are colour-coded as wooden, blue, or gold. Unlocking them is a minigame involving timing with moving parts, where failure can lead to injury or poisoning.
* ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'' explains that almost all the chests you find come from the "Treasurefish", [[FlyingSeafoodSpecial flying fish]] creatures that travel everywhere delivering chests to random places. If you find one flying around, you can kill it to take its treasure right then and there.
* ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'', much like the Zelda series, has chests that appear out of nowhere when you vacuum up a boss ghost. They can contain normal chest-y items, like keys or money, but sometimes have bits of Mario's clothing; why some person and/or ghost decided to put Mario's shoe in a magically-appearing chest is anyone's guess.
* ''VideoGame/SkylandersImaginators'' gives you Imaginite chests with new character pieces at a constant pace. Some of them are hidden in caves or tucked away in the levels, which makes sense. It makes less sense when enemies you run into on the M.A.P. are "carrying" a chest larger than their actual bodies. As for the chests that appear when you achieve level goals, reach other progress milestones, or ''pick a lock correctly'' ... magic?
* ''VideoGame/GiraffeAndAnnika'' has chests that contain items like Meowsterpieces.
* ''VideoGame/InexistenceRebirth'': You can find treasure chests in the game that will give you items like money an potions for opening them.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendsOfOwlia'': You can find plenty of treasure chests in the game. They look like little brown boxes with wings on the front. When [[PlayerCharacter Adlanniel]] opens them, their contents fall out, and Tyto collects them and brings them back to her.

* ''VideoGame/DynamiteDux'' has these littered throughout the stages. They give [[ScoringPoints points]] when touched.
* ''VideoGame/DragonsCrown'' has these all over the stages, whether the stage is an in-use fort, or in the middle of the woods. The chests are always locked, and require the NPC thief to open it (and his lock-picking can be interrupted if he's attacked). Enemy thieves occasionally appear to try and snag the loot first. The game also contains a spell that simply summons a high-level chest as if from nowhere.

* In ''VideoGame/AttackOfTheMutantPenguins'', not only are there treasure chests lying around, but they have to be opened by dropping [[LiveItem gremlins]] on them. Coins could be substituted for gremlins, if you could find them.
* This is largely justified in the case of ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'', where almost all of the item crates you find are either in enemy bases or are at least somewhere among enemies, however the item crates found during the final showdown with Jetstream Sam, which takes place essentially in the middle of nowhere, are hand waved during one of the codec calls as being from a helicopter that conveniently went down in the area sometime off-screen.

* ''VideoGame/ThemsFightinHerds'' has treasure chests in the overworld and Salt Mine sections. Color coded wooden ones will contain salt, dynamite, or health while metal ones have a common-to-rare cosmetic.

