Again I state that this spiritually spoiler free, but technically not.
Reading this won't steal anything from your first experience, what you might find here will either be what you will learn very early in-game (game mechanics) and something you would figure out yourself (like there's going to be a boss fight in the end)
yet still, something that you might beat me for, I will hide under spoiler veil which looks like this
also, FP will stand for First Playthrough


You have 20 save slots for all the difficulties, so I suggest this:
- fill a save slot for each stage of the game (at the start of each stage, preferably)
- use one save slot for current progression and leave one for game progression (once you finish the game, you will need a file to start New Game +, because you are taking your stuff from previous playthrough with you)
- and leave one free that you will fill before final boss fight (the game explicitly tells you when that is, this usage I will explain in next Tip)

Difficulty
People amongst the community agree, that this game has somewhat easier setting
Standard is truly easy, you might not even die 5 times
Hardcore is spongy, I will explain more in NG+ category
Whether you chose one or another, very early on, there will be a sequence that might make you reconsider your difficulty option, here I suggest to play for the first 2 hours and then chose
but you can definitely do hardcore on FP, if you are familiar with RE franchise, but it will be a challenge

Bonus content shop
Here, you use special currency, which you acquire for completing challenges, there's like 70 of them, you can buy stuff like models and concept art, but also new guns and special mode for them infinite ammo , both of which will aid you greatly in NG+
example of challenges:
- find each File
- kill set number of enemies (also with each weapon type)
- accumulate wealth (don't bother, on first playthrough you will get max a bit above half of required)

This shop will be shown once you complete the game first time, but you make progress in it even during the first playthrough without seeing it or when achievement pops out
1/5 to 1/4 you will complete on FP without paying attention to it (if you do everything on the map)
1/2 to 3/4 can be cheesed by loading your previous saves (saves a hell of a lot of time)
other require doing a playthrough with a knife, playing Mercenaries mode and such

Now, for you to be able to unlock the special mode for a gun, you need to equip it with all its parts + max all its stats once, here is where the last point of previous Tip comes in handy, because before final bossfight, you should have the highest accumulated wealth (weapons will sell you for the highest, depending on how much money you put into them (everything stays on them if you would want to buy them back, tho buying costs more than selling))
Also, as long as I know, once you buy a weapon from Bonus shop, it should be immediately available in the in-game shop

Combat
It stays similar to previous entries, in this one you buy parts for your weapons + upgrade their aspects, I would say the only one you should truly consider is damage, you can negate others by just moving skill (primarily don't waste money on upgrading first weapons you get)
Don't use money on things you can obtain through other means (like ammo, unless you need it on a boss fight, otherwise you can make without it)
And make sure to use your knife to save ammo

Selling
Items fall into categories, anything that has written valuable or very valuable is there just to be sold (unless you want to keep it as a memorabilia)
combinable category - once you combine it into final state, it sells for the most
if you sell a gun, you can buy it back with all the upgrades and parts (not sure tho)
Also, some weapon parts are needed to be found, some bought and some can be bought on NG+ (don't worry, parts you need to find aren't in the shop)

4th part of the shop
As long as I know, this mechanic is new, so I won't spoilt it, but I will give a little hints so you won't ♥♥♥♥ yourself over with no way back
1. use your knife to save ammo
2. (extension of the first, a little bit more forward but still spoil-free, but it might keep you from discovering something for yourself, like, you would probably find out yourself, but might also miss it by not paying attention) try killing from all categories that can be killed
3. don't pre-put "items" (you will get it later) here, cuz once you put them they cannot be taken back, only finished

So, you finished reading this part, I suggest reading next category (NG+) once you are at your last save point or are sure you are very close to it

Once again I advise you to read this category once you reach final save or are sure you are very close to final boss fight

I hope you enjoyed your game so far and avoided petty mistakes with my tips and tricks
So, here are little more that will prepare you for NG+ (tho, these you might figure out on your own)

As I said, in NG+, you start with your inventory from previous file, so I suggest to keep the weapons you would want to start with
remember, it takes around an hour or more till you meet Duke for the first time
also, the Bonus shop - in theory, you could buy a weapon, go back to this save point, buy the weapon from Duke and finish the game again, with said weapon in your inventory

whether this works or not, the infinite ammo get's applied immediately
but you won't have enough points for all the weapons with inf ammo (atleast I think, didn't calculate)
even if so, lot of will be hidden behind new playthroughs

Prioritising weapons (for NG+ and inf)

- for NG+ (you will want to play on higher difficulty, I assume) - you need to consider 2 aspects of guns - singular damage and Damage Per Second (and cost of bonus points)
in this category, I highly propose 2 weapons:

Magnum - you already have it, maybe even upgraded it, it has base damage 1700 and if you found the elongated barrel, 1900. Even tho fire rate isn't even close to RE2, reloading is lightning speed even without upgrading and 5 ammo cylinder isn't a real problem (you can reload while you wait for fire rate to come back + shoot during reloading)
You didn't get lot of ammunition for this behemoth, so having "plenty" is awesome, atleast it was for me

Dragoon - gun costs 30 000 bonus points to buy and since it cannot be upgraded you can already buy inf ammo for 50 000. I would say Avtomat / AR category is the most versatile in this game, really good for "crowd control" and even bosses. The other AR needs some spending into it till you can get that sweet Inf. Also, it will be just a tad bit better, sporting 50 more damage per bullet and 50 round more per mag, but reloading is already fast on both weapons.
High fire rate means chewing through ammo as well, so another good candidate for Inf
Also, Dragoon costs 400 Lei from Duke.

After this, buy Inf for whatever you want, but keep some spare for weapons you still need to buy, like that Lightsaber (idk if it does good damage tho)

Honorable mentions:
Sniper rifle, you already have it and it does good damage with headshots, but you get a really fair amount of ammo for it during your playthrough
Grenade launcher, good for crowd control, not so much against bosses (I guess), scarcer ammunition, so it's not that bad of a choice (especially if you want to make stuff go boom boom at distance)

Inf on the weapons I mentioned will break the difficulty below Village of Shadows
If you get Inf on, let's say Trench gun, it will still make it hard, because that gun needs 4 bodyshots on a Lycan on Hardcore. Magnum and Dragoon both will mow enemies in less than seconds.
you can always turn it off, so it's up to you
some say, Village of Shadows was meant for skilled players or Inf or both

Edit: for 5€ you can buy DLC that unlocks everything in the Bonus Shop right from the start, idk if you will feel good using it, with almost no challenge, it will kinda break progression and turn the game into walking simulator
but that's my lamentation, your choice and your money, no shame in altering your own experience

Otherwise, Enjoy!