I swear like once every few months I will come back to this game out of complete frustration. In all my attempts at playing this thing I must have missed some crucial information on how to actually advance. I try to use abilities or get drops, but always end up spamming heavy attack and rest? For the love of god someone please tell me what I'm missing here? I never kill bosses and I'm bored to tears trying to fill out this insane time sink of a fame tree.
Heavy attacks are actually overall worse than normal attacks even with the Mighty trait that increases heavy attack damage until you have the exp to get your Agi to 40. Instead go with the Alchemist trait and then grab Insomnia and Sluggish for negative traits. Alternate normal attacks + rest to clear normal enemies and save up enough gold to buy the Swamp map from the town shop asap. Be sure to get at least 1 potion every day by clearing 2 encounters and then exploring any area for a 3rd. Dump all of your exp into Str for more damage.
As soon as the swamp boss Victoria shows up, go fight her. Don't attack her, just use wait and as long as your addictions aren't too high you'll clear the fight for a huge windfall of exp and a bonus positive trait. Dump all of the exp into str and you should be strong enough to tackle most of the bosses. Keep going after them until you lose, then dump all of that into the fame tree for starting exp. Once you hit 40 Str, work towards 40 Agi. When you can consistently hit 40 Agi on runs, start taking the Mighty trait as well at the start and switch out Normal attacks for Heavy Attacks.
It's still a slog to clear all of the content without cheating, but it's a lot faster if you abuse Victoria for starting exp.