* In ''[[VideoGame/{{STALKER}} S.T.A.L.K.E.R.]]'', the stashes are metal boxes, backpacks or even small spaces like pieces of large pipe, all with various supplies, weapons and ammunition, either dropped by people when they were killed or hidden by those who wanted to come back later to retrieve them. Many of these are in dangerous locations no one would dare approach without reason, which justifies their status as secret stashes. Bizarrely enough, however, in the first two games, almost all of these caches are completely empty until you acquire PDA entries detailing their locations by searching particular corpses or buying the info off other stalkers. ''Call of Pripyat'' rectifies that: you don't need to get the info (which can't be collected off dead stalkers' PDA's either) to get the loot in the stash, you just have to know where it ''is'' and if you cant/won't [[GuideDangIt look at a guide]], good luck to you.
* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' has one map with lockers containing infinite amounts of either Pipe bombs, Molotovs, Pills or Adrenaline. Pills might have some sort of explanation behind it, but certainly not the bombs and Molotovs. And if the contents aren't weird enough, these lockers can spawn in office complexes, historical underground tours, incomplete buildings, bars, and strangest of all, ''a wedding''.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' does this. Most players get used to the idea to the point where they don't even notice this trope. Sometimes they may have FridgeLogic moments about it if it contains, say, cheese, but even then most don't really realize it. The only time it really calls attention is if two stacks of the same item are in the same chest. Seeing a stack of three apples followed by a separate stack of 2 apples listed as a separate item can really break the suspension of disbelief and make one begin to question the nature of the world...[[IncrediblyLamePun of warcraft]].
** As of Cataclysm, these chests have become more rare, and now spawn even in the previously chest-free continent of Northrend. Every chest contains cash and a single item of superior (blue)quality, as well as more experience points than even a quest of the appropriate level.
** Notice that most of these chests are guarded by mobs. That at least suggests that the chests aren't just scattered about and are in fact still being used by the enemies for storage. In fact, if a high level player-character is standing next to some hostile low-level monsters -- a player much much higher level than a monster can get within a few feet of it without being attacked -- and opens a chest, the monsters instantly attack him (as ineffectual as such an attack might be with such a level-difference).
** Rogues can pickpocket humanoid enemies to obtain lock boxes. Whilst there is no description of how large they are, it can be a little difficult to imagine that you could relieve an enemy of a box large enough to hold a breastplate or a {{BFS}} without them noticing. Even worse, sometimes the lock boxes will contain lock boxes, [[BiggerOnTheInside which in turn may contain more lock boxes...]]
** While the average boss has its treasure on its corpse, some bosses (usually more monstrous ones, or ones that aren't bosses in the traditional sense, such as an airship battle) will instead have its treasure stored in a chest. Sometimes this is justified as a cache of treasures kept within whatever stronghold the players are assaulting (that is associated with the boss purely for gameplay purposes), but other times the cache will materialize out of nowhere, or otherwise still be in a strange place for whatever explanation is given for it.
* ''VideoGame/GuildWars'' gets fairly ridiculous about this. Each region has its own kind of chest, with a unique key that must be purchased in nearby towns, and with unique kinds of loot. They can be found literally ''anywhere.'' While it's rather implausible in places like the frozen seas and forests of Cantha, it's downright ridiculous in the various {{Hell}} analogues.

* Particularly odd in the MMO ''VideoGame/LaTale'', since treasure chests can ''spawn'' almost anywhere on a given map. Where do they keep appearing from?

* ''VideoGame/AtlanticaOnline'' usually links the chests to quests or a treasure map.

* ''Dungeons and Dragons Online'': Chests are the standard reward system, almost guaranteed to be found at the end of a dungeon and often after defeating a mini-boss. Sometimes mini-boss chests might contain only a key or other item necessary to progress. Sometimes the chests mysteriously appear only after defeating a boss. Parodied in one quest where a chest appears after solving a puzzle and freeing a captive (which happens to be a [[EldritchAbomination mindflayer]]), and he asks: "Aren't you even going to ask where I was keeping that?"
* In the ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic'' games, you can even find them ''in populated towns''. They're almost always booby-trapped however, requiring a party member with the Disarm skill to open them. [[spoiler:(The dwarves who live in Stone City in ''VII'' have a sick sense of humor; the place is full of heavily-trapped chests, and ''most of them are empty''.)]]

* Both the NES and Wii versions of ''VideoGame/ABoyAndHisBlob'' have treasure chests all over the place. One might wonder who left them there.

* The worlds of ''Flink'' are practically littered with treasure chests, which are also useful for throwing at enemies.

* In ''[[VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins Ghouls 'n Ghosts]]'', treasure chests just seem to materialize when approaching them.

* The UsefulNotes/ArcadeGame ''Magical Cat Adventure'' has treasure chests ''with wings''.

* ''[[VideoGame/BombJack Mighty Bomb Jack]]'' has treasure chests everywhere, containing bags of points, powerups and secret collectibles. Some of them can't be opened at lower power levels and may block Jack's way, but at higher power levels chests can also be opened by walking through their sides.

* In ''VideoGame/NetHack'', chests spawn randomly in the middle of rooms. Many chest are locked. If you don't have anything normally used for opening locks like a [[SkeletonKeyCard credit card]] or a wand of opening then you can try to force the lock by prying open the lid with a bladed weapon, but this has the danger of destroying your weapon. If you don't want to risk your bladed weapon (or don't have one) then you can try kicking the chest until the lock breaks, but this runs the risk of shattering any potions contained in the chest. Alternatively, you can use a blunt weapon to try and bash the lock apart, though there's a chance you'll go overboard and smash the chest apart completely, along with some of the contents. Chests are sometimes booby trapped as well, blasting you with various unpleasant magic and possibly destroying some of your current inventory. And after all that, the chest in question can turn out to have been empty all along. Since monsters can't use containers you use chests for safely storing items you don't want to carry around but you also don't want getting into the hands of any monsters. Although Gelatinous Cubes can and will devour chests and all their contents, so true security requires a little extra effort..

