Crypt of the Serpent King (EP)

The rat enemies here are 10xp each, and the boss is 50xp. I encountered around 20 enemies this level, plus the boss.
It's safer to not approach them, but rather them approach you, so that multiple rats don't crowd you. As in, stop and wait for the first rat you see, then inch into the hall and wait for the next rat and so on. Don't rush around corners or too many will see you.
If they do crowd you, It's best to flee to the lava and attack from a key platform. Hatchet can reach but they have to be close to the edge.
Hope this helps!

This is my solution for going through on hard. I found that following the walkthrough on here misled me to the point where by the time I was in level 7 the level felt almost impossible as I was low on agility, which makes fighting the serpents rather challenging. I ended up restarting on hard, and recorded what I did on each level through level 7.

On level 1 & 3 fight every enemy, and open every chest. Level 2 I found the goblins impossible to fight, so I just ran past them whenever I'd encounter one. I still tried to pick up gold on that level when I could (the goblins move pretty slow). Once I had money for the sword going into level 4, I stopped opening chests, but on levels 4 through 6 I still killed every single enemy for the XP.

In terms of combat, up until level 7 (with the exception of level 2) I used the "move forward, when the enemy starts their attack, back up, move in, swipe, rinse & repeat" strategy. Most of the middle levels (3-6) I was getting through levels without being hit at all (the trick to that working is upgrading your stats correctly).

The key is to upgrade agility as much and as quickly as possible. You can see in my stats I prioritized this over all others, and by level 5, agility was maxed out. I then put a few points into strength, and then maxed out endurance.

I never had any problems with the jumping on any of the levels. Maybe because my agility was so high? Couldn't say.

Level 7 gave me some problems. The fighting strategy I'd been using mostly worked on the snakes, but I couldn't get a single hit on the boss without being hit myself. I then saw on the walkthrough forum for the game a tip on combat (unfortunately the person who posted it is removed, so I can't give credit):

Once I saw this, level 7 became a breeze, I only got hit twice by two snakes, both times because I was being dumb, and the boss never touched me. I can't speak to how this strategy works on other levels, but it's what got me through level 7.

My stats at the end of each level:

1st level:
20 enemies
240 XP
1360 gold

2nd level (strength 1, endurance 1, agility 3, weapon hatchet):
1 enemy (again, only enemy I killed on this level was the boss)
60 XP
2170 gold (3530 total)

3rd level (strength 1, endurance 1, agility 4, weapon hatchet):
12m 30s
22 enemies
364 XP
4300 gold (7830 total)

4th level (strength 1, endurance 1, agility 7, weapon sword):
8m 40s
27 enemies
496 XP
0 gold

5th level (strength 3, endurance 1, agility 10, weapon sword):
9m 36s
29 enemies
594 XP
0 gold

54 XP remaining

6th level (strength 3, endurance 7, agility 10, weapon sword):
11m 13s
30 enemies
680 XP
0 gold

7th level (strength 7, endurance 10, agility 10, weapon sword)

Hope this helps.

I decided to lure all 20 kobold rat enemies back to the lava pits to fight them across the gap. It was taking 3 hatchet strikes to down them.

Pros
- didn't get hit after adopting this strategy, go into the boss with full health
- easier to fight multiple enemies, I had 3 kobolds appear simultaneously on one occasion

Cons
- backtracking takes a little bit longer (cleared the level in 20 mins)
- 50% of the rats fell into the lava, so I only got half the XP (will have to see if this becomes an issue in later levels wrt upgrading)

The final boss with the long axe has very long reach and a short refractory period. After just using the "backup and counterattack" technique on Easy/Medium, I was getting hit too frequently on Hard because he swings too frequently and it's too difficult to escape his range with Agility 1.

I found more success by once again holding the left analog stick fixed in place at around the 7-8 o'clock position so I was constantly spinning clockwise. Whenever I heard him swing, I would quickly let go, charge and attack him once and then quickly backup out of his range and resume holding the left analog stick to continue spinning.

I didn't count how many hits it took to down him, but it took many more than Easy/Medium. I would estimate around 8-10 hits.