Originally posted by umop-apisdn:

Get your mead on; poison resistance is important. Also, swap in an extra red-fork food for more health; the rain kills your stamina regen, but everything else kills you.

Go sneaking around in the swamp until you find a turnip seed flower, then go home and farm for a week or two; the cauldron upgrade and the better foods are well worth the time investment getting your equipment set up well.

The difficulty spike is intentional; much like the spike between meadows and black forest when you're not prepared... it's just that the preparation in this case isn't only about "gearing up".

^^^This

The swamp is flat except where it borders other biomes. Poison resist meads make you pretty much inveulnerable to leeches and you'll need the drops from the leeches for upgraded goods.

You need the drops from the dragurs for the same reason so play around on the edges of the swamps until you get all the things you need to upgrade. If you get swarmed head back to the previous biome. The stuff chasing you will stop to attack the stuff in the other biomes giving you a chance to thin out the herd or run away.