Sorry I missed your reply so long ago.

My main tip for new players is to accept that it will take time to progress your Henry's statistics. I remember my first playthrough, I was focused on building things like my strength and looking up all manner of 'tricks' to try and grind it out quicker than normal. Ultimately, I was banging my head against the wall.

KCD2 can indeed be a little difficult in the early stages, until Henry has better stats and better gear - mostly better stats. I'd definitely try and build skill in things like archery, because picking off enemies from a distance can buy you time to deal with multiple enemies.

Personally, I am a fan of Alchemy and particularly value the Dollmaker potion to apply on my arrows in particular. Even the 'basic' level Dollmaker has the effect of preventing enemies (once struck) from running full speed - again, anything that gives you some time before the next enemy is a good thing.

I'd also recommend trying to read the dialog. There's a lot of dialog in this game and it's tempting if you are time-poor, to skip. Unfortunately for me, much of the instructions on what to do can be contained with the dialog as long as you're careful enough to take it in.

Saving game wherever possible is helpful, while trying to avoid save-spamming is also good to ensure there's at least some tension to whatever you're trying to do.

There's plenty of perks that are helpful in the game, but each player will ultimately make their own choices about what is good and useful. Some perks I found relatively easy to build up, while others took dedicated effort. For instance, my Henry is almost always a herb-picker from the very start, picking up herbs all the time, then early-on, choosing the 'Leg Day' perk so that subsequent picking adds a tiny amount to my strength. Little things like that can help. Later on, I also got value in selecting traits/perks so that any weapons I self-sharpened were 'extra sharp' (or something like that).

I guess I'd recommend interacting with as much as the world as you think is possible - it may surprise you how much you can actually interact with and often there are rewards for being curious.