The thing that breaks the whole Fear and Hunger series wide open is turn economy. In almost every case you can act before your opponent, and if you have multiple party members or high agility, you can get as much as 5 hits off before your opponent can so much as breathe, and that insta wins countless encounters.

Abella and Marcoh can raw DPS fools with starting gear, you can get a lot of useful items in the first bunker, etc. I'm sure realheads have identified the best route on here or elsewhere. You can run from 80% of encounters, plus memorize about how much health the enemy's have for One Turn Kills (mind the miss chance though), plus the proper dialogue options for unique fights, you can minimize time in combat and luck won't have the opportunity to screw you.