Anyone have any idea to level up quickly? I'm unsure if anything changes, but I cannot stop being one-shotted for life. I already have dodge but that doesn't really against the enemies with infinite range(the ones with staff) and the ones with high amounts of size(like the bigbarian). I'm trying to grow muscle if that helps.
Leveling is mainly for the ability trees. You get stronger by collecting Essences. They're found in higher quantities in deeper floors of dungeons, and some dungeons drop more than others. In the meantime, take advantage of the fruit tree (next to the Sewer entrance), the town slime (the purple dude near the front gate), and the workout weights (behind one of the buildings in town). Experiment with different weapons, too. Status effects aren't particularly fair in this game.
Don't eat Essences as you pick them up, either. Go to an apothe-christ and get them converted to the stat your weapon is using.
Also, find companions. Some are stronger than others.
the curling and squat minigames are pretty broken strong, if you're doing muscle you can just focus on doing the curling right when you start out... doing it a couple times whenever you head back to town... you'll soon see the multiplier shooting the stat to the thousands out of no where and stats at that scale will let you one shot anything while also giving you good amount of health... you just can't level up while you're relying on it is all because minigame buffs reset when you do that. you just level up when you're back in town and repeat the process at that point... plus you get to see your character grow whenever you do the minigame so that's a cool bonus lol. it makes me wish the fat barrel drinking minigame did that but it's multiplier doesn't increase with each play... and i still have no idea if there even is a bust or size minigame to give you a buff for those stats... this tactic is just for str or dex builds