* In the ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'' games (from ''Explorers'' onwards), Pokemon will occasionally drop treasure chests in dungeons (and ''Gates to Infinity'' had a whole minigame about them). Each game has an NPC to open them for you, but none of them offer any explanation as to who is making the chests and putting treasure in them, why they're doing so, and why the chests are found in dungeons.

* The ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series.
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', there is a specific dungeon where most of the chests are empty, a clue that someone else has been through here recently. At the end of this dungeon you actually meet the unknown looter, who turns out to be [[spoiler: Locke, the [[InsistentTerminology Treasure Hunter]] of your former party, who got split up after the semi-[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt End Of The World As We Know It]]. After having him rejoin the party, he gives you the treasures he got.]]
*** More generally, certain chests contain marginally better loot when you return later in the game if you resist the temptation to crack them open on first sight. Which [[FridgeLogic has its own set of problems]] - it takes much convolution to concoct and explanation that doesn't involve the treasure "evolving" or something. They might be Schrodinger's Chests - their contents are not decided until the chest in question is opened.
** Subtly averted in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', where there ''are'' treasure chests (or rather, boxes), but only in populated areas or places that had some kind of human (or Ancient) presence in the past. In locations that have never been settled, stuff is just lying on the ground.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' was considered bold and unusual for ''not'' having treasure chests lying around everywhere. They just had Draw Points instead.
*** There are a few in D-District Prison (Zell even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] it by saying "Hey, there's a box!"), and the odd couple of random items lying on the ground here and there. They are noticeably scarce if you're more used to VII and IX-types though.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' does one better: The underwater section of the Via Purifico has a blue treasure chest that's a ''merchant''. More specifically, interacting with it brings up the shopping buy/sell interface.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' has treasure urns, which are A) randomly not there, B) Regenerate when you leave the area, C) Have random loot, particular to each chest, D) change their content if one of party members has a specific accessory equipped and E) somehow connected, [[GuideDangIt as opening any one of four seemingly arbitrary chests (including one right at the beginning) will make a later one]] (containing the InfinityPlusOneSword) [[GuideDangIt to not be there later on.]]
** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsA2'', when Luso finds an empty chest in an area that they believe never to have been seen by humans, and he complains about not being able to trust a world where there wouldn't be treasure in such a box.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIIRevenantWings'' attempted to justify this trope. When questioned about the inexplicable treasures chests on the flying continent, Llyud explains that his people deliberately place treasures in ornate chests all over the continent as offerings to the gods; and that therefore you can loot them with impunity, as the gods want their treasures used to help fight for good.
** Subverted in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII''. The high-tech chests and network shopping terminals scattered along the main characters' path seem inexplicably convenient at first, but eventually it becomes clear that [[spoiler:the main villain arranged for their placement in order to help steer the characters into accomplishing the objective the villains want them to accomplish.]]
** Two types in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyMysticQuest'': ''VideoGame/{{SaGa|RPG}}''-style brown boxes which hold restoratives (and said items respawn!), and the more traditional RPG treasure chest which holds actual equipment and magic books.
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIVTheAfterYears'' you often pass through the same dungeon with a different character, sometimes with only hours or days between the different passes. The chests will have been refilled and the monsters altered to match the challenge for the new character. The Underground Waterway gets raided by Cecil in the original [=FF4=], Palom and Porom in a flashback, Edward seventeen years later in his chapter, and just a few days or maybe hours later by Ceodore and the hooded man in Kain's chapter. Likewise the Lodestone Cavern is looted by Cecil in [=FF4=], Palom seventeen years later, and Edge in the final chapter. And finally, Mount Ordeals gets raided by Kain, Porom and Tsukinowa, the last as he follows and spies on Porom! And that's not counting the BonusDungeon of every chapter, which you are explicitly told you need to loot several times to get everything.

