managed to beat the last available area after hours of grinding and some experimenting with stats, feeling very accomplished!
and i'm still playing because i want to get my fox to lvl 30 to see what kind of skill it gets there :D
probably not getting the bow upgrade though, that's definitely not worth it right now
kinda spoilers on what stats i used to beat it below:
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i originally thought maxing out agi+int and putting the rest of the points in dex+wis was the way to go, to make the dancing dagger skill stronger, but looks like dex gets you more out of skills when you need it, so it's dex+int, just enough points into vit to survive if you need it and the rest of the points go into wis. str seemed absolutely useless compared to the armor and bestiary buffs i had by that point, but i guess i would've also been exploring new areas at this point during regular gameplay so i could've needed it? idk
this also seems to get me the best rates for soul farming in rat's nest 50 (consistently over 3.1m per minute right now) and i have the fox summon active (with amulet of aggression) because i'm leveling it, pretty sure the owl was even better for farming though. might try the hedgehog later too, it looks fun