I recently made a second account (which I’ve wanted to do for some time, both to test the early game experience for newer players and since having a second account may give me some phobies I don’t own on the main account which could be fun).
Either way I managed to make it to Sum of All Fears using only the starter phobies which I got from Vendy’s pack + the one from my first 1000 tear pack (which you’re forced to open, and I got In-Oculus which is a pretty decent one) and only upgrading them a small bit (just enough to reach stress level 10 and unlock Ginsting).
Proof:
Excess resource total:
Mostly did the part where I barely leveled my units to challenge myself a bit, but it just goes to show that any account should be able to reach SOAF regardless of your luck with pack opening and how many levels you get for your units - It’s all about how you play.
As for the early game / new player experience I actually think it’s pretty good - There are some smaller problems like Snowball being way too good when one player has it and the other doesn’t (especially if the player with Snowball is going first) and how hard some specific units can be to beat (since you lack specific phobies that counter them) but overall it’s not a terrible experience and games are winnable even if you’re 50+ stress levels down.
On another note I would recommend any new player to re-roll their accounts until they get a good starter pack (I also re-rolled a couple times for this one until Vendy gave me something I was satisfied with).
Of course it doesn’t need to be perfect, but going for a decent one at the very least will help you out a lot both early on and later.
For example my main accounts starting pack was actually rather bad (although I didn’t know that at the time of creating it and only realized so later) which made it harder for me to do well early on than it really should have been. (it had Staremaster as it’s 5 key and Fishtank as it’s 7 key which are just way worse options than getting Heavo as the 5 key and Alley Gator as the 7 key)
Getting a bad starting pack also means that you will get a lot of cards for phobies that you may never even upgrade which is kind of bad for the account long term too.
For anyone that doesn’t know Vendy’s starting pack gives you: One 1-key, Two 2-keys, One 3-key, One 4-key, One 5-key and One 7-Key.
The best opener you can get looks something like this:
1-key: Pretty much anything with 2 movement is decent (although I wouldn’t recommend BOOM for someone new), Batula, Cowbell and Contortio are probably the best ones in my opinion - But the 1-key honestly doesn’t matter that much since it often just contests panic points anyway and you’re also given Razor Mouth (stress level) for free so you will always have a decent one.
First 2-key: Cassowary. I personally didn’t get him for my second account (since I didn’t wanna re-roll that many times), but he’s honestly by far the best 2-key you can get from the starter pack. (it’s easily top 3 among the 2-keys across all rarities).
Second 2-key: This one matters less but if you could choose K-9000 is probably the second best one. I don’t remember if you can get Suckee from the starter pack, but that would also be equally good if you can. Again if all of your other options are perfect you can settle for something less good like Gesundheit.
3-key: You want Stabby. You could choose to settle for BoMangles if all of the other phobies are the perfect choice (they’re pretty similar) - But you would rather have Stabby.
4-key: I’m not sure exactly what the pool looks like for this one, but both Primate 9 and Unbearable are fine. (most 4-keys in this game are actually pretty decent).
5-key: Get Heavo. Heavo is a pretty decent unit and will serve as your mobile ranged unit until you get Ginsting (stress level 10). It still see’s some use even at the higher ranks on larger maps (although it’s not all that common). DO NOT settle for Staremaster, that card is way too squishy and the extra damage isn’t enough to set off how easy it is to kill.
7-key: Get Alley Gator. It will kind of fall off eventually when you acquire better high-key phobies, but it’s decent for early game and still has some niche uses later on. it can be used for safely capturing panic points in a lot of cases and is a decent front-line tank for a while. DO NOT settle for Fishtank, it is very bad. (it’s just a stat stick with no utility and due to being mechanical it also gets countered by Erratic early on which is a unit that every account gets for free).
Example: After re-rolling for my second account I ended up with: Razor Mouth (stress), Contortio, K-9000, Gesundheit, Jar Cannon (starter), Murder Wing (starter), Gravedigger (starter), Stabby, Primate 9, Heavo, Erratic (starter) and Alley Gator. I also got Ginsting ofc (from reaching stress level 10).
After getting rolling into a good account I would also recommend not opening any packs for a while (outside of the 1000 tear one you’re forced to open), this is because it will allow you to focus levels on your starting units then which is good because a small amount of high level phobies will be more useful to you than a wide range of low level phobies - You obviously shouldn’t wait for as long as I’m doing with this account (since leveling up your stress level makes you get more xp and jacks on the daily when you hit certain points). The starting phobies are actually also very high quality (if you re-roll for the good ones at least), Murder Wing, Jar Cannon, Stabby and Cassowary are all cards that see play even at the highest ranks of the ladder.
From the 1000 tear pack some of the best ones you can get are: UniCorn, Creep, second turret (Stabby/BoMangles), In-Oculus, Honey Bear, Daisy, Klepto or Terrodactyle (just to mention a few)
Either way - This ended up being a pretty damn long post, but just wanted to share my experience of playing on a new account for a bit as well as giving some advice on re-rolling and bragging a lil bit. 
. I think thats the lowest level to reach SOAF 1 in async. Congrats! Well done!