I'm currently playing on the second hardest difficulty (Episode 1) and it's starting to get to me. My two main issues are: lack of life essences and lack of ammo. Any tips? Cultists deal boatloads of damage with dynamites, and sometimes it's just insanely hard to dodge them, especially when you're in a small room. I also keep running out of ammo quickly.

Always use the pitchfork with zombies, rats etc. It saves quite a bit of ammo. Also it's best to take cover as much as possible and to lure enemies around corners so you can get them up close with a double barrel shotgun blast.

as long as you hold the left mousebutton all the way is longer from you to detonate :)

Yep, when you have dynamite selected just hold down the fire button. You should see a bar near the bottom of the screen. The longer you hold down the button, the more red you see in the bar, the further you throw it.
As for ammo, you need to find the secrets in the maps. :)
For zombies, fire at them one time with the flare gun. They will explode after a few seconds. If you hit them with a pitchfork after you lodge a flare into them they seem to go down faster.

Yeah I knew about the throwing distance thing, but it just can't seem to land where I want it to. Doesn't seem to be of much use against cultists, since I need to be in the open to lob a dynamite at them, but when I do that, they'll lob back 3 dynamites. Furthermore damage isn't fantastic unless it's a direct hit, which I can't seem to achieve. Seems to be a wiser choice to just peek around the wall and kill them one by one with the flare gun or shotgun.
Thanks for the other tips though. I haven't had much luck with flare ammo - I never got above a count of 12 flares at any one point, and I don't use flares often too.

I always used to play Blood on Well Done. But now that I'm playing again I'm finding it really tough! Of course that has more to do with the fact that I tend to charge headlong into cultists...not a bright idea. All these modern shooters have spoiled me!

Like me it's harder to play this gem than anything around.

I'm actually a new fan of Blood. Strange to beleive it but i never really heard of it until GoG brought it here. Of course i've played Doom and Duke so i'm very familar with the gameplay, but i have to say this game beats the pants off those. So glad GoG introduced me to it.

A few tips:
1. Try to find as many secrets as possible. Many of them provide the player with additional ammo/armour or even a life seed. For a list of secrets, see:
http://web.archive.org/web/20040131001126/http://www.planetblood.com/jarmo/
However, I suggest you don't look at this page unless you have completed the whole game, as I believe finding secrets is the best fun of this game( might be less than killing a group of cultists with one dynamite though).
2. Throw a dynamite around any corner (use alternative fire, it's safer) and under any ledge you are going to jump down.
3. Note that you have three kinds of dynamites, numbers of the other two kinds are shown at the bottom of the screen.
4. About flare ammo...rarely seen in earlier levels (actually the same for all kinds of ammo), might be better later.
5. For the dining room of phantom express, clear the room with alternative fire of flare gun. Dynamites are too slow.

My own suggestion: once you get the voodoo doll,hang on to it. Save it for the big gray Gargoyles-they seem to be weak to it,but can soak up a lot of bullets/shotgun/flare ammo.

Getting lost/not knowing where to go becomes another problem D:. For dynamite lobing cultists,try to shoot them with your shot gun. No need for both barrels to be shot. On zombies the die instantly with a double barrel shot from medium-close range.
EDIT: Try using your flare gun on Gargoyles. Since Gargoyles are clumsy sometimes its easy to dodge their attacks on fire alot of flares on them. They also have a satisfying death animation when burned to death :D.

I started on the fourth difficulty since that's what I like to play Duke 3D on, but I backed off to the third - I guess I'm not familiar enough with the game to play comfortably on the fourth.
Dealing with some of the tougher enemies:
- Heavy zombies are surprisingly susceptible to the flamethrower. Save your bullets for the cultists.
- Gargoyles are easily killed with the napalm launcher.
- Don't even go near the hellhounds or you'll be sorry. Use the tesla gun from as far away as you can get.
- Avoid the grey gargoyles. You have to kill one at the end of episode 1 and 4, but other than those two, I have yet to encounter one that I haven't been able to run away from. They're far too strong to justify engaging if you can help it.

BLood has always has a reptuation as a tough game. Even if you are a experienced FPS player, I would recommend trying the easiest, "Still Kicking " setting for the first episode.
ANd BLood is a game where avoiding combat can be a viable strategy whenever possible.If you are the kind who insists on a 100 Kill ratio, you are making things tough for yourself on the higher settings.
Wait until you encounter CHeogh, the boss monster in the first episode. THat is one hell of a tough fight. Never stand still, use cover, and remember he is very vulnerable to flame...you flare gun is your best friend.
BTW take comfort in that Cheogh is the toughtest fight in the whole game. THe other bosses, even Tchemobog himself, are not nearly as rough.

Thanks for the tips everyone. Glad to hear that I'm not the only one who finds it difficult too. I'll continue through the first episode on the current difficulty, but I'll definitely switch down a notch in the next episode. I guess I'm just too used to playing earlier FPSes (even Strife) on the hardest difficulties.