Can someone give me some noobie pointers? Really enjoying the game but just not sure what/where/etc I should be doing.
I know the loop is kill, get souls, cash souls in on upgrades, get back to the upgrade guy and a modifier.
But if I upgrade/create blue prints am I only able to get those items whenever I get to the friendlies? Does it matter if I choose sewers vs promenade? I've noticed that I've been asked before to help find items in locations but I never do.
Will I ever get a stable starting build?
The most important upgrade to get is a bigger health flask. Get it up to at least 2 pretty quickly, and to 3 when it's convenient. Level 4 of it shouldn't really be necessary until you start attacking higher difficulty levels where you can't refill it between stages.
Another important place to spend your cells is at the blacksmith. He lets you increase the odds of finding higher quality items. His first upgrade adds 5% chance of finding "+" quality items for each 50 cells, and maxes out at 100% once you've given him 1000 cells. That will essentially increase the level of all items you find by 2. He only shows up after each of the first two bosses, so if you want to give him any decent amount you have to save up by breaking down the door to skip spending them at the collector.
Unlocking items at the collector allows them to show up anywhere in the game that items could appear. In shops, in treasure chests, behind paid doors, in secret areas, etc. Occasionally when a legendary (gold) item drops, it could be something you haven't actually unlocked yet. Unlocking items requires three steps: find the blueprint as a secret or as a drop from an enemy, survive to the end of the level so you can turn it in to the collector (make sure to talk to him after finding a blueprint, even if you don't intend to spend cells at him!), and then spend the cells at the collector to unlock it.
Going through the different level paths (sewers vs promenade, etc) is important for finding all the blueprints, because they drop from specific enemies and each enemy type only exists in certain levels.
It's also important to explore the different paths to acquire more runes like the Vine Rune that you already found. Each one is a permanent upgrade that gives you a new ability and allows you to take a different path that leads to the next rune. So since you need the vine rune to get to the sewers, you can expect to find the next rune somewhere on that path, and then that one will unlock another path to find the next rune, etc. There are 4 total, all useful for reaching more secrets, and a couple useful in combat.
The only stable starting build is if you want to use the basic starter equipment - rusty sword, beginner bow, wooden shield. After you unlock the random starting selections, the basic ones are still available, hidden back where you spawn.
Oh, something important that isn't totally obvious.. each time you upgrade your stats (scrolls), the enemies also get scaled up a bit. The end result is that you want your damage-dealing items to all work off the same color stat, and make that stat your highest primary one. Stats other than your primary shouldn't be upgraded if they will add less than ~15% health. Sometimes toward the end of the game when you find a scroll that can only upgrade your non-primary stats it can actually be better to skip it.