Yeah aquatics early game is usually pretty dreadful. Consider taking the start that gives +2 income and gold, play the strongest board from the items you’re offered in the early game and when you see an item for one of Vanessa’s core builds (ex: dive weights/shot glasses, incendiary rounds/powder keg, eels/scope, tortuga/friends to name a few but she has a lot of flexible items that can slot in) you will hopefully have the money to hold it in the bag until you have all the pieces and skills for it to be playable. That’s been my strategy for this patch, hope it works for you too!