The first thing to know about the game if you are struggling and on your first runs is: it gets easier. The statistical baseline you begin each run with (damage, HP, armor, etc) will change as you play and you will find it much easier to win. Don't give up, just focus on one character to use so that you can build your permanent stat upgrades. Soul pickups are counted as blue = 1, yellow = 2, purple = 5, red = 10.

For your first few runs I'd suggest using the third character, the Paladin as the unlocks for leveling him up give two great weapons (Werewolf familiar and the Sunblast). Lightbringer is probably the best starting weapon for this character and as soon as you are able to, get a Pirate Cannon as it is the highest damage per second starting weapon and once upgraded will cover a lot of area with its attack.

Focus on getting relics that boost:

• Soul Chance (how often EXP drops from slain enemies, relics are Voodoo Doll, Talking Hat, and Phoenix Feather Wand)
  
• Ammo for primary weapons (more bullets before reload, relics are Leather Bag, Motor Backpack and Void Bag)
  
• Reload speed (relics are Leather Glove, Tome of Agility, and Demon Finger)
  
• Soul collect distance (relics are Magnet Keychain, Modified Magnet, and Soul Vacuum)
  
• Luck (increases chances of getting weapon upgrades with more than 1 level, relics are Marked Card, Loaded Dice, and Rabbit's Foot)

As you progress keep an eye out for the relics Veteran's Medal, Hunter Brotherhood Loyalty Card, and Lucky Clover.

A few general notes:

• Your guns automatically fire when you are pointing at an enemy who is in range (the range is pretty long) but you can manually fire your gun to arc projectiles by clicking your left mouse button.
  
• Your mini-map will have a green indicator of where the active health potion is on the map and once you grab the health potion a new one will spawn after a short amount of time.
  
• When chests pop up on the map you should immediately run to grab them as it will prompt a weapon upgrade or relic choice like you had leveled up without impacting your level or current experience which will allow you more relics and weapon upgrades over the course of the hunt.
  
• After boss fights there will usually be less enemies spawning allowing you time to run around and collect any stray souls.

Explore the map as you play but try to spend most of your time at a choke point that you like.

At first a run and gun strategy is not really feasible because of the spawn points surrounding you. Ideally you want to railroad the mobs into choke points where you focus your fire. A good chokepoint should have one main place to direct your fire, a good escape route that is easy to jump/run to and a view of the path mobs are taking to your chokepoint so that you can create an auxillary spot to fire and accumulate some souls if you need to change positions.

I'll take some screenshots of good choke points for each map and update this guide with them later tonight.

Most hunts you will want a variety of different weapons and weapon types so that you can make quick work of the different situations you will encounter. A good 10-gun composition would be at least 2 damage carry, 2 area control and 1 support weapon. After this feel free to experiment with different combinations of the other types of weapons or stacking onto those three.


Probably the best weapon early on is the area control primary the Pirate Cannon. With a variety of weapons selected this gun always has the most damage per second at the end of the hunt, doubling it up can really tear through enemies. See, after level 4 your one cannonball turns into a volley of 3 that can easily cover most of a stairwell and the cannonballs pass through enemies. This weapon has boss slayer and once you get the relic for boss slayer applying to all enemies this will clear all enemies even faster.

A large lineup of pistols can also be very powerful. There are constellations you could use to focus on pistolmaxxing to make use of the extra damage for stacking pistols.

A good starting weapon combination would be

• 3 Pirate Cannons
  
• 2 Miniguns
  
• 1 Killerfrost
  
• 1 Pewgun
  
• 1 Acid Flower
  
• 2 of your choice
  
• Shield generator secondary with offensive seondary of your choice.
  
• Cat Familiar paired with Meteor or Frog Familiar. The cat will give you passive bonuses like health and the others will deal high damage.

I already covered this in the introduction but again focus on:

• Soul Chance (how often EXP drops from slain enemies, relics are Voodoo Doll, Talking Hat, and Phoenix Feather Wand)
  
• Ammo for primary weapons (more bullets before reload, relics are Leather Bag, Motor Backpack and Void Bag)
  
• Reload speed (relics are Leather Glove, Tome of Agility, and Demon Finger)
  
• Soul collect distance (relics are Magnet Keychain, Modified Magnet, and Soul Vacuum)
  
• Luck (increases chances of getting weapon upgrades with more than 1 level, relics are Marked Card, Loaded Dice, and Rabbit's Foot)

Boss battles should take precedent over any normal enemies because they will disrupt your ability to hold down your preferred area and the boss chests they drop will give you rarer relics and sometimes boss relics. As soon as a boss spawns you should focus on killing them. When you begin to get multiple bosses at once you should prioritize the order in which you take them out based on how they will effect your game play. I always focus on Slayme's first so their slime trail doesn't cover too much area then enemies like Saci and Beardedon as they can attack without being near you, Teyeth as he spawns eyeballs that shoot lasers. The Swarm boss can be ignored and dealt with last as can the Wicked Nurse. With Saci and the Swarm boss finding them can sometimes prove difficult so use the boss indicator icon on your minimap.

While I have beaten Dracula I am still working on unlocking/leveling all of the characters and unlocking all of the achievements so I am still learning the game. I may eventually expand the weapon section to add a more thorough discussion of weapon options and I'd eventually like to add a section for specific builds. If there's anything else I can add to this guide please leave a comment.

Credits:
SlimeUwU's background for the guide's icon: https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3020817493