Oh really nice to hear that you got to try different choices. Indeed Vanesa (F!Ranger) needs to hit a few Prof level ups to use the Boss bow, overall she should get there after 2 complete zones... unless the RNG goddess decided to curse your run or she wasn't killing enough.
Sadly the revive item was a late addition, to ensure that one could recover from losing units, so I didn't though of drawing more attention to the Sanctuary tile to point that one could visit it.
Actually buying the 10k item without selling stuff is not doable, there aren't enough enemies to get 10k gold even if you kill them all and go to the shop then. :D