Magic Box Glitch

The "Magic Box Glitch" is a trick in Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain and the main method of gaining access to the game's Beta Weapons, which are an "unofficial" part of the game and were dropped during the game's development.

In addition to being able to obtain normally unattainable weapons and equipment, players can use this technique to acquire very, VERY powerful weapons even at an early point in the game (equipment which otherwise needs to be unlocked by typical means), this method can therefore immensely aid players to get certain ratings (such as Tactical Explosives Specialist), not to mention that weapons with inordinate amounts of ammunition (much larger) magazines will be available for use.

Essentially, the objective is to make certain special weapon crates give you a different weapon which is not normally included in them (note that the trick only works with certain weapon crates).

Box Trick

Step 1 - Where are the special weapon crates located?

First of all, certain "special" weapon crates are necessary to perform the trick, look for crates which try to "remove" your weapon instead of surrendering a new one (the kind of crates in which the agent can deposit the weapon of the same kind).

For example, let's suppose our Agent is carrying a FA-MAS, upon interacting with a crate it will normally give the player the option to pick up additional ammo, those are the standard crates, which won't work for this trick. What we ARE looking for is a crate which, upon interaction, will not show any available weapon (in other words, it will have an empty "Available" item window).

The box locations are:

Carthage 2: A total of 5 magic boxes.  

• The first is in the C-4 train area: when you get to the train area there will be a small stair case walk up that and there's the first MB (magic box)  
• The second is in the same area it's the shotgun box on the left side of the train.  
• The third is in the power room it's the one on the bottom left corner of the room  
• Go to the room with the three pipes where the guys keep coming out of; jump down in the water. Take that little tube and go all the way until you reach this room that has three boxes. There's a shotgun box that's one of the two that is in there.  
• Same room as the 4th is the SG-36 box that's one too. 

Belarus 2: It's located in the room with all of the things you can climb on A.K.A. the scaffolding room. The magic box is located on the very top one. There's a RPK already in there.

Yemen 1: Every box in the arms bazaar is a magic box. EVERY ONE OF THEM!!!! (but only in the market)

Minsk: Every DSC-1 case is a magic box (don't try the regular boxes because they DO NOT work!) 

Tokyo: In the 2nd garage area (where the big black van is also where you first begin your expedition through Murukawa Tower.) It's a little left of the van in the shadows. 

Step 2 - Weapon Selection

Equip your agent with a FA-MAS assault rifle (through the pre-mission Equipment Selection screen or by capturing one from the enemy but not from that specific crate). That particular crate generally surrenders a FA-MAS assault rifle (if no Back weapon is carried, or if a different back weapon is carried) but for the trick to work we cannot take one of the firearms from that specific box); the objective being to obtain the same type of weapon which is included in that crate after interacting with it.

Step 3 - How does it work?

Essentially, the box will "convert" its usual weapons (FA-MAS in this case) to the weapons we want depending on the number of rounds which are left in the magazine of our own rifle.

1. After carrying a FA-MAS and getting to that specific crate in Carthage 2, opening the interaction window should show that nothing comes up under the "Available" option;
2. If you have your FA-MAS with a full 25-round magazine press X, your weapon should have "vanished";
3. Interact with the weapon crate yet again and note that it contains something;
4. Press X to obtain the weapon (null), if you use it it won't show any weapon;
5. Pause the game (Start button) and go to 'Equipment' (alternatively press and hold the Left directional button and highlight the new weapon);
6. Press Down (directional button) and drop the weapon.
7. Pick it up again (it should show up on your back).
8. You can now use it as another weapon.

The crate is now "full" with this weapon (null), the XM29 OICW.

The reason the crate spawned this weapon (and "converted" its stored FA-MAS) was because of the number of rounds in the magazine (in this case - 25).

If you had 24 rounds it would spawn an MGL with an unusually large 24-round capacity (check the list below for the number of necessary rounds and the weapon it will spawn, note that the freshly spawned weapon will have the number of rounds corresponding to the number of rounds left in the magazine before it spawned).

