Rooted this morning. Pretty interesting for my first box. Went straight from w**-d*** shell to root.
Some vague hints:
If you are having trouble with the payload, maybe find a way to see how it’s going wrong. Once I remembered a trick to do that, crafting the correct payload for a shell was way easier.
As for root, as others have said, just follow good enumeration practices, there is definitely something that stands out that’s quick and easy to exploit.
Feel free to DM for slightly less vague hints.