>first time - which was very nearly just this morning. I'm 40
>attempts in and felt incredibly self-conscious when I looked
>up a player survey post-1.0 release and most people were
>saying their first clear was in the 9th to 14th run range
>(!!!) but I'm just stupid and brain dead when it comes to
>these sorts of games and try to brute force my way a lot of
>the time, especially when I'm just tired of a certain area or

It took me just under 30 attempts to reach the final boss, I think my first escape was #34, with it being my 3rd fight with the final boss. After that escapes became pretty easy if I was using a weapon I was comfortable with and didn't get completely unlucky with boons. I'd say the easiest weapon for me was the fists because I'm more comfortable to up-close, hit/attack mashing fighting. I think my first escape I didn't even use my special or cast, but more recently I'm starting to try to improve in those regards (cast especially).

I was at 50-something attempts when I finally got my 10th escape, but I haven't picked it up since. I was burnt out. Towards my final runs though I was getting better at strategizing which boons I wanted to fish for and how to build good combinations of them.