* ''VideoGame/RomancingSaGa3'' - In the Devil King's Palace one of the chests actually has something inscribed on the inside of it [[spoiler: The inscription is actually a prayer required to fight the boss of a bonus dungeon, and if you're playing the game with a translation patch, another prayer which is the last step towards unlocking the DevelopersRoom for the patch.]]

* The ''VideoGame/DarkCloud'' series. In the sequel, a clown might pop out to offer you a choice between two surprise treasures.
** Ignoring the chests in dungeons, there are also InexplicableTreasureChests that appear in Georamas and other non-adventure areas. This is HandWaved in the first game which explains that [[spoiler:Seda has been putting them there to help you]], but the second game doesn't even bother explaining the Miracle Chests AT ALL.
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' features not only loads of random treasure chests all over the place, but for whatever reason, the developers of this game decided that the physical size of the treasure chests must be proportionate to your Gears in areas where you're forced to pilot them. This means that you'll encounter dozens of treasure chests that are the size of ''small houses''.
** Better still, these house-sized treasure chests frequently contain ''bottles of medicine''. ''Individual'' bottles of medicine. When they are large enough to hold ''thousands''.
* Monsters in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'' drop their loot in one of three types of treasure chests (Wooden, silver, or gold) that inexplicably pop out of their bodies once they meet their demise. It's a little odd to see the tiny monsters like bunnivs and fliers leaving behind chests that are twice as big as themselves.
** There are also a few traditional treasure chests in places that actually make sense, such as ancient sealed vaults.
* Parodied in the original ''[[VideoGame/WildArms1 Wild ARMs]]'', where in the beginning when you go through Jack's scenario, most chests that can be gotten normally are empty, often with a note on the side that says ''Ha, ha, I got here before you did!''
** Completely lampshaded with glee in ''VideoGame/WildArms3'''s in-game hints (by a certain "AlanSmithee" no less!). The hint says "there's no idea who put them in such remote places but hey, finders keepers!"
* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' at least had vaguely forest-y chests in forest-y areas. There were also the super "Sealed by a mysterious force..." chests, which existed in multiple timezones - careful use of AppliedPhlebotinum in the past would make better stuff appear in the chest in the future. And once you've grabbed the future loot, of course, you can safely go back and get the past loot too; grabbing the past loot first would make the chest disappear in the future, logically enough. One Ultimate Weapon (Marle's) had to be obtained this way.
** The mysterious force chests are at least partially explained (they're the items left behind [[spoiler:by an ancient civilization when their world went all Atlantis on them]]), and it's legitimately explained why you're the only one who can open them. One or two are even referred to as heirlooms by the families that keep them, and for the others, well, the entire world was flooded and all sorts of other things happened, so it's not so odd that they could end up everywhere. This doesn't explain why nobody cares when you open up their ancient heirlooms and keep the contents, though...
*** There is one case where the "nobody cares" aspect is explained - in one house, the man standing by the chest tells you, "This chest has been in the family for generations, but we can't open it. If you can open it, it's yours."
* The ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games (well, the portable ones, at least) leave ubiquitous orbs all over the place. Perhaps they are some kind of item ball?
** In the original Japanese, "Pokeballs" were called "Monster Balls", which does seem to imply that balls can be made to hold various things, not just {{Mons}}. This may explain the orbs as well as the HyperspaceArsenal.
** ''VideoGame/PokemonColosseum'' and ''VideoGame/PokemonXDGaleOfDarkness'' use chests that simply look like Poké Balls. Although they appear to have a significantly larger carrying capacity than the balls found in the handheld game. (A chest may contain 3 of an item, rather than just 1 like in the handheld games.)
* In ''VideoGame/MegaManLegends'' the ruin systems Volnutt and The Bonnes dig in are loaded with uniform chests housing anything from keys, to refractor shards, to buster upgrades, to junk, to fairly common construction material. Considering they even house trapped chests and [[ChestMonster chest monsters]], one may imagine they were designed with the expectation to be ransacked millennia in the future.
* ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'' has Mystery Data, large, floating diamonds that have stuff in them. This includes Green Mystery Data, which, oddly enough, regenerates.
** The Mystery Data in MMBN isn't inexplicable, though. In fact, it makes quite a bit of sense given the setting. The network is administered by various persons--and intended to be roamed freely by Navis, especially Navis belonging to kids. So it's entirely plausible that the Mystery Data is placed there ''deliberately'' as a treat for net-surfing Navis.
** ''VideoGame/MegaManStarForce'' has Mystery Waves. They're pretty much exactly the same.

