Neat idea. I poured just enough into blocking early on to avoid damage and the rest on myself. It got unbalanced pretty quickly :D

Like others said, choosing how much to bank for exp was fun! There would ideally be a reason not to just turtle in the beginning and level up all the way while putting just enough into defense. Personally, in a game jam context, I liked that the UI was just printed structs, because it lets you see a bit of how the game is structured!

I like the idea.  I do agree with other comments that even making the different trash pieces their own color would go a long way to make it easier to focus on the game itself.  I did have a bug where just clicking (no dragging) the trash squares would make them non-interactable, which would softlock the game.

Gaining XP being an active choice is a clever twist that instantly adds an element of planning. I also like the item variety. Greatly appreciate the “cool looking stick” that does nothing except being really cool ;)

Saving time by just displaying the Debug into is a pretty clever hack. Sure, it’s not pretty, but it sure seems time efficient and I did not consider it.

One thing I would have changed even considering the time limitation is some color coding. I first didn’t realize that the individual trashes were entirely different items and was just confused as to why they seemed to do different things, until I realized that the text on the upper left was not the same each time. Just automatically generating an Oklch color palette by spacing the hue evenly based on the amount of items would already do the trick :)

Nice mechanic that would be great to further explore!

Interesting mechanic

Nice! I really like the core mechanic. It's interesting to choose between leveling up for the long-term, protecting yourself in the moment and getting towards the goal by attacking. Game deserves more polish! :)