Stonewards Chest Rarity & Loot Guide: What We Know

Last verified: September 24, 2026 — Game version: Stonewards Early Access 0.2.2 hotfix on top of 0.2.0 “Later Summer” (current). Facts come from official Steam sources and verified player reports.

Chests in Stonewards are a major source of loot. They can contain rings, tomes, resources, and other upgrades that shape your run. The chest rarity system was overhauled in Demo Update 0.1.9, and clearer descriptions for rings and tomes were added in Hotfix 0.1.4.

What Chests Contain

Based on developer updates and player observations, chests can drop:

Loot type	Effect
Rings	Passive bonuses such as damage, knockback, or resource gain
Tomes	Powerful modifiers that can boost rare cave resources or change spawn behavior
Resources	Metals, ores, and crafting materials
Scrolls	One-time or temporary effects discovered in later devblogs

The exact drop table and rarity weights have not been published by the developer.

Chest Rarity Overhaul

Demo Update 0.1.9 “overhauled the chest rarity system.” That is the only official detail. The current rarity tiers, color labels, and drop-rate percentages are not yet confirmed. We do not list them to avoid inventing values.

Rings and Tomes

Hotfix 0.1.4 added more detailed descriptions for rings and tomes in the shop, making their effects clearer before purchase. Some tomes increase the chance of rare cave resources, which can create a snowball effect if one player stacks multiple copies. Community feedback suggests the tome system may receive a rework so that rewards are shared more evenly in co-op.

Chest Changes Since the Rarity Overhaul

• Common Treasure Chests cap Tomes lower now (0.2.1). The developer reduced the maximum quantity of Tomes that can be found in a common Treasure Chest, so a normal chest is a smaller jackpot than it was at launch.
• Chest upgrades are personal in co-op (0.2.0). Upgrade rolls from chests are generated from each player’s own unlocked upgrade pool instead of the host’s, so you are no longer offered picks from someone else’s progression.
• Carrying chests is safer (0.2.0). Added physics checks when releasing a chest should stop them clipping into terrain or launching unexpectedly, and you can now climb a ladder while holding one.
• The Chest Opener duplication exploit is gone (0.1.7). Handing chests to the Chest Opener NPC could duplicate them; that was fixed.
• The Tome pool grew (0.2.0–0.2.1). Compass Range, Team Attack, Team Max Health, Precious Treasures and Forge Boost joined the pool; Precious Treasures was reworked in 0.2.1 from a guaranteed +1 item per upgrade to a +20% chance for an extra item, with values above 100% able to grant several extra Tomes.

Where to Find Chests

Chests appear in the procedural mines and possibly as rewards after waves. Because cave layouts are random, chest locations change each run. Exploration is rewarded, but never lose track of the horn timer.

Should You Open Every Chest?

Yes, if you have time. Chest loot is one of the fastest ways to gain power. However, a bad chest position deep in the mine can cost you an entire wave. If the horn is about to sound, return to the kingdom instead of chasing one more drop.

For related systems, read our forge upgrades guide and mining and resources guide.

From Community Gameplay

Live runs add several practical notes about chests and loot:

• Chest rooms have visual tells. The mine shows cues before you even reach a chest room, so you can change your digging direction early instead of clearing everything in a straight line (community gameplay, 00:19).
• Chests are also audio cues. “Chest rooms make enough sound that you can sometimes hear them through nearby rock,” which matters when the map is procedural and your tunnel is the wrong way (community gameplay, 02:05).
• Chests improve later drops. One guide noted that returning chests can increase your item drop multiplier, meaning a chest you carry back makes the rest of the run’s loot snowball (community gameplay, 02:46; 03:07).
• A chest-opening NPC exists in the hub. Early Access footage shows an NPC who opens treasure chests for you — one player deliberately hauled chests back to the hub “so for you in front of the guy” (community gameplay, 01:27; 02:22).
• Loot rarity is still simple. One Early Access review describes weapon loot as “green, blue, purple” tiers with little diversity, so do not expect deep itemization yet (community gameplay, 04:04).
• Ring effects can be bought directly. The shop offered a headshot ring as a purchasable effect (“the only thing that I was able to buy was a head shot thing. It was a ring from getting head shots”) (community gameplay, 01:11).

Sources

• The Boys are Dwarves (community gameplay): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-XuIMMYeW8
• Official Steam store page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4502710/
• Official Steam announcements hub: https://steamcommunity.com/games/4502710/announcements/
• Steam Community discussions: https://steamcommunity.com/app/4502710/discussions/

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