Terraria Chests: How to Make Them and Build Storage That Works (1.4.5)

Last updated 9 October 2026. Checked against Terraria 1.4.5 and the official Terraria wiki.

How to craft a chest in Terraria

1. Gather 8 Wood and 2 Iron Bars. Any iron-tier bar (iron or lead) works.
2. Stand next to a Work Bench.
3. Open the crafting menu and select the Chest.
4. Place it, then right-click it to open it.

A chest holds 40 stacks. On desktop they appear in a grid of ten columns by four rows, and on console and mobile the grid is eight by five. You can't break a chest while it has items inside, which protects you from accidentally destroying your stash.

Chest buttons and shortcuts

When a chest is open, the buttons next to it do the sorting for you:

• Loot All moves everything from the chest into your inventory.
• Deposit All moves your inventory into the chest (your hotbar and favourited items stay put).
• Quick Stack moves items from your inventory into the chest, but only ones the chest already holds.
• Restock does the opposite: it fills your stacks from the chest.
• Rename lets you label a chest, so you know what's in it without opening it.

Quick Stack can also send items to all nearby chests at once. The wiki gives the range as 37.5 tiles, and says that when several storage items hold the same item, the lowest one is used.

What 1.4.5 changed for storage

The Terraria 1.4.5 patch notes (released 27 January 2026) include several changes that make a big chest room worth building:

• Crafting from nearby chests. Items can now be crafted using materials in chests near you. You can toggle it on and off.
• "Similar Stack to Nearby Chests" mode. As well as the normal Quick Stack behaviour, it puts items into chests that already hold similar items, for example iron ore next to copper ore. You switch between the modes with the Quick Stack button.
• Wired chests. A chest that receives a wire signal now picks up all nearby dropped items, so you can make automatic loot collectors.
• Coins in portable storage. Tooltips for portable storage such as the Piggy Bank now say that the coins stored in them can be used in shops.

Types of chest

• Wooden Chest: the standard craftable one, perfect for your base.
• Gold Chest: found underground. In the Dungeon, Gold Chests are locked and need a Golden Key.
• Shadow Chest: found in the Underworld and locked with a Shadow Key.
• Obsidian Chest: craftable with Obsidian, Hellstone and Iron Bars if you want a darker look for your base.
• Trapped Chest: made from a normal chest and wire. It sends a wire signal when opened, which lets you hook it up to traps or alarms.

The chest you place determines the look, not the capacity: every storage chest holds 40 stacks. The wiki notes that Block Swap lets you change a chest's type without breaking it.

Portable storage

These hold 40 stacks too, but you can open them from anywhere you carry them or from where you place them:

• Piggy Bank: bought from the Merchant. It shares its contents with the Money Trough and the Eye Bone.
• Safe: bought from the Merchant after Skeletron, and separate from the Piggy Bank.
• Void Vault: crafted, and shares its contents with the Void Bag.
• Defender's Forge: bought from the Tavernkeep with Defender Medals.

Build a storage room that scales

1. Put it near your crafting stations. With 1.4.5 crafting from nearby chests, the closer the chests are to your anvil and furnace, the easier crafting gets.
2. Make one chest per category. Ore and bars, building blocks, potions and food, weapons and armour, and a general box for anything else.
3. Rename every chest. A short label ("Bars", "Wood types", "Potions") beats opening five chests to find one item.
4. Use Similar Stack to Nearby Chests once your chests have a few items each. It files new items next to similar ones.
5. Leave space. Build the room so you can add another column of chests without rebuilding the walls.
6. Add signs and decoration. Themed or colour-coded chests are easy to scan, and the 1.4.5 update added 22 new furniture sets to choose from.

Chests in multiplayer

On a shared world, agree on a chest layout early so teammates know where things go. A Terraria server keeps the storage room (and everything in it) in your world around the clock, so players can drop in and use it at any time. For the rest of the progression, our guide to pre-Hardmode bosses shows what to craft first.

Terraria chests FAQ

How do you make a chest in Terraria?

Craft it at a Work Bench from 8 Wood and 2 Iron Bars.

How many items does a chest hold?

40 stacks.

Can you craft from chests in Terraria?

Yes, since 1.4.5. Items can be crafted using materials in nearby chests, and you can toggle the option.

How do you sort a chest?

Use Loot All, Deposit All, Quick Stack and Restock. In 1.4.5 you can also switch Quick Stack to the "Similar Stack to Nearby Chests" mode.

Why can't I break my chest?

A chest can't be broken while it holds items. Empty it first.