The important part is choosing where to spawn! Even the good players never spawn on the north end, unless you have a death wish. You’ll instantly be freezing and surrounded by more dangerous predators than you can count. As you become more experienced, you could spawn on the east or west ends, but for now, try to spawn on South 1, 2 or 3.
Look around for resources (large boulders and tall trees) and try to spot predators. There may be some rocks on the ground that you can press E on and you would be able to pick them up without having to punch any big rocks and hurt yourself. Keep an eye out for giant crocodiles, anything that looks like a raptor, or anything with a T-rex shaped body. If you see anything, just be aware that they could notice you too! If anything is too close, you might need to move homes.
Run up to a tree, and begin to punch it (right trigger 2 on Xbox or PS4, left click on PC), until it falls to the ground. You now probably have some thatch and maybe some wood, right? Good! If you are on a beach, there should be numerous rocks scattered in the sand. Run abound, picking these up (△ on PS4, Y on Xbox, E on PC).
By now, you should have leveled up. Go into your inventory and under your character, there is a list of stats. Select one to increase (health, food, water, crafting speed, stamina, melee damage, etc). It will bring you into the Engram List. Here are all the things you can craft in the whole game. Some you must be a certain level to unlock. For now, chose to learn campfire and axe. Craft these.
Get berries: If you go up so a small bush, and begin to press △ /Y/E without a tool equipped, you begin to ‘harvest’ this bush, granting you fiber and different berries. All of these berries can be eaten, but they won’t fill up hardly any hunger, so watch out! Get meat: If you want any chance of surviving, you’re going to have to kill things for food. It’s just impossible to live off only berries. Here are three animals that are perfect for beginners: Dodos, Lystrosaurus, and Moschops. Run up to one and repeatedly hit it with an axe. Once it is dead, keep hitting it until its corpse disappears. You will have gotten meat and hide. Now, go over to the fire, put your meat and wood in the campfire and light it. Eventually you’ll be left with cooked meat! Eat this as you need it.
The thatch building materials require large amounts of wood, thatch and fiber. Get gathering! Once you have enough, you’ll want to build a small thatch hut. It can be as big as you like, but a good start is 4 thatch foundations, 4 roofs, 7 walls, a doorway and a door, set up in a square fashion. You need very large amounts of fiber for cloth clothes. The boots and gloves also require hide.
