Most chests in Diablo 4 will be unlocked and openable with a single click. Some of them will summon demons as bait (think of it as the game’s version of a Mimic). Others, like Silent Chests, just won’t budge unless you have the tools to open them. Barbarians, stop using Shouts and put down your axes: You’ll need Whispering Keys to open them. Attacking them won’t work (trust us, we tried).
If you’re looking to pry some loot out of one of those elusive chests, don’t worry: We’ve got the Whispering Key hookup for you, as well as some key information about Silent Chests and the process of opening one.
What are Silent Chests in Diablo 4?
From riddles to skill trees, there are lots of decisions you will have to make in Diablo 4. As you grind toward the max level and search for world bosses, you’ll also encounter various chests filled with loot.
Silent Chests in Diablo 4 are locked chests that can only be unlocked with Whispering Keys. These chests appear randomly in the wild, but we found them mostly by exploring off the main path and taking big groups of enemies head-on. In our experience, Silent Chests are somewhat uncommon if you’re not exploring too much, but you’ll eventually stumble upon a few of them in your travels. We once spotted two of them within the same area during Act Three of the campaign, so there seems to be no rhyme or reason for their spawns.
The Silent Chest will appear large and glowing, much like the Resplendent Chest that would appear at the end of a dungeon or major quest. The one telltale sign is the heavy chain around it, though, which only opens up with a Whispering Key. If you find a Silent Chest but don’t have a key on you at the moment, use your portal to head back to the nearest hub to buy some keys or mark it on your mini-map so you can come back to it.
How to get Whispering Keys in Diablo 4
Players can get Whispering Keys from a Purveyor of Curiosities in Diablo 4. The first one of these NPC you’ll meet is Lizveth, located in Kyovashad, and she’s marked with an icon that features a bag of gold next to some coins at the eastern edge of the town.
One Whispering Key costs 20 Murmuring Obols, a currency that players acquire from completing World Events in Diablo 4. We recommend always having one in your inventory in case you stumble upon a Silent Chest. If you’re capped on Obols, you can also buy a couple of Whispering Keys and some gear to make room for more Obols as you continue to play.
Related: How to get and use Murmuring Obols in Diablo 4
There are other Purveyors of Curiosities scattered around Sanctuary, primarily located at major settlements or towns, so don’t worry about teleporting back to the Kyovashad waypoint every time you need another key. Just opening your Portal should send you off to the nearest hub, where you can find a Purveyor of Curiosities.
How to use a Whispering Key in Diablo 4 and open a Silent Chest
If you already have a Whispering Key in your inventory, you’ll automatically be able to unlock a Silent Chest. Without a key, you will receive a prompt that reads, “You need a Whispering Key to open this locked chest.”
Whispering Keys are account-bound and take up space in your Consumables slot. While this means you can’t become your friendly neighborhood Whispering Key salesman, it still allows you to swap Whispering Keys between characters. This also means you’ll need to either put your main character’s keys in the Stash or buy more keys with your alts.
In addition to purchasing Whispering Keys, Obols can be used to buy Mystery items. While most of the rolls can be less than ideal, there will always be a chance to hit it big and find the best slot item in the process.
What Silent Chest rewards can you get in Diablo 4?
Silent Chests give you an assortment of random loot of varying rarities. In our experience, spending Whispering Keys is highly RNG-dependent, though the item pool seems to improve as you level and have access to higher-quality items. In a sense, they work similarly to Helltide Mystery Chests, though with much more RNG and without a guarantee of higher-quality items (since Mystery Chests guarantee up to five Legendaries).
Still, it’s likely worth opening them since Whispering Keys are inexpensive and Murmuring Obols are easy to come by. The difficult part is finding the Silent Chests, though you’ll likely stumble upon a few if you just explore.
