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Dealing with Jenocres

There are a few ways of dealing with Jenocres, but they all fall under two categories: being under-leveled, or grinding to deal reasonable damage.

Under-Leveled

This is the faster option of dealing with Jenocres, though much more dangerous. Regardless of weapon choice, your weapon will not make a difference here. However, the Long Sword could be useful if deciding to also obtain the Silver Sword early on, but it's a toss up. Getting the Long Sword at least puts you at level 2 (because you'll need to do the Sapphire Ring quest to help make the money), which means you can make 3 additional mistakes compared to level 1 (Jenocres does fixed damage, regardless of armor). However, doing that takes 13 or so additional seconds, and the Long Sword only truly helps if you can kill the early Mine enemies without slowing down very much. That said, the fight is much more survivable at level 2 than level 1, but either way practice is definitely needed.

As for the fight itself, it's important to note that his location is not set in stone, at least not immediately. He tends to appear further from where you are, but with enough practice, you can get a sense of where he'll appear, and adjust your movements accordingly. This often means dancing between the flames is necessary to get where you want to be. Halfway through the battle, the timing to get through the flames safely is not as lenient, so if going this route, practice is definitely advised.

Grinding

These methods are at least 2 minutes slower than doing Jenocres under-leveled, but they also make him much more survivable and quicker to kill. While it also does put your overall EXP amount higher, any extra EXP these routes yield that can easily be made up in the Mine, or even when rescuing Feena. Anyway, if grinding, you'll need to be level 4 with the Long Sword to do any additional damage, or level 5 with the Short Sword, but level 5 takes far too long to reach at this point in the game. That means grinding to 4 is the only real option, and there are two different ways to reach it fairly quickly.

Luta Gemma

The faster option is to do the Luta Gemma sidequest, which involves some backtracking, but nets you a nice chunk of EXP. First, purchase a Wing in Minea, then grab the Golden Pedestal from the pond on the Plains. Before heading back to sell it, sidetrack to Zepik, and talk to Iris wandering outside the house furthest southwest, and then warp to sell the pedestal and purchase your equipment. In order to cover the cost of the Long Sword, you'll want to buy and return the Sapphire Ring to the one-eyed man in the bar, plus it nets you 150 EXP. Return to Barbado, show the doctor your sword, then exit and re-enter to find Luta. After the scene, you'll need to rescue him on the plains, which will automatically put you in Zepik, conveniently close to Jeba. You'll likely still be 50 EXP or so shy of level 4, but that can be made up pretty quickly outside the Shrine.

Killing Enemies

The other option is to simply repeatedly kill the armored enemies outside the Shrine's entrance, but you need to wander a certain distance away for them to respawn optimally. This is ultimately slower and probably more dangerous than doing the Luta sidequest, and is not recommended.

Extra EXP from Feena

Feena gives EXP when escorting her to Zepik before killing Nygtilger and finding the Book of Ys within. Doing it after gives you nothing. Depending on what version you're playing, the amount of bonus EXP you can receive will vary.

Complete

If you're playing this version, you have two options. You can rapidly mash confirm to help her, for a potential total of 2,000 EXP, though realistically, you'll only receive 1,000 or 1,500. This can only be done once.

Alternatively, you can confirm to help her, then refuse at the last second. This can be done repeatedly (up to 1,000 each time), but is extremely difficult to pull off. While helpful, it is best avoided in single segment runs, as it'll likely end in accidentally agreeing to help her before you're ready, with less EXP as well.

Chronicles+

In this version, you can still receive bonus EXP, but only when helping her, not when trying to refuse. But, rapid confirm mashing doesn't work here. Instead, when agreeing to help her, you'll need to rapidly press confirm, cancel, confirm. Currently, only a total of 1,000 EXP seems possible.

