first off, there's a bunch of hotkeys the game doesn't tell you about.

1-7 will open the side bar tabs.
1: Equipment.
2: Inventory
3: Psychic spells.
4: Destruction Spells:
5: Quest Journal. (there's only one quest in the game as of writing this and the reward is garbage.)
6: Skill stats.
7: Friends list.

S to sprint. the S stands for Sanic.

tab hides the side bar like the true side b they are.

to drop items quickly hold down Shift and Left Click. this same method can also be used to sell items at a shop.

space bar to quickly get rid of the level up message. (no, they will likely never remove the level up message)

You can click on a skill (6 to view skill tab) to view more detailed information regarding that skill. this will show you at what levels you unlock the ability to craft/gather things.

You can also view your Equipment stats by clicking on your Power level or the icon that shows your head on the top left of your screen. this can be used to see how armor changes your stats, and your potential damage per second.

An easy way to level up defense early is to turn off auto attack in your settings and let a man mercilessly beat you to a pulp while wearing armor. You can afk for up to 15 minutes. This is especially useful if their leash is long enough to do a task while farming defense. This can be used at Split City to fish while gaining good early game defense exp with little effort.

You can note items at a bank, or a noting machine. to note at the bank just look for the note button. when I was new I didn't even know of this so I figured I should throw it in here. this can be used to trade large quantities to other players, or to sell to the npc vendors. but this can't be used at the destruction altar.

The exchange is a very helpful tool although limited in its ability. located to the right side of Split city. Members can list up to 8 buy and 8 sell orders where as non members only have 4 of each. that's why there's not always an item listed that you're looking for. you can always ask in the discord for someone to list or trade it to you. unfortunately, the player base is quite small which also contributes to supply and demand issues.
The Exchange prioritizes lowest seller, highest buyer. this means, that if you put in a buy order for a damascus axe at 40k, but the sell order was listed at 30k, you only pay 30k and get your change back.

Committing not breathing anymore will refill your stamina and destruction meter. always respawning you at Split City. just don't forget to bank any armor/hand slot you have equipped before suiciding. items drop on death, but cosmetics do not. so you can safely die with cosmetics on.
if you do accidentally die with an important drop on death item, you have 5 minutes before other players can see and pick up the items, and 10 minutes before they despawn. for a total of 15 minutes.

another way to take advantage of death is by banking all of your equipment, and attacking enemies that are higher level than you. this way you don't lose any items and don't have to expend resources to get experience.

The server resets everyday around 9 AM - 2 PM EST. no set time, it's sort of random. when the server resets, all shops are refilled. there will be red text on the bottom right indicating when the restart happens. usually a 5 minute period.

NPC vendors, you can only buy up to psywood pickaxes, and up to E. Copper for the Axe. after that just pay up that cash money to real players or farm it yourself. by the way, for mining gold you only need up to E. Copper Pickaxes. so there's no need to buy/grind an E. Gold or Damascus Pickaxe. the axe itself is highly worth upgrading, however.

certain vendors pay more for items if it is in their shop. for example, the potion shop in Endlandia will pay more for any potion that's in their stock, than a general store would pay. the exception to this is the bow shop, where bows sell for more to the general store than the bow shop.

Be careful selling items to the vendors, as a lot of items such as food, and resources are undervalued. real players will pay way more.

And finally, quite possibly the best tip of all. ask around in game for free items from high levels players. you don't even have to pretend to be their GF, the community is just that nice.

some good skills to level up early on would be Psychic and Destruction. Psychic lets you teleport to the cities with ease and Destruction lets you run the whole map like a mad man.

Psychic
to level up psychic you will need actuators which you can buy at Three river fort. then just kapow till you got your delicious experience. unlike other combat skills, psychic gives you exp both for the killing blow and simply for attacking. making it one of the easiest skills to level up.
to teleport with psychic, you'll need Teleport actuators. which can only be bought in members areas. but, you can buy them from other players as well. just hover your mouse over a skill to view the required actuators. think of them like psychic ammo.
to view which actuators are needed for which skills, just press 3, or click on the blue hat icon and hover over a skill, even if it's not unlocked will show which actuators and how many you need to use the skill. then, to use the skill click on it if it's unlocked. keep in mind you need the actuators in your inventory to use them.

