Ok so you've died a few times and gotten a little bit of experience, but you're still a little overwhelmed. I got you fam. Let me know in the comments how you fared with the guide and if you found more solid advice to help new players.

It might be good to pick a lower pop server while you're starting out learning the basic mechanics. A PVE/PVP server could be nice if it allows you to build in the PVE zone. You can craft a small cabin and lock it with a silver lock and be secure. Usually there is some trade off where you can't raid but you're not too worried about that. Use keywords in the server browser for things like PVP, PVE, WIPE, etc. A freshly wiped server would be a great place to start because vehicles will be available. I suggest not to play on a bot server, it takes away from the experience especially as a new player. Official servers are great but I wouldn't advise it. Higher loot would help you understand the loot tables of various places more quickly. Active admins are a benefit of custom servers. There are TONs of different servers with different rules and flavors. It's best to join their discord and review their rules as soon as possible.

Some non-bot servers offer a welcome pack. It should be mentioned in the MOTD. Join their discord and look for a channel welcome pack and follow the instructions. Type the code from private message into local chat. T to chat, tab to change to local (White). Receive your welcome pack it should appear on the ground near you. If it includes a lock, you should immediately find a small building like a workshop with one entrance and apply the lock to that door. You can secure a small room to store your initial loot. (If allowed, review server rules) This is very insecure to a good lockpicker so it's merely a stop gap. You'll need to find better security soon.

Character creation is one of the most important things you do. You don't want to pick gimped skills realizing later that it's going to take you a lifetime to grind whatever skill you need. Certain character choices will make your life a lot easier. If you're a solo player a good build would be as follows.

3/3/3/3 Stats

Strength: Advanced Melee, Constitution: Running, Dexterity: Stealth or Thievery or Demo, Intelligence: Medical. This build makes it so you can drop anywhere, grab a metal pipe or any melee weapon and defend yourself. You'll kill zombies in a flash. With a good melee weapon you'll be able to take on literal hordes of zombies at once with a little bob and weave. Running is always better than endurance, it takes longer to level and directly affects how far you can run. Running around is a huge part of the game and you will get to new towns quickly before you get a vehicle. Stealth is a huge grinder and takes longer to grind than any other skill in Dex and because you're new, you don't need demo/thievery yet. It helps if you have a mech server and helps with zombies and pvp. Medical because its the longest time sink of any other skill in INT and it helps your survivability because you use less medical supplies and heal faster. Now this build isn't just a noob build, it's also a long term build. Medical/Running/Stealth are the longest time sinks in the game.

This character is going to feel like easy mode when you can beat zombies to death with metal pipes. When you spawn in you might try to random spawn in a POI like airfield (Unpopulated server) or near a bunker (keep in mind server population, potential PVP encounters but you have nothing to lose).

How to make your own build. Here are some ground rules.

Noob trap skills: Endurance, vehicles, camo, awareness, survival, pretty much any of the strength stats. Never do them. Too easy to level. Great FP grinders. Don't do archery, takes too much time, takes too much inventory, wastes good FP grinder later game. It's good though.

To develop a skill to advanced ingame you must have 3 in the corresponding stat. Never decrease int below 3 or you'll be permanently gimped. You cannot increase intelligence at this time. If you go higher than 3 stat is because you're wanting more xp to throw into another skill that falls under the stat.

Always pick a single skill to advanced, don't split it up. The reason is that advanced takes 10x longer to get than getting to medium.

Constitution should be 3 and running should be advanced. Why? You start on a fresh server with 20 other players. The non advanced will never catch up to the advanced runner all things being equal. It doesn't need to be 5 because endurance really isn't that beneficial.

Strength can be 1 (Note: Bugged. Select 1.1 first and go and select basic skills, then change to 1. Gives zero distribution points at 1.). It hurts your carrying capacity. You can still carry heavy weights it just slows you down and burns more stamina. It has a higher max of 8 but you actually hit the generation cap of .384 per day a lot easier at 1 Strength. All the corresponding skills really are easy to level relatively.

Dexterity could be 1 (Not suggested). It does have some really strong skills that can be annoying to grind, but it does level faster than the other attributes. If not advanced stealth simply due to the insane grind to get it, demo and thievery as well.

Landing Priority: Near an exchange (Green circle) and head to a bunker,military base POI.

Stone is on the ground in small piles, sticks come from cutting bushes. Before running into a town or POI, go ahead and craft a stone knife and cut your undergarments into rags. You can cut the rags into strips and combine 5 strips to make rope or cut a bush and combine 5 small sticks to make tree bark rope. Create the courier backpack with 3 rags and 1 rope (5 rag strips or 5 small sticks for rope). I prefer not to drop/destroy my inmate clothes, even though you're highly visible for the extra couple carrying slots. You literally have nothing to lose anyways and naked players aren't invisible either. Some people don't KOS fresh spawns in prison attire.

