Hi Tchey,
Thank you for the detailed feedback! You raise some very good points about the early game balance.
Going back over it, we feel that the Guardian levels are probably too tough (especially the perfect run conditions). We don't want Guile & Glory: Firstborn to be so difficult that only puzzle game experts can succeed, especially early in the game.
As for what to change, you're quite right that it isn't entirely straightforward to re-balance a level. As you pointed out, changing a tile or moving an enemy can have radical and unintended effects on the flow of the level as a whole. That being said, we will aim to implement a balance pass on the first 3 chapters first thing after we release chapter 4!