Let's start at the beginning of the game.

When you first start, you need to pick up a flashlight and an axe so you can destroy a weed that is holding the gate shut. Weeds are your primary objective in Zardy's Maze.

The axe is crucial to beating Zardy's Maze because you need to use the axe to destroy the weeds placed throughout the maze.

The one MOST important thing in Zardy's Maze has to go to the flashlight. The flashlight doesn't only help you see more, it's the one item that helps you survive. Your flashlight has a green bar on the top of it, that bar indicates how much battery your flashlight has before it turns off. In order to recharge your flashlight you need to hold right click, when you are recharging your flashlight, you are forced to move slowly, which can be dangerous if you're not listening out for Zardy or Pumpkin Jack.

There is not much to talk about the maze, but this is important. The maze you get has a seed, think of Minecraft when I say this.

Whenever you start the game or die, the maze shifts and changes, meaning you will have to change your strategies when you begin to get in danger.

Throughout the maze you will find giant flowers that stick out above the corn. These flowers are the weeds you need to kill in order to beat the game. When you are looking for a path to get to the weeds, try and go through the corn if you can. This allows you to quickly get to the weed without having Pumpkin Jack or Zardy disturb you, but watch out for the brutes that float around and protect the weeds!

Additionally, you aren't completely safe once you destroy a weed, giant green vines begin to grow, and if you don't get out of the maze via one of the maze entrances, they close off all of the entrances forcing you to stay in the maze. If you manage to exit the maze before the vines grow too much, it'll seal off that entrance for the rest of the current game!

By now you must already know this a corn farm, while the corn slows you down it can cause Zardy to kill you if you do not get out of it in time by finding a open path. Using the corn as a shortcut is very common and an important thing to do in order to survive, if you jump you may be able to find a nice open spot inside of the corn for you to go to so you can take a shortcut somewhere.

In Zardy's Maze, you will come upon these characters who try and kill you, I will try my best to explain them clearly so that you know what to do to avoid them.

When you face Zardy, he will be slowly walking towards you, seemingly coming out of nowhere as he usually appears around corners or behind you when you are not looking.

The way you counter Zardy is by listening for his hoe he drags across the ground, it makes an audible sound like something being dragged against dirt, use this to your advantage. The real way to counter Zardy is by using your flashlight to banish him. When your flashlight is aimed at Zardy, he stops in his tracks and slowly begins to fade, when Zardy fully fades away he will disappear for a certain amount of time.

Pumpkin Jack is the enemy who runs around looking for you the most.

The way you know Pumpkin Jack is nearby is when you hear his nearby giggling, or his scream when he starts chasing you.
To counter Pumpkin Jack, like Zardy, you can use your flashlight. The only difference for Zardy and Pumpkin Jack is that Pumpkin Jack does not disappear when the flashlight is on him, it will only freeze him until you stop shining it at him. The real way to counter Pumpkin Jack is to run into the corn whenever he starts chasing you. Pumpkin Jack cannot follow you into the corn and will lose you quickly after moving into the corn giving you time to run away. The more weeds you destroy more Pumpkin Jacks will spawn, be wary of that.
Additionally, Pumpkin Jack can jump over the corn maze whenever he hears a noise. The things that attract Pumpkin Jack are killing Pumpkin Crawlers or killing a weed.

Pumpkin Crawlers are a distraction and noise-making type of enemy.

Pumpkin Crawlers are not seen in the map until they grab onto you, the only way to avoid the Pumpkin Crawlers is looking out for the green vines that stretch out onto the dirt. You can only see these vines when your flashlight is ON! They go invisible otherwise.
When a Pumpkin Crawler is holding onto you, you gain a speed debuff making you considerably slower, which is bad if you're running away from a Brute or Pumpkin Jack. In order to get a Pumpkin Crawler off of you, you must hit it with your axe about 3 times. Once you destroy it, it will break into pieces, you will hear Pumpkin Jack scream, that scream means he has been alerted to your location.

