Looks like Elwro is pushing ahead nicely. The game does that, you feel stuck for a bit but later get upgrades, but also, you see your player skill improve until the boss/area becomes much easier. It's a nice feeling.
Wrapped up my playthrough at 108%. I'm not doing the flower, final pantheon, or grinding to finish journal & 2400 dream - no point. It's still a great game, and again you feel the difference as your own player skill improves, e.g. Grimm going from mega-frustrating to comfortable, and doing Trial of Fool in just couple of tries. Unbreakable Strength + Quick Slash does let you facetank a lot more, though.
Very satisfied that after so much trouble couple years ago, this time White Palace took less than an hour total. I'd do Path of Pain but not when it forces you back all the way without checkpoints.
But there are checkpoints in PoP, it's just that every section is extremely difficult, especially toward the end. Equip hive charm and you have basically infinite retries ( excapt for the last part, if you die you have to redo the whole thing, but it's not hard unless you get nervous and mess up like me the first time).
Flower is easy , just play super safe against every enemy. Or even better , cheese it by starting from destination point and killing every enemy in the path. Then pick the flower and now you only have to be careful for traps and pits.
if you managed to do 4th pantheon you can do Pantheon of Hallownest for sure. It 's just a bit a waste of time. But once u unlock AR you can practice in the hall how many time you want, even in ascended to make the real fight easier. I found AR easier than PV, just a bit more rng. Once you got the mechanics of the fight you should can complete it 60-70 % of times ( that 30-40 % is really bad rng). but once you complete it and see the true ending the satisfaction is immense