I beat the game without weapons!!! Im not here to boast, im' just happy it's possible, i'll list the unexpected hardships and strategies here.
The two really hard parts are early game and endgame, at the start, avoid all slimes, they can heal faster than you can damage them and you will just lose due to damage ramping. The endgame is hard because of poison. Since you have no weapon you will probably have a lot of block, but your stalling build will just melt in front of poison of bats and snakes, avoid them at all cost.
As for strategies, if you click retry after dying, you will see michael (i think that's his name), always choose the 2 uncommon items to have a chance to get the glove of knives (probably the best item for this) They are the only thing that will make ur damage higher and they get buffed by rage. The only way to beat snakes along with regen builds(like mine). Consumable builds will probably also work, and spikes is your guaranteed damage. This challenge is fun! it forces strategies, the only annoying part is resetting until you get something useful.