Alright, so I've been playing a little while and even got a few friends into it.

Long story short I have quite a bit of CE to spend and I have moderately good equip.
Miracle Hood (small stun reduction)
Ascended Calibur
Striker
Autogun
Mighty Cobalt Armor
Horned Owlite shield.

so its pretty modest, but moderately good.

I've been doing runs towards the Jelly king for a while now. I never actually make it to him, but in the interest of improving skill I continue to try and I have gotten to the level right before him.

I recently read a dread venom striker is highly recommended for farming him so I'm working on making one now.

I'm really trying to effectively got to where I can solo up to him and I was doing better and better, but how I seem to fight a lot more devilites than I did before hand when on the way, which confuses me.. Well let me correct that.. I am either fighting more, or they are more effective than they were a few days ago, because they are beating the ever living crap out of me.

I would like to get a sealed sword and I've also heard on successful runs the levels before the JK can be profitable for crowns, so I see some synergy there..

In the interest of making money, I'm also going to start making/selling level 3 items since it seems to some degree profitable.

Any suggestions on more effectively handling the deviltes? farming crowns? or anything else? I prefer to atler my armor as little as possible seeing ass I'm already investing quite a lot of time/energy into the dread venom alone..