Here are some rough calculations about getting credit early with the new graphics. Please let me know about any mistakes I might have made ;).

Speedrunning-wise, the main difference between new graphics and classic graphics is that you can't skip dialogs with new graphics (you can skip scenes, though). That means that, with new graphics, the first conversation with Stan takes about 55 seconds (including the time it takes to get there and back), and the conversation to ask the shopkeeper for credit takes about 50 seconds. Getting to the safe, introducing the combination and coming back down during normal gameplay might take about 15-20 seconds. That means that, if the shopkeeper isn't there and the combination is 1-1-1-1, you basically save 2 minutes.

That also means you can try 44 combinations (giving you a 17.18% chance, meaning you'll roughly get credit early every 6 tries on average), which might take about 1 minute and 20 seconds, and you'll still save a good amount of time.

This might make credit early sound way more attractive with new graphics than with classic graphics, but there's a drawback. With the classic graphics, you get to try credit early 3 minutes after starting the run, but with the new graphics, you get there at about 4 minutes 15 seconds (at least that's when I get there). And trying 44 combinations takes about a minute longer than trying 16. That means that, in real time, you get one try every 6 minutes or so with the new graphics while with the classic graphics you get one try every 3 minutes and 45 seconds or so. Overall, you'll still get more credit early per hour with new graphics than with classic graphics, but the improvement isn't as huge as it seems.

And let's not forget that we're talking about saveless runs here, and that every pirate fight takes between 40 and 60 seconds because you can't skip the dialogs. So there's a very good chance that you spend an hour grinding for credit early, you finally get it, and 10 minutes later you're already behind your personal best because of the RNG during the insult fights.

Long story short, grinding for credit early would require a ton of patience. Personally, I go for it when the shopkeeper isn't there, and then restart the run after failing. So far, I've only got it once, with the combination being 2-2-2-3, and the run died during the insult fights.

Been experimenting with save strats on the pirates. The goal was to check whether it's possible to increase the chances of a reasonable time in the case of credit early. Saving before the last insult in a fight you want to win (when it's your turn to insult) does seem to increase these chances, but it doesn't guarantee anything.

I've done an experiment about credit early that, while not conclusive, keeps me from trying to get it.

First, I saved right before entering the store.

Then, I brute-forced the combination (it started with 3-3-1), loaded the saved game, and brute-forced the combination a second time (it started with 1-4-3). This confirmed that in the special edition the combination isn't set before entering the store either, and seemed to indicate that I wasn't making mistakes while trying to open the safe.

Finally, I did 20 attempts at opening the safe by entering combinations starting with 1-1-1, 1-1-2, 1-2-1, 2-1-1, 2-2-1, 2-1-2, 1-2-2, 1-1-3, 1-3-1, 3-1-1, 2-2-2, 1-2-3, 1-3-2, 2-1-3, 2-3-1, 3-1-2, 3-2-1, 1-1-4, 1-4-1 and 4-1-1. In total, that's 80 combinations.

Introducing 80 combinations out of the 256 possible ones gives you a 31.25% chance of success. That is, out of my 22 attempts (counting the two initial ones), I was supposed to open the safe 7 times or so. However, the result was different: I opened the safe a total of zero times. On attempt number 17 I decided to once again continue until it opened and, sure enough, it opened with a combination that started with 3-3-2.

I currently keep videos from 12 of my runs. I've checked the combinations, and they started with 2-3-1, 2-1-4, 2-2-4, 2-2-3, 4-4-4, 4-1-2, 4-4-3, 3-3-4, 3-3-4 (again), 1-2-3, 2-4-1 and 3-4-4. The rest of the runs on the special% leaderboards, including the obsolete ones, had combinations that started with 4-2-4, 4-1-3, 2-1-3, 3-1-4, 3-1-3, 3-4-2, and 4-2-3. That's a total of 19 runs, and none of them had any of the 40 shortest combinations.

As mentioned earlier, this is not conclusive at all. We would need hundreds or even thousands of attempts to check whether we're being unlucky or there's actually something that makes short combinations less likely in the special edition. In the meantime, just in case, I'm not going to grind for credit early :).