I LOVE grimhelm, and I love this game! Made an acct here just to download the map (thanks!) and comment:
1) I am old, started playing games in the late 80s on an 8086, and I learned about hex editing save files back then. That's what I did here once I got to Mother Brain and realized I did NOT want to figure out how to beat her (and the rest of the bosses, omfg) legit, but I did still want to play through the game. I used an online hex editor, uploaded savedata.dat, and wrote down key stats from my save file (HP, MP, atk, and the base stats, though honestly those don't really matter if you edit the HP/MP/atk directly). type each number into a PC calculator and convert to hex, and then if it's more than 2 digits swap the pairs. search for the least-significant pair in the save file, you should see only 2-3 hits if you've leveled up a few times and the numbers are more than single digits. Look carefully at the patterns, some numbers aren't the stat and some are, save a copy of your savedata.dat and experiment a bit. it's not too hard once you figure out how to change the first one. Also, when changing ATK you need to remove any bonuses from equipment.
It's not for everyone, but it was great for me to enjoy the end of the game - I doubt I could have beat it and escaped otherwise (escaping is pretty easy with 5k MP). Also you actually can still die in the boss fights and need to be at least a little careful even with 5k hp and 2k atk, so it's not like all the fun is gone. Obviously the point is you can do whatever you want here.
2) anyone have any idea if a speed run gives an alternate ending or anything like with metroid? I'm going to give it a try, I started a new game and then gave Ellen ridiculous stats and am trying to surgically just get keycards and key skills and I'll see if anything changes.
3) I'm a new poster so I can't upload yet but once the mods approve me if anyone wants a modded save I could potentially upload mine. I think it's mroe fun to modify your own from the game you've actually been playing, but if it helps people enjoy more it's easy to do.