Leveling up certainly helps. I managed to get my second player up the level six, which I have no idea about how that works in terms of the scope of levels and characters in the game, but he wasn’t entirely useless during this level, so that’s a bonus.
This was still a level that was a bit of a tutorial, but also gave inexperienced players a taste of wrangling two fighters in a more serious encounter. Still not a walk in the park, by any means, but more a case of time rather than effort.