Lootable object

Borderlands contains many chests and containers. The chests are often in hidden locations, while the containers are easily found all over Pandora. All containers and chests have a bright green light glowing on them, so if you see that light, open it up and see what's inside!

Chests
There are 3 types of chests which primarily contain weapons and ammunition. It should be noted that only the Red Chests count towards the Challenges for looting chests: the White gun and Green ammo chests do not. Red chests DO NOT count towards the Lootables Opened challenge.

White Chest


These white, rectangular chests which contain randomly generated weapons based on the player's or game host's level, usually 2 rifle-type weapons (sniper, SMG, shotgun, combat rifle) or 4 pistols. They are also used on several occasions to store important mission-related items alongside a large supply of money. Least common chest.

Red Chest


These are large red, slightly oval, supply chests. The chest lid opens backwards allowing the two top plates to lift up and to either side to reveal the weapon(s) inside. These chest can contain randomly generated weapons, shields, class mods, grenade mods, ammo, and grenades, based on the player or game host's level and dependent on the zone level. These are most commonly found in areas protected by bandits or large groups of enemies.The items within a chest appear to be grouped, a number of combinations are possible:
 * 1) 2 weapons: Sniper, SMG, Shotgun, Combat Rifles, Machine Guns
 * 2) 1 Rocket Launcher
 * 3) 4 Pistols: Revolvers and Repeaters
 * 4) 4 of the following: Class Mods, Shields, Grenade Mods, in any combination.
 * 5) 1 Sniper Rifle + Hunter Class Mod
 * 6) 1 Shotgun or Combat Rifle + Soldier Class Mod
 * 7) 1 SMG + Siren Class Mod
 * 8) 1 Shotgun + Beserker Class mod
 * 9) 1 Eridian Weapon
 * 10) 1 blue rarity or higher weapon

All chests spawn with 4 ammo / grenade combination on the left plate and 2 to 4 grenades on the right plate, except in the Arid Badlands which will have ammo instead of grenades on the right plate. Chests containing Eridian weapons will have nothing on the side plates. The ammo spawned most often matches the weapon(s) spawned.

Ammunition Chest


Commonly referred to as 'ammo crates'. These smallish green chests contain up to 6 items, which may be either any type of ammo or grenades. These are fairly common.

Large chest
Large chests will be introduced with The Secret Armory of General Knoxx. They have twice the capacity of a Red Chest, and a higher chance of having rarer/alien weapons. These are a life saver if your running low on ammo.

Containers
Containers are scattered in abundance through every area. Containers will only have one item of loot. The loot found depends on the type of container.

Lock boxes and Safes
There are two types, lock boxes and small safes. These contain random amounts of money.

Note

 * With the Red and White chests, it appears that the more hidden/out-of-the-way the chest is, the more valuable or rare the loot.
 * For any given area and player level, weapons found in red chests will on average have significantly higher level and rarity (and corresponding cost) than weapons found in white chests.
 * Only Red chests will spawn Eridian/Alien weapons.
 * Certain lockers will always spawn weapons/mods (e.g. four lockers in Crimson Fastness on the lower level of the room opened for you by the Claptrap; lockers one and three will always spawn weapons/mods).


 * All chests are reset upon entering a game, and will contain more randomly generated loot. This can be exploited, especially in New Haven, as shown in this video:
 * There is a simiar circuit in the Dahl Headlands at Lucky's. There's a Red & White weapon chest in the former bandit camp behind Lucky's, plus a white weapon chest on the roof (in addition to incidental chests). Since this is also when the blue ammo capacity SDUs become available, the cash is especially welcome. There are many other chests located all around the city of New Haven. One, the Claptrap gives you, one on the west side of the Claptrap's chest (you have to jump on the Jakobs oil tank) and right when you spawn, go directly west up the stairs.

Trivia

 * Marcus's bus in the intro sequence has two such chests on it's roof - one on the front and one near the back.