Silver Sword

The Silver Sword can be obtained a little early in these versions, which makes the remainder of the Shrine a bit easier to get through. You need the Treasure Box Key from B2 of the Shrine to get the Roda Seed and Silver Harmonica, so that should be collected at the same time you get the Prison Key to save Feena. Depending on which version you're playing, it may or may not be worth the trouble.

Complete

In this version, getting the Silver Sword early is technically just a little slower than doing the Shrine and Mine normally, but not by much. Even so, for a single segment run, it is probably the best choice, as it allows for quicker Shrine kills, whereas you would otherwise avoid them. Additionally, the Long Sword can be purchased to kill most of the enemies on the first floor during this first Mine visit, but unless you can do so without slowing down, it is negligible (since B3 enemies give about twice as much EXP). Once you have it, get to level 7 on the way to Nygtilger, otherwise that battle will still be a little slow.

Going without it, you'd simply do the Shrine as normal, and kill Nygtilger under-leveled. He takes a bit of time, and can end the run if you're careless, but is pretty easy even under-leveled. The main drawback is actually being able to make it this far, which can be tough, but it's otherwise a toss up as to which route to use.

Chronicles+

Getting the Silver Sword early is probably best in this version, as the Feena glitches can't be abused as much. If you're doing Jenocres under-leveled, this means your EXP takes a slight hit, but it can easily be fixed. In such a scenario, you'd purchase the Long Sword early on, which will give you enough strength to kill the earliest enemies in the Mine when you arrive, the fungus things. They give 200 EXP each, which will allow the EXP missed out on from skipping the Luta Gemma quest (if not doing it) to be made up in several seconds. It's best to hit level 6 using the fungi, then proceed to the Harmonica and Roda Seed, killing whatever else you can along the way.

Roda Seed Glitch

In Complete only, there is a glitch to make the special text during the Roda Seed scene speed up when getting the Silver Sword. Chronicles+ is able to skip the scene altogether, but Complete has to sit through it. To do so, you talk to the Roda Tree without understanding it, eat the Roda Seed *after* that, and then trigger the scene properly. Doing so makes the game think the scene has already played once, and so displays the text quicker as a result. This saves about 10 seconds over doing the cutscene right the first time.

Reaching Level 10

In order to do decent damage to Vagullion, you absolutely need to be level 10, with the Silver Sword equipped. Regardless of whether you took advantage of any early Shrine or Mine EXP, the remainder of the EXP should come from the final mantises on B3 of the Mine. The passage where the last one spawns, you just can go straight up and down in the room right before it, which will cause two of them to respawn quickly. While killing the knights yields a little more EXP (510 compared to the mantises 480), they also take more hits to kill, and are not as easily respawned. Still, the knights should be used as the very last kills to hit level 10 just as you reach Vagullion's room.

Re-obtaining the Silver Shield and Armor

A little known fact about this game is that having the Silver Shield and Silver Armor equipped is not necessary to defeating Dark Fact. It's not even necessary to being able to enter the top of the tower. They are necessary to being able to enter the tower in the first place, so even if one doesn't use them, they must still be obtained earlier in the game. As they are not necessary during the tower, re-obtaining them should therefore be skipped if one is confident enough. Even if armor is determined to be necessary, the Battle Shield only should suffice.

Pictimos, you'll already be dodging a lot, so armor doesn't really play a factor. Khonsclard, armor simply doesn't make a difference for the damage he deals, and that fight is easy enough already. Dark Fact goes by very quickly on Easy so as to probably not be an issue.

So, that leaves just the twin head boss, Yogleks & Omulgun. With enough practice, he can be taken down even without armor very quickly. It is a risky strategy, but the battle plays out more or less the same each time. But, to stand a decent shot, you should be at full health. To this end, a Healing Potion is strongly recommended to have as a backup; I suggest the one next to the Evil Ring. Still, the battle can go south pretty easily, so if opting to try this strategy, be sure to give it a lot of practice, preferably a few times right before a run so the feel of the battle stays fresh in your mind.