Thanks!
The shotgun does two things, one a bunch of damage, and two it acts as a parry mechanic. If you shoot an enemy during their attack windup, you'll cancel their attack and put them in a stun state during which attacks do some multiplier to their damage, I forget the exact amount off the top of my head. Shotgun parry then shovel is a one-two punch that will kill a regular raccoon.
I'll look into the pathing issue, thanks for pointing it out. I'm doing a bit of clean up post jam, so maybe I'll be able to fix that. I want to improve the caves in general anyway.
I'm glad you enjoyed it!