The Corn Stalkers are another distraction enemy.

The Corn Stalkers are just corn that block your way. When the Corn Stalkers spawn in, you will hear a sound similar to when you move around in the corn. You will know what the Corn Stalkers look like because of their bright blue eyes inside of the corn. The Corn Stalkers will not allow you to go through them unless you hit them 3 times with your axe to destroy them. The Corn Stalkers do not let out a scream, so don't be afraid to chop them up when they get in your way.

Brutes are a defensive enemy that can kill you.

When you come upon a weed, look out around the open patch the weed has around it. Generally a flying object should be there circling the weed. Brutes will only kill you if you get in their line of sight or begin to attack the weed.

There is no real way to counter the Brutes. The Brutes have a predictable path, following a square path around the weed, luckily, if you get into a chase with the Brute, you are able to freeze it in place with your flashlight. Brutes cannot follow you outside of the square area of the weed, so use it to your advantage!

Drought is a setback enemy.

The Drought is a gas like enemy that pushes you back when it touches you. There is nothing you can do to stop the Drought aside from going into the corn. You can listen for the Drought by it's deep laughter. You can also see the Drought by its huge gas cloud that floats above the corn.

Cable Crow is an enemy that can kill you as it flies throughout the maze quickly.

The Cable Crow is like Link and his hookshot. You will hear a loud wood sounding thud before a cranking sound. That's the Cable Crow's hook hitting a pole, the cranking sound is when Cable Crow moves to that pole.
The only way to avoid dying to Cable Crow is staying away from poles as much as you can. You can freeze Cable Crow in place by using your flashlight, but if you stop looking at him he will immediately then jump to the next pole so be careful. if you get too close to Cable Crow while he is stunned, he will still kill you.

The Rattler is an enemy that can kill you close range and far range. You will only find The Rattler in challenges or custom challenges.
The Rattler is like Cable Crow and Pumpkin Jack in one. The Rattler is very loud as it lives up to the name and makes a rattling sound. If the Rattler is attacking you and you are farther away than it, it will try and hook shot you. The Rattler only spawns near the weeds, this can allow you to try and figure out where the Rattler has first spawned before running into him. If you get too close, Rattler will chase you. For what I know, Rattler will not stop chasing you once he has found you. I suggest saving the weed that Rattler is protecting for last.

The exit has it's own area, almost like a weed. It has a big open area with a blue circle in the middle of it. If you try to get to the exit but not all of the weeds are destroyed, it is covered in vines and you are not allowed to leave.
Upon destroying all the weeds, the exit has a big blue beacon that glows in the sky. The exit also makes an audible noise when you are near, fall into the big blue hole and you win.

Challenges are as the name implies. They change the game in a certain way such as adding more characters to the fray or doing other things such as stripping you of your axe or flashlight.

Go the distance is a pretty basic challenge. It's the same thing as you would normally do, except the maze is very long. Which gives Cablecrow minimal area to deny, but also gives enemies like Pumpkin Jack easier paths to get to you by jumping.

The Rattler is an enemy I mentioned in another guide section, he's an enemy that usually sits around weeds and has a ranged attack like Cablecrow. This challenge is not very difficult as there are not many enemies, but you may die a few times if you are new to Zardy's Maze.

This challenge is pretty hard if you struggled a lot to beat the game normally. Double Trouble is entirely the same game, but there's 2 of each enemy. Except there is only 1 Zardy, 4 Pumpkin Jacks, and there are no Rattlers.

This is the first challenge to bring in the Drought. He is explained in another section of this guide. This challenge is quite similar to the normal game, except the Rattler is added and there are no Pumpkin Crawlers.

This is when challenges start making a gigantic turn in the game! Cable Chaos brings in 3 Cable Crows, 2 Rattlers, and the Drought. The challenge removes Pumpkin Jack, Brutes, Pumpkin Crawlers, and Cornstalkers.

