Crate

A crate is a type of temporary storage. It appears when the engineer respawns or if there is insufficient amount of empty slots in the inventory when dismantling.

Death crate
A crate that appears after the engineer dies and respawns. It usually appears at the location of death. In a multiplayer game, reviving an engineer won't spawn a crate, as all inventory contents and equipment remain in the inventory of the revived character.
 * All items from the engineer's inventory including equipment slots are dropped into the crate.
 * If the engineer dies without carrying any item, no crate will be created.
 * Its location and direction are indicated on the Map and Compass, until a save is reloaded.
 * If the engineer dies in the void or due to border damage, the crate will be spawned on the latest spot where the engineer stood on the ground.
 * For example, if the engineer dies at the map border due to being launched too far with a Hyper Tube Cannon, the death crate will spawn at the launching point.

Dismantle crate
A crate appears below the dismantled building(s) if there are insufficient inventory slots to receive the building refund material. This includes the solid items stored in the building input and output slots, and the cost of Power Lines connected to it.

This crate does not appear on the Map or Compass.

Common properties
Both types of the crates above share the following properties:
 * The inventory size of the crate is automatically sized to contain the necessary items.
 * You can transfer items from the crate to the engineer's inventory but not the other way round.
 * Once all its contained items are picked up, the crate is automatically removed. A crate cannot be dismantled by the engineer.
 * Crates cannot be built manually.
 * A crate does not have an encroachment box. This means any buildings can be built intersect with it without issue.
 * Crates, along with contained items, never despawn. As mentioned before, only the indication of death crates will disappear from the map and compass on save reload.

Trivia

 * The maximum possible amount of stacks a crate can store is 2451, which can be achieved by mass dismantling 50 full Freight Platforms:
 * 2400 stacks of any item
 * 6 stacks of
 * 2 stacks of
 * 25 stacks of
 * 12.5 (rounded up to 13) stacks of
 * 5 stacks of