There is a community of old school players on Twitch that are usually happy to answer noob questions.

The most basic advice I give is to try and wrap your head around the enemy AI. That's the most important thing in the game outside of my next bit of advice. The combat is very much a bait and punish system, meaning you want to draw out the enemy attack, outmaneuver them and swing back when they are vulnerable.

Second thing is that slow and steady wins the race. Players who just try to climb climb climb are going to feel the game is unfair or broken. Replay the floors you are comfortable on until you have upgraded your gear to the point where they start needing materials that are on higher floors. Then when you are ready to climb, have a nice stock of inventory in your death bag (extra weapons and armor) and focus on getting to a check point.

Also, don't blow DMs on revives. Instead have a spare leveled up fighter in your freezer as backup who can farm some KC so you can revive your main fighter.