I recommend new players to spend time practising with £400 and £800 strategies because this will give you more experience of hairy trips west in Level 5 and 7 increasing your skill faster and sharpening your decision making skills.
If you want to use a £1200 strategy you will need to understand the purchase rules to avoid horrible lumpy runs, which requires experience, AND you will need to be absolutely on point with your money walkovers. It is VERY easy to lose time attempting a £1200 strategy - if you end up needing money in the banks in 5 or 6 you are generally screwed unless it's a snail conversion or you're harvesting insurance for 7.
If you want to use a £400 strategy, get your money from: -West Bank 1, and the two Alien Men who come across the bottom path after that returning to the shop, and other enemies you find in L1 -Opportune walkover points in L2, exploiting the 4 snails on the bridge on the return to shop -Opportune walkover points in L3.
For an £800 strategy (best fit overall), add in the East Bank in L2, and more enemies in L2 and 3. The general rule is any cluster of 2+ enemies is good to grub money unless they require many hits (ie a group of miners in 3 is terrible). 1 moneybag, as a rule, should take <1.0 seconds to grab out of your way to be worthwhile. If you struggle, use West Bank in L3.
In Level 3, buy the Red Miner, IF: -It comes up as letter 2, 3, or 4 (only if you have NOT exited the shop first) -You haven't already had Red Batman (since that's the goal object) -You have not had Red Rat in P1, unless you then get Black Rat
Obeying the above, buy Red Miner, after White Miner.
In L4, if you get the Red Pussycat west of the level, jump in the shop straight away and buy it. You can go west for the pigeon, not east: to the 3-pronged bridge just after where Red Toad shows up.
If you get the Mosquito in L4 you don't need to wait for it to appear: just get the Superscroll straight away. Similarly for Black Lynx, scroll the screen so that the 2 columns right of the shop, before the water, appear, and it will Superscroll. You can't do this with Red Lynx or Red Toad. You can spawn the Green Toad on-screen then run back and Superscroll without a kill, generally.
In Level 5, if your first enemy is any snail, go right. If he is there and your 2nd enemy is a snail, buy it and the antelope which follows (it's always the far antelope). You will then always get the closer, right-side Blue Athlete.
Never EVER buy the worm unless it's your last letter, or you want to try a 50/50 gamble from p5 that you will score a good p6 animal when behind your pb. Worm slots transfer to the west snail, one of the slowest enemies in the whole game, and there are plenty of places in the WOF where worm follows worm. So if you absolutely must buy a worm, go out of shop first and manipulate WOF a bit.
If your first snail in L5 comes up in p4 or later it is reasonable to gamble on buying it without travel. Never in p1-3.
In L6, the pigeon who haunts the mausoleum is not on a fixed cycle. He can spawn early, in which case jump over the top of the bank, normal position, in which case go BACK and around the bank, DO NOT TRY TO KILL IT because you can fall in a hole, or late. If it's late close, you must get used to fireducking after jumping into the centre of the mausoleum, because the Blue Athlete can often line up badly.
In Level 7, the normal ratio of ghosts appearing west versus the one you can spawn by moving east is 6:1, but you only lose 2-3 seconds for an attempt so it's often worth it. Toad ratios are 1:1 and the west toad will sometimes give a draw delay.
