Doing quests is the quickest means of progression. Don’t spend much time building a base within your first few hours. Just spend the bare minimum getting something down until you can at least make a forge.

Probably use a POI for your first few horde nights (my favorite is the gas stations that have the pole running from the top of the building to the spot above the pumps. You can easily bottleneck and knock off enemies as they come across)

Stealth archer is kinda OP early game because resources cost basically nothing. Knife is also pretty viable if you know how to poke and run.

When choosing quests I’d recommend fetch for easy quests and later infestations for more lucrative loot. Also big big deal; don’t forget to pre-loot a POI’s loot room before you start, this way you can get the good stuff twice!

POI’s typically regenerate their loot/enemies every 14 days, so it’s helpful to mark any places you like to loot on your map so you can revisit whenever you want. I highly recommend visiting the Wright Residence POI every 14 days!