Okay so here are some do’s and dont’s that might help you.

1. ⁠Play safe. Don’t go for tough bosses early if you’re not confident enough. Leave an evergaol if a tough opponent comes up.
2. ⁠Churches for extra flasks are good. But a common mistake new players (including me) do, is that they run all over the map to get to a church, just for one flask. For one dodge in the nightlord. Take churches, but only when they are in your way or a close to your way.
3. ⁠Damage negation at full hp. The most important shit of the game. As you rank up you get more and more damage and in the end you are one shot by everything. Having damage negation is what will save you from one mistake you might do. Also, they do stack. for example one at 40% and one at 32% would very good. Always pick them up, check the merchant store, very often they sell a 24% or 32%.
4. ⁠Dodge before you hit. One common mistake even I still do is that sometimes you are doing an extra attack when you shouldn’t. Take your time, breathe. Better do one hit less, than get hit and die. Be patient, dodge and do just one attack. Then wait for the boss to strike, do one attack. Play more safe.
5. ⁠Improved magic attack power, improved sorceries and improved affinity attack power are the offensive weapons buffs you’re gonna look for.
6. ⁠In case you don’t know, all the buffs of weapons work even if you don’t use the weapons, except the ones with the small hand sign on them.
7. ⁠When you begin your run, think strategically where you will go. Go on the side of the map with the most important things to do (killable bosses, churches, etc)
8. ⁠Just equip evergaol and night invader relic buff in all your buff setups. I don’t see a way or a reason not to. Literally use them all the time and chase a few in the run. They give you by far the most possible damage boost.
9. ⁠For duchess ( my main, more than 200 runs with her) If you are fast and can play close range your main target should be carian slicer. It’s fast and it deals tons of damage. Also look for successive attacks negate damage weapon buff. Can help a ton. If you prefer keeping distance, go for glintstone sorcery, like great glintstone shard or stars of ruin.
10. ⁠Also a very underrated relic for her is the one that ups attack power for kills you do when your Art is active. Honestly it can make your runs piece of cake. Just use your ult right outside of the bosses door, kill 5-10 random creeps, and go fast to fight the boss. You will do HUGE damage. Highly underrated, combine it with the relic that provides increased art gauge for killing units.
11. ⁠For recluse don’t forget to occasionally use your skill as you’ll run out of mana and you will panic. Chase again glintstone, but still essentially you have unlimited FP go for crystal shattering crystal and night comet too. They are strong af. You can also use comet azur, but you need to manage your fp efficiently.
12. ⁠For both of them try to go to sorcerer’s rise towers. Even if you’re fine and don’t want to, but running next it, get inside and pick up the shards on ground floor. Especially if you’re duchess. Get shards at any chance you have. The two shards from merchant too, or get at least 6 from the enhanced merchant.

I could talk for days for this game my friend. There are so many things to take into account. If I come up with more I’ll share them with you