A treasure chest is an item container commonly seen throughout dungeons in the Dark Cloud series, not to be confused with the miracle chest that are found in towns. Treasure chests are an important way to gaining many of the more common items, aside from monsters, shops and other rewards. They always contain a Map, Magic Crystal and the locked door or floor key to that specific floor on each dungeon floor. Each dungeon has its own item pool from which the chest's contents can spawn.
Normal chests design varies based on location, as for example Dark Chronicle has a unique chest theme for each dungeon. Dark Cloud also has large chests, which often contain weapons, but can also be locked and trapped, or contain a clown. Chests found on Back floors will always have more valuable items inside. Note that weapons will be generally always appropriate for the level of the dungeon they are found in, with the minimum number of stats.
Notably, some chests can turn out to be Mimics, or even the very dangerous King Mimic. It is impossible to know whether or not a chest is a mimic beforehand, although the floor title will often contain a hint such as "Sweet, Scary Treasure Chest".
Types of chests[]
Miracle chest[]
A miracle chest, or basket, is a special type of chest that only appears in towns, and in the case of Dark Chronicle only in the future (excluding Palm Brinks). They are unlocked based on progression in the dungeons and Georama. They contain many different items, usually ranging from uncommon to rare, but most notably they are the sole source of power up items such as Fruit of Eden, Gourd, and those that raise defense.
Miracle chests are sometimes missable, thus it is important to collect them as soon as possible.
Locked chest[]
The locked chest will often contain more valuable items than standard chests, but requires a Treasure Chest Key to be opened safely. If out of keys then the chest can be forced, which will trigger the trap. Traps are identical to that of the trapped chests, thus it is simply a matter of whether or not one needs the contents or is better off outright selling the key or saving it for a later dungeon. The large treasure chests in Dark Cloud function as a combined locked and trapped chest, meaning that if it is locked then the trap can be guessed instead of forced.
Treasure Chest Keys are a one-time use item and relatively rare item, which cannot be purchased in the first game, but is sold by Donny in the second for 500 Gilda. Conversely it can be sold for 400 and 50 gilda in each game, respectively. The only way to receive these keys is through chests in Dark Cloud, though they can also be often found as a reward through Spheda in Dark Chronicle. It can also be invented from Chapter 7 and onwards, though doing so is ill-advised due to the expense required.
Trapped chest[]
Sometimes chests are booby-trapped, if so the player must select one trap out of three, which if done correctly disables the trap and opens the chest. Guessing incorrectly will activate it, though this allows the player to then open it safely afterwards, now knowing the trap. Having a caught Mardan Garayan in your inventory will lead to the fish telling you the correct trap.
In Dark Cloud the possible traps are either "Explosion", "Poison", or "Curse". The latter two are abnormal status conditions and can thus be dealt with through the appropriate recovery items, whereas the former simply deals damage and removes the chest entirely. In Dark Chronicle "Curse" has been replaced with "Weapon Destroying", which does not actually break the weapon but simply deals some damage to its WHP. Because "Explosion" is the sole trap that both removes the chest entirely and deals guaranteed damage it is best to always choose it.
Correctly guessing the trap in a chest in the first game will award you with a bronze trophy titled "Call it a hunch" in the PlayStation 4 version.
Clown chest[]
A clown chest is a unique type that contains a so-called "Happy Clown". The Happy Clown will offer you a choice out of two boxes, colored either yellow with a green ribbon or pink with a red ribbon. The player must pick one reward and forego the other, though the first game will never tell you what the other item was, the second does. It is impossible to know what is inside the boxes and there is no way to improve the odds, thus players must simply gamble and hope for the best.
In Dark Cloud the Clown is on the short and stocky side, offering a big and a small box, which he rotates around him. In Dark Chronicle he appears as a tall and thin fellow, offering two boxes of identical size. The clown retains the original short and stocky design from the first game in the Japanese version of the second game.
Mechanics[]
Dark Cloud[]
Each dungeon in Dark Cloud has sets of item pools for chests' contents, split between the first and latter half (after you acquire your new ally and the game allows you to acquire weapons for him or her), and the backfloors. Clowns also have smaller pools for each of their chests. Each floor can generate a total number of four to eight chests, the first three of which always contain dungeon items (map, magical crystal, and a locked door key if there is one). Each other chest then has four possible factors that determine its type (big or small, if big; trap or clown, the item roll itself, and the success rate).
The chance for any chest to be a big one is 12%.[a] If the big chest is rolled properly the game then rolls for the type; unlocked, no trap[b], either a poisonous, explosive, or cursed trap, or a clown. Due to this the odds of a clown appearing is only 1/6th if a big chest even spawns.
The actual item roll is simple; the game picks any item out of the item pool list (some like Repair Power appear twice), after this it rolls for the success rate. All items have a success rate of 50%, except for most weapons (generally 40% and even only 2% depending on the quality) and the Powerup Powder (only 10%). If this roll fails the game simply rerolls for a new item until it has one that succeeds. Backfloor chests and clowns don't have success rates lower than 50% (except for the aforementioned Powder and weapons in the final two dungeons' backfloors).
The clowns' big chests' item pool also only contains a few recovery items and amulets, and only melee character's weapons, whereas the small chests' item pool contains attachments, gemstones, and ranged character's weapons.
Behind the scenes[]
The Flapping Duster is technically acquirable in Dark Cloud, but due to a bug in the code its success rate of 50% ends up as 0%. Even then it would be possible to receive it from the clown, but due to a possible oversight the backfloor keys after Wise Owl Forest always come out as Sun Dew instead of the appropriate key for each dungeon.