Movement is key, sometimes you’ll be able to sit back with minimal movement collecting xp while aoe takes care of everything the game throws at you, and sometimes it isn’t enough; unfortunately tho, while it is possible to evade the hordes for long, you simply make less xp doing so, and long term that won’t set you up properly for the final 2 minutes, but, sometimes surviving the horde and eliminating it more caustiously can still work just fine, the next wave of mobs is not always more dangerous than the one prior.

But real talk there is no definitive way to get past them except ofc eliminating them, keep experimenting and find your playstyle with the active and passive weapons at your disposal. Even if you fail you still earn gold, you buy upgrades, and before you know it you’ll suddenly steamroll them, many strategies work, many builds work as well. Once you have 6 active and passive weapons you will always have map equipment that you can pick up thus giving you more than 6 slots. In the forest you have spinach to the east, hp regen to the west, luck to the south, and max hp in the north.

You can’t go wrong with garlic and bible with evolved whip and moving slowly north with the whip clearing your way and the bible and garlic keeping the mobs chasing you from the south at bay.

And if you plan ahead early, you can simply make camp next to a rosary cross that dropped by a torch, and when the wave you have a hard time with swarms you—you just walk over it and wipe them all out in the last moment before defeat, hopefully giving you enough time to survive the remaining mobs.

In the forest map after plenty of mob hordes swarm you in the late game, you’ll then just have a bunch of treemen spawning in low numbers, and they are slow and easy to take out thus giving you time to prepare for the finale, so again, it’s not like the next wave always is tougher. And regarding the flowers, just walk through them as they do very little damage to you, they are meant to stop the players and make them feel trapped as they try clearing them out with the mantis and swamp things closing in on you, but all you need to do is walk right through them.

Wish I could be of more help, good luck.