I ignore the missions, always. I think you cna even switch them off somewhere.
There are "trainers" for this game, allowing you to manipulate the savgame to add you the score you need to be permitted to buy certain stuff.
After several years of intermittendly playing this title, I used that option last autumn, since I completely play on my own, and non-competitive, and non-statistics-oriented anyway.
Because the whole system is illogical anyway. You have to spend long, long time and many hunts with inferior stuff or lacking stuff to catch the big bad boogie prey out there, to be allowed to buy a high callibre weapon - at a time when you are so experienced that you do not really need it anymore anyway.
Or the caller for I think elk it was, its hilarious why you get it only at level 35 or so.
The big self-protecting power of the .454 against bears, moose, wolves, buffalo, bison that charge at you at closest range is needed for the newbie - not for the experienced who does not bring himself into that situation in the first, probably.
In high grass, that thing is worth pure gold.
The game design on these things, the logic behind it, imo is terribly flawed. i do not care for it, I refuse to obey it.
In Classic, you had to simply buy the stuff you wanted - in real money. Now in ingame money. You had to pay a monbthly or yeraly memberhsip fee, and for equipment you wanted.
Don't be inhibited by design motives that do not make sense for gameplay. Cheat you scoring and get that claler now, or that rifle, and play the way you want to play. There is no damage done to other players or yourself, you do not cheat online competition, you loose no joy or entertainment.
Just resist to give yourself a big sack of gold. Earn the mony you need ingame. Just get rid of those stupid limitations for equipment. Its totally stupid a design, imo. The whole skill and perk system is nonsense, imo.
I think I used WeMod back then, free account.
I did not use cheaters in Classic, since here your extremely extensive statistics and rankings were constantly compared to global rankngs. Every shot, distance, hit or fail, weapon, prey was logged and stored forever. On these, further rankings and ratings awarding badges was based.