I prefer the stone axe over the usually suggested spear because it just takes a lot less time to kill zombies and it teaches you how to maneuver zombies without getting hit. This is crafted with two stone to make the axe head, a long stick and rope. Make rope from tree bark if you used all your clothing on the backpack.

If you didn't craft an weapon and landed directly in a nice lootable POI or there are too many zombies heres a trick to deal with Zombies. Aggro the zombies and run out of the building you want to loot, dash back in and shut the door behind you. With practice you will be doing this like second nature. Don't try to fistfight them if they get in just do it over. You can't win a fistfight with untrained brawling and you'll destroy your clothes/die fighting them.

Don't pick up every ammo you see, usually pick up boxes of ammo if you have space.. but focus on 9mm, 45acp, 12ga (no birdshot), grab both boxes and loose ammo. Grab a 1911/m9/shotguns because mags and ammo will be plentiful.

Things you always pick up:
A box of bobbypins (Make Lockpicks)
Screwdrivers(Everyone you find)
Insulated Rubber Gloves/Medical Gloves
Advanced Lockpicks and lockpicks (Don't waste them, store them)
A better melee weapon like a Traynors Axe
Primary Weapons (Shotgun priority early on. Later game other weapons will piece together gun/mag/ammo)
Secondary (M9/1911 preferred unless you find a few corresponding mags to HS9/Block) .44 revolver is bomb.
Boxes of Ammo (Any/All)
Backpacks bigger than yours (Hiking Backpack) Upgrade to better colors, keep two holding one in hand)
Military Clothing (Tactical Pants, Jacket, Shirt, Sweater, Raincoat, Pistol Holster) Upgrade to better colors.
NIght Vision
A few batteries (Cellphone have higher capacity)
Thread and needles (Sewing Kit)
Boxes of nails and bolts
Weapon attachments(Shotgun DS-9 sight and 12ga suppressor, pistol sights (Wasp/etc), m9 supressor (Goes on 1911 as well). 1911 rail if you have one and an m9 light why not. Grab a few of everything else but don't overstock any attachment.)

Situational:
Car Batteries/Gas Cans
Building supplies (Metal Scrap etc)
Padlocks (Adv Engineering to make gold locks)

Bunkers are going to be your bread and butter. Keep in mind bunkers are a medium PVP risk. You'll find everything you need in bunkers. You'll want to equip quivers/backpacks/tactical clothing to increase your carrying capacity. Shotguns would be the best primaries to start out with because ammo is plentiful and it doesn't need magazines. Do not pick up birdshot, it is more of a hinderance than a benefit. Becareful if you start to feel hot remove your socks/underwear/undershirt and gas masks helmets first. You'll start to learn what rooms have what, but generally bunkers has everything a growing boy could need. Try to pick up a couple nails while you're out or a box for later. If your server has night time, this is the place for you to head to resolve the issue and find Night Vision Goggles. You can craft torches and other things but ultimately this what you want on you at all times. Depending on your server, the loot will reset in ~25 minutes maybe more or less. Ask in discord or read the rules. You must be 50m away for it to reset.

As a pro move, instead of just looting everything out of containers, you're better off dragging items out of the containers. You can do this by dragging the item slightly and letting go. It will now appear on the floor. This technique builds your awareness skill. It's also convenient when working with a group for identifying areas that have already been looted and allows a teammate to come scoop up items without opening all the boxes.

The bunker will probably have more loot than you can carry, here's a trick. Carry a backpack in your hand and on your back. You can switch out when one gets full. You can drag items into the one in your hand or drop it on the ground and put items into it. You can rotate items like rifles with CTRL-Scrollwheel. You could walk out of a bunker with 5+ rifles and a bunch of pistols.

You always want to pick up screwdrivers and keep a couple boxes of bobby pins on you. If you find advanced lockpicks, don't be a noob and use them. Keep them at the bottom of your pack or drop them on the ground when you're lockpicking and they "shouldn't" be queued up. If you see an advanced lockpick on the initial lockpick screen you can hit escape and not use it move things around so you use your basic lockpicks.

Air drops occur and different frequencies depending on the server. They drop down somewhere on the map and give off a green smoke in the air. The door is always on the side that has the smoke. Inside are 6 locked boxes containing high tier loot and you need at least 6 screwdriver uses and 6 lockpicks to open everything if you don't fail to pick one. Generally best to use a vehicle here and remember this is a high pvp risk task with sniper campers. Depending on how close you are, how populated the server is and how fast you get in and out you can gauge the risk factor.

Air fields are great loot sources as well but generally are not worth it if mechs are enabled. They are fun to break up the bunker runs.

If you are nearby an exchange, you'll want to trek there with full loots (Be safe. Plan your route and take your time) and sell your items. Buy Gold locks and a chainsaw/portable gas can if you intend on building a base at this point.

