Cogmind is fairly different from other roguelikes, so even if you come from that background, it won't help you a whole lot
(and might even hinder you in certain ways...). It's a very tactical game, due partially to the extreme emphasis on ranged combat, so positioning is quite important. And in the bigger picture, strategy-wise there's a lot to think about because encounters are not usually isolated--you have to consider how your actions might affect the overall state of the world since it is a reactive living environment. All of those reactions are (eventually) learnable, however, so it's not a completely secret and opaque system.
I can tell you that if you check out one of the
spoiler-free beginner guides you'll learn a few of the basic tactics that you just might not have been able to come up with on your own yet, and it will still leave you with a huge amount of stuff to discover, both in terms of mechanics and of course content (being spoiler-free).
With some players these things really snap into place and we've had some go on to win in a couple weeks or less, while others have been playing for over a year and are only just now starting to reach the end game areas. I would always recommend that anyone having repeated trouble in the early game should check some beginner's tips, because once you have the basics down, while the early/mid-game is still challenging, it will rarely be able to kill you! (unless you're trying something crazy on purpose
)
Good luck!
