Treasure Chest

Treasure Chests are recurring objects in the Legend of Zelda series which house items and are sometimes locked. The boxes differ in colour and garnishment depending on their contents and game they appear in.

Treasure Chests are Hyrule's primary use of storage. They are used to contain things ranging from Rupees to Pieces of Heart and so forth. In several games, they are the main or sole provider for Link's necessary equipment, such as Hookshots or Bows. Some chests in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time actually hold traps, such as ice breezes that can harm Link.

Design
As the technology available for games has improved, so has the design and sophistication into making the treasure chests.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Treasure Chests are small, brown, wooden boxes with gold coiling around it. It contains Rupees, Small Keys, Compasses, or Dungeon Maps. Larger Treasure Chests, found in dungeons, contain items such as the Magic Hammer and the Moon Pearl. This is the only game in the series where a key is needed to open chests, since the Large Treasure Chest, holding the dungeon´s special item, requires the Big Key in order to be unlocked.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time & Majora's Mask
In this game chests take on three different sizes/designs. The first being a small chest, containing small keys and rupees. The second being a normal sized chest, containing items, dungeons maps, or compasses. And the third being a metallic chest containing Boss Keys. The item chests are plain wood with an iron frame, while the boss key chest is highly ornated, with a blue body and golden laces around.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Treasure Chests that hold items of importance are more easily distinguished from others with various colors and shapes. Quest Items are no longer held in simple brown boxes, but have very fancy, impressive and slightly dangerous looks. These, sometimes, also hold Sea Charts. The design of the Boss Key chests is similar to that of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, in that they are blue with eloborate ornate gold decorations. Simple brown chests also retain most of their qualities from Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. However, a few still lack the jingle and the light of importance. Interestingly, they now seem to be the same size and differ in the deepness of their colors.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Treasure Chests are much more detailed than in previous installments. Chests containing a Boss Key appear to be made with what appears like gold and a small red gem above the keyhole.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass & Spirit Tracks
There are four different types of treasure chests: the first type is brown and simple looking, and the second type is larger and white with yellow lining. The latter usually contains items important to Link's quest (such as Heart Containers or dungeon items), while the former contains things like treasure, among others. The third type of treasure chest is a chest that only appears on the bottom of the sea floor in Phantom Hourglass. They appear to be exactly the same as the ones that Link finds at sea in The Wind Waker. The last type only appears in Spirit Tracks and is made of stone. This type of chest is hidden in the ground where, if Link stands near where the chest is buried and plays the "Song of Discovery" on the Spirit Flute, it will rise out of the ground.

Other Chests
As noted before, some chests contain traps. A few are nearly invisible and need to be materialized with light. Others again might be overgrown by a plant that has to be defeated to make it possible to open up the chests, and some chests even hang from ceilings from spider webs which require cutting down. There are many things that make it difficult to gather what they're holding.

Apart from chests, there are other things that may hold treasure. Even though these are never key items, they still may contain things of great value, such as large sums of Rupees. These objects may be pots, knight armors, or sometimes even hidden in flora and underground.