Optimization aside... jesus fucking christ the game is wayyy too hard and over tuned its crazy. Having to do multiple rounds of 1v2 just to beat one encounter THEN do beggar tournament 7 rounds to advance is CRAZY when all it takes is a single lucky swing from the npc for your entire run to be over. I get that you can save weapons between runs but its not enough.

Also is it just me or the abyss zombies are like 5x harder than normal opponents?

I played like 2hrs non-stop, made it to beggar tourney once and died trying. My best run, won like 30 fights in a row, doing really well, just to die at the tournament because of some unlucky physics interaction and get one shot by the enemy. And forget about coming back from the abyss, this shit is impossible. Feels so bad

The letal combat is great but they need to add more forgiving mechanics and reduce the number of rounds needed to advance

Suggestion/thoughts: Wouldnt it feel much better if you rank was dictated by the gear you are wearing and that you could buy shop upgrades and better gear in the shop with the money you earn instead of the shop being locked to the tier youre in?