Honestly, I really feel the damage scaling is way off on the barrels. Stage 2 or 3, the barrels will barely chunk maybe 10% HP and there's little to worry about unless you're already at super low health. But come Stage 7 or so, and I've had several Merc runs end in being oneshotted by the barrels cause a gasoline explosion was just big enough to tag one just as I land near one while maneuvering too fast to stop in time, and that just feels wrong. In a game with so many possible triggers to set off those barrels which can be completely out of the player's control, allowing it to so quickly climb to a oneshot through several Infusions and active Rose Bucklers is ridiculous.

I'm fine with dying to a barrel because I set it off like a jackass; I'm not fine with dying to a barrel because a chain reaction I had no control of set it off, especially with a character like Merc who...well, if you don't have a Preon or Capacitor, good luck getting rid of those without the game just deciding that barrel's blast radius is suddenly gonna be 75% bigger now.