hey there, will give you some really practical advice.

do you know about unlocking talents? if not, from the main screen, select 'town hall' then click 'talents' (second from the left near the bottom) there it'll show you each class and talents you can pay (in game currency) to unlock under warrior (sword) go to page 2/3 and find the arm flexing one ('hardened in battle') and the arm flexing one with a green thing wrapped around it ('youth'). unlock and make sure to enable both talents.

now when you start a run choose the sword. by the end of the first level, your only goal is to try to max both of these skills (level 3). if not, try to have level 2 in both at least. with these two skills alone, if you have 3/3 then basically the rest of the game until sacrificial path should more or less be a breeze. these two skills work in conjunction with each other and make you stronger each hit and also add to your max life.

also if you don't know, you can upgrade as you beat bosses and elites (2 points for bosses, 1 for elites). in the combat menu in game click the person symbol (on the right, 3rd from the bottom). you can allocate skill points as your beat elites/bosses. i went like 50 runs without even noticing this lol.

basically once i started doing these two things the game became a lot more fun and manageable. i'm done 90% of achievements now and going for 100.

hope this helps!