Throughout my attempts, I swapped between 100% absorb, doing a mixture, etc. and found that the most effective strategy was to run 100% scavenge. It may be that the game still requires some balancing, but with this method you have a constant stream of money, health, and arrows. With this method, you get some experience from pots, chests, etc. which is enough to get you a few abilities throughout the run, which is all you really need.

Melee: If you are lucky enough to find the claws that insta kill Vanara's with one hit (the annoying ass monkeys) kudos. I got this on my final run, and it essentially make it a million times easier. (Devs, you should probably nerf it). However, if you are not that lucky, I'll give one major piece of advice. Ignore Hammers. Perhaps it just isn't my play style, but speed is everything in this game. The hammers, though they can hit for a large chunk of damage, simply aren't worth the movement penalties, and stamina drains. I found the most effective weapons to be claws and swords.

Ranged: Stick to a bow if possible. Preferably ones that apply poison, or fire 2 arrows at once as this is very useful on bosses. Spells are too slow to be viable at this point, and rings are useless as you have to wait for them to bounce back to you.

If you decide to follow my 100% scavange plan, then this will not be as important, as abilities will be a very minor part of your run. I stuck with health (Bal Shastras) that provided a shield, along with a couple damage (Yodha Shastras) to beef up my attacks. With the scavenge strategy, you should almost always have full armor, so combine that with health buffs, and shield abilities, you are pretty tanky. Especially look out for NashRakshan and its upgrade Kabaad. Essentially you take your main weapon, destroy it, and get a permanent damage increase. With scavenge, weapons drop alot as you should also be opening every locked room. So just swap to that weapon, destroy it, then pick yours up again.

Don't bother trying to save for the resurection item, it's overpriced and it's almost impossible to save enough to get it, as each floor causes shop items to get more expensive. Instead, focus on getting the Pathar (+10 melee damage) and the Teer (+10 range damage). These should be secondary to maintaining a full set of armor, but once these items are in your inventory, it helps a lot. Only buy keys if you have a full set of armor, and can comfortably save for at least one of those two. Locked rooms only prove to be a useful investment ~30-50% of the time, so they should be your last money dump, next to health pots. Picking up 1 Matka might also be useful, if you are horrible at dodging fire, like myself.

Remember, arrows are most effective on melee units. Melee is most effective on ranged units. I tend to like using ranged on magic users as well. Remember this setup, and combine it with attack move, attack move, attack move, and you should be able to clear most any room without being hit.

Ranged. That's the strategy. By the time you fight hopefully even the first boss, you should have an upgraded ranged weapon. The second you want into the room, start mashing attack. If you stick with a bow, stamina isn't used, so you can just fire over and over. Honestly, even if its a ranged boss, I still stuck with using a bow. Make sure to have an extra set of arrows in your inventory, but this helped me kill pretty much every boss. Once I got the Hashirama (Final Boss) I did the same thing, and at that point I have the increased range damage item, and a green bow (not even that powerful) shot him maybe 10 times, and he died. I got hit once using this method. Fight took maybe 10 seconds.

I know that this guide will probably be completely pointless in the more difficult settings, buts seems to work well on the easiest. To summarize:
1.) 100% scavenge
2.) Obvious, but break every pot, barrel, and now bonfire you see
2.) Speed is your friend, do not pick up hammers... Just don't...
3.) Rush to get full armor and +10 items from store
4.) Don't be afraid to skip large rooms, especially on level 3! If it's not necessary, don't feel bad for skipping it.
5.) Ranged is your friend on bosses

After writing this guide, I went and attempted the Rakshas difficulty, and cleared first try! Annoying? Yes. How did I do it? The exact same strategy. I ran 100% scavenge, and rushed the +10 items in the store. Once I had those, and a solid bow (Shoots 3 arrows at once) I essentially one shotted every enemy in the game. Beat each bos in a few seconds, and beat the final boss in about 10! The strategy really works!