Mystery Crate

Mystery Crates are pickups that player may acquire by going into them. When a player acquires one, something random will happen to them, from getting credits to getting Timed C4s and more, and a message will be broadcast to all the players about the player obtaining a crate. These crates add more variation to the game, and even if they rarely are the key to victory or the instrument of defeat of a faction, they usually benefit the player individually, albeit there is always a chance for the player to lose their infantry or vehicle due to it.

A tactic that players may employ is Cratewhoring, where they will take control of all the areas around the crate's spawn points and wait for the crates to appear, thus denying the opposite faction the luxury of claiming them. It is usually done when production buildings such as Infantry Barracks/Hand of Nod, and Weapons Factory/Airstrip are destroyed, since their destruction will raise the possibilities to find advanced infantry/vehicles for the designated faction.

Appearance

Mystery Crates appear as small, light-brown wooden boxes that spin around and float above the ground.

Effects

A player acquiring a mystery crate may:

• acquire an random amount of credits, from 100, 150, 200, 250, to 300;
• acquire a refill crate, which will restore their infantry just like if they went to a Purchase Terminal and requested a refill; note that this effect will only occur if the player was damaged or had used some of their ammunition;
• acquire another infantry, which it can be either more basic or more advanced than the one they currently possess (chances of such will increase if the faction's infantry production building is destroyed);
  • occasionally, they could acquire a spy, which is an infantry from the opposite faction who is seen as an ally from the opposite faction's automated defenses.
    • It is impossible to get either Hotwire or Technician from a crate.
• acquire a vehicle from it (chances of such will increase if the faction's vehicle production building is destroyed); the vehicle will appear out of nowhere nearby, and since it is not locked unlike those purchased from the base, anyone can enter and claim the vacant vehicle, even enemies;
  • occasionally, they could acquire a Tiberian Sun vehicle from it, and such will result in a different message popup.
• acquire a suicide crate that would cause the player to commit suicide without any reason;
• acquire a nuclear strike beacon that immediately signals the nuclear warhead to fall into the designated area, killing any player around and destroying any vehicle around in its area of effect. The player who acquired the crate can save themselves by getting into a vehicle before the warhead lands. It is possible to avoid losses with a fast vehicle, such as Humvee/Buggy or Orca/Apache;
• acquire a small amount of veterancy;
• have Timed C4 spawn on the players' head, spelling their death in 30 seconds, unless they can enter a vehicle. An ally's vehicle will be dealt no damage, as it is counted as friendly fire. The player's own vehicle may be dealt a small, but usually not serious, amount of damage;
  • A player who gets a C4 crate can sometimes keep jumping to avoid death, since it lowers the overall damage of the C4 explosion when they are struck in air. This is most probably a glitch.
  • Also, advanced infantry with flak armor can sometimes endure the explosion and barely survive.
• be abducted by the Scrin, in which case the player will be lifted up and killed at the apex.

Trivia

• In previous beta versions of the game, there used to be another negative crate, the ion crate, where the unfortunate player would be struck by an Ion Cannon.
• Mystery Crates' yields and other settings can be modified by a server owner at their discretion.
• It is not advised to grab crates when the team is doing a organized rush nearby, be it infantry or vehicles, since it if happens to be a nuke crate, the explosion will blow all the team up and jeopardize the rush; afterwards, the player who picked the crate would be frowned upon and usually get noob'd by their teammates.
  • On the other hand, a player who is lucky to acquire a nuke crate during a rush from the opposite faction and the location happens to be nearby to the rushing group will either decimate the group or their vehicles, totally ruining the enemies' rush.