Cursed Chest

A Cursed Chest

A Cursed Chest is a special type of chest and event appearing in Diablo III where the chest is locked until the event is completed. All Cursed Chests look like large, dark metal chests with a red glimmer, and sometimes have a bubble around them while the event is being completed. When clicked, these chests start the corresponding event instead of opening.

Cursed Chest events require killing a number of monsters or a boss as fast as possible, after which the Cursed Chest turns into one or two Radiant Chests that can be looted. Two categories of Cursed Chest are found throughout the game world: minor ones with easier challenges that cause the chest to disappear if failed, and major ones with harder challenges which award a bonus chest if successful, and can be assigned as bounties. A few special Cursed Chest types are limited to zones only accessible through bounties, but are otherwise similar to major chests. A very few may appear as part of other specific events.

Cursed Chests are never found in Nephalem Rifts of either kind, nor other zones "outside the main world" such as Follower quest zones (e.g. Lair of the Prophet) or special event zones like Visions of Enmity.

Types of Cursed Chest

The first two Cursed Chests types are most common: every game is very likely to contain quite a few Cursed Chests distributed throughout each Act, including some in Campaign Mode. However, any specific Cursed Chest may or may not appear in any given game, and its exact location is somewhat randomized, like with other events. The remaining types of Cursed Chest are much less common, and some may only be found in Adventure Mode.

Minor Cursed Chests

These Cursed Chest events are found in many game zones and require killing a relatively small number of monsters as fast as possible. A highly geared character may be able to do this in a few seconds even at maximum difficulty. This simply cleanses and unlocks the Radiant Chest, while failure causes the chest to disappear. There are three variations:

• Killing a boss in 45 seconds. (Which bosses may appear depends on the Act the chest is found in.)
• Killing a bunch of normal enemies in 30 seconds.
• Killing an elite monster pack in 30 seconds.

In all cases, the monsters appear as soon as the chest is clicked, in the area surrounding it and the player.

These chests are not marked on the minimap until the player clicks on the chest, and are never selected as bounties. They follow the name format of "Cursed Chest of the [monster description]", such as the "Cursed Chest of the Khazra" or the more poetic "Cursed Chest of the Hidden".

Major Cursed Chests

This category of Cursed Chest event also appears in many game zones, and requires killing a large number of normal monsters, spawning repeatedly en masse within a medium time window. A higher amount of damage output is required to accomplish the objective compared to minor chests, and positioning and spawning patterns can make it difficult to kill all monsters quickly. Success within the time limit grants a bonus Radiant Chest; failure still allows the single cleansed Radiant Chest to be opened once the remaining monsters are cleared. There are two subtypes:

• Kill as many monsters as possible within the time limit and then clear the rest. (Bonus: At least 100 monsters within the time limit.)
• Kill five waves of monsters. (Bonus: All waves within the time limit.)

Major Cursed Chests are the most common ones that can be assigned as bounties. They share their bounty category with other Events, so none may appear on some bounty maps, while there may be multiple on others. The bounty for a chest is completed once the event is done, regardless of whether the bonus chest was earned or not.

These types of chests are marked on the map from reasonably far away, even if not available as a bounty. They have the name format "The Cursed [location]", like "The Cursed Shallows" or "The Cursed Mill". These names show up on the Act map when offered as a bounty.

Bounty Zone Cursed Chests

These Cursed Chests are similar to the previous category in requiring more work than minor chests, having a guaranteed Radiant Chest reward, and allowing a bonus chest. However, the chests only appear in "bounty zones", which are only accessible for one of four specific bounties. Any of the bounties are possible in any Act, but not guaranteed. Any game is reasonably likely to contain one of this kind of chest somewhere in the world.

Bounty Zone chests do not follow standardized spawning patterns - each event has its own objectives, enemies, and objects. The chests themselves have no "Cursed" names; the event and the bounty instead share one of four possible names:

• A Plague of Burrowers - Kill up to 6 Cursed Burrowers in the time limit, then the Cursed Matriarch
• The Bound Shaman - Kill 6 Fallen Shaman, while dodging or killing numerous other Fallen
• The Cursed Shrines - Cleanse 6 Cursed Shrines, while dodging or killing the monster packs they spawn
• The Black King's Legacy - Kill 3 Elite Monster packs, arriving in waves (1 pack each wave)

All of these events award a bonus chest for completing the full objective in time.

Appearance in other events

Rarely, another Event, such as Leap of Faith, may feature a chest with the same look as regular Cursed Chests, which is similarly locked until the event is completed. These events do not follow the same standardized time limit or monster spawning structure as other Cursed Chests and aren't named the same way, so they aren't categorized as Cursed Chest events on this wiki.

Cursed Shrines removed from the game

Most if not all Cursed Chest events with the "five wave" format were formerly Cursed Shrines, as were a number of the minor chests. This type of shrine was removed and replaced with chest versions, possibly around Season 10. The Shrines awarded the bonus chests the same way as Cursed Chests did, but the base reward was a cleansed shrine rather than a chest.

The shrines were formerly covered by the achievements below, but upon being replaced, the achievements were updated as well to refer to the corresponding chest.

Achievements and Conquests

Cursed Chests are the subject of one "Cursebreaker" achievement per act. These require the player to complete all major Cursed Chest events in the act, but does not require any minor ones. They are named:

1. Cursebreaker of Tristram
2. Cursebreaker of Caldeum
3. Cursebreaker of Arreat
4. Cursebreaker of the High Heavens
5. Cursebreaker of Westmarch

In some Seasons, a Conquest may be available to complete, requiring the player to kill at least 350 monsters in a single Cursed Chest event on Torment X difficulty or higher. This can only be completed with a major chest found in the world. The Cursed Peat and The Cursed Bellows are known as the easiest Cursed Chests with which to achieve these high kill counts. The Conquest names are:

• Curses!
• Stars Align (hardcore)

These Conquests were available during Seasons 6, 8, 12, 13, 16, 18, 20, 21, 24, 25, 28, and 30.