Spend before you push
The cheapest edge is a light wallet. Spend Tears at every Prie Dieu so a death loses nothing you needed. With 22 bosses from the Warden of the Silent Sorrow (400 HP) to Sierpes (10,000 HP), upgrades compound across the whole game.
Space and execute
Blasphemous rewards spacing and the stun-and-execute loop. Both compound: executions grant 9.98 Fervour and 50% more Tears, Fervour keeps your Prayers online, and Prayers win the fights in the boss database.
Upgrade the Mea Culpa early
The sword reaches level 7 across 7 altars, raising Strength from 10 to 38. Kneeling early makes every later hit noticeably harder — a bigger gain than any single relic.
Manage Guilt
Death drops a Guilt Fragment that shortens your Fervour bar and cuts Tears earned. Recover it or purge at a Prie Dieu or Confessor Statue; never let fragments stack across the map.
Use the databases as memory
You should not hold every enemy and boss in your head. The enemy database and boss database are the external memory that lets you plan instead of guess — check the Anchored Sailor’s 85 damage before you trade blows.
One goal per area
Clear, rest, spend, push. A disciplined run through Cvstodia beats a greedy one that drops its Tears in a corner.