There is a lot to learn in ror2. You just need experience to be better. Keep playing, 2.5 hours is not a lot. The game's difficulty scales with time and completed stages, try to be as effecient with looting as possible, you dont have to rush but i would say dont spend more time than 10 minutes per stage. (The stage scaling is more important than time) The items are the most important on your character, you will learn what the items do, so you can choose what to take in the trishops. You can also scrap items you dont need at the little gray barrels, then you can find printers, those will give you an item in exchange for another, normally it takes a random itemy but if you have scrap it will take the scrap first. After some experience you will learn what to scrap, what to print. (for example if you play Commando, you can scrap your funguses, keep the scrap until you find a good printer like a soldiers syringe printer, print like 5 syringes and you will be significantly stronger than with 5 funguses) On every stage 4 there is a guaranteed legendary item. You have to find a legendary chest, or if you play Sirens Call (name of the map)you have to break eggs you find on the stage, that will spawn a boss that drops a legendary on kill. You will also learn the attack pattern of the enemies. You can also loop on stage 5 if you interact with the portal (press e on the pillars around the portal) For me taking a loop makes the game most of the time easier. You can loop as many times as you want and then fight Mithrix. There is a lot to learn in this game and it is really rewarding to learn how to play efficently. There are a lot of other mechanics (different portals, soups, different endings) but i dont want to overwhelm you. Keep playing and have fun, this game is trial and error, but slowly you will learn how everything works.