Quick Facts

Screenshots

Videos

Comments

Comment by 684196

I haven't tested this yet, but since these aren't locked I am assuming they can only be opened by characters of the appropriate level, which will be somewhere along the lines of level 20 - 40.

Comment by wpgbubba

I found one in Twilight Ridge in Nagrand (level 70-73) and it wouldn't open for a level 80 or 68. According to where its found its a level 10-15 chest in a 70-73 area. Got to love Blizzard's sense of humor (business practices).

Comment by Maliander

Hotfixed on December 20 2010:

Silverbound Treasure Chests can now be opened and looted correctly.

Comment by patriknashnl

What has seemed to be the best spot to farm these chests, bcus i'm really looking to find the Axe of the Legion for my tankadin alt, and have opened 4 chests in Zangarmarsh and not in them yet. ?

Comment by 525327

Yes I have found a few of the Silverbound chests in BC areas: all have a rare item of one sort or another and some gold. Great finds, but not going to list any locations lest the gold farmers get wind of such things and spoil it for the real gamers. lol

Comment by Sleepless

An interesting thing I've noticed about these chest locations: Oftentimes there is no chest to be found, but there is a rare spawn at the same general location. I've killed at least a dozen in the last two hours or so all over the globe (mage ftw!). As of yet, I haven't found both a rare spawn and a treasure chest, only one or the other, but that could just be my luck.

Edit: It's been a few days, and I've continued to find either a treasure chest or a rare spawn at most of the map spots. Today I finally found my first twofer: both Geomancer Flintdagger and a Silverbound Treasure Chest at the same spot (80.0, 29.1) within the Drywhisker Gorge cave in Arathi Highlands. Flintdagger dropped Ivycloth Pants of Spirit, and the chest contained Skeletal Club.

Comment by 662610

If you're after a Darting Hatchling in Dustwallow Marsh (A.K.A Theramore for Aliance) be sure to keep you eye for one of these chests, they spawn about once a day there. My mage is able to get there multiple times a day and get the nest but usually only get one chest every day. Sometimes it takes two days.

Comment by Seegtease

So, you've found a treasure chest, and you want to know what's up?

Well, this may be old news, but after extensive personal research, I have some information on these chests, including the different types, the rewards, and tips if you wish to hunt them further.

Some of you may recall treasure chests that existed back in Vanilla (and through the Lich King, though no chests were added to northrend until later). They typically were full of garbage, maybe a gem, maybe a green, but usually food and an earthroot or something. Those don't exist anymore (aside from in the vanilla dungeons that have yet to be revamped). Now, once the Cataclysm hit, we have new chests, rarer, and with better rewards than ever before!

They exist in essentially every zone, and currently they have 6 different types:

How do I find them?

Currently, all of them are being tracked with the addon Gathermate2, but the Gathermate2_data doesn't seem to include the Dark Iron or Maplewood chests, though it'll still mark it on your map if you find them. I'm sure they'll be added soon. If you plan on doing any serious treasure hunting, I highly advise this addon.

You might remember chests in the past being vastly oversized and cartoony. They were easy to spot. Now, not so much. Some of them (especially the Runestone) blend into the surroundings like any other decorative box. Without a trained eye, you may not notice them. You'll need to move your cursor around and check very carefully. There is almost always an enemy near them. In many cases, rares love to hang out near chest spawn areas, which can net you even more loot!

Much like mines and herbs, treasures also seem to spawn in node clusters. That is, it might have 2-4 spawn locations in a small area, and it will only spawn at one of them at a given time. However, this is tricky, as it's hard to tell where the node cluster ends and a new one begins. For example, in Zangarmarsh, one would think every Naga "village" would be one cluster, but I've found 2 chests at a single village before. Your best bet is to check every spawn location until you're relatively sure it's part of the same node. If multiple nodes exist in a cave (chests love to be in caves), they're probably the same node cluster.

For respawn rate, I don't have any solid numbers, but I know I've never seen a chest spawn in the same locations less than 18 hours since I looted it last, but I'm more inclined to think they have a 24 hour respawn time. Most chests tend to be in the path of many leveling players, so it's quite possible that other people will find them before you. Just keep looking. Which brings me to this topic...

Why should I hunt these things?

If you're anything like me, you might actually enjoy the hunt, the excitement of finding a chest, find it a relaxing change of pace from the rest of this game and need no further incentives. However, if that's not enough for you, worry not, there are very good reasons to look for them.

Here's the big one: They give experience now! So even while you're out questing, you should check nearby spots for a quick, tasty lump of experience. They seem to give approximately 2x the amount of XP that a normal quest in that zone gives you. And naturally, if you outlevel the zone, you'll get reduced XP. Also, like mining/herbalism, higher level ones DO cap off on how much XP they can give you, so don't get any bright ideas about gaining 10 levels with a single chest from max level zones.

But wait, there's more: The contents! Of course, we can't forget the very reason chests exist to begin with! Well, unlike Vanilla chests, these always have decent loot. That is, you are guaranteed to get a Rare (blue) quality item in each chest, the level being relevant to the level of the zone that you found it. So far, I've never seen a purple. There are a few exceptions: sometimes in Northrend you will find a Book of Glyph mastery, which is green, but those are currently more valuable than most blues anyway. The general rule, however, is that you'll find a blue in each one. While this may not seem too spectacular, remember that many blues have unique skins and may still be valued for transmog purposes.

