My first taste of victory, took on the final island after island 3 followed by island 1 and got through without much resistance, for a change. 41 minute run, rusting hulks remain my guys.
Hazardous and flame mechs are so much more effective than rusting hulls. I know its only easy mode but they are capable of eliminating the bosses on all islands in one turn.
"Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness." ― Terry Pratchett
This week’s spelunky podcast features Justin Ma who was one of the two people who made into the breach. Some really fantastic insights into difficulty and other design aspects.
It's hard to say but I focused on power cores and only change weapons if they look really good. Never really bought many one use weapons. I tend to try and focus on getting as many cores to get the health and movement up as fast as I can and then power up the more useful weapons. You can't carry reputation from island to island though so if you have one or two points use them on your defence grid.