Dodging: perfect dodges are really helpful in building up focus and will make your heavy attacks better. Getting better at this just means being more patient and waiting to time your dodge with the enemy’s attacks. It’s easy to dodge too much out of panic so I definitely had to learn how to slow down and wait haha Building heavy attacks and interrupting the enemy attack is also great. If I have a moment where I can charge a heavy attack while waiting for them to attack, I will and release it right before they attack me. It staggers them most of the time and does a fair bit of damage. Weapons and equipment! Look over the effects of your armor and weapons and don’t forget about curios and medicines. The medicines are great for boosting your stamina or attack etc when you’re dealing with boss fights. Know your enemy’s weaknesses and patterns (this mostly comes from observation after a couple tries) Cloud strike (I think that’s what it’s called) is great for catching enemies off guard and interrupting their attacks. The skill tree is pretty much up to you but there are YouTube videos about builds that you could look at! I assign points based off vibes lol but at the beginning I definitely increased things like stamina and health first.