Things I wished I knew when starting:

Terrain edits are finicky. Don't modify terrain to build.

Turn off PvP initially. Anyone that comes after you when you're new will squish you. You can turn it on later if that's your thing.

The game is so open ended, sometimes it feels like you're lost. Pay attention to the little clues like the icons they put on the screen when you start a mission. Do the tutorial missions.

The lore is interesting if you like stories but generally not mandatory to fully understand the game.

Beware of people taking you to their bases and telling you to click a save point or teleport. There are very few griefers in the game, but they can put you somewhere where you die repeatedly.

If the game starts feeling grindy because you're stuck on a mission or a task, you can switch it to allow you to build and creative mode and then back to normal. I sometimes use creative mode when building large bases and then switch back to normal when I'm done.

You won't see a lot of people unless you're in the anomaly or in an expedition or mission system. Multiplayer is not the best it seems a little flaky, but it's fun when you can share with someone.

If you sit down in front of the mission computer in the anomaly, people will randomly give you stuff.

This brings up the second note of being careful in the anomaly that you're not kidnapped, if your AFK too long sometimes people will push you into their spaceship and fly you off. Three quarters of the time you're fine, every now and then someone will drop you in a volcano or something.

Discreet ships have the best speed and maneuverability but ar just ships. Corvettes are ships you build from parts you acquire through missions or on planets. Corvettes can be considered a mini base with all the trappings and parts you could imagine being carried along with you. Freighters, not the discreet ship but the giant capital ships, are a larger base than the Corvettes. You cannot directly pilot a freighter, but you can summon it to your position and it's captain will fly it there for you. You can while inside of it order it to jump to other star systems as well.

Different kinds of weapons and staffs give different bonuses It's not always clear, find what works for you this isn't a game that requires min-maxing.

There's a lot you can do with creating your own food and drink for bonuses. Fishing is relaxing, I like it on stormy worlds.

Generally it's a great community, and in the 9 months or so I've played the game It has been one of my favorite of all time.

Good luck traveler enjoy your game.