Pripyat tunnel - how the hell do you keep your squad alive? (spoilers)

[Janthis]

I'm only playing on Normal difficulty, but I have no idea what to do here. There's a section of tunnel that opens up into a larger area where you get ambushed by a pack of snorks - 4 or 5 of them at once. My squadmates literally die in seconds. We would have a chance if I could tell them to stand back in the tunnel and pick off the snorks as they try to reach us, but the suicidal idiots will just run ahead into the open and get mowed down faster than I can kill those bastards.

I've heard it's possible to keep all your guys alive and it makes for a better ending, but HOW???

[{𝓛𝓮𝓫𝓴𝓪}]

You just need to be faster than snorks, maybe throw some grenades before snorks can hit the ground while they are jumping.

I don´t know really, I just used normal weapons, get in front of the gate and when it going up, I just shoot what I see, 2 or more before they even land. You just need to be closer to them, to make yourself as the target.

[arottweiler]

I find two assault rifles with grenade launchers work wonders during this mission and any other time you encounter snorks. It's near impossible to take out all the snorks with bullets before they kill at least one of my group.

You can buy grenades from the traders but I think they arn't buyable at the very start of the game and you need to get some achievements. When they can be bought they are only 300 each so it's not expensive to stock up on 50 each other them. That will be more than enough to keep all the squad alive by keeping the snorks away from them.

As soon as the doors starts opening and you can see the snorks fire off a grenade and then quickly switch to the next gun and fire off another grenade. If any are still alive you can either switch to ammo to finish them off or if you have time reload another grenade do that. The good thing about grenades is you can take out multiple enemies if you aim it right. I shot at the floor ideally in the middle of a group of them.

Just be careful you don't kill your own team. Get used to using the green dots on the HUD display to know where they are instead of visually looking at them. If you can see 4 green dots they are alive.

[Janthis]

I guess I'll try the grenade thing, although that means going back to a savegame before I entered the tunnel. I have an upgraded auto shotgun, but it doesn't seem to do the job - it takes 2-3 shots to kill a snork, and by the time I've gotten them all, 1 or 2 squad members are dead. This is really frustrating, and it makes me wonder if this part of the game has been playtested at all.

[arottweiler]

I think the problem is with how easily the squad can die from mutants like snorks. The squad can take a lot of damage from bullets but it seems like one or two swipes from a snork is enough to kill them so I've noticed the only way to keep the squad alive is to make sure snorks never get near them and only grenade launchers seem to do the job. One bullet to the head is enough to take out a snork but they are very hard to get and it's a tall order to get 3 or 4 headshots on snorks in the space of a few seconds. Even Ironman couldn't do that.

[Martial.Lore]

Rifle grenade is good. NPCs shooting each other is a bigger problem than snorks, for me.

[arottweiler]

Originally posted by Martial.Lore:

Rifle grenade is good. NPCs shooting each other is a bigger problem than snorks, for me.

They are shooting at snorks and continue shooting when the snorks jump so end up hitting allies and causing crazy ape bonkers. That's why snorks and the squad don't mix and I run ahead to clear out the place.

[ghoster]

Use a shotgun like the Eliminator or Carabiner with buckshot (never slugs), and an assault rifle with a grenade launcher and only AP ammo. Practice on the surface aginst snorks before this quest. Ungrade your weapons a much as possible -- shotgun upgrades greatly increase effective range, flatness and accuracy. Also, make sure you have plenty of ammo -- especially shotgun shells. And arottweiler is soooo right about mutants vs NPC's. It seems that a mutant only has to touch your squadmates and they fall "dead."

[Janthis]

The grenade launcher was a good idea, but I ended up using the actual grenade launcher, which works better than an attachment because you don't have to keep reloading. I eventually got through with only one guy dying - damn Monolith ambush. But we avenged him!

[ghoster]

When you say "actual grenade launcher" do you mean that revolver type weapon or the FT-200m rifle which has a built-in launcher with the auto load feature?

[Janthis]

The revolver type, I just forgot what it's called. This is a thread from a month ago, after all. :)

[darebrained]

I think i went with the predator (or whatever the quest reward shotgun was called) in combination with slugs carried me through the whole tunnel, as those tiny little bastards can rip most things in half due to preda's stats. (probably best shotgun, you get it as final reward from the hunting quest you get in the second area after finishing the Magpie quest.

[ghoster]

This is funny. Everybody seems to have his own way of doing things. :) I tried the Predator (reward for Trapper's chimera hunting quest) and didn't particularly like it -- not fast enough. I also was not impressed with the slugs. They did not have the stopping power that I've seen in "real life"(a .45 pistol with Hydoshock ammo seemed just as good).

I just finished the tunnel mission and managed to keep everybody alive without using a single 40mm grenade. One reload was needed in the big room with the Monolith A-holes. I was wondering why the Stalkers (like Zulu) have such a bad opinion of the military. Is there something in the backstory about this? (ionutz1280 -- on master difficulty, it seems like the snipers can end your game with only a couple of hits).