ProbablyP3
@ProbablyP3

The Pitchfork is a pretty underwhelming weapon in Ramona's Curse. Without the strong synergy between itself, Hyper Visor, Eyepatch, and Fertilizer, the Pitchfork can't even come close to the Weedwhacker in terms of raw DPS, not for AoE nor for single-target. Without Lootsnakes, midgame DPS isn't as critical to high scores as it is in the base game, but the 200-yield boss snakes are beyond the Pitchfork's reach without our precious piercing.

So the Pitchfork is mid at killing snakes. It has one major upside however: it's really good at not killing snakes. This is important because Oil snakes provide incredible yields as long as you can keep them alive at the same time that you're killing all the others. I haven't done the necessary analysis, but I believe they have better yields than even Arrow snakes and Boomslangs, at least with a few Solar Cell levels.

Here's my current approach, not very well optimized at all (My top score here is from a run where I had a lvl 5 Solar Cell but didn't kill any boss snakes lol):
UPGRADES: Upgrades fall into four categories:

  1. DPS to deal with non-Oil snakes (Pitchfork, Backhoe, Overalls, Sidewinder belt).
  2. Upgrades that improve our ability to gather oil from Oil snakes (Solar Cells, Harvester, Snakeskin boots, I'll also file Oil Slick Capacitor under here).
  3. Upgrades that help to minimize damage taken (Snakeskin boots, Oil Bomb, Scale Mail).
  4. Things we shouldn't get because we can't prevent them from killing Oil snakes.

Pitchfork: We can skip on upgrades on days 2 & 3 in order to grab other important upgrades. We only really need DPS & range once we're facing multiple Fuse snakes or a large number of Rainbow snakes.
Snakeskin Boots: Get these to lvl 2 asap, top priority. Lvl 1 is just barely enough to outpace Rainbow snakes, Fuse snakes and Boomslangs, but lvl 2+ gives us good leeway to fight back without getting hurt. Also important for gathering oil from Oil snakes. If you upgrade to lvl 4 ("Big stomps") before the last day, you need to be careful to avoid accidentally dealing damage to Oil snakes.
Solar Cells: This basically says "Oil snakes and Snake kings drop more oil & teeth". The linchpin of our strategy and almost always our top priority upgrade.
Oil Slick Capacitor: It's free oil. The earlier you upgrade this, the better.
Harvester: Makes us much more efficient at gathering oil. Worth upgrading to lvl 3 or 4.
Overalls: Improves DPS with no downside, and in fact they even improve our mobility by making us spend less time slowed by reloading.
Sidewinder Belt: A mostly straightforward boon to our DPS. The drawback is hardly a problem if we've got a few levels in Snakeskin boots and Rubber Gloves.
Rubber Gloves: Not critical, but one or two levels makes fighting snakes that much easier and safer.
Animal Mask: I don't know yet whether or not this interferes with Oil snakes' oil production. If it does then this upgrade's a dud. If it doesn't then it's worth upgrading to lvl 2 or 3 for the periodic free kills, especially good for making Arrow snakes and Boomslangs more manageable.
Backhoe: Another DPS upgrade. Once you have this, you need to be careful about firing a pitchfork while an Oil snake is in your line of sight. This is mostly only a problem when Oil snakes decide to hang out in the vicinity of Fire/Volcano snakes, since they can't be led away from each other.
Snake Eyes: I don't know if these make Oil snakes drop more oil, in life or in death. I think I maybe saw a cursed Oil snake drop a tooth when I killed it once? Either way this greatly improves the yield of every other snake -including Snake king spawns if I'm not mistaken- so it's worth fully upgrading.
Scale Mail: Does what it says on the tin, it stops you from taking damage X times. IMO worth getting to lvl 2.
Oil Bomb: A source of AoE damage that doesn't seriously endanger Oil snakes. Not great not terrible, worth upgrading a few times to help push out of tangles of Rainbow snakes, Snake king spawns, etc.
Antivenom: We don't have much use for this, since we want to avoid all the projectile-firing snakes anyways (aside from Cloud snake, not a terribly dangerous character).
Lawnmower/Watering Can/Flower/Sacrifice: AVOID until day 10. These kill Oil snakes and will ruin the run. Once you're at the last day though, you can and should go ham.

SNAKES:
DAY 1: Restart until you get Rattler + Cloudsnake. These two provide the best yield you can get for 3 coins, simple as (and obviously get the Pitchfork).
DAY 2&3: Get as many 4-yield snakes as possible, then get Tsuchinokos and Cloudsnakes to burn spare change.
DAY 4: Get at least two snakes amongst the 12-yield snakes and Oil snake, Oil snakes being the highest priority. In fact for fully optimized runs I suspect getting two Oil snakes here will be difficult but necessary. Fire snake and Clownsnake are mid due to their low yield. Avoid Snakebug (Hard to avoid and hard to damage, especially with sidewinder belt making attacking their face as they approach us nonviable).
DAY 5: Max out Oil snakes (six of them) then get as many Fuse/Rainbow snakes as possible.
DAY 6-9: Get seven Arrow snakes and seven Boomslangs. The rest have lower yield and aren't worth bothering with unless we so happen to have enough money for a 35/40-yield snake but not enough for a 45-yield snake. Go hunting for lvl 6 Solar Cells.
DAY 10: 20 Snake kings. Buy hell of Lawnmowers, Sacrifice might be good here too. Kill all the spawns without killing the Kings until the end.


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in reply to @ProbablyP3's post:

Given that the Animal Mask stops bomb-lineage snakes from attacking, I'm pretty sure it'll also cut into Oil Snakes' drops. Probably skip under ideal conditions, but it may be necessary in some cases.

Oh this is exactly where my brain has been heading. I've been trying to work out some better pitchfork optimizations today and this is pretty much the conclusion I've come to as well. Getting any additional DPS to supplement the pitchfork still shows lower gains long term versus going all in on oil snakes and solar cells, at least in my attempts so far. The sooner you can fill a field with oil snakes and just keep a good circulation of high value cursed snakes aside, the better things go.