Haha, get it? I just had to make that pun/reference, sorry :)

The developers call the combat system "Emergent Combat". It draws inspiration from games like Dark Souls and actually reminds me of Jedi-Fallen Order. Random button-mashing will NOT work in this game. Actually it will work on easy monsters at easy levels, and many people fall into the trap of using this to get through the level, then they get demolished at the Boss, rage-quit, then go and write a review to bash the game. Understandable reaction, but misguided.

To give you an idea: even 6 days after release, the achievement of "Bearing the Brunt: Block 150 Attacks" was still a RARE achievement, with only 1.4% of players achieving it! This means almost all players didn't even attempt blocking, let alone parrying! Yet the reviews bashing the combat system abounded.

Arguably the game should give more complete guidance for those people not familiar with the combat genre. I think they want people to discover the combat system by experimentation or in the community, which can be more rewarding than being told. But initially with few resources in the community, it makes it more hardcore. This guide should help you in this regard.

Once you understand the combat system, you will start appreciating the game more.

At the beginning the moves are fairly basic. Use that time to learn the basic combos. Once you get through about 3 levels and have enough money to buy new combos, the fighting gets a whole lot fancier and cooler!

The fighting system is actually quite complex in this game, when you start considering stamina as well. There's a lot more to it than it seems. It is different from what many people expect.

• Set you Camera speeds to max (100)! This makes a huge difference! (Settings, Camera). Default is way too slow to be usable in a fight, and I think that's a major cause of the frustration people expressed.
  
• Use a controller. The game description actually says it's needed to properly enjoy the game.
  
• Aim with the camera. Not the orientation of your character.
  
• Controller Preset: Use the default, #1. I don't recommend Controller Preset #2, even if you'd initially prefer buttons as attacks, because you'll need your left thumb available to control the camera while you attack, per above.
  
  
• The combat system queues up at least 1 move, if not the 2 next moves, i.e. if you press the attack button during an attack, it's queued and will get done after 1st attack is done. Once an attack is launched, it cannot be aborted. This is what some people are referring as "the animations are too long", or "the combat system is not responsive." It's not a bug, it's intentional. The idea is to make combat much more tactical, you really have to control what you're doing. So no you can't just block after mashing your fast attack button a few times; it'll do all your queued attacks, and then block (and it's much too late and you got slammed...). Dodging *seems* to be a bit more forgiving though, in terms of interrupting queued attacks.
  
  
• Discover and learn your combos methodically. Find 2 combos that are relatively fast and do decent damage. Once mastered, find your next one. You must take this slowly and integrate it in real-time combat one at a time. Else you'll never remember them.
  
• The practice area is an invaluable tool given to us by the developers for us to discover and practice combos; it tells you damage and debuffs! Use it to find various combos that do a lot of damage and/or cause debuffs and Bleeding etc. Find a short combo. Find combos you'll use when running toward your enemies. AoE combos that hit everyone around you, etc.
  
  
• In combat, don't get greedy! The game will punish uncontrolled long combo chains. Badly. Causing rage among many unsuspecting players. Use a short combo sequence and then dodge out. Repeat.
  
• Stay cool during combat: bring out the ninja in you! While fighting, observe the attack pattern and timing, of each enemy type. This is essential in this type of game. That's what the easy fights are for... don't just mow them down, study them! On that last-standing enemy, play with it. Stand there waiting. Try to parry. Time your dodge just right for a counter-attack, etc. Then, exploit what you've learnt. This will save your life in tougher, more crowded fights. Use your longer more damaging combos when the monster is at the end of an attack sequence.
  
  
• Dodge and Parry are essential skills!
  
• Dodge can become faster when you've done a few attack/dodge sequences in a row, and then you're on a roll!
  
• Parry is risky to pull off, but powerful! It's one of the few things that replenishes your Stamina, and sometimes knocks your opponents down for free hits after! Practice it with easy monsters at easier difficulty.
  
  
• Move: take the time to position your character, and the camera, vs the adversary. Yep, just walking/running around in the middle of a fight, to get to a better place. Dodging is a good way to move around too. For example, dodging around a big enemy then closing in on its back. Moving and positioning is just as important as attacking. This is important, and counter-intuitive for players used to typical hack 'n slash or FPS games.
  
• Hit from the back, whenever you can! Causes extra damage, auto-critical hit, I believe (per D&D rules! :). NOTE: the same applies when you get hit from the back, so keep moving to make sure no one's behind you!
  
  
• There will be lots of non-attack time during fights. You'll be moving, repositioning, recovering your stamina, watching, waiting for the monster to launch an attack sequence so you can get in and hit it at just the right time, then pull out, etc. Stay cool.
  
• Oh, and standard combat tactics, try to focus on one monster at a time to bring its health down to zero the quickest. Usually you'll also want to get rid of the weaker guys before the big guys. Because 8 "small" attackers hitting you one after the other hurts you a lot and break your sequences, even if they're weak. Plus it's hard to manage constant attacks while trying to time the big guy(s). You want to bring down the numbers asap. Consider going after the Ranged attackers first too, because they're weaker, it's harder to see their attacks coming, and the melee guys are keeping your attention. There are always exceptions to this rule; use your judgement.
  
