Research Crates

Overview
Research Crates are box/crate-like objects that usually fall from the sky and are most plentiful at night. There are 7 kinds of crates, 5 that appear naturally and 2 from the daily gift with the exception of the executive crate,which is only for people who purchased the Executive Gamepass.

Basic Crate
The lowest tier of crate, they normally give 200-1k RP with a small chance to give a Mystery Box. These crates can be found abundantly throughout the map.Despawns after 300 seconds according to the source code as of October 14, 2016.

Golden Crate
Less common than wooden crates and are larger, they can give 1k-10k RP but mostly staying in the 2k-5k RP range. They also have a high chance to yield Regular Boxes and a small chance to yield an Unreal Box. With the Premium Mining gamepass, all Golden Crates will have a Lucky Clover. Despawns after 300 seconds according to the source code as of October 14, 2016.

Shadow Crate
They spawn at night. Around about as common as Golden crates but they are much smaller, half transparent and black which makes them hard to see at night. They usually grant about 1k RP, and seem to have a high chance to give an Unreal Box. They also have a small chance to give Regular boxes. They disappear as soon as the sun rises.

Diamond Crate
Diamond crates are the most powerful research crates but are very rare. They usually give 10k RP-17.5k RP but can rarely give up to 30k RP. You are almost guaranteed a mystery box, or medium chance of an Unreal box, an unlikely chance of a Lucky Clover or even the rare Inferno Box. Despawns after 600 seconds according to the source code as of October 14, 2016.

Unobtanium Crate
Also known as Purple Crates. They are about the same size as Basic Crates, but they are pink and grant Unobtanium Crystals instead. You usually get 1-4 uC from this crate. Has a medium chance of yielding mystery boxes. Also the first crate made after the Combat Update.

Executive Crate
When an Executive Mining member opens their daily gift they will receive an Executive Crate. It grants RP and Mystery Boxes much like a normal crate, but also grants extra speed and a random weapon which might be admin only. It has a much higher chance to yield Infernos than a normal Diamond Crate. Unlike all other crates, it cannot drop naturally.

Gift Crate
This is a special type of crate that drops only upon opening a Daily Gift. These crates always contain a regular Mystery Box, akin to the executive crates but less powerful. Otherwise they act like regular boxes RP-wise.

Crate Storm
Crate Storm is a product first seen in Miner's Haven on May 5th 2016. Crate storms costs R$45 and is sold by any merchant, after the Outdoors Update, which was created on May 5th, 2016. These are mainly sold by The Masked Man, which was introduced in this update. As the name suggests, it makes it rain a set of research crates for any player to pickup. This does not drop event crates such as evil pumpkins, or special crates like gift and executive crates. For some reason, crate storms don't drop shadow crates at night.

Fake Crate
Fake Crates are created by players who have access to a remote after buying the Pocket Nebula during the Black Friday 2016 Sale. These crates are around the size of diamond crates and have a random color. They're produced with a remote that has a 10 second cooldown. When touched, it explodes, sending the player far away, and it also makes a fart sound.

Giant Crate
This is a crate variant exclusive to those who bought the Giant Crate Artifact on Black Friday. Upon opening a Daily Gift, one of these will be dropped. Upon contact, the Giant Crate awards the player with a large amount to RP, and guarantees to obtain Mystery Boxes. Most commonly, 1 regular box is obtained. Rarely you're awarded with an unreal, or inferno box.

Evil Pumpkin
This "crate" was introduced in the 2016 Spooky Update. They gave no research points, but had always given a Pumpkin Box (A Regular Box). Despawns after 50 or 90 (quality was too low in image) seconds according to the source code as of October 14, 2016.

Mega Pumpkin
The Mega Pumpkin is a much larger and brighter version of a regular evil pumpkin. Along with giving a spooky box, the Mega Pumpkin award the users with the cell furnace Candy Bag. When a Mega Pumpkin spawns, an announcement in white text appears saying:

A massive Evil Pumpkin has been spotted!

Golden Gift
Similar to the Evil Pumpkin, upon contact they give a Regular Box.

Quick facts

 * Basic crate: 100-800 RP and has a small chance to yield a regular box.
 * Gold Crate: 1-10k RP and has a larger chance to yield a regular box and a small chance to yield an Unreal. Guarantees Lucky Clovers with the Premium Gamepass.
 * Shadow Crate: 500-2k RP and has a small chance to yield a regular or unreal box.
 * Diamond Crate: 10-25k RP and will almost always yield a regular box, but has a chance to instead yield an Unreal Box, and very small chances to yield a Lucky Clover or Inferno Box.
 * Daily Crate: 1-5k RP and will always yield a Regular box.
 * Giant Crate: 1.7k - 5k RP and will almost always yield a regular box, but has a small chance to yield 1 regular box, 1 unreal, and 1 inferno box.
 * Fake Crate: Does not give RP and explodes upon contact, making a fart sound and causing knockback.
 * Evil Pumpkin:  No RP and will always yield a Pumpkin Box (Regular Box).
 * Mega Pumpkin: No RP and will always yield a Spooky Box (Unreal Box).
 * Golden Gift: No RP and will always yield a Regular Box.

Trivia

 * After Part II of the 2015 Winter Update, there was a server-wide announcement for a "Rainbow Crate" dropping. However, it was a prank set up by Berezaa and it was met with severe backlash.
 * Gift Crates used to spawn on bases, sparkling as if they were opened. You can get rid of these crates by launching them with cannons. This was then fixed on ??/??/????.
 * Gift Crates occasionally give half a research point along with the usual amount.
 * Sometimes the crates can disappear without notice, usually within 1-3 minutes.
 * The despawn source code for the crates was acquired while Berezaa was streaming when he showed it on stream seen here https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CuwOPkyVYAAa7uQ.jpg:large.