How to Break and Move Loot Chests, Barrels, and Shulkers

Breaking the container

Loot Chests, Loot Barrels, Loot Shulkers, and the copper variants (Copper Loot Chest, Exposed Copper Loot Chest, Weathered Copper Loot Chest, Oxidized Copper Loot Chest) are all breakable with the correct tool. Use an axe on the wooden containers and a pickaxe on the copper ones. Breaking a container that has already been opened by you will not give you a fresh loot roll — the container remembers that you have looted it.

Moving a container safely

If you want to relocate a Loot Chest or Loot Barrel without losing its state, mine it with a tool enchanted with Silk Touch. The block drops as itself and keeps its per-player looted flag, so placing it elsewhere does not reset it for you. Without Silk Touch, the container drops as a plain block and you lose the loot table association.

What you cannot do

You cannot break a Loot Shulker the same way you break a vanilla shulker box while it is open. Close it first, then mine it. The Decorated Loot Pot breaks like a decorated pot — with any tool, but only drops itself when mined with Silk Touch. The Centennial Trophy is a decorative block and breaks normally; it does not hold loot.