You’re wading through the Shoreline swamp, knees deep in muck that feels like half-dried concrete. Your PMC is moving at the speed of a tectonic plate. Every splash sounds like a gunshot. You’re looking for a car—a specific SUV that belonged to a senior manager from Knossos LLC. It’s submerged. It’s broken. It’s a literal wreck.
Ragman calls the task Nothing Fishy About This.
If you’ve played Escape from Tarkov for more than ten minutes, you know the title is a lie. Everything in Tarkov is fishy. From the guy who just head-eyes'd you through a three-story wall to the developer promises that seem to vanish into the ether every time a new edition drops.
The Shoreline Swamp and the Quest for the Sunk SUV
Let’s get the "how-to" out of the way first because if you’re here, you probably just want to finish the damn quest and get your Ragman rep up.
You need to head to the northwest of the Shoreline map. Look for the abandoned village. There’s a wooden church that looks like it’s seen better centuries. Directly behind that church, tucked into the stagnant swamp water, is a black SUV.
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- Step 1: Don't run. You can't. The water will drain your stamina and leave you a sitting duck.
- Step 2: Walk up to the trunk of the car. You don't need to plant anything. You don't need to find a key. Just touch it.
- Step 3: Survive and extract.
Seriously, that's it. It’s a sub-level 30 quest that should be easy, but the "fishy" part is the fact that you’re basically a target dummy for any sniper sitting on the hills near the Power Station or the tunnel. It’s the quintessential Tarkov experience: a simple task made miserable by the environment.
Why the Community Can't Stop Saying It
"Nothing fishy about this" has evolved. It’s no longer just a quest name. It’s a sarcastic battle cry. When you see a Level 4 account with a 45.0 K/D ratio selling 40 Graphics Cards on the Flea Market? Nothing fishy about this. When Battlestate Games (BSG) announced the $250 Unheard Edition in 2024 and told Edge of Darkness (EoD) owners—who were promised all future DLC—that "PvE isn't DLC," the community lost its collective mind. The phrase became a meme. It was the only way to process the sheer audacity of the pricing model.
Nikita Buyanov, the face of BSG, has a history of these "trust me, bro" moments. Remember the "Wiggle that Killed Tarkov" video by g0at? It showed that roughly 60% of raids had a closet cheater. BSG’s response was, essentially, a shrug and a ban wave that lasted about forty-eight hours before the cheaters bought new accounts.
The 1.0 Milestone and the "Fishy" State of 2026
We are now officially into 2026. Escape from Tarkov has supposedly "launched," but the jank remains. The move to the Steam store brought in a fresh wave of players who are currently learning what the veterans have known for a decade: the game is a masterpiece of stress and a disaster of optimization.
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Streets of Tarkov still eats RAM like a starving Scav eats a Tushonka. If you aren't running 32GB or more, you're basically playing a slideshow.
What People Get Wrong About the Cheating Problem
Most players think every death is a cheater. It isn't. Desync is often the real culprit. Because of the way the game handles "peeker's advantage," a guy can round a corner and shoot you before his model even appears on your screen.
But—and this is a big but—the "fishy" stuff is real. The RMT (Real Money Trading) market is still thriving. If you see a guy in a raid who is ignoring you and just vacuuming loot through a floorboards? Yeah, that’s fishy.
Real Talk: Is It Still Worth Playing?
Honestly? Yes. There is literally nothing like it.
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You can try Gray Zone Warfare, Arena Breakout Infinite, or whatever "Tarkov Killer" is trending this week on Twitch. None of them capture the genuine, heart-palpitating terror of carrying a LedX in your Gamma container while hearing footsteps on the metal stairs of Resort.
The game is a mess. It’s expensive. The developers are unpredictable. But the gunplay—the way a suppressed M4 feels compared to a clunky, unmodded SKS—is still the gold standard.
Actionable Tips for Surviving the "Fishy" Raids
- Stop Sprinting Everywhere. Noise is the number one killer. If you're always running, you're always being tracked.
- Abuse the Flea Market. Use tools like Tarkov.dev to check prices in real-time. Don't hoard "maybe" items; sell them and buy what you need for your hideout.
- Learn the Left-Hand Peek. Actually, don't. Left-hand peeking is still broken in most versions of the engine. Always try to swing right so you expose less of your body.
- Accept the Loss. You are going to die to a cheater. You are going to die to a bug. You are going to die to a bush-wookie with a Mosin. The sooner you view your gear as "rented" rather than "owned," the more fun you'll have.
The quest Nothing Fishy About This is a perfect microcosm of the game. It’s a slog through the mud, looking for something that's already broken, while everyone else is trying to kill you. It’s frustrating, it’s arguably unfair, and yet, we keep clicking "Ready" for the next raid.
If you’re stuck on the Shoreline swamp quest, just take a cheap kit. A Paca and an SKS. Go at night. If you get shot by a guy who seemingly saw you through three layers of fog and a solid oak tree? Just shrug and say it with me:
Nothing fishy about this.
To get your Shoreline run finished efficiently, check your spawns on a secondary monitor map and prioritize the swamp early in the raid before the "Chads" migrate from the Resort to the extracts. Grab the SUV sub-task, then hug the northern wall toward Path to Lighthouse for the safest exit.