Extremely challenging!

Bought this game yesterday. Been playing most of the weekend.

I'm on easy mode, fighting Quick Battle. The only ones I can beat there are Goblin and Gelatinous Cube. My lvl 11 barb can't beat a Rat Swarm.

I exit the game so I can go into town to buy better gear. I try to upgrade my current gear. I can't afford to do either. I don't get gold from Quick Battle. I don't get gold from Mini-games. I get experience, but keep getting clobbered.

Started questing. My barb is level 24 now.

Getting tired of a battle in every single room.

Just beat the Yeti. For some reason, he lost life points with every match I made, instead of gained life points for every match he made?

Lockpicking.

It says when I match 4 that I get +1 turns. But I don't.

My barb is now stuck. My new char isn't getting anywhere.

The enemy keeps gaining hp with every battle won, but my chars don't. They keep making match 4's out of thin air, and refilling mana at will. I don't find gold to buy new gear or resources to upgrade.

I don't understand any of the help links. Easy difficulty is too hard for me. I'm putting this game on the shelf.