P3R april struggles, am I doing something wrong?

i’m a persona vet, i first played p3fes back in 2012 and have played ever since (p3p, p4, p5 & p5r twice). i just picked up reload and set it on hard, but man i’m struggling so bad and idk what i’m missing? the average network level and tartarus floors are always higher than mine and it takes so much effort to even gain one level in tartarus. we got practically wiped out by the floor 17 boss. i keep seeing people say they rarely visited tartarus during april but i’ve been 3 times and we only just got to level 9. i blown nearly all my money on upgrades and i know i’m good at combat, so what am i doing wrong?

it’s 4/26 and i just spent all my energy in tartarus going from level 8 to 9. i haven’t touched p3 in ten years so i’m definitely rusty here