Golden Crate

Life Crystals are the draw. Once the caverns are picked over and your health has stopped climbing, this and the Titanium Crate are the only way to keep raising it, which quietly makes maximum health renewable. The Hardy Saddle is locked to the same two crates, though it is a curiosity rather than a goal. An Enchanted Sword turning up is a pleasant surprise for an early melee run and nothing to plan around.

The listed chances understate what you actually walk away with. A crate that rolls nothing from the main groups quietly rolls again, so the entries that matter land noticeably more often than the numbers imply. Ore and bars are also a single pick rather than two: you get metal in one form or the other, never both, even though they sit on separate rows for readability. The bottom tier metals are missing entirely, so every crate that gives you ore gives you something worth smelting.

Any water at any depth produces them, with no biome to prepare first, which makes this the crate you farm when you cannot be bothered building anything. Fishing power is the only lever: a better rod, real bait, and a Crate Potion running. It is also the most valuable of the ordinary crates if you sell it sealed, though opening is almost always worth more than the coins.

These stopped handing out hardmode loot years ago, so hoarding a stack to crack after the Wall of Flesh gains you nothing at all. If you want hardmode metal out of a fishing rod, the Titanium Crate is the one to chase, and it is a separate catch rather than an upgrade of this one.