  
• 1st Feat upgrade: Extra Potion! Every time you find a potion in a chest, this will give you 2 potions instead!
  
• Resist temptation to rest, increase rarity instead. Drink a potion then find the next hidden chest nearby and you'll get 2 potions. This will give you better loot and make you more powerful, more quickly.
  
• If you get killed at a mini-boss fight, just run full-speed from the restart point right through all the enemies you've already fought, and go right back to where you were. (and resist the temptation to do this to get straight to the end-Boss because that kinda spoils the fun...). I think the devs did this to make the game less hardcore, and certainly helps with the current balancing issues.
  
• Your max potions is 3. If you find a potion and already have 3, it's lost and wasted. So drink a potion to max out your health before opening a fancy chest.
  
  
• Stamina: goes down with each attack, and each block. Recovers when you stop attacking for a few seconds. Additionally, your MAX goes down if you drain it too much in one go. It also goes down with some special moves! It recovers with successful Parry. This is complex to manage well, especially with advanced moves. In short, attack and rest, attack and rest, and keep an eye on it. Some kills will raise your max back up. Drink a Stamina potion if your upper limit gets close to 50%.
  
  
• YOU, the player, need to do your part in getting better at fighting. Contrary to games like Diablo and the original Dark Alliance, it's not just your character doing the work. So you must learn and practice. Dying is part of the process, don't rage, just roll with it, it's okay. It will be very satisfying once you get better and start actually controlling the fights!

Potions are a very important element. Not just Health potions, but Stamina, Protection and Elemental Protection. These are key in big battles. It's worth spending the money quick to unlock and upgrade these to max! (and don't make the mistake of waiting for them to get unlocked, the "unlock" is done simply by paying a small amount of money!!)

Chests either have Equipment, or gold and potions. It'll only have the type of potion you have in your Loadout, so if you just want Health and Stamina potions, don't Loadout the other 2 slots, and you'll get them all the time, especially after tough battles. Worth weighing the pros and cons.

Consider wearing armor sets like Warden of Milekki that gets your Health back up... you'll replenish health as you're hunting around getting loot. Worthwhile even if it reduces your Armor a bit.

In this game, Equipment significantly improves your character's performance.
Here's a strategy that will help you get great loot and improve faster.

• Never use the rest, always improve loot rarity. As you know, every time you skip rest, the loot rarity increments by 1. This makes all the difference in the type of Equipment you'll get (Epic, Legendary etc). btw you can see what rarity level you're currently at when the rest is proposed by the game, and once you've refused it you'll briefly see the tally of rarity levels on the right next to your loot. Note that this looks like it maxes at 3, but 4 and 5 are better, I tested it.
  
• DON'T open any chests until you've skipped at least 3 Rests. Then the next time you die in battle, go and open them all up. Rarity is much higher, so you'll get Rare, Epic, Legendary stuff!
  
• Dying is no big deal, just run right past all the enemies you've already done, right up to the fight you were at, and go from there. It takes less than a minute usually, and it refreshes all your Potions!
  
• The number of clock symbols when you select the Act at the beginning reflects how many Rest areas there are.
  
• The only time you can't go back is once you've started the end-Boss battle. You usually can't run out, and if you die you start at the boss again. So make sure to get all the loot before starting the boss battle.

• Don't use Cattie-Brie for now. She's OP and it's hard not to exploit the current game limitation that makes monsters not react if she shoots from far enough.
  
• Play at the easiest level to keep your sanity (unless you really master the fighting system and don't mind spending an hour or more trying to beat a boss). Because the mini-boss fights and boss fights will overcrowd you and kill you with unbreakable combos once you get your first hit, and there's no one to revive you. Future patches will surely help with difficulty balancing in solo, but at launch, play difficulty seems to assume multiplayer even if you're solo.
  
• Once you get better and have better equipment, you should be comfortable playing 1 or 2 below the recommended level. i.e. the recommended level will likely be very hard, 1 below hard, 2 below easy/comfortable. Note that the first fights in a level are always easy, it's the mini-bosses and especially the end-Boss that are really tough fights. It's frustrating to spend an hour fighting tooth and nail and collecting all these goodies, only to get to the end and have to give up on the main Boss after trying for longer than you have.
  
• You wish you could save mid-level, cuz you know, life? Well, it looks like you get to keep the loot you've collected in a non-completed level, if it's the first level you go back to next time. If someone has done more testing of that I'll add the details here. Basically it seems that you keep everything if you go back to it next time, at the same difficulty. Try it and let me know.
  
• Consider replaying the earlier levels, but at higher difficulty. You'll get much better loot, and Gold, with which to improve your character.

Let me know if this helped you enjoy the game!