Step 4 - Increasing the Array of Possible Obtainable Weapons

Since the FA-MAS has a limited 25-round magazine, it won't allow the player to obtain the weapons which require more than 25 bullets in each magazine, meaning that to obtain a weapon such as the Flamethrower (requires 158 rounds left in the magazine) it is necessary to obtain a weapon with a much larger magazine.

This is where the M249 (with a 200-round magazine) comes in:

• Repeat the following steps but this time leave the FA-MAS in the crate with a 20-round magazine (fire 5 rounds and make sure the magazine has 20 left).
• Obtain the M249 SAW machine gun and the number of possible obtainable weapons increase dramatically (because of the 200-round magazine).
• (Optional) If you need additional ammo to reload the freshly-obtained weapon make sure you drop your current one and pick another one from the box (you can collect its ammo, allowing you to reload the machine gun's 200 round magazine).
  • After you have reloaded the M249, drop the reloaded weapon and choose the one from which you obtained the ammo.
  • Drop the empty weapon in the box and pick your loaded machine gun.
• Fire the number of rounds to match your wanted weapon (see list below), for example let's suppose you want an M134 Minigun (93 rounds).
• Fire until you have 93 rounds in the M249 magazine then drop it in the crate again.
• Obtain the Minigun and go to the equipment screen then drop it, then pick it up again.
• If you need extra ammo (which is understandable, given the M134's wild fire rate) repeat the first part of step 3, only with the Minigun.

Caution!

• NOT all weapons which are able to be spawned in the crate are 'Back'-carried ones, in fact, equipment encompassing all the five categories of weapons which one can carry can be also obtainable (for example an 'Auxiliary' weapon such as the Helico 960 Submachine Gun, the Shovel, which is a melee weapon, or the Five Seven pistol which is a 'Sidearm'), make sure you drop the weapon of the corresponding type (if you're carrying it) to pick the new one up. The weapons can be seen with a corresponding category in the table below.

• In the European (PAL) version of the game, other types of weapons (such as Auxiliary or Melee weapons) cannot be spawned through a crate which spawns a Back-carried weapon (such as the FA-MAS crate which was mentioned earlier).

Nonetheless, it's still theoretically possible to obtain other weapons via special crates corresponding to the specific type of weapon (for example, in the PAL version it's still possible to obtain a Desert Express .50 by using a crate which normally spawns handguns (such as the Desert Sniper .44 or Jerico-9 in the Arms Bazaar in Yemen 1); the same is true for Auxiliary weapons (such as the Uzi crate in said Arms Bazaar). The main problem is that there's no weapon with a large enough magazine to allow the player to spawn sidearms which require a larger number of rounds (such as the Makarov which requires 85 rounds in the magazine).

If a Back-carried weapon crate is used to obtain an auxiliary gun then it won't simply spawn the new weapon which was supposed to appear (outside of this, obtaining Back-carried weapons functions normally).

• Certain special crates will require the player to drop more weapons of the same kind in order to spawn a new gun, an example is the special weapon crates in the Arms Bazaar in Yemen 1 (the player will need to pick up some extra Uzi SMG's from the enemy, then drop them in the Uzi crate in the bazaar; 5 weapons are required until the box can generate a new weapon), the same applies for the Jerico-9 and Desert Sniper .44 crates (though these are more limited by the number of rounds in their magazines).
• Certain special boxes can be themselves "converted" to spawn other types of weapons (this is particularly useful in the PAL version of the game), for example if the player drops enough Galil Assault Rifles on an empty Uzi crate in the Arms Bazaar, it will be able to spawn back-carried weapons (potentially including the M249).

