>The weapons system and level design hit me first.
>I just didn't understand the mechanics of the blueprints
>and how you progress through the game.

it seems like you have to prove that you have a good grip on the movement and combat before the game reveals its depth. it took me longer than expected to grasp everything but once i did the blueprints and runes started flowing in and the game really started to open up. my impression is that in order to have a successful run you need to acquire the most powerful weapon/power/mutation combination as quickly as possible, then run through the biomes 1- or 2-shotting everything and picking up as many resources as you want/need at a rapid pace so you can unlock the timed doors for more resources

look for complementary attributes on weapons. i think one of the earliest blueprints you can get is the assassin's dagger, which inflicts critical hits when you're behind an enemy. you can pair the dagger with a freezing weapon like the ice bow or frost blast to freeze the enemy while you roll behind it for some crits. you can also re-roll the attributes on the dagger. it's possible to get an attribute on the dagger that does +175% damage to frozen enemies or +15% backstab damage, or +20% critical hit damage

there are also weapons and powers that can stack damaging status effects on enemies, put enemies into a state for constant critical attacks, or draw enemies into one concentrated area so you can drop big area of effect attacks on them. there are a lot of possibilities for builds and the game encourages experimentation and re-rolling attributes until a powerful combination is achieved. just keep making runs and you'll unlock more and more ways to facilitate getting that perfect combination that lets you cut through enemies and bosses