The "Magic Box Trick" is the main method of gaining access to Omega Strain's Beta Weapons, weapons which are not an "official" part of the game and were dropped during the game's development stage.
In addition to being able to obtain normally unattainable weapons and equipment, players can use this method to obtain great weapons on very low levels (equipment which normally needs to be unlocked by typical means), this method can greatly aid players to get certain Ratings (such as Tactical Explosives Specialist) with ease not to mention that weapons with abnormal (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 - Special Weapon Crates
First of all, certain "special" weapon crates are necessary to perform the trick, look for crates which try to "take" your weapon away instead of giving you 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 assault rifle, 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're looking for is a crate which, upon interaction, will not show any available weapon (instead it will have an empty "Available" item window).
The most popular and easy-to-use special crates can be located in the Carthage 2 (Warehouse District) mission:
After starting the mission walk a bit forward and then turn to the right and walk into the room with a train and various terrorists which are talking (and some who are patrolling). Turn to the left and climb up, to the train platform, again turn left and climb the stairs, you should see the crate which is necessary to perform the trick (the crate which contains a FA-MAS under normal circumstances, memorize it).
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 specific crate normally gives 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 rifles from that specific crate), the objective is to obtain the same type of weapon which is included in that crate after interacting with it.
Step 3 - How it Works
Essentially, the box will "convert" it's 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.
- 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;
- If you have your FA-MAS with a full 25-round magazine press X , your weapon should have "vanished";
- Interact with the weapon crate yet again and note that it contains something;
- Press X to obtain the weapon (null), if you use it it won't show any weapon;
- Pause the game (Start button) and go to 'Equipment' (alternatively press and hold the Left directional button and highlight the new weapon);
- Press Down (directional button) and drop the weapon.
- Pick it up again (it should show up on your back).
- 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" it's 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 haves a limited 25-round magazine, it won't allow the player to obtain the weapons above 25 by itself, 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 haves 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 it's ammo, abling you to reload the machine gun's 200 round magazine). / After you have reloaded the M249, drop the reloaded weapon and pick 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.
Important Notes
- Not all weapons which are able of being spawned in the crate are 'Back'-carried ones, other equipment can be also obtainable (for example an Auxiliary weapon such as the Helico 960 Submachine Gun), make sure you drop the weapon of the corresponding type (if you're carrying it) to being able to pick the new one up.
- 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).
Theoretically though, it's still 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 sidearms (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 the same Arms Bazaar). The main problem is that there's no M249 or a sidearm 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, for example).
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 (other than that, 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 (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), also note that, depending on the game version, some crates might not spawn weapons as usual: