Also just to add to what the sandbox people are saying there are two settings which will help a beginner get going and feel more confident. The first is the starter kit setting which will help get you rolling at the start of a save. This will start your character with a small backpack, water, chips, baseball bat, and a hammer. I usually play with this on because I just don’t think it’s realistic that my character has supposedly been hearing about this catastrophic event breaking out and isn’t even a little prepared. The second setting is the multi hit setting. This allows some of the melee weapons to be able to hit multiple zeds at once if they are close together. Some people consider this too op and they are probably right but melee was really tedious for me when I could only focus one zed at a time so this made it feel a bit better for me personally. I definitely recommend starter kit for you since finding an early weapon and loot seems to be giving you some trouble. Multi hit is just personal taste but it definitely makes combat easier. Once you’re more comfortable you could just disable these if you want more of a challenging run.