Doesn't hold your hand, but also doesn't pick you up and drop you off a cliff.
Except for the one time the game does actually do that and it's in Ramparts.

Don't let people scare you off: definitely can play this if you're not a "HARDCORE GAMERRRR". Might take you a bit longer to learn it, but so long as you don't let dying and restarting frustrate you then you're golden.

Have a goal in mind. The game helpfully provides one: "get to the next boss cell". Each boss cell becomes your next difficulty.

The game starts at 0 cells, which is normal mode. 1 cell is hard, 2 cells is harder, 3 cells is "okay this is getting a bit intense", 4 cells is "excuse me is a game ALLOWED to do this?", 5 is "oh dear".

You are probably not going to survive to the final boss on your first few runs. Maybe if you're good at hack-n-slashes and have experience with them. That's fine. Don't worry about dying, as crucial progression (runes) is saved and doesn't rely on getting to the Collector at the end of each level. Death is extremely important and you're not going to get very far without it.

You can smash the door in the Collector's room and save your cells up. Don't let that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fool you that you have to spend all your cells on him to open the door, just smash it.

You do actually have to take a mutation though. And you should.

Doesn't hold your hand, but also doesn't pick you up and drop you off a cliff. Except for the one time the game does actually do that and it's in Ramparts. Don't let people scare you off: definitely can play this if you're not a "HARDCORE GAMERRRR". Might take you a bit longer to learn it, but so long as you don't let dying and restarting frustrate you then you're golden. Have a goal in mind. The game helpfully provides one: "get to the next boss cell". Each boss cell becomes your next difficulty. The game starts at 0 cells, which is normal mode. 1 cell is hard, 2 cells is harder, 3 cells is "okay this is getting a bit intense", 4 cells is "excuse me is a game ALLOWED to do this?", 5 is "oh dear". You are probably not going to survive to the final boss on your first few runs. Maybe if you're good at hack-n-slashes and have experience with them. That's fine. Don't worry about dying, as crucial progression (runes) is saved and doesn't rely on getting to the Collector at the end of each level. Death is extremely important and you're not going to get very far without it. You can smash the door in the Collector's room and save your cells up. Don't let that motherfucker fool you that you have to spend all your cells on him to open the door, just smash it. You do actually have to take a mutation though. And you should.