Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

General

There is a teleporter location directly above the hub in the village. You access it by exiting the village to the right to the screen that has two bone throwing corpses then immediately exiting to the upper left on that screen.

There is a poorly telegraphed quest in mid game where the triggers to have characters explain it you are so easily missed im just going to spoil what to do.
After beating a boss fight consisting of two dragons, descend the tower and collect the item in the gold chest. With this item, return to the room in the village hub with the nun and have your photo taken in the portrait studio. With this photo then return to the librarian in the castle and hell make you a pass for the train.

If you're late in the game there is a suit of armor you can find that ignores spikes. You dont technically need this to beat the game but very late into the game there is a corridor of spikes you need to traverse and this is the by far easiest way.

Not all the NPCs in your home base will be inside the actual building. Check the area to the left, some fairly useful NPCs will eventually pop up there.

You can buy Waystones (which teleport you to the home base) from the nun for fairly cheap. It's usually a good idea to have some with you in case you ever find yourself with low HP far away from any save spots.

Just like in Symphony of the Night, you can reach higher areas by kick jumping yourself off of enemies with the double jump. You can also jump kick off your own Buer familiar!

Cooking food is absolutely worth it not only for the permanent stat bonuses it conveys, but also because many foods are actually really strong healing items. There is at least one simple early-game food that heals 250+ HP at once and you can carry substantially more food than you can carry potions. It's also distinctly cheaper, so you get a lot of bang for your buck.

Grow crops every time you are in your safehouse, it's worth the minor effort of checking in on your farmer. You will always get ten of whatever the sod is currently growing. New seeds can be purchased and are dirt cheap.

Making the drinks is extremely good once you get the recipe book. You can dramatically increase the speed at which your mana regenerates.

If you're exploring the castle and looking for a save room, almost all save rooms have a bookshelf right next to the doorway/screen transition area. This will help you find them quickly when you're not sure where the next one is/what the next room might contain.

Your first 8-bit Weapon should be something that looks fun or interesting to you. You can always buy more coins, so nothing is missable. Redbeast's Edge, God Cross, and Encrypted Orchid are considered to be the "best" of the bunch.

Mastering a Weapon Skill will allow you to use it with any of that weapon's type. For example, mastering Kukri's Assassinate will allow you to backstab with any dagger.

Pick whatever familiar that you happen to like as they aren't very game breaking and are more like extra utility. Leveling them also unlocks some hidden potential. The Silver Knight can block projectiles, the fairy can heal with items (and also sing at the piano), you can equip the sword, the book will buff your strength, etc.

You can borrow more books based on your current playtime and more book types unlock as you explore the map.

Getting rank 9 on your yellow shards will grant you the passive ability of that shard. Stat shards give a portion of their benefit.

Some recipes will only unlock if you purchase a particular product from the store. For example you need to buy at least one Circlet in order to craft its upgrades.

Always use your ingredients to make sauces, crusts, and other base ingredients first since this will unlock them in the shop.

Mana regen is extremely important. Female monsters typically drop fruit, which is used in creating the bulk of the mana regen food.

A few ingredients are only found in blue chests. Black Pepper is at
the Underground Sorcery Lab
and Miso & Soy Sauce at the
Oriental Alchemy Lab
.

One of the easiest-to-miss helmets is found under the boss that absorbs your money. If you're curious, it's the
Valkyrie Helmet
.

One particular strong enemy will only appear if you sit in a certain location long enough. Sit in the
train car
.

There are two places most players get stuck at. If you can get the bad ending and are still stuck, use
inverse at The Towers of the Twin Dragons. From the ground floor of the second tower, you will find the chest in the top left after you flip the map
. If you're stuck after avoiding the bad ending, go to the Garden of Silence and
slice the red moon found in one of the hallways
.