Guidance on improving in combat

[courier]

Note: Below will have a few combat opinions and spoilers I figured out.

I'm about 40 hours in, still on my first character and I want to improve my effectiveness in combat so I can get better drops and unlock the third row of skills. If I stay at the easier levels of each forest I can get by but when I start going deeper to get better drops I seem to barely chip away at enemy health. Some of the enemies hit me in unison or have instant-kills and cream me in short order. I can change the combat speed but still get creamed, and regardless I'd like to improve overall. Healing items only go so far.

I believe if I endlessly grind enemies my sword skill will glacially improve. Which is fine, but in the meantime I'm looking for other ways. (Also I'm worried when I change characters this will reset back to square one)

My initial char's base stats are still all single digits. I have no idea how to permanently increase strength, constitution, etc. I got married but I'm not even sure that +3 str really got added. I nom a few related foodstuffs before I go into the woods but I'm not sure how to do better than that. Any advice on how to improve stats, as this seems to be the primary way to toughen up? (when I die, this is what 'the voice' recommends me to do)

For equipables I see swords and wards. I equipped a Luminum sword which appears to do more damage than a tin sword, but after that I'm lost on what the scale is. Is four star Iron sword better than two star Luminium sword against enemies weak against neither? Should I still use a 4 star tin sword against hobs rather than a 4 star Luiminium?

At first I thought the wards were armor, but now it looks like wards are only situational and enemy specific (and not very useful overall). This is my best guess if it helps someone else:

Simplewood
Tin Ward when you are just getting started
Iron ward once you run into hags

Middlewood
Iron ward for hags and remnants

Toughwood (Haven't gotten far on this one)
Shadderwryth ward vs ogyr
Iron ward for remnants

Any other tips?

[Kai Heilos]

You can't raise your characters stats outside of eating a food item for a temporary buff, only children can be trained for permanent increases.

Try to learn the enemy attack patterns and dodge everything, don't bother trying to parry unless you're really confident with it, you'll just end up taking extra hits.

Tin is pretty much useless and should be abandoned asap, I would strongly suggest trying to find some Hyalite and making a sword with that.

Get pets that stun, but don't expect much from them. They take forever to activate and often just miss.

Slow enemy speed down in the options if you need to, make sure to do it each time you start the game as the settings don't save.

Keep practicing, but feel free to just ignore it until later if you need to. It's totally optional content

[Sir Epic]

You are expected to fail a lot until you get better upgrades from the combat tree. Honestly just farm and back down when you run out of healing items. This game is about slow progression.

[Sir Epic]

oh! If you want to grind out xp for your pharmacy you can buy some low level monster loot to get through the combat master things faster.

[MoxPearle]

Iron Ward isn't worth it. You'll run into far more non-hag enemies that you're better off preparing for.

[Perogi]

I've cleared simplewood at max depth with my first character so I can give a few notes, once you get combat down it's not really hard.

First off gear. Iron sword seems to have the highest base damage for reasons I don't understand. My tier 4 iron sword does the same base damage as my tier 5 copper sword. The copper sword bonus does seem to work against frog enemies, but the tin sword doesn't seem to provide bonus damage against hobs and such, I generally ignore bonuses and just stick with my iron sword. Tin ward is best because it reduces damage. I usually go for copper charm for extra health.

Some combat tips now. Dodging is sometimes way better than parrying depending on the enemy (of course you should be able to parry every single melee attack, practice on low depth until you can do it near perfectly). If parrying doesn't get you a counter strike don't bother, for example you should always dodge the hag attacks. Dodging requires very little stamina and is very good. When combat starts you should try to take out an enemy immediately if possible with your three hit combo. I always try to take out lobs or hobs first as even at max depth they still die in 3 hits (for me anyway). Another really good tip is if you are unable to take out an enemy right away, or it's a difficult combination of enemies don't even try to block or parry until you take out a few of them. Certain enemy attacks in combination are unblockable due to animation lock, like if you parry a melee attack and counterstrike while a projectile is being thrown at you, it will be impossible for you to block that projectile in time and you will take huge damage. Dodging is significantly safer. Just be patient and dodge every attack until you're able to take out one or two enemies then start parrying again. Oh and you should ALWAYS only attack with 3 stamina to do your max combo, combos do more damage. Attacking once is awful unless it's to kill an enemy who's one hit.

I never use healing items or buffs and I've made it to the last few rooms of simplewood on max depth without getting hit. A few enemy combinations can get chaotic so that even dodging to avoid damage is difficult, but outside a few ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ situations it's fairly easy to just avoid all damage. This is why I think copper charm is best, it basically gives you room to make one additional mistake before you leave/die.

Anyway hope this helps.

[Pockyninja]

Really all you can do it make high star rank swords and get ones made with better ore. You can get some food buffs and carry food items.

Beyond that it is pretty much get good at mechanics.

[LASTBILS KENTROS]

i agrreeeeee