Sorry for that, I've definitely made it a bit too difficult. You're not missing any mechanic, it's just that you need to get your first level up to start snowballing. If you can get 5 bones you get to level 2 and the whip makes it much easier to progress (and level 2 whip one-shots the mobs). But it's my fault for making it so difficult when everyone has so many games to try. I wanted to edit the sprite to represent his HP to keep the UI minimal, but yeah I ran out of time. Thanks for the feedback!