I take it you’re not a challenge runner. At higher numbers of challenges it becomes essentially mandatory to use alchemy to survive. I am finishing up 6-challenge wins with every class (just need to do Huntress) and I use alchemy a TON. If you’ll note one of the alchemy changes is that alchemy pots now only spawn on either the 3rd or 4th floor of each area (instead of possibly the 2nd). This is actually a BUFF to alchemy that makes a big difference for challenge players. Why would we want alchemy pots to come later? Because it reduces the amount of backtracking we need to do and backtracking is really expensive with only 1/3 the usual amount of food (On Diet challenge).