I'm playing solo, the first hours were quite hard. I died first against Dvergr ("I'm wondering if I can plunder those crates - oooops..."). Again when trying to get my stuff back. And another time against a one-star Gjall which caught me off guard while on stamina food. Since then I got a few close calls but currently it works quite well for me.

With the new food, especially the salad, navigation gets easier. Most of the time I just climb a cliff and jump to the next peak and so on until I reach easier terrain. The raven coat helps a lot. Sometimes it's even possible to dig your way through the mountain.

And during combat, parrying does the trick, even my black metal sword can one-shot seekers then. Soldiers take longer, but if they are alone, they're no challenge either. For enemies with stars I usually use bonemass as a backup. Only thing I really hate are the Gjalls.