* In ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'', some treasure chests are outdoors, for example, in the middle of a swamp. Many are also trapped, even when there's nobody around who could have installed the traps.

* ''VideoGame/EternalSonata'' has treasure chests which almost always contain character-specific weapons. As if they [[{{Foreshadowing}} knew the party would be coming along...]]

* ''VideoGame/LiveALive'' [[LampshadeHanging hangs a lampshade]] on this one by featuring a man whose job seems to be ''putting treasure chests in places.'' At one point, if you release him from prison, he'll go back and put more stuff into the treasure chests you've opened.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Fable}}'' games have two varieties of inexplicable treasure chests. One is the standard type, while the other requires silver keys that are collected around the game world. These keys can only be picked up by the hero, apparently, and their effects on [=NPCs=] are not explained or explored. There must be some reason nobody else has picked them up. But anyway: the presence of these treasure chests provides an interesting karmic conundrum. In these games, a player can go into a random person's house and steal items from their bookshelves and drawers. Doing so will register as a crime, with constables being alerted and naughty points being allotted. However, the player can open a treasure chest in the same person's house, take whatever it contains, and incur no penalty whatsoever.
* ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve'' sort of uses this with storage boxes dotted throughout the city and you can store one item in each box too if you need to, but one has to wonder why there would be random guns in random parts of the city.
** Well, it ''IS'' New York City...
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'', as a way of keeping save file sizes down, takes this to a whole new level with regenerating chests, treasure boxes that actually refill themselves after a few days.
** However, apart from that the chests are not that inexplicable. For a start, there's several different forms, so the chest in a dusty dungeon is not the same as the chest in a nobleman's palace, and neither are the same as in a lost elven city--unless, say, bandits decided to move in and bring their own sacks and chests. Also, some are empty, some are smashed apart, and others contain fairly useless items. Finally, the types of objects in each chest (or barrel, or coffin, etc.) are different depending on where they are - you'd find food in the marketplace, but not in a dungeon, and clothes in a chest of drawers but weapons in the chest, and so on and so forth.
** ''Oblivion'' has an entirely different kind of inexplicable chest: the kind with a supposedly expensive and extremely difficult to pick 5-pin lock, which ends up containing twelve gold, a cheap set of scales, and a leek. Maybe the ancient elves just had really strange ideas of value.
** Some of the places you loot have been explicitly looted by others in the past, who tell you that you might want to check for what any "new inhabitants" may have brought with them. It makes sense, since a cave you've raided will gain new items when it gains new inhabitants -- though they may be only imps and giant rats.
* The second ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' features a dungeon where the first room contains about a dozen chests, which are revealed to be empty upon inspection. It had been visited by pirates, who took all the available goodies (that don't require Psynergy to reach).
** In addition, the first dungeon (which served as the last dungeon in the first ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'') has a chest that used to contain a high-level item. When you open it, it says there's still an Herb (minor healing item) inside. Why the previous party would have left this in a chest, however, is left to [[WildMassGuessing the player's imagination]]...
*** In the first game, by the time you would've gotten to that point, Herbs were useless.