Needle In A Haystack makes the most visible change as of yet, but don't worry, this challenge isn't that hard if you've gotten this far. This challenge completely removes everyone except Pumpkin Jack, the Rattler, and Zardy. This challenge makes the map close to pitch black like in early versions of Zardy's Maze. You only need to destroy one weed in this challenge, and it is very very small, hence the challenge name. You'll find it randomly placed in the maze on the ground, the Rattler might give you a hint on where it's at due to his nature of sitting next to weeds. You will also need to find your axe somewhere in the maze, you can see it quite easily by the yellow glowing orbs that come off of the axe on the ground.
This challenge also bears a secret, you can find a small yellow key on the floor of the maze in this challenge, grabbing this key will grant you access to the house in the normal mode of the game. You can exit out of the back door of the house to enter another cornfield full of various secrets and achievements. I am pretty sure you will lose the key upon leaving the game or re-playing this challenge, I am not exactly sure.

This challenge can be one of two things for you, very easy, or very very hard. This challenge features no Cablecrow, no Rattler, and no Cornstalkers. This challenge has a large burden though, 5 weeds to destroy with 11 Pumpkin Jacks running about. Zardy and the Brutes get faster with every single weed you destroy, so be wary of that when making rash decisions. Zardy will also spawn more frequently with more weeds that are destroyed, he will also begin to take longer to banish as weeds are destroyed as well.

This challenge also features a "secret" character, A.K.A a giant green Pumpkin Jack. The giant Pumpkin Jack has no actual differences to the normal Pumpkin Jack aside from being large, green, and having a deeper voice.

This challenge is rather simple, it's daytime, you don't have your flashlight and for the first time ever there is music. This challenge is a callback to Zardy's Maze original itch.io page where the game ♥♥♥♥♥ to be some jolly corn field based game where the game would have a day/night cycle. This challenge also serves as a tutorial level for Zardy's new mechanic that appears in the next challenges, running. Zardy is your only foe in this challenge, and to make him more of a threat he sprints at you and gets faster the more weeds you destroy. You'll know when he starts running when he makes a "RAH" sound effect. You also need to grab your axe at the middle of the maze, which is also the exit.

Bushwhack brings a new fun gamemode to this challenge. You'll hear ominous music start playing, where you'll find a gigantic open square in the middle of the field. Which you'll see Zardy standing there waiting for your approach, once you get close enough or attack the weed he stands next to, he will make the "RAH" sound effect and begin the game. During this, you have to deal with Zardy who is sprinting, Cablecrow, Pumpkin Jack, and Brutes. There are multiple weeds you must destroy, the more weeds you destroy, the more Pumpkin Jacks and Brutes will spawn, while Zardy will get faster. Once you destroy all of the weeds, a gigantic weed will spawn with the exit in the middle of the field, this weed requires you to hit it 20 times to destroy it. Some people will realize this challenge's soundtrack and name is familiar to Zardy's second Friday Night Funkin' song which also bears the same name.

Challenge 10 seems easy when you first look at the challenge preview, but I'm sure you'd understand by now that it gets harder the more you go on. The game starts at day, and with the more weeds you destroy, more enemies begin to appear and sometimes various modifiers will come into play. The amount of weeds destroyed seems to always trigger the same effects and day cycle changes. You do not start with your flashlight, but will be able to pick it up from somewhere in the maze once you reached the dusk time cycle. There's a secret achievement you can get by destroying enough weeds to get to the nighttime which is at 14 weeds destroyed.

Here's the exact list of what amount of weeds destroyed triggers what event:
(Credit to sapphirehesus for this chart)
Of course as many of you lore players might guess, this has a massive secret. After destroying a giant weed at weed #20, you get a break that disables all enemies except for Zardy. It seems if you go to the original entrance during this wave, you can find a character with a scythe looming above, seemingly might be the character you could find in the trailer of Zardy's Maze 2.