Crate

Verified against the spelunky.ai port v0.1.10 on 27 October 2026.

Each Crate holds one item, picked when it's opened, mostly a Bomb Bag or a Rope Pile, but sometimes equipment or a weapon that shops sell for thousands. It's heavy, so it's carried high and thrown short, and the player can open it wherever he stands on it.

Pressing up and the attack key while the player stands on a Crate opens it: the Crate vanishes in a puff of smoke and its item appears in its place, free ^[1]. On the game's own levels, it adds to the lifetime count of crates opened ^[2]. In the clip, the player opens a Crate he's holding, which leaves his hands empty, and it holds a Pitcher's Mitt, which he picks up and puts on ^[3]. The item comes from one roll down this list, each roll made only if the ones before it fail ^[4]:

The Crate in the Tutorial always holds a Bomb Bag ^[25]. The player stands on the item when it appears, so a Bomb Bag or a Rope Pile, which are collected by touch, are collected at once: in the second clip, a Crate's Rope Pile gives him 3 more ropes on the step he opens it ^{[26] [27] [28]}.

A Crate is heavy: the player carries it higher than other items, and throws it at 4 pixels a step plus his own speed, rising at 2, or at 4 upward ^{[29] [30]}. Thrown faster than 2 pixels a step, it hurts a monster as any thrown item does ^[31].

• Level generation, in every area: in a nook one block high with a wall beside it, a 1 in 10 chance, once the rolls for a web and, on the level that has one, the Udjat Eye's locked chest fail ^[32].
• The Temple: some of its rooms have a tile that's a Crate or a Chest, one chance in two each ^[33].
• Olmec's Lair: a 1 in 10 chance on some of its tiles, once rolls for a Chest, gold and big gems fail ^[34].
• The Megamouth: four Crates burst out of one when it dies ^[35].
• The Tutorial, which has one ^[36].
• The level editor's C tile ^[37].

• Holding it. The player can open a Crate he's holding, as he stands where it is; his hands are empty after ^{[38] [3]}.
• Shops. A Crate's item is free wherever it's opened: the code sets its price to nothing ^[39].
• Bombs. An explosion throws a Crate away from it without breaking it ^[40].
• Exits. The player sets down a heavy item, a Crate among them, when he takes an exit, so a Crate can't be carried to the next level ^[41].

• A Crate is best opened where its item can't fall away: the item appears where the Crate is, and has no speed of its own.
• Most Crates hold a Bomb Bag or a Rope Pile: the rolls before them all fail about 69 times in 100 (the product of each roll's chance of failing, 499 in 500 by 199 in 200 and so on).

• The code that opens a Crate stores it in a variable named chest, the same one the code for opening a Chest uses ^{[42] [43]}.