Crates are power-ups present in almost all mainline Command & Conquer games.
In campaign missions, crates are pre-scripted on the battlefield and can serve as mission objectives. In skirmish and multiplayer mode, crates are a kind of "scenario condition" that can be switched on/off before game starts. If switched on, crates randomly appears on battlefield and, if not being picked up, will vanish after a certain time.
To pick up a crate, simply order a ground or sea unit to move to its position, mind many crates have field effects.
In Generals, UN Crates do not provide any power-ups other than cash bonus.
Crates in Tiberian Dawn appear as cube-shaped boxes. In skirmish and multiplayer mode, a crate's content is always random, and can both benefit or hinder the player.
When picked up, a symbol will appear for a few seconds to indicate what is inside the crate.
Tiberian Dawn crate power ups
Credits (random, can be in any amount up to $2,000, dollar sign)
Restore full health (area of effect, affects all units and structures of the user, orange with green rings)
Extra unit (random, can be any GDI or Nod unit)
Map reveal (reveals the entire map, dark blue sphere)
Map reshroud (resets the shroud of the user)
Explosion effect (deal damage within the area of effect)
Nuclear weapon (gives a user a one shot Nuclear Missile, white missile with green head)
Ion cannon (gives a user a one shot Ion canon, picture of the earth)
Cloak (cloaks all nearby units permanently, dark sphere turning into a grid sphere)
Nuke strike (directs a Nuke Strike against the location of the crate retrieved)
Visceroid (releases a Tiberium-spawned Visceroid into the playing field, attacks randomly)
Red Alert[]
Crates in the original Red Alert look like ordinary wooden cube-shaped boxes. In campaign mission, they can be found quite often - directly placed on the ground, through destroying supply trucks, accomplishing a mission objective, or occasionally through capturing an enemy refinery. In skirmish and multiplayer modes, crates can also randomly be found floating on water. These can be picked up even with submerged units.
When picked up, a symbol will appear for a few seconds to indicate what is inside the crate.
Red Alert crate power ups
Credits ($2000, dollar symbol)
Unit armour upgrade (area of effect, with a steel plate symbol)
Unit firepower upgrade (area of effect, with a diagonal missile symbol)
Unit speed upgrade (area of effect, with a lightning bolt symbol)
Restore full health (area of effect, with an atom symbol, affects all units and structures of the user)
Vehicle (most ground vehicles, including MCVs and Ore Trucks, but never air or naval units)
Squad of 5 infantry (most infantry, including engineers)
Map reveal (reveals the entire map like an allied side's GPS Satellite, except for areas affected by gap generators)
Map reshroud (resets the shroud of the user)
Explosion effect (does 500 HP damage within the area of effect)
Napalm death (with flames doing 600 HP, killing one unit instantly)
Nuclear weapon (ICBM symbol, gives a user a one shot nuclear strike)
Parabombs (skull symbol, gives a user a single Parabombs strike)
Sonar Pulse (sonar symbol, gives a user a single Sonar pulse to temporarily reveal submarines)
Invulnerable (Iron Curtain symbol, makes units invulnerable for a short period of time)
Cloak (rare), (makes units invisible within the 3x3 area of effect)
Tiberian Sun[]
In Tiberian Sun and Firestorm, crates appear as grey polyhedrons and feature a variety of power ups; they also sometimes serve as mission objectives. In skirmish and multiplayer, a crate's content is always random, and can both benefit or hinder the player's units/gameplay.
Sometimes when picked up, a symbol will appear for a few seconds to indicate what bonus/punishment is contained inside the crate.
