Can I break a box in Deus Ex without a melee weapon?

Solution 1:

I recently did a "challenge run" of Deus Ex where I only permitted myself to use rifle weapons (sniper rifle, assault rifle, shotguns.)

That meant I needed to find ways to open crates without shooting them or using melee weapons. Here are the ways I found:

1. Drop the box from a height.
2. Stand on top of something and throw the crate upwards. You only need to stand on something about waist-height, like another crate, for this to work. Staircases are also good for this.
3. Set the crate on fire. A lot of locations have flaming barrels that work well for this. Try to get the box on top of the fire so the fire burns the crate completely. You could also use flares to set the crate on fire.
4. If you have the Run Speed augmentation, turn that on and do high-jumps on top of the box - the box will break after you land on it one or two times.
5. Put the box in a doorway and close the door.
6. Find a box of TNT and throw it at the crate you want to open.

Note that the only ways to break crates underwater are using melee weapons or the mini-crossbow, so if you don't have a melee weapon or a crossbow then it is impossible to break crates under water.

Solution 2:

The boxes take damage if you jump on them from some height or drop them (dropping would be preferred, because that way you cannot accidentally take damage). Height of ~2 meters is usually enough.

Solution 3:

I did a heavy-weapons run where I didn't have inventory room for a melee weapon.
My typical solution was to toss the box up, jump, catch the box and toss it up again.
Requires some practice and some head room, but one jump and toss gets enough height to break a supply crate.