Chest hunting is by no means the best way to make money, and it's not the best way to get experience, but it's darn fun. And even if it's not your thing, I would highly recommend taking a look around you every now and again when you're our in the world to see if a chest is nearby. You might find something you want inside.

Happy hunting!

Comment by Goranek

I found one floating above ground in the Ruins of Baa'ri in Shadowmoon Valley (Outlands). I haven't figured out really how to do add-ins so can't give you an exact location. Hopefully my screenshot will give some reference. I wish I knew how to lower the chest since I couldn't open it while mounted.

Comment by Goranek

Trying to add a second screenshot of the floating Silverbound Treasure Chest located in Shadowmoon Outlands - Ruins of Baa'ri.

Comment by err0r4o4

ata' mal terrace has a floating chest as well. just fly up near the corner and you see it but its behind the invisible wall. basically northwest corner above buildings. by the black temple raid

Comment by genegerbread

Over the past year-or-so, I've been farming each of the six open-world chests that can spawn in EK, Kalimdor, Outland, and Northrend. I can say with confidence that I've opened over 500 of these chests to farm various items and appearances; alas, no Orb of Deception just yet. I've also compiled a list of chest waypoints for each continent for easy access (assuming you have the TomTom and Paste addons). This is a good way to farm for transmogs, and you may come upon repeats that you can sell on the auction house. I will warn you that this isn't an efficient way to make gold, as only a small fraction of the gear/weaponry I've looted has successfully been sold. That said, there will be that rare, cathartic instance in which someone buys a transmog you've listed for thousands of gold.

Some important notes, observations and inferences that I've made:

Spawn Timers and Shards: All chest spawns seem to be on a 24-hour timer, but are shard-specific. This means you may find other chests in different locations by switching War Mode on/off.
Chest Cluster(s): For a given chest (i.e., Sturdy Treasure Chest), one chest has a chance to spawn in a given cluster. Hillsbrad Foothills presents a clear-cut example of chest clusters: Of all the chests that can spawn in (1) Durnholde Keep, only one will spawn. The same can be said for (2) Ruins of Alterac, (3) the foothills themselves, (4) Dalaran Crater, and (5) the farms (i.e., southeast farm + Sludge Fields). That is, you'll likely find five chests-- one for each cluster-- assuming none of the chests have been looted.
Loot per Expansion: The loot that you receive from any chest depends on the expansion you're in. Chests from Vanilla zones will only be derived from the Vanilla world drop pool; the same goes for Outland and its world drop pool, Northrend and its world drop pool, and Cataclysm and its world drop pool. This means you cannot get Vanilla world drops from Northrend chests, Northrend world drops from Outland chests, etc.
Loot Quality per Zone (Vanilla Only): The Vanilla zone that you're in will determine the quality of the loot you receive. Starting zones (e.g., Elwynn Forest, Tirisfal Glades, Teldrassil, etc.) seem to drop Common quality items; non-starting mid-level zones (e.g., Darkshore, Silverpine Forest, Southern Barrens, etc.) tend to drop Uncommon quality items, while higher-level zones (e.g., Feralas, Silithus, Badlands) seem to drop Rare quality items.
Dark Iron Treasure Chests: This chest is unique insofar that it only appears in Dun Morogh, Loch Modan, Wetlands, Searing Gorge, and Molten Front. Moreover, beyond the standard drop pool that each of the six different chest types share in Vanilla zones, this chest seems to include unique Rare drops as well. The AllTheThings addon provides more information when you hover over a given chest.

Here is a list of links to Google Docs, each one containing all of a given continent's possible chest spawn waypoints. Simply select all lines, copy, and paste in-game using the Paste addon:

Eastern Kingdoms (includes Cataclysm chests): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Voz3uytkJnaqORCka5MWbHlqrL_86ZjZHr2TYLVmViU/edit?usp=sharing
Kalimdor (includes Cataclysm chests): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZOR_ZzSEFEQDgJMnr7bs0zD_oZPKc5BbPsGtsv-nT_M/edit?usp=sharing
Outland Chests: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aJVLQRHyDnFPvMZGYWPPL5zBcbKhku4_2TA0r_ZJqRw/edit?usp=sharing
Northrend Chests: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zn_6Af8SBc2hh49OtbHl3orMcQwq1T7lhupMVFWTGKc/edit?usp=sharing

I hope you all found this short guide helpful. If you have any questions/observations/etc., feel free to add them as replies beneath this comment.

View in 3D Links

Silverbound Treasure Chest

This object can be found in Terokkar Forest (48), Zangarmarsh (44), Hellfire Peninsula (41), Nagrand (41), Arathi Highlands (39), Netherstorm (38), Blade's Edge Mountains (33), Shadowmoon Valley (32), Felwood (26), Elwynn Forest (24), Mulgore (24), Tirisfal Glades (21), Dustwallow Marsh (20), Northern Barrens (19), Loch Modan (18), Theramore's Fall (H) (17), Duskwood (16), Teldrassil (13), Badlands (12), Dun Morogh (10), Stonetalon Mountains (10), and Winterspring (6).

Silverbound Treasure Chest

Related

Contribute