Tiberian Sun crate power ups
Credits (a dollar symbol, these credits don't occupy any refineries and silos)
Veterancy (a star symbol)
Unit armor upgrade (a metal sphere symbol)
Unit firepower upgrade (a gun & rocket symbol)
Unit speed upgrade (identical symbol to armor)
Restore full health (a redcross symbol)
Reveal entire map (a completely visible globe and GDI Radar Dish symbol)
Cover entire map (an earth-in-dark symbol, entire battle field is covered by shroud except the areas in direct sight of the commander's units and structures)
Superweapon strike (a missile symbol appears in this case)
Unit (any type of unit, even an enemy's MCV)
Light bomb (kills the unit who picked it up + nearby surrounding units in a blast)
Explosive (instantly kills the unit who picks up crate and surrounding units with a huge blast, and a depression in the ground may form)
Chemical explosive (instantly kills the unit and release several highly toxic Tiberium gas clouds appearing in a 9x9 area, like a chemical missile)
Tiberium (release a small portion of green or blue Tiberium on the surrounding area)
Crates in Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge look like ordinary wooden cube-shaped boxes. In campaigns, they can be found quite often - directly placed on the ground, through destroying a loaded supply truck, accomplishing a mission objective, or occasionally through capturing an enemy refinery. In skirmish and multiplayer modes, crates can also randomly be found floating on water. These can be picked up even with submerged units.
When picked up, a symbol will appear for a few seconds to indicate what was inside the crate.
If veterancy is found inside a crate, units which do not actually kill (such as Yuri Prime (who only changes the units' faction) or the Aircraft Carrier (which only spawns the Hornets that do the actual attacking)) can be promoted. Also, if a veterancy crate is picked up next to an Airforce Command Headquarters, any Harriers or Black Eagles landed on the structure will be affected. Veterancy crates affect any nearby unit when collected in a 3x3 area around the crate, friend or foe.
Red Alert 2 crate power ups
Credits ($2000-$2900, one big and two small dollar symbols)
Veterancy (area of effect, all affected units glow for a few seconds after receiving a veterancy bonus)
Unit armor upgrade (area of effect, with a iron-cube symbol)
Unit firepower upgrade (area of effect, with flexing arm symbol)
Unit speed upgrade (area of effect, with a winged shoe symbol)
Restore full health (map-wide effect, with a red cross symbol, affects all units and structures of the user, and removes Terror Drones from infected vehicles)
Vehicle (most ground vehicles, including MCVs and ore miners, but never air or naval units)
9. Upgrades unit armour (actually reduces damage inflicted on upgraded units)
10. Upgrades unit speed
11. Upgrades unit firepower
12. Gives a single nuclear missile (unused, also is a bit faster than normal nuke SuperWeapon)
13. Invulnerability (unused and broken, no functionality beyond displaying an animation)
14. Veterancy (up one level only)
15. Ion Storm (unused and broken, no functionality beyond displaying an animation)
16. Gas (unused. The unleashed 'yellow' toxic clouds clouds used are actually the Weather Control clouds, but rendered in wrong palette. Only the unit registered as receiver is actually killed or severely damaged; the Gas can eventually kill units and buildings.)
Yellow C&C crates appear as power-ups in Renegade, where the player may gain some benefit be it additional health, armor, or ammunition. Some modded servers may provide additional power-up effects on custom multiplayer maps.
Tiberium Wars[]
Unlike previous entries, crates in Tiberium Wars and Kane's Wrath only provide positive power-ups. Lorewise, GDI and civilians use G-771G containers to store such contents.
Note that crates that randomly spawn in skirmish/multiplayer modes will never spawn units.
Tiberium Wars crate power ups
Money crates (gives money, usually 1000 credits)
Unit crates (contains units)
Veterancy crates (grants one veterancy level to the unit)
Unit upgrade crates (upgrades damage, armor or other attributes)
Healing crate (heals nearby units)
Red Alert 3[]
In Red Alert 3 and its expansion Uprising, crates can provide credits, health, or veterancy. The crates can be distinguished by the color and symbol on their box sides. Health and veterancy crates provide field effects.
Picking up a Green Tiberium will instantly increase the unit's veterancy and restore health. Picking up a Blue Tiberium Core will install additional armaments to the unit and/or upgrade its weapons' performances, but the latter only affects Offense Class units. Non-Offense Class units will only gain veterancy and health when picking up a Blue Core.
Blue Tiberium Crates are only visible if the player has an OffenseCrawler or last spawned as Offense Class.