So what’s the deal with all these chests on Duolingo?
Whether you’re an early bird or a night owl (or both!), you may be wondering what they are and how you unlock them.
You might even be wondering about all the different things you can find in a chest, as well as what you can do to increase your chances of unlocking them.
Well, in this article, I’ll give you all the need-to-know details.
Let’s dive into it!
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What are Duolingo Chests?
So what is a chest on Duolingo?
A chest is basically just a reward, which you earn for completing certain tasks.
Each chest contains a different kind of reward, which is usually either an XP Boost, some gems, or both.
What are the different chests?
Currently, there are several different chest types on Duolingo, and each one is unlocked in a different way.
The different chests on Duolingo are:
- Early Bird Chest
- Night Owl Chest
- Daily quests chests
- Friends Quest chests
- Path chests
Early Bird Chest
To unlock the Early Bird Bhest, you need to complete your first lesson of the day before 12pm.
You will then get a notification at 6pm that your early bird chest is available, which you’ll be able to open in the Duolingo shop.
The reward is always a 15-minute XP Boost.
The Early Bird Chest is available to all mobile users.
Night Owl Chest
To unlock the Night Owl Chest, you need to complete a lesson between 6pm and 12am.
However, like the Early Bird Chest, you won’t get to open it there and then. You’ll have to wait around 11 hours for it to unlock in the shop.
As with the Early Bird Chest, the reward is always a 15-minute XP Boost.
The Night Owl Chest was originally only available on Android. However, it appears to have started rolling out to all mobile devices as of early 2023.
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Daily Quests Chests
The Daily Quests chests are some of the easiest to unlock. The tasks are usually really straightforward and you can unlock up to 3 per day.
They’re currently split into 3 tiers — bronze chests, silver chests and gold chests.
Typically, bronze chests will contain 5 gems and silver chests will contain around 10 gems.
Gold chests will usually contain around 15 gems, but may also contain an XP Boost.
Unlike the Early Bird and Night Owl chests, every time you complete a daily quest, you will unlock your chest there and there.
Friends Quests Chests
To unlock the Friends Quest chest, you will need to complete a weekly friends quest with one of your Duolingo friends.
A Friends Quest is a random challenge that Duolingo sets you and one of your friends. Duolingo chooses your friend and your challenge completely at random, and you’ll get a few days to complete it.
You can only earn a Friends Quest chest once per week.
Path chests
You can also unlock chests by progressing along your learning path.
Each unit contains a number of levels, some of which, you’ll notice, have chests on them.
There’s nothing to complete once you reach a chest — it unlocks automatically and you then progress onto the next level.
Depending on your course, you may also get video chests, which come with a special course-related video to watch.
Tips for unlocking chests
If you’re looking to rack up some more gems, or totally blitz your weekly XP yields, then consider some of these tips for earning more chests!
Show up early…
Getting in a session before 12pm will bag you a nice Early Bird Chest.
You don’t have to show up mega early. You don’t have to be up at the crack of dawn!
However, slotting in a session sometime between 9am and 11:59am will guarantee you an early bird chest to unlock later in the day.
Even if it’s just one session just to guarantee yourself a chest. You can then come back for a later session in the evening once you’ve got your XP Boost active.
… and show up late
You can also take advantage of another time-specific chest by getting on in the evening as well.
You’ve got a nice 6-hour window to show up in, which is ideal if you’ve been at work or school all day.
This is not only the time to open your Early Bird Chest, but also the time to earn the Night Owl Chest as well, which will set you up for the following day’s morning session.
Doing this pretty much guarantees you’ll have an XP Boost active every time you log in to Duolingo.
Don’t neglect your path
Needless to say, Duolingo’s learning path update has ruffled some feathers in the Duolingo community.
Not everyone is so keen on the fixed method of learning, which has led to some users neglecting it entirely and just focussing on timed challenges and other features.
However, moving through your path is one of the best ways to unlock chests, as they’re regularly scattered throughout. The further you progress, the more chests you’ll earn.
Complete daily quests
Completing Daily Quests is probably one of the easiest ways to earn chests.
This is because the tasks are usually really straightforward and can sometimes be completed in a single session.
All you need to do is familiarise yourself with your quests and figure out the quickest way of completing them.
If one of your quests is to complete a session of Match Madness, then you can make that your first task of the day.
Then, if another of your quests is to listen to 7 listening exercises, then if you’re a Super or Max member, you can tackle one of the listening sessions in the personalised practice section.
Simple!
Complete friends quests
The Friends Quest Chest is easily one of the best chests, as it comes with not one but two rewards!
Every time you complete a Friends Quest, you will receive a 30-minute XP Boost + a load of gems.
However, you can only unlock this once a week, so you need to be on the ball.
Every week, make sure you familiarise yourself with the week’s quest and requirements.
Sometimes your partner won’t pull their weight, so if you want to unlock the chest, you might need to put in a bit more effort.
But if you’re keen on getting yourself a mega XP Boost and a bucket load of gems, then bagging yourself the Friends Quest Chest is totally worth it!
Show up every day
This is probably the most obvious tip of the bunch. It’s so obvious that it almost goes without saying — but I’m going to anyway!
The more you show up on Duolingo, the more opportunities you’ll have to earn chests.
Commit to building a big streak, set yourself some tangible targets, and focus on learning your language.
As you do this, you’ll naturally find yourself earning chests pretty much every time you log in.
Share
Sometimes Duolingo will also give you the option to share your progress on social media.
It could be that you’ve hit a new streak milestone or you’ve learned lots of words in a single day.
When this happens, Duolingo will invite you to share your progress in exchange for a bonus chest of gems. You could share it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or even send it out in a text message.
Sometimes, it really does pay to toot your own horn!
For more on Duolingo chests and all things Duolingo, feel free to follow me on Twitter.
You might also be interested in some of these articles:
Duolingo Friends Quests – Everything You Need To Know
Yes! Finally, a new article! There were a bunch of empty days, but I’m so glad I got to read a new article.
I’m really good at obtaining all the chests. I’m an Android user (on Chromebook), as well as an iOS user, so I sometimes get the Night Owl chests.
Yay! Night Owl Chests are now on iOS! Please update the article accordingly.
Every two chests I’ve been getting videos starring the characters. Has anyone else gotten these?