Here's some logged gameplay that both gets the 3 DEF guarded by the Seep in the Ground Floor, and kills the Mad Eye in Workshops 2E without performing any alchemy.
Now that there's far less free HP, I think alchemy is less attractive in this version than in the last version, since you really need to gather lots of HP lying around to deal with the tough monsters in 1S and still have enough HP for the Mad Eye afterwards. You can still use two Reagent 1s to do one of each basic recipe to make a health profit, but it's a very small profit and probably not the most effective way to use the reagents.
I'm also less interested in the Seep DEF after seeing the DEF and yellow keys in 2E - not getting that Seep DEF would mean having more HP for this floor, meaning I could kill more mud mother tiles in Ground Floor 1N3E for money, wait longer to kill monsters for HP in Ground Floor and probably still have enough money to get those extra yellow keys and DEF in Workshops 2E, which combined with that single DEF gem available there might be adequate compensation.
Overall I think the new level is harder than the old one, but probably just because more fights are mandatory than in the last version. The posted stats might be just barely enough to complete the second half of Workshops, but it's probably not going to be easy since I won't get any "
free refills"
and more keys seem to be necessary right away.
Defeated Guardian! (same stats as before)
HP: 224
ATK: 18
DEF: 15
Keys: 0/0/0
GR: 12
REP: 27
Score = 140
First Level complete!
HP: 68
ATK: 31
DEF: 33
Keys: 2/0/0
GR: 3
REP: 313
Score = 275
Mad Eye defeated!
HP: 178
ATK: 33
DEF: 46 (including the Wooden Shield)
Keys: 0/0/0
GR: 39
REP: 649
5 Reagent 1s
Score = 307
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