* In ''VideoGame/StarOcean1'', the last enemy you slay in each encounter will ''become'' a chest. Although this can be interpreted as a figurative representation rather than a literal one, as the chest will burst open to give you a bag of gold, a bag of experience points, and any items the encounter gives.
** ''VideoGame/Disgaea2CursedMemories'' also has enemies that become chests but this only happens if the last attack was made with a bow. No explanation is given as to why this is.
* ''VideoGame/BlueDragon'' has special "Ancient" treasure chests (grey metal with a jewel on top) that sometimes only appear when a certain enemy is defeated, but there are still dozens of plain wooden chests littered everywhere in the world. And no one has ever tried to open them.
* In the beginning of ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'' the blimp with the main hero crash lands in the wilderness quite a walk from the nearest town. You step just a dozen steps aside from the crash site and what do you see? A frigging huge treasure chest! And its contents change depending on the PC's race! And in most of the cases they don't match!(i.g. you'll get a bulking set of enchanted armor if you play as a flimsy elf.) Who's fooling around there, that's what I'd like to know.
** ...Maybe it was somebody's luggage? You do find corpses and bits of blimp strewn all over the area too, if memory serves.
*** That, or it was the random possessions of the imp who was guarding it. He even built a little camp around the chest.
* ''VideoGame/TheGranstreamSaga'' is slightly better about this--there are still plenty of chests (including in a poisonous-gas-filled volcano), but the items in them are often rusty weapons or broken armor, so at least there's an excuse for other people not emptying them and their not being inexplicable well-maintained. (And fortunately, you happen to have a magic armlet that can restore broken items!) The trope goes as usual for the chests with healing herbs or fruits in them, of course.
* Lampshaded and invoked hilariously in ''VideoGame/ArTonelicoQogaKnellOfArCiel''. Who put the chests everywhere? Tilia did. '''''Over seven hundred years ago'''''.
** She just wanted people to visit the inside of the tower.
** Why is there a treasure chest in the sewer? Because nobody would ever want to go down there, obviously!
** Instead of just opening treasure chests, why not rummage their stuff in general?
* {{Lampshaded}} in a skit in ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'', when an exhausted Karol describes their trip through the desert:
-->'''Karol:''' Sand and bones, cacti and treasure chests, the sky and the wind and the sun and...
* Special mention goes to the ''VideoGame/{{Mother}}'' series, where they aren't just treasure chests, but PRESENTS literally gift-wrapped for you. In ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'', this goes to the extreme in how Inexplicable these Treasure Chests are by some containing fireworks that go off when you open them, bursts of music, sound effects, and/or smells. One present is an entire ''onsen'' (hot spring) in a present. Which your ''entire'' team can bath in to restore health and PSI.
* ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile'' has treasure chests in places that aren't even inhabited by sapient beings. Those chests might contain godly artifacts that the game urge you to return to Odin. Maybe the servants of Hel brought them there.
** About the only treasure chest that is explicable is the one that contains [[GameBreaker Creation Gem]] in the Tower of Lezard Valeth. Must have been part of his project [[spoiler:to create homunculus]].
* Taken to absurd lengths in free-to-play in-browser RPG ''VideoGame/{{Arcuz}}''. Because the game can only handle items occurring inside chests, enemies "drop" items in chests that fall out of the sky when they are killed. This could be excused as metaphorical shorthand--looking in a chest as visual representation for looting the body--except that not all enemies drop chests, and when they do the chests are empty 50% of the time.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' rationalizes this with having research data on weapons scanned directly from the guns themselves and Shepard taking credits from lost datapads and computers. It gets a bit less justified when Shepard can get "salvage" from computers and medi-gel stations and have it instantaneously turned into credits without having to sell any of it.
* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' has wood and iron chests just chilling out in random spots in the world. Some make more sense than others and a few are [[ChestMonster mimics]]. Particularly curious is how chests with sets of armor inside are used to imply their owner was killed there.
* In ''VideoGame/MasterOfTheMonsterLair'', you as the main character build your own dungeon out of tunnels and specialized rooms for monsters to live in. One of those rooms is a treasure chest room, where monsters are inclined to just dump any equipment they have on their person.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/EvilIslands''. The few treasure chests that you find usually have some kind of background that you can check accesing the quest menu.
* Starting with part 2, the ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea}}'' series has treasure chests on specific story maps as well as random ones. In addition killing enemies can create chests. ''VideoGame/Disgaea2CursedMemories'' also slightly averts the trope in that enemies will attack chests with just as much, if not more, priority to attacking your party.
* ''VideoGame/FantasyLife'', has some both in the overworld and dungeons. Some respawn after the area is left and some of the ones that only work once are made visible via pressing A if a question mark suddenly appears while you're walking around.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDragoon'' mostly plays this straight, however an early dungeon has all chests, save those in the final chamber, be filled not with items, but insults aimed at Dart and the party.
* ''VideoGame/RakenzarnTales'' plays it straight. It gets a lampshading if you take the Suiseki Valley path in Chapter 9 and find one of the chests there empty, at which point Kite reminds you that there are other people out there and they would nab chests lying out in the open too.
* ''VideoGame/{{Lunarosse}}'' also plays it straight, but it could be handwaved by the fact that [[spoiler:Corlia based the whole world off her tabletop game experiences, so she might have subconsciously placed those to keep with the theme.]]
* Averted and lampshaded in ''A Nightmare in Sunnydale California''. When [[Series/{{Supernatural}} Dean Winchester]] starts rooting through a trashcan during a cutscene and an amnesiac [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy Summers]] expresses disgust, he points out that they're going to need anything they can scavenge because it's not like this trope is going to be in action. Which is ironic because due to their being trapped in a nightmare by [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy Krueger]], it very well ''could'' have justification for being played straight.
* Lampshaded in ''Chain of Oblivion'' upon opening one of several chests in the starting town.
-->'''Reinhardt:''' You ever wonder who puts these here?\\
'''Siegmund:''' Don't know. I wouldn't put it past the Crazy Guy, though.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/TheEnchantedCave''. There are treasure chests, but they were put there by the BigBad to lure adventurers.
* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'' has treasure boxes just floating in the air that can only be reached with Mario's jumping ability, which is similar to the "?" blocks that the Mario series is known for. The boxes can be found anywhere, even inside certain towns. One NPC, who has a few treasure boxes in his house, [[WhatTheHellHero will call you out for stealing his things]] after you helped him get back to his house. He'll act relieved if you don't take his stuff.
** The ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' and ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' simply use the classic floating ? Boxes as treasure chests.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Miitopia}}'', treasure chests can be found all around Miitopia during explorations. There are even achievements for opening enough of them!
* Like the previous Rakenzarn, ''VideoGame/RakenzarnFrontierStory'' will have chests regardless of which of the many worlds you travel to. You might be able to handwave with some worlds based on other games due to that just being how they normally operate, but when you get into worlds like ''Higurashi'' and there's still chests to crack open out in the forest, it's pretty clear they're just there 'cause of this trope.
* ''VideoGame/ArkandianLegends'': Almost every single dungeon has several treasure chests, with brown ones containing normal items, red ones containing artifacts, and black ones being the quest target. Also, every enemy spawns a treasure from the sky upon being defeated which contains gold and some items.
* ''VideoGame/UnhappyEverAfter'': Starting with the Ash-forest, you will encounter treasure chests just hanging around.
* ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'': Chests litter all manner of locations, waiting to be opened: Brown chests offer normal items; Red chests usually yield weapons, equipment or money; and Purple chests are unique in that Therion must be in the party to open these, and always contain a rare item.

