I
Rented for events & Owned 1.0 for a year & my tt returns were around 97-97.5% on millions cycled with relatively low looter. I even used a lot of damage enh on those 1.0. Still profitable
Don't be afraid of 1.0, it's not bad. You can still do well with it.
My Best advice for your bankroll:
Weapon Set (<6k)
BLP: Adj maddox (4k? at t0), Enigma L2 (3k? at t0). with beast amp
Laser: Adj EP 41 (4k?), lp1000 (3k?) + a A105/106 or i105
Pistols cheapest, rifles are expensive. But you can cheapout on armor for rifles.
Weapon Set (<1.5k)
Melee + tagger: Any long range tagger <200 ped. Philo + Trauma 4 will go a long way. No sharp conversions, but MA compensates with higher eff on a low cost weapon.
Healing (+4.3k?)
Adj Restoration chip (4.3k?) and nothing else
Armor (+2-300?)
If melee ur armor needs will be intense. Gremlin / ghost is fine for now.
Plates (+50?)
7 regular serpent scale. They cheap and good for cost.
Rings (<2k)
Athenic Mod/Aug + Ares Mod/Aug
You'll spend anywhere between 8-12.5k for the setup, and have another 11-16k to cycle and manage bankroll. should be good enough.
You wanna pick weapons where there is some kind of progression. There is no progression with whips. If you do whips, you'll be stuck at adj boiga. However, you can do adj boiga for awhile, and just level up other stuff slowly from common skills.