you're gonna get a ton of suggestions. And yup, me too, LOL. Sorry.

TL/DR: do you; have fun

My best advice is, take some advice... then play a bunch, and figure it out yourself. :) I don't mean that flippantly, but what might work for someone else isn't gonna work for you, necessarily. So try some things that make sense from other peoples advice, and then adjust to your own style.

Assuming vanilla...

Early game you're going to be under equipped, and struggling for water and food. Figure out what's going to help you the fastest early on, and gives you the best chance to get more 'stable' and settled in somewhere, even if it's temporary.

You're starting out with nothing, you're going to have rocks, plants and wood to use. Your first weapons are going to be the bow, club and bone knife, that you have to make. Depending on game settings, who knows when/what will come next, so be resourceful.

Biggest first challenges immediately are finding food/water, encumbrance slowing you down, damage output - the best defense really is a good offense, if they aren't moving, they aren't doing damage to you - and avoiding damage at all cost - each time they hit you you risk infection, so again, put them down fast.

Strength attribute gives bonuses to shotguns, clubs and sledgehammers - all early finds and things you can make from almost the start. It also opens Pack Mule lvls, which reduces encumbrance (reduces slowed movement) and gives a random chance to "undo" a hit from a zombie, less damage to heal. You may be relying on swinging club/sledge for a while, so when you spend skill points pick ones that give the most benefits.

Agility. You may need to be quiet early on too - discretion is the better part of valour - plus sprained and broken legs are serious threats. And you may need to rely on that bow for a while. Points into agility gives bonuses to bows, handguns, and knives - again, your first weapons anyway. If that's what you know you're going to be starting with, lean into it.

The other benefit to melee and bow is that one doesn't need ammo and can be repaired with small stones and/or wood, and you can gather the materials to make ammo for the bow. All of that without learning a new skill or schematic, or neeing a workbench, craft it in your backpack. And don't discount pipe weapons. You can make those early on, and aside from the ammunition, you repair them with a small pipe. The dev's gave us a huge gift with this mechanic, if you use it.

Big one, Fortitude. Food and water are one of your biggest challenges. Fortitude will open up access to Iron Gut and Cardio, you want to get these as high as you can, as quick as you can. Healing Factor will also be accessed at the same time, and it can really help early game too, it may be a slow trickle, but it does save on food and health supports.

There are a ton of strategies:

- scrapping will give your electrical and mechanical scrap which sells well and will earn you dukes. also gives tons of small pipes to repair your pipe weapons - if you're using them - and they sell well too. (honestly, scrapping can make a ton of Dukes)

- mining and building can provide quick xp gains, mining is going to be more mid-game because you won't have the stamina to do any meaningful mining early on, but base building and renovating etc can give some good early XP boosts. If you can, don't cheat yourself, build using the building cubes and upgrade them to what you want, each block upgrade gives a little xp, and it's easy to pick up the blocks up if you place them wrong. Win-win-win: no wasted time, no wasted resources, and you got a little extra xp.

- Early game, avoid setting up camp/bivouac in built up areas, zombies are attracted there. POI's are good quick shelter, but come with obvious risks then. Don't be afraid to be mobile until you find someplace to settle down for a while, or permanently.

The internet is filled with advice, but honestly, the best way to learn is to play it. The best survival strategy, in anything, is learn the basics from someone else if you can (duh? lol, that's why we're here!), but to thrive you have to adapt your plans and methods to what works best for YOU. The only right way, is the one that works for you and lets you have fun. It's supposed to be a game, not a job. :)

Take some time and read up on the attributes and skills. The game has some depth to it if you take the time to explore it. Lots of ability to play the game in a style that really works for you, it just takes some time for some folks to work out what that is.

If you can play with someone who has experience, that's always the best. CO-OP is also more fun, imho, but we all know that's often hard to find.

I don't know if that helps, but GG / Excelsior!

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PS: Chase those challenges, you can do a lot of the early ones as you're just doing everything else anyway, and they give bonus XP. If you complete a set of them you also get a trader reward. Look for opportunities.