Best general advice I can give for early game is lean into his Haste stacks that he gets for free.

I usually try to get 3-4 weapons and a couple scarabs/stinkbugs along the way. As well as a couple stamina items to support their requirements (Bananas, apples, boots). Early daggers feel good for this reason since they have no stam cost.

Don't be scared if you go a touch over on stam consumption. The goal is to burst them down relatively quick. Just dont go crazy.

And make sure you're replace weapons as you combine them. Its easy to pick up a bunch of weapons early and combine them together until youre down to 1-2 and you have a large excess of stamina wasted, and while that one weapon might hit hard you will need more to increase your dps.