Oh yeah btw I found out there's a bow called Venom's touch which is easy to get and can be dungeonized after 2024 Feb, despite it is not a shortbow it has insane damage, is so op in early game and it's even better than dragon shortbow in terms of dps/damage
as an ironman, if you can force your way through a few f7s to get goldor boots and leggings, you can buy a steel chestplate from the npc and tank m3, you only need about cata 30 to do this which is around the same as f7. in about a day i went from cata 30 to cata 35 and f7 became a hell of a lot easier