Destruction
to level up destruction you'll need to find an altar and sacrifice items. at level 50 you'll unlock "Speed Boost" which is like running, but consumes Destruction instead of Stamina. the easiest method to leveling Destruction is buying Damascus Axes for about 30k-40k each, they give 3101 experience per axe. this is a fast, although fairly expensive option. you can also see if people are selling E. Gold axes/shortswords. or, the bars themselves if your metalworking is high enough to turn them into axes/shortswords. you can't sacrifice noted items to the altar. also, it's recommended to bring some empty vials (bought at smugglers den) and have an inventory of half the item you're sacrificing, half empty vials. this will make Blood of Destruction. you can make Destruction potions with them, which refill destruction. or you can simply sell the Blood of Destruction for decent money.

Here's what the Destruction Altar looks like on the map.
if possible, buy E. Gold over Damascus because it's cheaper. although it will take longer to sacrifice simply because it'll require more axes to be sacrificed, but it's definitely worth it. or ideally, make the axes yourself. mining and metalworking are good skills to level up regardless.

Mining
even as a free to play, mining is a great skill. you can get iron and coal fairly quick at Smugglers Den, which can be turned into Iron bars or steel bars. quite useful for leveling up metalworking, which is a really good way to make money once you unlock the ability to smelt E. Gold bars. in addition to making a lot of money, sacrificing gold shortswords are great for destruction exp.
be warned before you sell bars/ore to other players, the materials may seem overvalued and make pretty good money, but it's better to keep the bars for yourself if you ever plan on leveling up: metalworking, explosives, and mechanics. some bars have niche uses too such as E copper bars/iron bars useful in chemistry to make Large & small Melee potions. etc. so, just consider the future before selling ores/bars. if you are keen on selling it, then at least smelt the ore into bars first for metalworking exp.

Survival
this can be used to chop trees, and fish for food. both are extremely useful. the food will be necessary for combat, and the wood could be used for fletching, which is a pretty good way to make money by selling longbows once you get up to higher tiers. you'll also need 70 survival to access some of the bosses. so it's recommended to level this up.

Fletching
Complimentary to Survival, you can use the wood to make bows and get good money. an easy way to level this skill up is to purchase a carving knife, and then cut a tree with an axe and carving knife in your inventory. then use the carving knife to turn it into arrow shafts. this is fairly good exp up to Yellow wood. with this method, you don't even have to bank because the arrowshafts stack naturally. so you can simply stay at the tree without moving.

Stealing
this is a decent skill early on to level up your hp if you're having trouble getting it up. for each failure to steal from an enemy, you gain Health exp. and there's no need to worry about dying. you can bank all of your equipment, steal from the nearby NPCs in Split until you die and then repeat the process. this way you don't lose any gear and get free exp. but if you want faster health exp then i recommend suiciding to swamp demons (look on damascus calculators map to see where they spawn)

Bond/Members locked Skills
once you redeem a bond, many things will become available. one such thing is Guildwork. I recommend getting it to 40 as soon as possible so you can go to Isle of the blood bull. where you can efficiently get gold and psywood. you will need to bring some money because there is no bank. instead you will note items with a Noting machine. it costs 10 coins per item noted. it's really not that much, you'll surely make your money back.
however, be careful on your way to Isle of the Blood Bull, there are some dangerous enemies.
I recommend going on Damascus calculators[damascuscalculators.com] and then clicking on Map to view where enemies spawn. this is not the most up to date, but still very helpful. you can also make your way to port tall without any armor to ensure you don't accidentally die on your way there. then at the bank grab everything you'll need such as an axe/pickaxe and coins and head to isle.

Get in touch with the community on the official discord server.
https://discord.com/invite/CVDFAv4
you can easily find the link on the official wiki, or the in game title screen.

download the game officially for free here
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1259000/Damascus/

Official Damascus Wiki
https://damascus.fandom.com/wiki/Wiki
unfortunately, not the most up to date, but still extremely useful.

Official Damascus Calculator
https://damascuscalculators.com
once again, not the most up to date but nonetheless a great site.

Hey, this is my first ever guide. hope it helps. if there's any formatting issues, or anything I got wrong just let me know and I'll try to fix it. and if I missed anything useful, leave a comment and I'll add/change it.