Go slow, check corners and spaces before committing to them. Listen, a lot of creatures have distinct sounds when moving and idling. Gold is not worth blood until much later. If you get the tome on the first stage (to the right), killing with it can give you double gold. Get at least 1000g before the first holy mountain. On the second stage Coal Pits you want to go left to the Fungal Caverns. In there you find your early powerful wands and spells, but it is a dangerous place, you need to get there with lots of HP. If you don't feel the run by the following holy mountain, restart, no point in wasting time when you can quickly shuffle into a god-run. Tinker with Wands Anywhere is the path to power.

I usually format my wand slots as:
1. Melee/Digging
2. Work-horse rapid-fire that doesn't kill me, hopefully
3. Deletus ; area-effect spell for rapid mob control
4. Variant ; usually teleporting+healing, but can be other things.

Power is better with finesse.