- take all artifacts which you are comfortable playing around their drawbacks,
this takes some experience. just try them all out once at least. don't take too high risks,
you don't have to take them all. rather take many than one high one.

- i like to stay as long as possible in an area, where i can easily kill all enemies,
that means one- or two shot them, to farm gold. you gotta think ahead.
for each area you want to have a good enough weapon, to comfortably deal with the enemies.
when you overextend, ie. save up money or go to quick, you have to work to hard with a bad weapon,
and will make mistakes and finally die.

- especially with the <bullets fly slow> artifact:
adjust your distance to the target to increase bullet density there.
especially with mobs that are not always vulnerable

- weapon and damage dealing is primary way to survive.
do not take -X% damage artifact when you're not sure you will make it
to the shop to get rid of it again

- try to line up enemies, so that if you miss a shot because one enemy dies, the other gets hit.
try to *not* line up enemies, if the one farther away has to be killed first, but uses another enemy as shield

- develop your peripheral vision, so you don't have to watch the far away screen

- if youre full and there is a heart, purposly damage yourself and take the heart, to
a) get boni b) find hidden doors

- develop a feeling for where to go in the beginning of the round.
- develop a feeling for how many mobs you can handle at once

- when your artifact level is low, don't use keys

- when you shoot an enemy there is a brief period where he cannot attack you because he's stunned

- your weapon makes a distinct sound when you hit a wall or an enemy.
in the dungeon level,where you only see a certain distance, use your hit sound to "see with your gun"

- shoot enemies first, who are most likely to damage you

- think about the average damage your weapon should have, per environment

- be aware its easier to hit you when you stand in narrower spaces. "doors & corners" (the expanse)

- larva: try to get his first shot of three boulders toward one corner of the screen, then move below or on top of him,
and trigger the second shot there. dodge the stones.. have a good damage output. bob & weave

- don't get greedy

- some enemies will shoot when the have a line of sight; the game is sometimes unevenly fast.
normally you walk into their line of sight, and then there is a delay, then they shoot.
if you for example use teleport, there is no delay, and they will shoot faster.
it's similar when they are frozen.

- post loop there are two kinds of rooms: the ones which are completable without taking damage,
and sometimes its just too much

ITEMS
consider not taking:
sponge, jar with stardust (acid & explosions can help you kill enemies)

ARTIFACTS
take almost always:
deadly plant (when you can dodge the acid pools)
infected bandages (just don't get hit)
invisible key
coal
dust
torn bag
toxic substance (just don't run into toxic)
broken lock (save your keys for later)
token (just pick all up again)

take sometimes:
paranoia (only with the cloak cape)
reaper (if you got good firepower)
splitter (more enemies = more loot)
monsters heart (not early game)
rope loop (when you got low money, or do not to buy anything)
trap
sand (not in the beginning)
green crystal (only when youre currenlty overpowered)
shadow (got to have high firerate)
eye mask (depends on weapon)

take almost never (exception when you can give them back in the same level):
death
sickle disk (at least with my playstyle. max hp is most precious)
newt's tongue (you want to take a lot of artifacts)