According to the wiki, treasure chests determine their loot table at the time when the chest is interacted with via the player or hopper. However, in exploring ancient cities, the loot appears to be fixed upon generation not on interaction.
For example, if you go to a stronghold and find a chest, save the game before opening. If you copy the world multiple times, each time you open the chest it may have different loot because the loot is determined upon interaction (which seems to be the expected behavior).
However, if you go to an ancient city and do this same thing (copy the world before opening the chest), the chest will have the exact same loot always (which implies that the loot is determined and fixed upon generation rather than at the moment a player interacts with the chest).
Comments 5
it could be that the randomized loot is determined once the chunks are generated, which would give the same result of it being determined when you open it if you don't back up
@Graylen_M, that does seem to be the case, but odd that ancient cities would work that way rather than the way all other loot chests work in every other structure.
The loot IS generated via interaction, but it is predetermined by the seed. That means it will always be the same, unless when the game updates and adds new loot, then if you have not interacted with the chest it can have new loot, even if it was already loaded in the world.
Working as intended
Thank you for your report!
However, this issue has been temporarily closed as Awaiting Response.
Is this still an issue in the latest version? If yes, could you please add it to the affected versions (or mention it if you are not the reporter)?
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I think the wiki is outdated based on MCPE-72432. The wiki is not an official source for intended game mechanics.