Er, 150-170? Where are you getting that number. Even when you use Pie + talking the max it can do is 160. And thats only if you talk to him as well. Just eating the pie caps out at 140. Thus not even close to the 150 mark.(Excluding the last turns cause the game boosts up your attack). While talking plus pie can make pan can do 140 - 220 Without a perfect crit. Our thoughts as runners (generally) is that because Pan can crit and do 300+ damage, its worth taking the risk of getting below average knife. That being said if you are not good at pan, use knife for the time being. Also you can grab the locket if you want, You'll take 4 damage every turn instead 5. Stained apron is better cause asgore can't kill you with a death blow if your above one hp(He hits you at 2 hp, you still live with 1). So basically if you are ever low, survive for one turn, and the next turn you are guaranteed to live.

Even if you're not getting golds on Burnt Pan, you're still doing 180 damage - which is 20 damage more than the knife. You will end up still a good two or three turns faster than the knife.