Yeah, I've got digging for artifacts down aggressively and I've been following this guide for the most part:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EHCM-n_4vq_Hv7V1wo9QSTcRP2ba4qRqBh8fOh5PiKk/edit?tab=t.0I see you're more dubious of IACP, but man does it make life easier in the beginning. I will eventually max Merc upgrades but they really don't do much. I'm currently upgrading my Alloy Value artifact to uncommon so hopefully that will help with money problems, but the Alloy Value is too expensive to unlock. Cache Money feels close to useless.