If you use them all and die you start with 3. I don't think you get any Elixirs from dying unless you died holding less than 3. Basically, you'll always start off with at least 3 iirc.

But yeah I also find this to be a problem.
Though one small solution is to upgrade your Elixir inventory. By increasing it with 1 Elixir, my Max Elixir is 11, and if I die using up all my Elixirs, I start off with 4. So I assume you can start off with 5 or 6 depending on how many levels you can level that skill.

I always do XD

Well, changing stance lets you recover more Ki after a Ki-pulse (once you learn that skill) so it can be useful for that. But I only do that when I feel confident I have enough time to do it.
Moreover, each stance has access to different abilities. Mid stance for example is the only stance that can do the blocking parry (block at the moment the opponent attacks) which is the superior parry, as you can just focus on doing it it early and the worst that can happen is you block the attack. The other parries run the risk of having you get hit if you do it too early, which can easily happen for me as I haven't memorized every attack animation the enemies have, and some can be deceptively slow.

High stance is usually too slow for me to use as my default stance. Especially when you fight more than one enemy at once, which leaves me open for counter attacks from the enemy I'm not hitting. The attack also tends to slice rather vertically which makes it more difficult to hit more than one enemy.
There's a bigger risk of using High stance though, which is the amount of Ki it uses and the recovery time before you can block after using it. Enemies can some times absorb your hits without getting staggered, which can result in you getting hit before you get a chance to block.
As for the Ki usage, that's not a perfect way to mitigate the Ki loss from a High stance attack, because in order to gain back a decent amount of Ki from a Ki pulse, you have to wait a bit and let the pulse charge up. If you do it too quick, you can recover as little as just 1 Ki.
Basically, you'll more quickly be able to recover a higher percentage of your lost Ki with a pulse, the lower your stance is. And since you some times have to block immediately after an attack if you chose your attack timing poorly, the stance you use can make the difference of having time to block or not.

In the video I posted earlier, you can see me making use of Ki pulses early on in the fight, but even after mid stance attacks and rather quick pulses, I still manage to get hit a few times before I can block, so I stopped using Ki pulse for the most part in that battle as that particular enemy had a tendency to counter attack rather fast after I hit it.

Also, High stance makes it much more difficult to perform a Ki pulse purification (that cleanses a yokai realm), as the only way to do it is to perform a maximum Ki pulse. (Wait until the bar fills up completely.) This is most easily and safely done in Low stance.

Low stance is good against the monsters who crawl on the floor. But I use this stance rarely. It has the best evasive manouvers though, so I intend to learn this stance better.

One good thing about High stance though is that it gives you a Ki pulse from a roll.
I tend to use High stance when I snerak up on an enemy, or if I end up behind a strong enemies and have time for a hard hit and a decent Ki pulse.

That's the first stage, which is a good stage to start on. As soon as you have a set of gear, you won't take an insane amount of damage any more.
On the first stage, in the first area, there's actually only one instance where you have to fight multiple enemies at once. (Up the first hill, near some houses).
You can usually lure the enemies to you one at a time by walking near them carefully. But if you find yourself in a multi battle, you can lure them back near your shrine in case you die.
Keep in mind that enemies never respawn unless you touch a shrine.
I was also stuck in the first area for a few hours the first time I played the Alpha. But this time around I breezed through it, and only died once or twice before I reached the boss. Once you know where to go and what to do, it's not particularly difficult.

Well, changing stance lets you recover more Ki after a Ki-pulse (once you learn that skill) so it can be useful for that. But I only do that when I feel confident I have enough time to do it.
Moreover, each stance has access to different abilities. Mid stance for example is the only stance that can do the blocking parry (block at the moment the opponent attacks) which is the superior parry, as you can just focus on doing it it early and the worst that can happen is you block the attack. The other parries run the risk of having you get hit if you do it too early, which can easily happen for me as I haven't memorized every attack animation the enemies have, and some can be deceptively slow.

High stance is usually too slow for me to use as my default stance. Especially when you fight more than one enemy at once, which leaves me open for counter attacks from the enemy I'm not hitting. The attack also tends to slice rather vertically which makes it more difficult to hit more than one enemy.
There's a bigger risk of using High stance though, which is the amount of Ki it uses and the recovery time before you can block after using it. Enemies can some times absorb your hits without getting staggered, which can result in you getting hit before you get a chance to block.
As for the Ki usage, that's not a perfect way to mitigate the Ki loss from a High stance attack, because in order to gain back a decent amount of Ki from a Ki pulse, you have to wait a bit and let the pulse charge up. If you do it too quick, you can recover as little as just 1 Ki.
Basically, you'll more quickly be able to recover a higher percentage of your lost Ki with a pulse, the lower your stance is. And since you some times have to block immediately after an attack if you chose your attack timing poorly, the stance you use can make the difference of having time to block or not.

In the video I posted earlier, you can see me making use of Ki pulses early on in the fight, but even after mid stance attacks and rather quick pulses, I still manage to get hit a few times before I can block, so I stopped using Ki pulse for the most part in that battle as that particular enemy had a tendency to counter attack rather fast after I hit it.

Also, High stance makes it much more difficult to perform a Ki pulse purification (that cleanses a yokai realm), as the only way to do it is to perform a maximum Ki pulse. (Wait until the bar fills up completely.) This is most easily and safely done in Low stance.

Low stance is good against the monsters who crawl on the floor. But I use this stance rarely. It has the best evasive manouvers though, so I intend to learn this stance better.

One good thing about High stance though is that it gives you a Ki pulse from a roll.
I tend to use High stance when I snerak up on an enemy, or if I end up behind a strong enemies and have time for a hard hit and a decent Ki pulse.

My advice is to focus mostly on Ki early on. Increasing Ki, learning skills that reduce Ki usage, equipping gear that increase Ki or lowers Ki usage (for a specific stance).
But keep in mind that certains stats are required to equip gear, so spread them out enough for that.
Some people miss this, but in order to use your living weapon you must press Triangle + O when your living weapon gauge is full.
But as an alternative to this, you can use magic scrolls that imbue your weapon with an element. I chose water because most of the enemies in the first stage seem to be fire element. The good thing about those scrolls is that they replenish on shrines, as long as you've learned the skill and equipped it. (There's a separate menu in the shrines fror that.)

One change between the Alpha and Beta is that you can no longer stun yourself. In the Alpha, if you performed an action (attack or dodge) while very low on Ki, you would put yourself in a stunned state. This time around that's not the case, and seems like it has to be induced by an interaction with an enemy.
So in other words, in the Beta you can now do a last ditch dodge or attack without getting dizzy.

The red swords on the ground are A.I. versions of other players who have died in that spot. If you beat them, they will drop something they are wearing. I just killed a lvl 30 A.I. character, and it dropped 3 or 4 purple items.

I don't know what the lvl cap is. I'm lvl 17 or 27, I forget.

You probably know by now, but that's not the end of the Beta. There are some Twilight stages as well after that.
Btw do you have a video of you one shotting the Tengu boss? And beating the samurai using high stance with an axe? Would like to see what it looked like.