Had 15 minutes to kill so I decided to get a new life started (died shortly before I quit earlier).
> spawned into a pack of dogs. dead
> respawned between 4 zombies. dead
> finally spawned alone and it gets dark. spent 10 minutes gathering supplies and creating a stone axe. snuck around a ton of zombies to what looked like a small town. Find a one level building. Windows boarded up. Did a loop around and it was completely quiet. Broke down the door and was met with 8 zombies. dead.
I've gotten a lot further with this and figuring out how the game works now. I'm starting to make iron and finally have a grill so I can cook real food.
I am playing this world on the easiest difficulty and I've died a few times, but I keep coming back around.
I've found it fun to just work things out for the most part. If you fiddle with the menus enough, it's not too bad. I had to create a few worlds because I messed up on so many early attempts but I have a better feel for it now.
I did have to look a few things up, and tbh I don't know how I could've figured them out without a guide:
Spoiler
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Had to look up upgrading frames into wooden blocks because I couldn't fit a door. That's something really really obscure which I think you'd struggle to luck into.
I had to figure out about the fact you can learn new stuff from books. I got impatient because I realised I had no way to make iron and I looked up the forge, read that you need to learn the skill first and read no further. Something I could've lucked into if I'd explored enough.
I had to look up clay, and tbh I still have no idea where to find it. Supposedly it lies on river beds but I haven't found any. I've dug up a desert and found just sandstone. In the end I lucked across a corn field, raided it for all it was worth and am now using corn-meal + water as my clay source if I need some. I refuse to believe clay exists anywhere in the ground still.
It's really fun as you begin to learn stuff tbh, just like Minecraft. It's kinda daunting at first and you feel like an idiot as you get started, but it's rewarding to learn everything and get efficient at it all. Looking things up is definitely needed at times though