Chests

## Overview

   Every three to four hours a Chest will appear on the Map screen of the game. Clicking on the chest, which may as well be done without delay, will reward you with a key and display a 3x3 grid of clickable chests, along with the option to 'Close’ in the top-left corner.

At this point you can use the key, along with any other keys you have collected, by clicking on an unopened chest. Alternately, you may choose ‘Close’ and instead hoard your keys for later: a most rewarding strategy. This option allows you to build up a stash of keys, until you have enough to ensure that you are assured of finding the Crystal stash hidden in every Chest. This endeavor is greatly aided by the Cursed Divining Rod artefact, which will mark low-reward chests for you, saving you the trouble of wasting a key. In this way, a high-level player can reduce the choice of chests to only three, wringing maximum value out of each key.

Keys also carry over to your next generation when you Retire, so although the rewards are greater at higher levels, there is no need to spend them before passing on your wealth to a new generation.

## Strategy

If you are on your 1st Generation, the strategy below may not be the best for you. The 1st Generation is extremely slow and getting gold from Chests can help speed it up greatly. So if it's your 1st Generation, you may want to use keys as you get them, or at least once you are getting to level 60+. This will help you get to 100 quicker and started on your 2nd Generation with an Artefact or 2 under your belt to help you.

That being said, the most valuable prize from chests are the Crystals. Each round of 9 chests contains 1 with Crystals and 8 with gold (there has been rumor of more than 1 chest with Crystals in a round, but this has not been confirmed). Generally, to guarantee finding Crystals, it is best to save up at least 9 keys, although the Cursed Divining Rod artefact will reduce this number as you increase its power. This way you will always have enough keys to find the crystals, however bad your luck is. It is best to stop opening chests as soon as you find the Crystals, as the monetary rewards from chest looting are rarely worth the keys.

It is also recommended to save up your keys until late in the game, when you are nearing the end of your current Generation, as the deeper you are, the more Crystals you will loot. Once you are close to retiring, begin to use the necessary keys to unearth the crystals, building up your loot for your well-earned retirement.

New: 18 chests exist when opening chests, 2 rounds of 9 chests. Each chest costs 1 key in the first round, while in the second round each chest cost 10 keys. The first round pays out as described above, while the second round (estimated) pays out 10 times more. Both rounds have 1 chest containing crystals (the second round containing about 10x more than the first).

New strategy: save your keys until about 100 levels before your last max level. Example, if You max out at level 650, then start using keys at level 500. Reason being is that at each increment of 100 levels the rewards boost within the chests; even if a chest sits on your map for 100s of levels the contents within the chest boosts with each increment of 100. Only use keys to open the first round of chests when at a level increment below your max (in the above example example levels 500-599). Do as many quests as you can to collect more keys. When at the increment of your max level (in my example at 600+), don't open chests until you have 99 keys, which guarantees opening all chests in both rounds of chests (9 keys for round 1, and 90 keys for round 2). Then stop opening once collected the crystals in the second round of chests. When going for two rounds of chests it might be good to stop opening chests in the first round if you find the crystals early (e.g., 4 keys or less). Divide the number of crystals you expect to find in the second round by the average number of keys needed to find the crystals (don't forget the keys needed to clear round 1), and compare that with the crystals you found in the first round divided by the keys you already used to determine the value of continuing to the second round -- go with the higher ratio. If you're about to retire go for the second round regardless of the ratio. Also if about to retire just do the first round if that's all you can reasonably afford.

## Tips

* Make sure you are advancing at least 3 levels between opening Chests, otherwise your Crystal reward will be cut in half due to slow progress. It would likely be best to retire if this is happening to you and start a new Generation.
* If you don't advance at least 3 levels since the last Chest, your Crystal reward will be cut in half. This can stack with itself, so don't keep opening Chests if you haven't advanced at least 3 levels between them.

## Chest Contents

Each time you get the chest screen, the 9 chests will be broken down into the following rewards:

* 1 containing crystals.
* 1 containing "ultra gold" treasure.
* 1 containing "high gold" treasure.
* 2 containing "mid gold" treasure.
* 4 containing "low gold" treasure.

## Formulas

Crystal Reward = max(4, round(round((level - 81) / 25) ^ 1.35))

Ultra Gold Reward = 100 \* SMG

High Gold Reward = 75 \* SMG

Mid Gold Reward = 25 \* SMG

Low Gold Reward = 10 \* SMG

\* SMG = Single Monster Gold (for the level you are on).