For Wayward 2.2.X

A lot of the fun of a game like Wayward is puzzling it out: finding out different recipes, discovering new builds, and getting eaten by things that have never eaten you before. However, it's not much fun if you can't get more than 100 turns into the game without meeting the same ugly fate, over and over again. This guide looks at what can kill you in early on Wayward and how to avoid these deaths. Each death will have a general hint together with an in-depth "spoiler" mini-guide.

Thirst
Though water stills work fine, the fresh water of the island itself is more than enough for most adventurers.
GUIDE: Every castaway starts off with a drinking container, and having at least one container of drinkable water on you and/or always keeping your thirst bar at more than half should be one of your fundamental goals. The easiest way to get water is from fresh water pools. Swamp areas in the forest, the occasional pool of water in the mountains, oases in the desert, and snow dug with a shovel or your hands (check your "Q" actions) then melted are all sources of fresh water. Shallow fresh water can also be "dug out" to create a patch of deeper water that can then be drank from twice (or drank from once then redug).

Hunger
Both the forest and desert biome have plenty of low-risk, low-effort food.
GUIDE: Never pass up a berry bush, a pineapple, a white mushroom, or a cactus if you can help it. You'll injure your hands harvesting it raw if you don't have a tool. Remember: hit points come back over time; hunger points do not. Check the graphics for palms trees and forest trees to see if they have coconuts (palms), berries, or tree fungus (trees). These are hard to harvest without a tool, though. In a pinch, eat the seeds left behind from berries, pineapples, and cactuses; also, you can eat the seeds from thistle, long grass, cotton, and flower seeds as well, so harvest these whenever you can.

Poison
Use the same sensibility eating and drinking on the island as you would elsewhere. If you do get poisoned, take medicine immediately, or keep alive as long you can and try to let your body purge itself.
GUIDE: Raw meats, rotten meats, and untreated (i.e., unheated) fresh water all carry the risk of poisoning. However, all fresh water can be sterilized over a heat source (this includes lava, which you should always keep an eye for for). In a pinch, you can drink directly from fresh water puddles, but be ready to be gravely ill. Poisoning can easily take you from full health to dead, so be prepared.
RECIPE: Any two medical ingredients (thistle, flowers, roots, etc.) with clean water makes a medicinal version of the water.

Burning
You can't fire walk, so don't try.
GUIDE: Make sure to turn on the option in the menu to prevent dangerous movement. If you step on lava or a fire anyway, check the action menu for water and choose "pour on self." Also, swim in deep water for a few turns.

Bleeding
Always keep first aid materials handy.
GUIDE: Always have at least one healing item handy, regardless of how weak. Even if you're planning on running away from most encounters, getting hit in the first round then bleeding out while running away is still dying.
RECIPE: Tear apart your tattered clothing to make cloth for two bandages at the start; also, string and a needle-like object (cactus needle from cactus spines, bone needle from bones, animal fang, etc.) make a suture and two strings with a pole make a tourniquet.

Things that go “bump” in the night
Fire and deep water are your friends; always have an escape route ready.
GUIDE: If the island feels a malignity toward you, all sorts of creatures try to kill you at night, including special ones like vampire bats and zombies. Flying creatures like bats can bypass every kind of obstacle… except rocks. You’re the only creature aboveground that can pass through rocks by harvesting them. Also, zombies and other creatures can knock down the structures you make, but low-level non-flying creatures cannot swim. Essentially: hide from dangerous land creatures, and be ready to fight bats at night.
MECHANICS 1: Since zombies will destroy doors and walls, you have only two failsafe options to avoid land creatures at night (and none to avoid flying creatures). Option one is to create a miniature island surrounded by deep (i.e., swimmable) water. Lay down sand to create a peninsula jutting out from land, then dig at the land bridge until it’s deep water. However, don’t sleep next to deep water, or you risk a late-night shark attack.
MECHANICS 2: Your second option is classic caveman. Dig a hole two squares deep into rocks, build a campfire at the mouth, and feel it enough fuel to last the night. Generally, the whole of a tree fed into a fire (with all the branches and logs dismantled beforehand) will see you though the night. Comparing the two, option one requires a lot of digging but leaves you multiple exits; option two has you trapped for the night but lets you sleep next to a fire and avoid any and all shark risk.

Giant rat
Don't go in naked with fists flying.
GUIDE: Giant rat attacks are slashing, so any sort of basic armor protects you from them. Like most monsters, they can also cause bleeding, so have first aid ready. However, they are resistant to bludgeoning, which means any weapon with "bludgeon" as one of its attributes won't hurt it as much. Try pure piercing or slashing weapons in each hand, instead.
RECIPES: Lots of bark and string can make bark leggings and armor; a pole, a string, and a sharp rock make a stone spear (piercing); two poles, a string, and a sharp rock make a stone shovel (slashing); don’t use a stone axe or wooden sword.

