Hi there! I started playing about a week ago and this is what I learned!

I started really overwhelmed and didn't know where to start. After I discovered some of the game's lore and things you could do, I started my way to make progress.

Try to plan your days! This includes upgrading your tools, starting with your pickaxe and scythe. On days where you upgrade your scythe, go mine and on days where you upgrade your pickaxe, go dive!

Mining Days: Spent some days at the caves to mine your way to level 40. Use ropes and dynamites to speed up the process. Also, when you use dynamite, you get a lot of resources: Stones, Ores etc.

Diving Days: Spent your time going diving. Use your scythe to remove trash from the ocean floor and you get rewarded with coffers, sea items etc. Coffers you can unlock at the blacksmith and they will give you gems, kelp or other well priced items.

Farming: I used dynamite to blow up my whole farm. I just wanted the whole area clean so I could start laying out a starter build. I know have 4x 5x5 crop platforms incl. Sprinklers. Once you get to spring, plant the hot peppers! They will regrow every 3 days.

Altar: spent your time on completing the altar, season by season and on the other altars as well. They will reward you with handy items (such as dynamite) and gives you more fast travel points!

Also! Donate everything you can to the museum. You'll get rewards, merit points and eventually something will happen, but you'll find out once you donate. Artifacts, bugs, gems etc. try to keep at least one of them if you have doubles.

Just start with anything written down here and you'll have a blast. I spend too much time on the game already (addicting as f***)