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Al romper el cofre, encuentras la espada.

Al romper el cofre, encuentras la espada.
Upon breaking the chest, you find the sword.
From Lesson 223:Simultaneous actions (al)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Al romper el cofre, encuentras la espada.

Why do we use al romper instead of cuando rompes?
Both mean the exact same thing here! Using al followed by an infinitive (like romper) is a very common and natural way to say 'upon breaking' or 'when you break' in Spanish. It just makes the sentence a bit shorter and flows nicely.
Since romper is in its infinitive form, how do we know who is breaking the chest?
We figure it out from the main part of the sentence. Because the second verb is encuentras (the tú or 'you' form), we automatically understand that 'you' are also the one breaking the chest.
Where does the word al come from in this structure?
Al is simply the mandatory contraction of the preposition a and the word el. While it usually means 'to the', whenever you place al directly in front of an infinitive verb, it creates this special time clause meaning 'upon doing' or 'at the moment of doing' something.
A quick refresher: why does encontrar become encuentras here?
The verb encontrar (to find) is a stem-changing verb. In the present tense, the o in the root changes to ue for most subjects, including the tú form used in this sentence.

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