This is a great game after like 2 hrs of gameplay and figuring out what am I supposed to do to get high scores. I would put some experiences of mine to compensate parts that tutorial did not cover.
Oh btw, the "2000 possible combination" is a very vague statement, you rarely make equipments that have different level of ores, making the potential equipment level that you will actually make down to 60. (However, fusing different levels of molds to one weapon sometimes make the weapon looks really nice)
First of all I think the most confusing part is ore fusing.
When fusing an ore of greater quality, the LAST ore you fit in place will decide the position of the new, upgraded ore. When fusing ore that are higher than iron, you need to plan ahead and place the last iron ore in the place you want the new silver ore be, and so on with silver ores. So far Ive only utilized up to Gold ores.
When fusing ores to a mold, it will consume ALL nearby, linked ores(This do not, however, include ores that are diagonal to the mold without linked by another ore up/down/left/right of the mold), summing all enchantment levels of the ores. (However it do not make a difference to the equipment itself, fusing a mold with 2 ores have the same quality if you fuse one with 8 ores.)
Some tips: STASH Iron ores! I have like 30 iron ores and I seek every chance to buy more iron ore from shop. Silver ores can be purchased if you have extra money, and get some gold ores if they are on sale.
Buy gems and enchantment/gem dust for emergency uses if you cannot fulfill the requirement of your customers gem/enchantment level.
Buy void block(Or whatever it called, it looks like a blackhole), this can easily solve an otherwise unsolvable deadlock which results game over. It also decrease some major annoyances when you did something wrong.
Put up bets! Especially the 8 ores to 1 mold bet, it is very easy. (Ignore ones that ask you to clear all equipment though, I find it especially annoying to complete.)
I personally like to upgrade lv2 anvil, weapon rack, magician in academy, since you dont really want to upgrade the ore pistol or master of ores skill if you really are the master of ores. The loyal card and salesman upgrade basically have no effect on your game play, especially the salesman bonus is quite minor.