Thanks so much for playing and the kind words! A lot to work on for sure, and like you said I really struggled to convey the mechanics in an intuitive way.
Some of the jank I left in on purpose cause I liked it, and much of it is just jank from rushing through my first ever game for this jam!
The select strength/stamina thing is the level up screen! So you actually won the combat with Elbow grease, then you upped your strength for the next fight or refilled and exapnded your stamina. I know it really isn't clear from the game and I didn't have anyone to play test it so I struggled to know what a player would think unfortunately.