For Base Game
* slowing down your kills can help a lot, i advise killing only when your bloodlust is one away from full (that way if you get blocked you have an extra night to kill before taking the bloodlust hit) and spend the rest of the time figuring out where everyone lives with your pet to better get ingredients. Though as a bonus, if you haven't killed anyone yet and got unlucky with bloodlust, the night mare will take pity on you to reset it but you will still take the sanity loss from hitting it. Depending on your information, letting it purposefully trigger to buy time isn't the worst idea.
* basically always kill when you have an event option, someone's cleaning your cupboards? kill. the visitor is here? kill. the odds are against anyone watching your street and even if they are the penalty is pretty minimal I find.
* Do not worry about your cloak, it's cool but that's something to work towards later specifically as sending your pet to get cutie marks if you aren't actively putting all effort into making the cloak is a waste of time
* Information gotten from pressing ponies is usually mediocre after early game i advice to either build friendship or gaslight unless you pull Star in which case you can go for asking a red question risk free.
* Honestly the disciple's information is only reaaally worth it for what the magician is doing due to her forcefield, killing them early can honestly be better overall.
* Remember that you don't need to kill everyone, you just need to kill nearly everyone and also the mayor, I'm not sure the exact numbers but don't worry too hard about characters that are too hard to kill but don't directly do much to hurt you like the naturist as they tend to get swept up in the endgame of the town surrendering
* Constantly be dumping your evidence, whether it be planting it or burning it, usually burning it, the reporter can and will snoop and you don't need to keep it on hand with how easy it is to just kill a random townie
* Save death by chocolate for a REAL problem like the princess or magician, but try and use the drugging cake first on one of them. If the guard isn't dead, drugging the alicorn could be a waste of a cake though so prioritize the magician as the harder kill
* Speaking of cakes there's no reason to not use some cakes if you're skipping nights waiting, especially the one that makes everyone hate the one who gets it
* Don't bother trying for the changeling spy, current update makes it near impossible to find on purpose, you can keep track of ponies if you really want to through the newspaper, but it's not really worth it, especially as the preacher tends to go insane after killing the changeling and taking care of themself
* send threats! freak ponies out! it can be a good way to lower sanity especially once you have a grasp on what gets you high rankings on them. Also it's just funny.
* timing for killing the mayor is situational and should be considered carefully, while the mayor does need to die eventually the ability to protect you from the mobs can make it worth saving the mayor for endgame if ponies don't like you very much, but it might be out of your hooves entirely depending on the whims of the mob
* torturing ponies is fun but once you've hit midgame most ponies will either deny or cancel your request, it can be worth it early game while you're waiting for your bloodlust for a free kill but honestly not a priority
* there are absolutely times where you'll want to go a lot more kill happy, if you're being blackmailed show no mercy lmao, or if your sanity is getting a bit too low for your liking murder can raise it, but still be careful with it and try to not be sloppy by forgetting to burn evidence.
* avoid the veteran if you can, even winning the minigame will basically doom your game, let the town take care of them or when you get information that suggests they are not alert.
* only go to church if you're starting to run out of options
* if you get the magician/alicorn mind minigame you are dead. You MIGHT get lucky but it's ridiculously hard, so be ready to reset depending on the results and how late in the game it is. The magician and alicorn should be your PRIORITY targets because of this, kill them as fast as possible and befriend them when you have the chance. I admittedly don't know if friendship has an actual effect but it at least seems like they're a lot more hesitant to poke around your head if you get them to be your bestie. Remember for the magician at least they have to be a unicorn, try and target unicorns if possible for your first two kills before the barrier goes up and for any kidnapping.
* spend some time looking into the tarot card, good to know what they are at a glance, and good to refresh yourself occasionally.
* remember that all of this will likely be outdated in like two months when the big update that changes everything drops lmao.

For Bonus Modes
* Do weedkiller and no pet at the same time, no pet means the amount of ingredients you'll get is very low, you'll be lucky to even get a single cake, just do them together and save time. Beyond that just play the same but being somewhat extra aware of the magician and noble
* Changeling run is a COMPLETELY different game, it's ALL rng, kill as often as possible and hope you get lucky, if there's a tell for the changeling I certainly haven't found it, be prepared to reset until you get lucky, upon the death of said changeling just resume playing as one would normally
* Everyone hating you does make things a bit trickier, overall focus on raising friendship and hiding behind the mayor stopping the mobs but beyond that just keep playing slow and steady.