The Stellar Blade Hacking Tool Drone upgrade that you need to open sealed chests can't be obtained until you've progressed the main story a fair bit - likely at least five hours for most players. It's spoken about a while before that too, so you'll have to return with it to previous areas later on to crack open any chests you were forced to skip the first time you found them.
What's more is that the Hacking Tool is technically optional, so you need to make sure you actually apply this upgrade when you get the chance if you want to get as much loot as possible. Bearing that in mind, I've laid out how to get the Hacking Tool in Stellar Blade below, as well as how to use it to open certain chests.
How to get the Stellar Blade Hacking Tool to unlock chests
The Hacking Tool in Stellar Blade is a drone upgrade that only becomes accessible once you've progressed the story up until the point where you first unlock the gun - or rather, the change to your drone that allows you to turn it into a gun. This will be about 5-10 hours in, depending on your rate of progress and how much side content you're doing, and is part of the main quest - ranged attacks aren't something you can skip or miss out on. For more info, check out our page on how to get the Stellar Blade gun.
After you have that, it unlocks a new option for Drone Upgrades when you talk to Lily, where you can buy upgrades - one of which is the Drone Hacking Tool, which costs 1 Drone Upgrade Module (these are usually obtained by destroying the little spherical robots that flee from you when you approach).
How to use the Stellar Blade Hacking Tool
The first thing to know is that the Hacking Tool in Stellar Blade won't open every locked chest you come across. Some, like the Stellar Blade red code chest at the beginning of the game, are mission-locked and won't open until a specific moment in the game.
The Hacking Tool unlocks "High Security Sealed Chests", which are marked with a yellow hazard tape hologram wrapped around them as seen above. The Hacking Tool automatically opens these with no effort required on the part of the player - as you approach, the Drone will automatically scan the crate and remove the seal, meaning you can just open it as normal.
Plenty of other chests require Stellar Blade passcodes to unlock, and we've got a guide consolidating several early-game puzzles.
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