The water can be a shortcut. If you see any shrimp before you get to the boat shoot them. Avoid them in the water as much as you can. Don't take the boat if the big shrimp is nearby.

The Volga is a whole lot easier dealing with shrimp than it is in tunnels.

you can quickly kill the shrimps with your tikhar so long that you shoot them in the abdomen (lower part of the body from the side and front, because they have armor on the upper side). The aim on them is kinda BS and often they will hit you with their ranged attack even if if looks like you moved out of the way. When i see one approach or even simply get into the water i instantly stop paddling and take out my gun. Duke tells you that "if you don't make much noise, the catfish will not bother you" which is true, i used the tikhar and he never really bothered me (he starts spawning only after you're sent to get the train to get the passenger wagon). If you see him, stay away from him. If the shrimps start humping your boat, you can melee them off (3 melee hits will do), they will not die and will become aggressive, but it's a way to save ammo and not make any sound, just kill them as they emerge from the water to spit at you. Also be careful if you see two fishermen cultists on a small island (where a safehouse is present) and stand nearby them for too long, the mf catfish will come out of the water and devour them both, granting a nice jumpscare. You can listen to their conversation from around a corner to not make it happen.

It's not Stepan that tells you to go there by boat, it's Damir when he's talking with Sam. And it is true that there is a highly radioactive area on your way there, if you stand there too long your health will get drained by radiation and that area is filled with mutants.

The contaminated tunnel is just a quick way of getting you some resources by grabbing green mushroom and poof plants (make sure to crouch next to those red poof plants or they will trigger and damage you). Snipe the mutants with a suppressed weapon (I use the Tikhar because it's just so cheap in ammo and always suppressed unless you mount the Railgun barrel).

Overall though i tend to also avoid water as much as possible, you are too vulnerable on that ♥♥♥♥♥♥ wooden boat, i usually at least clear out the area before i have to get on a boat.

I just think they are not worth the effort, the shrimps I mean. Oh Damir yeah he is on the way out, I still don't like Stepan though lol. The zone is very easy to avoid though and there's no loot in it, or at least nothing worthwhile. Regarding the tunnel, yeah i looted it on my second playthrough but i went there on my terms. Yes I looted all the exploding plant things. And of course Tikhar is my weapon of choice. Once I realized it was only 1 mechanical resource per bullet and 0 chemical I didn't use anything else. And it's pretty good for headshots as well. Yeah the catfish wasn't a problem for me either. Lol i wondered what had happened to the fishermen, I didn't see them get eaten but I noticed they were gone, poor guys.

Ignoring the shrimpies really is a good course of action. I can't think of any meaningful loot spots on the shoreline that they are guarding anyhow. There are also plenty of corpses for them to feed upon, so I did not perceive them as much of a threat in the first place.

Lurkers are still the worst enemies imho. They just rush in immediately and force you into quick time events that leave you bloodied. Other enemies have a pretty predictable movement pattern and even watchmen can be outrun to a degree and then picked off on distance. Lurkers also have pretty sharp senses and rush in from miles away when you fight other enemies. For supposedly being scavengers they are acting like apex predators.

Originally posted by Fafnir:

Ignoring the shrimpies really is a good course of action. I can't think of any meaningful loot spots on the shoreline that they are guarding anyhow. There are also plenty of corpses for them to feed upon, so I did not perceive them as much of a threat in the first place.

Lurkers are still the worst enemies imho. They just rush in immediately and force you into quick time events that leave you bloodied. Other enemies have a pretty predictable movement pattern and even watchmen can be outrun to a degree and then picked off on distance. Lurkers also have pretty sharp senses and rush in from miles away when you fight other enemies. For supposedly being scavengers they are acting like apex predators.:lunar2019deadpanpig:

They are defeinitely a bigger threat than in previous games, best gun to deal with them is the AK, two shots at most, but i do agree they are just way too fast and quick.