* The ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic'' series not only leaves treasure chests strewn about fields, but also [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xetp4WsUD6Q&list=UU3Q13RAmFVfDkYOWnnqFM2A#t=1m10s piles of gold, wood, ore, gemstones, even such things as pots filled with mercury can be found out in the open.]]

* In ''Manga/BlackClover'', dungeons will occasionally appear from underground with no warning. Throughout the dungeon are a few scattered chests, with the best goods locked up in a treasury somewhere near the center. Scholars think the dungeons are long forgotten tombs of past wizards, but why they have chests outside of their treasuries is a mystery. Some of them are also mimics, which contrary to typical video game logic are simply living chests [[{{Squick}} full of pulsating organs]].

* ''Webcomic/RPGWorld'' parodied this by having Hero make up [[https://web.archive.org/web/20080215135440/http://www.rpgworldcomic.com:80/d/20030427.html an almost plausible story]] about world-venturing pirates who hid their treasure all over the world in chests when their golden age of piracy came to an end. Reka, the resident pirate of the group, instantly calls him out on it.

* In ''Webcomic/OurLittleAdventure'', Julie explains that either other adventurers leave the junk behind for some reason, or it's simply the work of the [[TricksterGod Lady of Fate and Fortune.]]
** Finding a [[http://danielscreations.com/ola/comics/ep0130.html cube]] apparently always means treasure.