Skyrim: Every Invisible Chest Location (2024)

There are invisible chests scattered throughout the world of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, many of which hold some incredibly valuable items. The best part about these chests is that they refresh periodically, meaning players can visit them again and again to get all sorts of loot that they can sell or use. By taking items from these chests, players can become very powerful quickly.

These chests are difficult to find, and they only appear in certain places. It seems strange that these exist, as there is no lore behind these invisible chests. No one in the game mentions or acknowledges them, so players may wonder why they are there in the first place. It turns out that they are an interesting bit of programming tied to merchants. Their existence in the game is technically a glitch, which Skyrim has a lot of due to its massive world.

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Each merchant inSkyrim has a hidden chest that stores their inventory. Usually, these chests are inaccessible to players, being stored below the world or in other places that players can’t get to. When players ask what they have for sale, merchants access this chest, rather than having all the items on their person. This is so that even if the player pickpockets or kills them, they can’t access all the merchant’s items. This also means they won’t equip items that players sell them, as the items instead go into the chest. If they hadn’t programmed it like this, it would look like what is comically seen in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. In that game, players could sell an item such as a Daedric helm to a merchant, and the merchant would wear it. The result of which was late in the game, merchants would be equipped with all sorts of quality armor and weapons.

There are three chests players can find related to the Khajiit merchant caravans that travel between the major cities. They have good items too, though luckily not Khajiit fur.

One of the invisible chests in Skyrim can be found in Dawnstar. Next to the smelter near Iron-Breaker Mine is a small outcropping of three rocks. On the map, these rocks are directly south of Irgnir’s House, and can be found if players are facing east. In the middle of these rocks, players can find the chest if they look directly at the ground. Remember the chest is hidden beneath the ground, so players will have to search on the ground to get a prompt to interact with it. This chest is tied to the Khajiit merchant Ahkari.

The next one is near Salvius Farm, which is just east of the fascinating city of Markarth. Head east from the farm and there will be a stone bridge. Instead of crossing the bridge, look next to it. On the left-hand side of the bridge is a ruined wall. The chest is found next to the wall, in about the middle on the opposite side of the road. It’s near one of the tents if the Khajiit merchants are there. Like before, the chest is invisible to the player, and is located just underneath the world. Luckily, all players have to do is search along the wall, and they should be able to find it easily enough. This chest is tied to the Khajiit merchant Ma’dran.

Players can also find a hidden chest near Solitude. The easiest way to get to this one is to take a carriage to Solitude, then stop just outside of the main entrance, where the gate is. Turn to the right, and there is a tree in front of a rock. Just before the tree are some weeds growing up, and the chest is right within the weeds. This chest belongs to Ri’saad, the last of the Khajiit merchants.

Finding Hidden Chests that Require Glitches in Skyrim

These three hidden chests are not the only ones in the game. There are several others but accessing them requires using glitches. One such chest is found in Whiterun and is tied to Eorlund Grey-Mane. This chest is located underneath the Skyforge. Getting to this chest requires players to jump outside the bounds of the city. From the main entrance into Whiterun, turn right towards Adrienne’s forge, Along the wall, there is an alcove with a barrel. Jump on top of the barrel, and then jump onto the section of the wall that is lower than the rest. This may take a few tries. From here, walk around the outside of the city counterclockwise to where Jorrvaskr is. The player can clip through rocks to access the chest.

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There are other chests that can be found by glitching Skyrim, but whether it is worth it to get to these chests is debatable. Some require an incredible amount of work to get to. It could be like before, jumping outside of the game’s boundaries, or falling through the ground and telling a follower waiting above to loot the hidden chests. One example of this is in Whiterun, where players can order one of their followers to loot several of these chests.

If players really want to get to these chests, it’s probably just better to disable collision detection with console commands, since they are already outside the bounds of what the developers of Skyrim intended. Plus, even if players manage to get to these chests, not all of them even have great items. Of course, for those who are planning to do glitch runs or other types of exploits, these chests are perfect.

The three Khajiit merchant chests listed above can all be found in the world with no glitching required, and they do have a lot of good items. As players gain higher levels, the chests have even better things inside them. If the player is committed to finding hidden chests, these three are the ones most worth going for. They’re easy enough to find. They’re close to major holds too, which means that even those who are playing survival mode can still quickly get to the chests by using carriages.

Technically, accessing these chests could be considered cheating, as players aren’t supposed to be able to interact with them. They just happened to be placed poorly. Skyrim is a single-player game, so it hurts no one to loot these chests. It won’t ruin the in-game economy, and the NPCs don’t seem to mind. Whether players decide to loot these chests or not is entirely up to them.

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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is available on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.