Don’t upgrade the Maneki Neko when doing the EE
I don’t know if this is a known thing but yesterday I was playing on Kowakujo doing the EE and upgraded the Maneki Neko before the coin purse step. Turns out it’s not a very good idea, since the Maneki Neko disappeared when the shield is up and when thrown near the mystery box with the talisman, didn’t give me the coin purse.
Tried it multiple times but didn’t work either.
I discovered that if you hold two Maneki Nekos in your inventory, throw the first one somewhere else and while it’s still active, throw the second one near the box, the cat will stay there for a few seconds which then gives you the coin purse.
I’m not sure if this was a one-time bug because it also gave me a gun.
TL;DR: If you want to upgrade the Maneki Neko, do it after getting the coin purse to prevent buggy behavior or having to restart.