Overview
A trapped chest is a chest that reports when it is open. It holds the same 27 slots and behaves identically in every other respect, but it emits a redstone signal proportional to the number of players currently looking inside it — one player gives a signal of 1, and the strength climbs with each additional viewer. The obvious use is what the name suggests: wire it to TNT, to a dispenser full of arrows, or to a piston that drops the thief into a hole, and you have a trap that fires the instant someone opens your storage. The subtler and far more common use is as an automatic switch. Because the signal appears while the chest is open and disappears when it closes, a trapped chest is the neatest way to trigger a door, a light or a farm as part of an action you were performing anyway. It is also useful as a chest that will not merge: trapped chests never join with ordinary chests, so placing one between two normal chests keeps them from forming a double. Visually it has a subtle red tint around the latch, which is the only way to tell them apart.
Firing a redstone circuit when a chest is opened — traps, alarms, automatic lighting, door triggers — and separating chests in a row so they do not merge into doubles.
In Minecraft 1.21.4, Trapped Chest is a storage block. A crafting table turns its ingredients into Trapped Chest. Its hardness of 2.5 makes it a normal, unhurried block to mine.
Mining it returns the block itself, so it is safe to relocate. A blast resistance of 2.5 means a single creeper will clear it away. It stacks to 64.
You make it with Chest and Tripwire Hook. No recipe takes it as an ingredient.
How to get it
Craft it from 1 chest and 1 tripwire hook. The hook needs 1 iron ingot, 1 stick and 1 plank, so a trapped chest is barely more expensive than an ordinary one.
Tips
- The signal strength counts viewers, so a comparator can tell you how many players have it open at once.
- It never merges with an ordinary chest, which makes it the tidiest spacer in a wall of single chests.
- Wire one to a redstone lamp for a storage room that lights the moment you open a chest.
- The only visual difference is a red tinge at the latch; check before you open someone else's chest wall.
How long it takes to break
Hardness 2.5 puts Trapped Chest at 3.8 seconds a block bare-handed, or 0.45 seconds with the right tool at netherite tier.
You are looking at 0.65 seconds on iron and 0.5 on diamond — the iron step is where the time actually falls.
There is no tier requirement to worry about. Any tool, or none, returns the drop; the numbers below just say how fast.
Efficiency contributes its level squared plus one to tool speed, which makes Efficiency V roughly 3 times faster than the plain tool.
| Tool | No enchantment | Efficiency III | Efficiency V |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hand | 3.8 s | 3.8 s | 3.8 s |
| Wooden | 1.9 s | 0.35 s | 0.15 s |
| Stone | 0.95 s | 0.3 s | 0.15 s |
| Iron | 0.65 s | 0.25 s | 0.15 s |
| Diamond | 0.5 s | 0.25 s | 0.15 s |
| Netherite | 0.45 s | 0.2 s | 0.15 s |
| Golden | 0.35 s | 0.2 s | 0.1 s |
Properties
Blast resistance on Trapped Chest is 2.5, so any explosion nearby takes it out. It stops light entirely and gives off no light. Stack size is 64 — the standard full stack. The block is tagged for axes, and only that class gets the speed bonus; everything else mines at bare-hand rate. As furnace fuel it burns for 15 seconds — one and a half smelting operations.
- Transparent
- No
- Required tool
- Any
- Fuel value
- 15 s
Crafting recipe
Crafting Table
Shapeless recipe
Trapped Chest
Drops
Mined with any, Trapped Chest drops itself.
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
How do you get Trapped Chest in Minecraft?
Trapped Chest is crafted from Chest and Tripwire Hook.
What tool do you need to break Trapped Chest?
No specific tool is required — Trapped Chest can be broken by hand.
Is Trapped Chest blast resistant?
Trapped Chest has a blast resistance of 2.5, so an explosion nearby will destroy it.
How many Trapped Chest fit in one stack?
64 per stack, so a double chest holds 3,456 Trapped Chest.
How long does Trapped Chest take to break?
With the correct tool at netherite tier it takes 0.45 seconds; by hand it takes 3.8 seconds.