Giant spider
Choose a suitable weapon and be ready for the consequences of a poisonous enemy.
GUIDE: This is a poisonous creature, and most lower-tier armor is weak against piercing (its damage type), so you need to squash it as quickly as possible, preferably using a bludgeoning weapon. Even if you have a bludgeoning weapon, make sure to have something medicinal on hand. If the RNG doesn’t like you and you end up poisoned, that’ll kill you long before the spider’s attacks will.
RECIPES: Any two medical ingredients (thistle, flowers, roots, etc.) with clean water makes a medicinal version of the water.

Vampire bat
Kill it quickly, and use your wits to deduce its weaknesses.
GUIDE: As a flying creature, there is absolutely no avoiding a vampire bat. Anywhere you can go, it can go too, and it doesn't have to worry about terrain damage from fire. The only thing it can't fly over is rocks and sandstone: any house you make is considered unroofed. However, it only comes out until night (though it'll hang around in the daytime), so before you first night, either ready a well-fed fire to beat it back with fire weapons or make sure you have two weapons without the "piercing" description (which it resists). It's relatively weak, so just keep at it and heal if it starts bleeding you.
RECIPES: Ignite a pole for an impromptu torch (bludgeoning and fire); five pieces of stripped bark and a pole make a bark torch (bludgeoning and fire when lit); a string, a rock, and a pole make a hammer (bludgeoning); don’t use a wooden sword or stone spear.

Zombie
Avoid at all costs until you're well-armed and -armored.
GUIDE: Like vampire bats, zombies only come out at night. They have high defense (with piercing and bludgeoning resistance), a poisoning attack, and can knock down walls and doors: the only saving grace is that they do slashing damage, which no armor is vulnerable to, and they're very weak to fire (and a little weak to slashing). If you have low tactics (the attack skill), zombies are essentially impossible to kill, even with dual-wielded fire items. Once your tactics are at 15% or, even better, 25%, you can probably take them down with work and lots of first aid items.
RECIPES: Ignite a pole for an impromptu torch (bludgeoning and fire); five pieces of stripped bark and a pole make a bark torch (bludgeoning and fire when lit); a string, a sharp rock, and two pole make a shovel (slashing); see “poison” and “bleeding” for other health tips.

Snakes, rabbits, rats, slimes, chickens, etc.
Live and let live.
GUIDE: The normal versions of these creatures aren't aggressive. Unless you have a very good reason for attacking them (e.g., kill a rabbit when you're desperate for leather), leave them alone, as attacking and killing them increases your positive malignity significantly.

Look for the bare necessities – the simple bare necessities
The more you abandon the lifestyle of a civilized human and act like a peaceable (but not cowardly) animal of the island, the easier your life will be.
GUIDE: Introduced in the newest version, malignancy is a very far-reaching game mechanic (far more than the earlier “talent” mechanism). Certain skills are malignant, and others are benevolent. Generally, any skill that deforms the natural world or creates tools is malignant; any skill that participates in the natural world is benevolent. Also, some items increase malignancy when created, and others decrease it, even if the associated skill is otherwise malignant or benevolent. Generally, any item that can be used to cut, harm, or deform the world is malignant; any item that heals, feeds, or participants in the world without deformation is benevolent.
MECHANICS:

• A net negative malignancy value, no matter how small, results in a more peaceful world aboveground, day and night. Conversely, even a slight amount of net positive malignancy turns the island against you. Try to have a net negative malignancy at the end of the day: vampire bats and zombies only spawn when you have positive malignancy.
  
• Collect every sapling, thistle, mushroom, berry bush, flower, tall grass, cactus, and pineapple you see: plant any seeds they give you (or plant the sapling itself), as botany and mycology significantly decrease malignancy.
  
• Make a net (stones and five strings) or fishing rod (rod, string, insect, and needle) and spend time fishing on the open water, fish or no fish: it’s an easy way to decrease malignancy, and you can pull up seaweed for cordage sometimes.
  
• Early on, making string, tannin (bark ground in a mortal-and-pestle made from two smooth stones), the first aid items (tourniquet from two strings and a pole, bandage from cloth made from five strings, suture from string and a needle, medicinal water), and cooked food/purified water will lower your malignancy.
  
• To keep your positive malignancy down, never light an open fire, avoid making armor, make as few stone/wooden tools as possible, and minimize your harvesting to what you absolutely need.
  
• Don’t attack non-aggressive creatures. When attacked by aggressive creatures, kill them as quickly as possible, because even though combat skills contribute to positive malignancy, defeating an aggressive creature contributes to your negative malignancy.