First steps:

The Swallows

At the beginning area (The Swallows) move around and gather everything you can. Feel free to explore the surroundings but enter the Keep only after you have a weapon and some armor! After a few minutes you will level up. Spend your points on health, stamina and maybe on equipment load if you want to use heavier armor (do this on the first 2 or 3 levels). When you decide what kind of weapon type you want to use you should spend some points on the related attributes (dexterity, strength...etc) to get higher damage and meet the required attribute limits!

Mariner's keep

Proceed cautiously, try to sneak behind enemies if it is possible and backstab them! Gather everything, explore every corner, take your time! In the keep you can find keys for separate areas, most importantly the one where a blacksmith is encountered by some thugs (you can find the key on a dead soldier's body in the south-east area of the Keep). When you get rid of the enemy you can freely repair your stuff and also can sell some items (do not sell Fallen Embers) they will be an important resource later). At this point you should have enough money to buy a proper weapon or armor but the most important thing is to buy tools (axe for cutting trees, shovel to dig, fishing rod or pickax). These tools are crucial for gathering necessary resources. If you are able to get some tools go back and use them wherever you found something to use them on. Try to go through every corner of The Swallows and the Keep and make sure that you open some shortcuts (by kicking down ladders).

Orban Glades

On your way to the east you will enter a forest area. There is the first boss in the east side, but do not encounter him until you grind and explore everything nearby! Gather resources as much as you can, go back to the blacksmith and repair and optimize your setup before you encounter the first boss. After beating the monster you can proceed to the main hub, Sacrament.


Sacrament

Explore the area, speak with everyone, you will get some quests. You should get all the tools for resource gathering at this point!

Further steps

From here i recommend this general line of progression:

1. Go to Iona's cave in Orban Glades (ladder down near the bridge where you can enter Mariner's Keep) and do the quest for the alchemist.

2. Try to do all the bounty quests and challenges you can get in Sacrament! (start with the daily quests)! Parallel to that you should do the quest where you have to free the innkeeper husband, the Chef at Mariner's keep.

3. Try to gather resources for Davos, the builder NPC, to progress in the building projects as soon as possible!

Building projects:

The order i recommend in the building projects: Staircase to the Rookery, Davos workers (if you have a lot of food items), Blacksmiths, General store, Tailor, Enchanter, Kitchen
For the first level upgrades you only need to farm stuff from the three starting areas (for level two you have to go farming to the east to the Nameless Pass).

Further progression:

After these steps you can proceed in your main quests. It is up to you which one but maybe starting with Rats and Raiders but just the first few steps (do not proceed to the sewers until you reach level 15). After level 10 you can get some progress with the Servant of God quest.
The general loop I recommend is this: Daily bounties, challenges, Sacrament (sell, repair, stock), Weekly bounty/challenges, Sacrament (sell, repair, stock, upgrade), one step progress in main mission. Repeat.

General tips:

If you want to upgrade and get a healthy amount of food, always do the bounty hunts and the challenges if they are possible and while you are doing them gather all the resources on the way. You should not have any problems if you do like that. If you struggle with a boss go back to Sacrament, roam around the lower level areas and try to get some upgrades and xp. After that it will be much easier.

Weapon Upgrades:

Weapon upgrades are meaningful in this game. Always upgrade your favored weapon, but do not recklessly spend all your resources on weapons. As you progress you will find higher level weapons and you may change and have to invest a lot of materials again. Make your decisions carefully but you can also experiment a little bit so do not be afraid to spend a few coins and materials on upgrades!

Armor Upgrades

It is wise to build your armor set from different types of material. Cloth armour are lightweight, Leather are medium, Mesh and plate armours are heavier obviously. Different armor types need different materials to upgrade so it is easier to upgrade if you have cloth, leather and mesh on your character.

Enchantments/Infuses

At Eleanor (vendor in Sacrament) you can enchant your gear. It is random what you get on your gear so be prepared for that. You can change your enchantments using your Fallen Embers but it also has a random effect.
A much more reliable way to upgrade your gear is to put certain gems into them by infusement. Gems are not that easy to find so think it through what gear you want them to use it on.

Runes

If you struggle with food or money you can buy healing and repair rune from Eleanor from early on. You can also extract runes from weapons but you break it in exchange. I can recommend the Blink rune as well because it gives you good mobility. Other then that try out all your weapon runes in Sacrament to know what they do and be aware that certain runes only applicable to certain weapon types (e.g.: one-handed, two handed weapons, bows…etc.)

Plague Ichors

You will get these items from bosses and weekly bounties. Use them to extend your item slots, inventory size or food consumption abilities. I recommend you to first spend them on ring slots! Rings are quite powerful buffs. Secondly, extend your food inventory or weapon inventory. Do not waste your Ichors on tool slots though.


Good Luck Wicked!