Monsoon Huntress Early game Solo

What are some tips for Huntress early game? I feel like it's the same every time, try not to get hit, eventually get hit and then I'm spending 70% of my time burning time because I can't kill off the boss/dodge fast enough against the hordes. Ballista is a must but also gets me hit despite spamming R. I would love to learn but please don't repeat the answers below:

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A. "Huntress is broken! if you have these red items and just loop 2 times and..."

1. Great! but I have to actually survive 5+ stages to get that groove going. Anybody is broken if you've out scaled the enemies in game. I'm not saying god run huntress is bad, I'm asking for tips on being better early game.

B. "Go fast through the stage don't go for many items"

1. Okay but early Huntress low dmg. That means the boss isn't dying fast, then there's 18 beetles charging me and I have to decide to kill infinite hordes (teleporter is swarmed and I can't dodge forever) or try to pick off a boss that keeps getting healed. Sure I win, but now it's 10+ mins before I beat level 1 and I feel like I might as well scoop up more items considering I'm running laps around the entire map.

C. "Use artifact of command, etc."

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1. That's cheesing it imo. If you need these to be "broken" maybe the character isn't broken (note I'm not saying she isn't I'm just pointing out the flawed logic).

D. "Lunar items"

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1. No thanks.

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