You are right, I had to spend almost all of my potions around levels 1 and 2 while walking around without food.
After that it was trivial to get to level 8. Plenty of food for conversion at the end.
With knockback I was able to hurt 2 bosses at all times. Even though I screwed up, and angered Mystera around level 2 or 3 (+10% resist to all monsters), I still won. My first goat win on a hard dungeon.
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/921416646727034853/DD2CD6241BF6BB1DB152EE2C749D6F551AEF109E/