The controls seem fine to me, responsive and accurate. I use a gamepad though so I can't speak for mouse/keyboard as an input device for the game.

As for potions, Eris at The Wooden Hat shop has them, she is located on the lower left part of town. Destroying skeleton bodies in dungeons can drop them as well as killing Mimics.

If you dont have 200 gold you either have to die or find the mirror to sell inside the dungeon to get gold for getting out. Just focus on always having gold to port out and just filling your bag from a few rooms and repeat.

Originally posted by Kylethelion:

But I get just around 30 coins - definitely not enough for a portal (200 coins).

The 5 item slots at the top, any items here stay with you when you die. Anything in your bag is lost though.

Try to always have 200 gold when entering the dungeon, as sometimes you can have a good run and need to portal home.

I posted some advice here.

For now, try to be careful, isolate a monster and maneuver to kill it. Bowling pins with a sword need timing (but see below), huge slime arms are slow and easy to trick, turrets can be approached from a slight angle where they don't hit you but you hit them.

Of the dangerous monsters, spikey fliers are vulnerable to attacks after their attack (and maybe to a bow? didn't test that), bowling balls get stunned when they hit a solid obstacle (NOT the edge of a pit), and bowling pins with a shield and staff must be attacked from the back.

BUY OR FIND A SPEAR (or a large sword, but a spear is better for now). A spear can attack through obstacles, and you can poke bowling pins with it, no need to maneuver, just poke them right in the face and they fold. Try to upgrade the spear along the bottom path to the Stun version (note: poison and fire suck but by the time you get to T2 items, you'll be able to build another T1 spear cheap and upgrade it along the top path), but even a T0 "training" spear is an improvement over your starting sword and board.

If you're low-ish on health but can afford to port out, try entering a room to see if it has a healing pool (and prepare to port out if it does not). On levels 1-2, THERE IS A LEVEL MINIBOSS 1-2 rooms AFTER the pool room, so if you're low on potions, don't go beyond the pool room, instead use the free healing to explore the rest of the level. (On level 3, there's the main boss and its door is marked.)

Protip: there's always a secret room somewhere on level 3 where you can put your loot into a chest to port it back home (once; the chest goes away once you close it with something inside). Contrary to what the in-game notes say, it's not always along the path from level start to the boss room, it can be anywhere on the level.

If you're good for health and potions and have a full backpack, don't port out, mirror some of your grays and keep going.

Healing potions are good to have, buy them at the Witch AND EQUIP THE STACK TO YOUR QUICK ITEM SLOT so you can use them in combat with RT (you can't open your backpack in combat, which limits you for each particular battle to however many potions you have in the quick item slot -- max is 5, replenish it whenever possible). I always carry 1 extra stack with me. When buying potions, you can provide your own ingredients (jellies), in which case the potions cost much less, so don't sell the jellies (don't sell the red crystals either). A decent run will get you at least 10 of the lowest tier jellies, enough to make potions for another run.

Enchant your weapons (up to 3 times) and armor (once every piece). Enchantments go away after upgrading items to the next tier but are still worth it, they pay for themselves pretty much immediately. More damage to enemies -> less damage to you + faster combat -> more loot. Less damage to you -> longer run -> more loot.

A fully enchanted weapon, 3 enchanted armor pieces (doesn't matter what type), and 5 potions of the appropriate tier are enough to tank the level boss.

If you see a Forest portal, GO THERE. It's a preview of the T2 dungeon. Mirror the loot from that room: it's cheap, you won't get more of it during the run to justify it occupying a stack, and it will never be enough to build a T2 weapon
BUT
killing a T2 monster unlocks T2 shop improvement at the Hawker! Those are CHEAP and useful.
(The same applies to Desert and Tech.)

A note on the Watcher dungeon (conspicuous green portal/splash): I think it's a waste of time. Do it once to see what it's about.

Good luck!