Chests

Chests often contain loot and may be locked and/or trapped.

• You can search a chest for traps by pressing s
• You can disarm a chest with a probe - search will attempt to disarm a chest if you have a lockpick and your skill is high enough.
• You can unlock a chest by using a lockpick, if you have enough skill in Locks
• You can use up a Skull Key to unlock a lock (be careful, if its cursed, you loose the key and it wont unlock the lock). Using a skull key always works and does not require any skill but it is a one time use item.
• A chest may also be bashed (destroyed) by attacking the chest. Bashing will sometimes destroy the contents and will definitely set off a trap if there is one. You can only bash with certain weapons and there is a minimum strength requirement. Bash is a special ability (accessed via shift+C) that fighters start with. Can also be purchased at the university.
• Mages can unlock (or relock) chests using the Unlock spell. If it says that the lock is too difficult, you need higher intelligence to unlock the lock.
• Priests have a spell that can detect traps (and curses).
• Gnomes have a special ability allowing them to detect traps 100% of the time regardless of their trap skill.
• There is no way to disarm a trap other than using a probe in combination with the Trap skill.
• Triggering a trap on a chest doesn't necessarily mean there are no more traps. The same chest could bite back multiple times before it finally opens so don't assume that just because it zapped you that you can now open it without any fear.

Chests have a quality level, which will determine the amount of loot, and unlocking and untrapping difficulty. It is easier to search for traps than to disarm them, the skill requirement for searching for traps is halved. If you do not meet the minimum skill requirement to unlock or untrap a chest, you will not gain any skill, and will never succeed. (You'll get a message like, "disarm failed - too difficult!") If you meet the minimum skill but fail, keep trying; eventually you'll get it! Once you are well above the minimum skill requirement for the chest you will always succeed, so get your skill as high as possible! Your lockpicks and probes can break - make sure you carry spares!

Finally, some chests will actually be mimics in disguise. They will patiently wait while you disarm traps and pick locks until the very moment you try to open them before they reveal themselves, so beware!