Destiny 2: Payback walkthrough guide – How to defeat the Goliath tanks and Interceptors
Our essential walkthrough for completing Destiny 2's Payback mission.
Our Destiny 2: Payback guide contains tips and tricks for defeating the Goliath tanks and Interceptors, as well as a complete walkthrough for the entire mission.
Payback’s an explosive mission that’ll see you pilot a Drake tank and blast your way towards a gigantic Cabal carrier. With a ton of vehicular resistance and delightful cannon fodder to enjoy smashing through along the way, it’s a refreshing experience from the rest of the missions we’ve played so far.
Do note that this is just the first edition of this walkthrough and we’ll be updating it with screenshots, gameplay footage and further advice in the near future. Keep this page bookmarked for more!
Editor’s UPDATE #1: Right at the bottom of the page we’ve embedded a video walkthrough to help you out even more. We’ll continue to update this article with more advanced strategy, so keep it bookmarked for the latest!
(If you want to be the best at every area of the game, don’t forget to bookmark our PVP, Strike and Subclass guide pages – they’ve got everything you need if you want to get more out of Destiny 2, and will be continuously updated in the weeks ahead.)
Get into the Drake tank
Starting in the Gulch, enter the tunnel structure until you see an opening to your right. It should lead into a Cabal chamber housing a couple of Psions and a Phalanx.
More Legionaries will appear here when you enter, so deal with them by chucking a grenade into the mix. You can also shred them all quickly with some close-quarters weaponfire from an SMG or shotgun.
Even using your Super here is acceptable as you’re about to enter a Drake tank anyway!
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- 1. Guide – Destiny 2 Guide
- 2. Crucible – Destiny 2 Crucible PVP guide
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- 5. Campaign – Destiny 2 Campaign walkthrough
Open the blast door
Start up the tank’s engine and embark into the tunnel. It’s worth testing out your new-found strength here and get used to how your missiles and cannons actually work. For mobile enemies, make sure you lock onto the enemies with your missiles by holding down the firing button!
Honestly, nothing really poses much of a threat in this section, so whenever you encounter anything, just spam it with a barrage of missiles and cannon-fire.
Before the tunnel eventually opens out into an enormous cavern, you’ll encounter the first tank summoning point. Summon a fresh tank and hop in, before locking onto the Thresher that swings by. Lock onto it with your missiles, fire them off to negate its own barrage, and then hit it with your main cannon.
Turn right, go around the corner and you’ll encounter a Thresher and Interceptor. Neutralise the Thresher’s missile barrage, blast the Interceptor, then focus all of your efforts on taking down the Thresher for good.
Manoeuvre around the rock pillar, mopping up all the fodder as you go. You’ll pass by another tank summoning point, so feel free to use it if need be. Proceed up the slope, clearing the trash and destroying another Thresher. You’ll have to turn a sharp right at some point and then lay down some big shots against an Interceptor.
Head over to the other tank summoning point and take down all the enemies nearby. Hop out and go into the cube-shaped chamber, before turning left. The door will open and you’ll come face to face with two Phalanxes, followed by Psions and an Incendior. Simply spray them down.
Once in the second room, turn left and wander over to the open door of a third room that a Centurion is guarding. It’s worth popping your Super and dropping him along with some Phalanxes too. When you’re done, dash out of the blast door and use your Ghost to open the tunnel door. Move back over to your tank and make your way through this newly opened area.
Defeat the first Goliath
You’re going to encounter an enemy tank when entering the Restricted Zone. Manoeuvre your way to the corner of the tunnel, tackling the two Interceptors on your way. Keep ploughing forwards, taking out the two Centurions you encounter and stick to the right as the enemy Goliath tank rolls in – along with two Interceptors!
Don’t go close-quarters with this tank, but you can retreat and take him out the crafty way. Back up into the tunnel and blast the Interceptors away first. Now it’s time to barrage the Goliath with everything you’ve got, using the pillar as cover so it can’t hit you back. Rinse, repeat and it’ll explode eventually.
Head back toward the blast door, summon a new tank and trundle it over toward the bridge.
When you reach the control room ramp, hop out and run in on foot. Clear the first room and make your way into the second upper chamber. Now’s the time to pop your Super and clear the room of the Centurion and War Beasts with ease. Once you’re done, activate the bridge console and return to your tank.
Drive across the bridge, again smashing anything you see. Cross the tunnel entrance and continue up through a connecting tunnel with another tank summoning point and into a cavern with two parallel bridges.
Destroy the generators
Begin this part of the mission by crushing all the Cabal forces. Then focus your attention on the two Goliath tanks parked on the opposite side of the bridge. We recommend hiding behind the initial large rock and the huge rock pillar toward the entrance of the cavern. Use the environment to protect you from their fire, poke out and fire at them periodically, focusing on them one at a time. Be patient and they’ll both go down.
With both of them taken care of, deal with any other Threshers and infantry that pose a threat and cross the bridge. Head out into the tunnels and into the area known as the Sunken Isles.
Once you’re in the Sunken Isles, you’ve got to destroy a number of Generators. Target the one closest to the lake and to the right of the giant Cabal carrier ship.
Drive down the side road, destroy the Interceptors and over to the exposed core of the generator. Fire your cannon into it and your objective will update.
Head back to the main road, turn right and work your way around to the high ground above the second generator. Destroy the Interceptor, carry on past the main base door and clear the trash. Now it’s a case of swinging towards the flat earth by the generator, taking out the opposition and hitting the generator’s core.
Destiny 2 walkthrough content
Use the links below to access all of our mission walkthroughs:
- Mission 1: Homecoming – Homecoming walkthrough
- Mission 2: Adieu – Adieu walkthrough
- Mission 3: Spark – Spark walkthrough
- Mission 4: Combustion – Combustion walkthrough
- Mission 5: Hope – Hope walkthrough
- Mission 6: Riptide – Riptide walkthrough
- Mission 7: Utopia – Utopia walkthrough
- Mission 8: Looped – Looped walkthrough
- Mission 9: Six – Six walkthrough
- Mission 10: Sacrilege – Sacrilege walkthrough
- Mission 11: Fury – Fury walkthrough
- Mission 12: Payback – Payback walkthrough
- Mission 13: Unbroken – Unbroken walkthrough
- Mission 14: Larceny – Larceny walkthrough
- Mission 15: 1AU – 1AU walkthrough
- Mission 16: Chosen – Chosen walkthrough
Defeat the Interceptors and Goliath, Ground the Carrier
It’s time for the boss encounter, and it’s not against one large named enemy. Instead, you’ll face off against three to four Interceptors and a Goliath tank.
Make it easy by targeting the closest enemies first, using the tunnel below the carrier bay as a handy place to avoid taking damage. Take long range shots at the Goliath from here, and use the nearby summoning point to get a new vehicle if you’re struggling. This ensures you’re never going to lose!
When you’re done, move to the road and look up at the carrier’s exhaust ports. Barrage it at the lower centre ports and take out any other vehicular resistance. Mission complete!
Check the links a little further up the page if you want to navigate to the next mission.
Video Walkthrough
This mission can get a little tricky if you position yourself incorrectly and get caught up in a hail of missiles. We thought it would be useful to embed a video walkthrough down below which’ll give you an even better feel for the mission and compliment our text walkthrough nicely with some visual aid.
This is also a great time to reiterate our biggest piece of advice for this mission, and that’s to make use of the tank spawn points. Even if you’re tank goes down, don’t sweat it, you’ll be able to get it back an infinite number of times!
