**Halo: Reach — The Package's tank challenge, data pads, and hidden rooms**
**MCC guide. Mission spoilers.**
The Package has two very different secrets: four Banshees near the beginning, and a hidden room after the final defense. Neither is required to complete the story. The tank achievement is a third job entirely, and its wording has confused people since the original release.
Here is what each attempt actually needs.
**The mission records**
- **This Is Not Your Grave:** complete The Package in MCC.
- **Speedy Delivery:** finish below **20 minutes**.
- **How Did I Lose All My Fingers?:** finish above the **65,000-point par score**.
- **Tank Beats Everything:** bring the Scorpion through its section on **Legendary**, intact at the Sword Base approach.
Use a full mission start for the completion/time/score records. The two collectible detours and the Tribute Room are not sensible additions to a first attempt at the time target.
The 65,000 score is substantially higher than several earlier missions. Plan for scoring across the tank section and the cavern, not just a few impressive explosions. Choose scoring skulls you can manage, avoid zero-multiplier modifiers, and keep moving through necessary objectives. Time-bonus decay can make a promising displayed score less comfortable later. Check the final result, not just your best number during the fight.
**Tank Beats Everything: intact doesn't mean untouched**
The Scorpion must reach the Sword Base approach on Legendary. Merely leaving it undamaged where it spawned and finishing the level on foot is not the intended delivery condition.
Some damage is allowed. You don't need to restart because a single plasma round hit the armor. You do need a working tank at the required approach, and it is far easier to protect one that isn't already burning.
Clear the opening lookout before boarding. Then use the tank's range and the terrain. Bring only enough of it around a corner to fire, back off while the cannon reloads, and prioritize fuel-rod turrets before advancing into their field of fire.
If a position is difficult to hit safely from the tank, you can park behind cover and remove the threat on foot. Then return for the vehicle. In co-op, a partner can help clear the road without forcing the tank to lead every encounter.
The award can register around the Sword Base entry objective, before the final cavern battle. You are not expected to drive the Scorpion into Halsey's lab. If it is destroyed, returning to a checkpoint where it is still intact is a documented recovery approach; don't continue past its wreck and expect the later cutscene to restore eligibility.
**Data pad 8 — Terminal Conditions**
In the damaged Sword Base interior, follow the normal path through the broken-glass opening toward the control panel that advances the mission.
Before using that panel, inspect the floor to the left, opposite the panel/door interaction. Read the pad there. This one is available on any difficulty; the important missable point is using the transition before checking the room.
**Data pad 17 — Silent Shepherds**
Play on **Legendary** and reach the cavern defense. Pick up a jetpack from the equipment area beside the lab entrance.
Head toward defense turret **C**, then use the rocks behind it to get onto the outer ledge. Continue toward the cliff face southeast of the turret. The destination is a small ledge around the building's corner, below the bridge—not the bridge deck itself.
Use the jetpack to cross the gap, allowing fuel to recharge on safe footing rather than trying to fly the entire distance in one burst. Look along the narrow ledge for the pad and interact with it.
Do this when you can spare the attention from incoming enemies. A correctly chosen ledge won't protect you from a firefight you've left active behind you.
**Fly, You Fools! — four Banshees, two switches**
Arrange two players for the straightforward method. One switch briefly enables the other, so have both people in position before anyone presses anything. Easy is supported by the MCC-specific creator guide; some older written guides incorrectly insist on Legendary. Legendary is needed for other targets in this mission, not automatically for every secret.
Clear the opening settlement. At the shack on the southern side of the lake, move the large crate against its north-facing wall. A Ghost can push it. Leave one player at the newly exposed wall; the second switch is not visible yet.
The other player continues to the Scorpion area. Below the short cliff south of the tank, near the water and rock face, locate the glowing green first switch. This area has an out-of-bounds countdown, so identify the route back before committing.
Press that switch, then have the waiting player immediately activate the switch that appears on the shack wall. The window is brief—don't wait for a leisurely conversation or a confirmation screenshot. Four Banshees appear on the nearby building's roof.
If you want to continue the mission afterward, **destroy both AA guns before coming back to operate the switches**. The Easter egg is documented as making those guns invulnerable when activated too early, which can prevent normal progress. For an achievement-only visit, you still need to understand that the remaining mission may no longer play normally.
This is not the final cavern Banshee hijack, and it has nothing to do with New Alexandria's Pelican conversion.
**This is Not the Greatest Lab in the World…**
The ordinary mission-ending cutscene does not satisfy this hidden-room award.
Play the cavern defense on **Legendary**. Finish the waves, wait for Halsey to invite you inside, but **do not activate the normal lab entrance**. Equip a jetpack for the switch detour.
Cross back over the bridge away from the lab and bear left toward the fenced/caged structure. The hidden switch is behind and below that structure, outside the normal boundary. Descend with the jetpack, activate the glowing switch on the wall, and return to safe ground before the countdown expires. This is a tricky maneuver; a co-op partner remaining safely inside the play area makes recovery less punishing than a solo checkpoint reset.
The newly opened side entrance is to the right when facing the lab building. Seven sword-carrying Elite Generals emerge. Keep distance and use the weapons or surviving vehicles you prepared before the switch. Don't stand at the doorway admiring the successful trigger while they close in.
Go through that side entrance and continue into the teleport area to reach the Tribute Room. The room contains Bungie's acknowledgments and other details worth inspecting. Check the award before using the room's exit/ending interaction.
The main lab doorway, the hidden switch, and the side entrance are three different locations. Keeping those separate is the easiest way to avoid finishing the mission just as you meant to start the secret.
**Halo: Reach — The Package's tank challenge, data pads, and hidden rooms**
· Games / Halo: Reach