I appreciate the advice!
I might do so refactoring after I get HP and player death working right. Then work on the final big part of the game which is combat. But super simple combat. I hit something with a stick, something dies.
The more I build the more I want to include, like losing coins on death, then a death run back to corpse etc. But anything above what I"ve already included is a bit out of reach. Especially with the time limit. I figure I'll finish this and then after this gamejam start a new game with the info I've picked up.