Weapon List

Here's a list of the currently known Magic Box obtainable weapons. Make sure the number of left rounds on the magazine match the specific weapon you want the box to spawn and note each weapon's corresponding category; also note that, depending on the game version, some crates might not necessarily spawn weapons as usual:

Number of Rounds Left in the Magazine	Spawned Weapon	Weapon slot	Classification	Ammunition type
0	M16	Back	Assault rifle	5.56X45 mm NATO
1	Desert Express .50	Sidearm	Pistol	.50 Action Express
2	Beretta 92F	Sidearm	Pistol	9X19mm Parabellum
3	M16 A1	Back	Assault rifle	5.56X45 mm NATO
4	M4	Back	Carbine	5.56X45 mm NATO
5	Uzi	Auxiliary	Submachine gun	9X19mm Parabellum
6	Uzi 45	Auxiliary	Submachine gun	.45 Automatic Colt Pistol
7	Tec .45	Auxiliary	Submachine gun	.45 Automatic Colt Pistol
8	Tec 9	Auxiliary	Submachine gun	9X19mm Parabellum
9	Jerico-41	Sidearm	Pistol	.41 Action Express
10	G 53	Auxiliary	Submachine gun	5.56X45 mm NATO
11	Heckler and Koch G11	Back	Assault rifle	4.73X33 mm Caseless Flechette
12	C-36 Rifle	Back	Assault-sniper rifle hybrid
13	SG-36	Back	Assault-sniper rifle hybrid
14	C8 Rifle	Back	Assault-sniper rifle hybrid	7.62 X 45 mm NATO
15	SG-8	Back	Assault-sniper rifle hybrid	7.62 X 45 mm NATO
16	Mark 23	Sidearm	Pistol	.45 Automatic Colt Pistol
17	G51 A3	???	???
18	MC 36	???	???
19	M1 Super 90	Back	Shotgun	12 gauge shot
20	M-249 SAW	Back	General purpose machine gun	5.56X45 mm NATO
21	M4 Carbine	Back	Carbine	5.56X45 mm NATO
22	MAK-10 10mm	Auxiliary	Submachine gun	.45 Automatic Colt Pistol
23	Mak 32	???	???
24	MGL	Back	Grenade launcher	40X46 mm grenade
25	Objective Individual Combat Weapon System	Back	Assault rifle- grenade launcher hybrid*
26	ShotHammer	Back	Shotgun	12 gauge, 70 mm
27	PSM	Sidearm	Pistol	5.45X18 mm Soviet pistol
28	RPG-7	Back	Missile launcher	85mm unguided rocket/ missile
29	SSG 550	Back	Assault rifle	5.56X45 mm NATO
30	Advanced Combat Rifle	Back	Sniper rifle	5.56X45mm annular-primed SCF
31	ABRAM 2000	Auxiliary	Submachine gun	9X19mm Parabellum
32	Air Pistol	Auxiliary	Target-shooting weapon	Flechette darts
33	M82 BFG	Back	Sniper rifle	.50 Browning Machine Gun (12.7X99mm NATO)
34	AK-47	Back	Assault rifle	7.62X39 mm Soviet rifle
35	Beretta 93R	Sidearm	Pistol	9X19 mm Parabellum
36	Combat Shotgun	Back	Shotgun	12 gauge
37	Biz 9	Auxiliary	Submachine gun	9X19 mm Parabellum
38	SSG 550 Sniper	Back	Sniper rifle	5.56X45 mm NATO
39	D229	Sidearm	Pistol
40	SKS	Back	Assault rifle
41	SMAW_Old	Back	Missile launcher	83.5mm bunker buster, anti-tank, thermobaric missile
42	Helico 960	Auxiliary	Submachine gun
43	China Type 56		Assault rifle
44	China Type 67		Submachine gun
45	Colt .45 M1911 A1	Sidearm	Pistol
46	CZ 75	Sidearm	Pistol
47	CZ Mach-9	Sidearm	Pistol
48	Desert Eliminator .357	Sidearm	Pistol
49	Dragunov	Back	Sniper rifle
