Blasphemous

• The pace of the game is slower than you might be used to from most metroidvanias, timing and deliberate movement are more important than spamming attacks. The game is also fairly open in structure, so you can usually explore elsewhere if you find yourself somewhere you can't handle.

• While it's never mentioned in-game, you can press Down + Ranged Attack (the right face button on controllers) to cut yourself and regain some Fervor (mana) in exchange for some Health and Tears (money).

• You can change Rosary Beads and Prayers at any time, even in the middle of a fight.

• A number of mysteries and puzzles in the game are tied to having specific Rosary Beads equipped, simply having them is not enough.

• The 'toxin resistance' Rosary Bead isn't what you're looking for to avoid damage from green poison mist. That's a relic that specifically calls out granting immunity to miasma.

• If you're unable to collect your "bloodstain" from the spot you died in for some reason or another, interacting with one of the large Confessor Statues scattered around the map will work as well. Failing that, the same functionality can be unlocked at the church in the main town after donating 2000 Tears.

• While it's not worth prioritizing until later in the game, donating Tears to the church comes with a variety of other benefits at certain breakpoints as well, most notably at the 10,000 and 20,000 marks. More explicitly:
  After 10,000 all checkpoint shrines refill Fervor in addition to Health, and after 20,000 you unlock the ability to teleport between them at will.

• New abilities for your sword become available based on how many Mea Culpa Altars (the large stone shrines) you've found and visited, not based on how many abilities you have unlocked.

• Enemy attacks can't knock you off ledges unless you're mid-air, meaning it can sometimes be safer to take a hit on the ground than trying to dodge it with a jump and risking a fall to your death.

• Countering happens automatically on a successfully timed block, but you can upgrade the attack to a power attack by pressing the attack button just as your counter hits the enemy, not (as the game's phrasing implies) the moment the enemy strikes you. These, as well as the special sword abilities you unlock, have a high chance to leave an enemy open to an execution, providing more Fervor and Tears than a normal kill.

• Parrying a heavy attack will push you back and won't give you a counterattack opportunity, but it will cancel any secondary effects that attack would've had, like shockwaves or explosions.

• Some projectiles can be swatted out of the air or even launched back at the attacker.

• The free DLC bosses are exclusive to New Game+, meaning the room with a big mirror and a bunch of statues is useless on your first run.