Got the Soul Eater Ring (Castlevania) far earlier than I expected. Fortunately, I remembered a room, and a nice trick I used earlier to get some cash.
Simply requires a little patience, panther soul is not required, but helps (Optionally, Rycuda can also multi-hit; even low-leveled), and a few trips to Hammer and Yoko a few times. While gathering, I advise you use the Gold Ring the whole time so the drops are more likely $100-$500s per kill. It also helps to have as high luck as you can (Max out Ghost Dancer ASAP, and get the 777 armor ASAP as well; you can also hunt down the infinity+1 armor if you want as well, but that'll be significantly later in the game; you should have the gold ring by then) for soul reaping purposes.
Just a few blocks away from the shops, there's a tiny hall that is filled with 5 zombies everytime before you go in and out of it (just before the first mirror you see in the game, which Pandora is required to get the item behind the wall; 6 zombies if you kill that one too), I like to call it "Zombieland" due to the 100% guarantee they'll be there waiting for you, with 10-11 kills each loop between the (2) rooms. Why is this such a nice exploit? Well, if you're like me and want to keep a low level for the fun, zombies only give 1XP per kill, and have a half-decent soul drop rate, even without the ring; use a Gold Ring instead and those 5 have a higher drop rate for tons of cash.
Keep killing these guys until you've acquired 9 of them (maxed out). Once you have (and you should also net a decent amount every max-out trip if you have the gold ring on; a good $2500-$5000 easy), then go visit Yoko and upgrade all the Brass Knuckles (provided you visited Hammer first to get 9 of them) 1 stage up to Cestus, and sell those back to Hammer (and break the bank). The profit margin is worth it. Think of it $200-per knuckle (x9 = $1800), and Cestsuses sell for $3000 a pop ($6000 purchase price); that means that selling 9 of them is a whopping amount (x9 = $27,000); profit margin is then ($1800 - $27,000) a difference of +$25,200. Helpful for anyone going for that accursed ring ($300,000). So from broke, excluding spoils from initial soul reaping, ($300,000 / $25,200 =) 12 trips. With spoils, I would say it's a guaranteed 10 trips tops from broke. I say it's worth it. Hell, provided you got the ring early enough, take your time early in the game. Wish I learned of this earlier for earlier collecting. Oh well. :shrugs:
Seriously, it doesn't take that long, whether you have the Panther Soul or not.
Fixed a few little typos/maths.