50	FA-MAS	Back	Assault rifle
51	FN FAL	Back	Assault rifle
52	SSP 90	Auxiliary	Submachine gun	5.7X28 mm armour piercing
53	Galil AR	Back	Assault rifle
54	Galil SG-1	Back	Sniper rifle
55	G-17	Sidearm	Pistol
56	G-18 MP	Sidearm	Machine pistol
57	G-20	???	???
58	G 33E	Back	Assault rifle
59	G 33 SG-1	Back	Sniper rifle
62	PPK	Sidearm	Pistol	7.65X17mm Browning SR (.32 ACP)
70	M16K	Back	Assault-sniper rifle hybrid	.45 Glazer
71	MDS A4	Auxiliary	Submachine gun
76	FAL SG-1	Back	Sniper rifle
77	Scorpion	Auxiliary	Submachine gun
78	Close Assault Weapon System	Back	Shotgun
79	Heckler and Koch PSG-1	Back	Sniper rifle
81	SKS SG-1	Back	Sniper rifle
82	M1 90	Back	Shotgun
83	Desert Sniper .44	Sidearm	Pistol
85	Makarov	Sidearm	Pistol
86	HK_MSG90	???	???
87	Spectre	Auxiliary	Submachine gun
88	Tanfoglio_Ta90	???	???
89	USAS 12	Back	Shotgun
90	RAS-70	???	???
91	UNP 45	Auxiliary	Submachine gun
93	M-143 Minigun	???	Heavy machine gun
94	(Uzi)	Auxiliary	Submachine gun
95	AK-47	Back	Assault rifle
97	SG 36	Back	???
98	(UNP 45)	Auxiliary	Submachine gun
99	Base	???	???
100	Combat Shotgun	Back	Shotgun
101	C8 Rifle	Back	Assault-sniper rifle hybrid
104	Jerico-9	Sidearm	Pistol
105	AK-74 SU	Auxiliary	Submachine gun
106	92F	Sidearm	Pistol
107	G11	Back	Assault rifle
108	RPK	Back	General purpose machine gun
109	VSS-Special	Back	Sniper rifle
110	Shot Defender	Back	Shotgun
111	Stava SG-76 H-BAR	Back	General purpose machine gun
112	Mark 23 SD	Sidearm	Pistol
113	SR-15	Back	Sniper rifle
114	AU300 Mod-R	Back	Assault-sniper rifle hybrid
115	Marz FMG	Auxiliary	Submachine gun
116	Vek R4	Back	Assault rifle
117	M16 A2	Back	Assault rifle
118	Sawed Off	???	Shotgun
120	M79	Back	Grenade launcher
122	Riot Shotgun	Back	Non-lethal shotgun
123	Riot Pistol	Sidearm	Non-lethal pistol
124	TH3 Blaster	Back	Flamethrower
125	Stava M85		???
126	MDS-7	Auxiliary	Machine pistol
128	DSC-1 Thermal	Back	Sniper rifle
130	Slug Defender	Back	Shotgun
131	AU300 SMG	Back	Assault-sniper rifle hybrid
132	AU300 HBAR	Back	Assault-sniper rifle hybrid
133	Helico pistol	Sidearm	Pistol
134	CZ-58	???	???
135	C3 Assault Rifle	Back	Assault rifle
136	G-22 SD	???	???
137	Grenade Launcher-69	???	Grenade launcher
138	M4_M203	Back	Assault rifle with grenade launcher
139	SPAS-15	Back	Shotgun
140	SPAS-12	Back	Shotgun
141	MDS SD2	Auxiliary	Submachine gun
142	MDS A3	Auxiliary	Submachine gun
143	Slughammer	Back	Shotgun
144	MDS-K PDW	Auxiliary	Submachine gun
145	SKSM	???	???
146	Sweeper 12 Gauge	Back	Shotgun
147	US M60 E3	Back	General purpose machine gun
148	VSS-DU	Back	Sniper rifle
149	Stava B1	???	???
155	Dragunov_Snow	Back	Sniper rifle
157	SP-57	Sidearm	Pistol
158	Flamethrower	Back	Flamethrower
159	SMAW	Back	Missile launcher
161	Shovel	Melee	Close-quarters combat instrument
*The grenade launcher on the OICW is rendered useless, so only the assault rifle can be fired.