While you're playing take note of any vehicles, if you see a lot of vehicles, loot any cellphone batteries/small batteries you can and keep an eye out for a can of gas. As a safe bet two near full cellphone batteries should get you on your way but more is better until you understand the gimmick. Don't get out of the vehicle or stop if you won't have enough charge to get it started again. You're going to need a lot of electrical charge to start the car and you're going to stall a few times so bring excess batteries and then drive to a gas station, fill up completely. Drive until the batteries are charged. You can leave the car idling still on the first start to charge up the battery very slowly. The first time you hit the gas it will stall. I've found if you leave the car idling for a good long while it will run almost everytime. Honestly should drive until you hit basic driving so you don't have to worry ever again.

Planes generally don't need batteries and only need a tank of gas to lift off. There is a gas station in close proximity. Landing will be your major issue here. The best way to get confident at the plane is to play in singleplayer. Type in chat #spawnvehicle scout in singleplayer and hit down on the arrow keys to select the scout plane command and press enter. It will spawn in front of you. You will want to practice taking off/landing, manuevering. You can no longer instant stop at high speed by pressing F to get out of the plane. It will keep rolling and you will get whacked. If you run into a zombie it will do 75-85% damage on the plane. Planes are repaired with airplane repair kits and they spawn in vehicle repair stations and airfields often. q/e are yaw. Seaplanes are the easiest to land on water but they are very good at dumping speed when going up and down over and over so they can actually land on shorter runways than the red scout plane. Seaplanes only spawn in A4 and are best suited for players that want to live on the East side of the map due to the availability of so many rivers. The issue with landing the seaplane on land is not so much landing as take off. Seaplanes take a very long time to generate enough speed to take off vs a Red Scout. Dusters are pretty much trash and should be destroyed to generate a scout. You can attach loaded RPKs to each side of the plane and fire from the pilot seats.

Your engineering is trash so you do need to grind up engineering. It would be nice at this point to have found a vehicle so you have mobility and extra storage space.

Before you try to build a base, gather a few tools. Chainsaws, Gold Locks, Nails, Bolts, Scrap Metal. You'll want to buy a chainsaw/locks/portable gas can from the exchange before you commit to this endeavor.

Now that you have some locks you can actually lock up a building. As a short term solution you could find a building with one door to lock up. Always keep an eye out for a chainsaw (air drops, fire station, workshops low chance, exchange) because its the tool you need to develop your engineering skill if you're playing solo. Yes this is a grind but nothing compared to the skills you picked.

I won't/can't cover all the basebuilding tips and tricks here. Youtube is a great resource when you're going this way. I can give you some simple rules.

Always build 3m or 5m walls or a combination there of. Wall HP is dependent on the length and short walls have the least HP.

Be wary of Unraidable bases and bases that seem like "exploits" you need to review your servers rules to figure out if that base is inappropriate for your server. When in doubt, ask. If you are in a PVE zone its pretty simple cabin + lock = permanent safety from raiding.

Your biggest threat is always going to be lockpicking. Educate yourself on how long it takes folks to pick through gold locks (Not long). The strongest defense will be 3 gold locks and 2 advanced protections because it slows down the picker and makes them burn gloves. It can kill a newb. You're going to need many many many walls and doors with many many gold locks to SLOW the raiders. A few levels of protection will keep out the general riff raff. Base building takes exponentially longer to build and fortify than the raider getting in. Ultimately you're slowing them down and they might be discovered if you're online, if you're offline you're SOL.

Best practice is to log out with your best stuff and especially advanced lockpicks and screwdrivers, don't let your base pay itself off in this regard. Many have success with buried loot in another location where you store your cash and true valuables, highest tier loot. You may be better off with vehicles hidden in the area than locked behind doors at night. You're going to figure all this out in time. Don't be a hoarder, don't fall in love with your loot. Be prepared to move on and keep going. The true progression is in your character (You have a good build) and the knowledge you're gaining. Keep things light and you can continue having fun. Big bases and grandiose ideas don't really play out in this game like you think, keep it small till you know what you're doing. When you get raided or see that you're found out, relocate.

How to grind engineering (from reddit)
Acquire a chainsaw and full can of gas in backpack. The chainsaw needs to be started by pressing reload.
Cut trees that are close together and notice how the logs fall.
Position yourself so you're chopping trees into a pile. Cut these logs into planks.

Make the double door blue print. Filling the blueprint with planks only. Then destroy the blueprint by Xing out in your inventory crafting tab and do this over and over until you reach Basic Engineering.

At basic Engineering make the storage cabinet blueprint again only filling it with planks, then destroy and continue until you're medium.

At medium engineering make the large storage cabinets. It will take about 312 large cabinet blue prints.

You might be thinking, jeez this is a grind why didn't I pick advanced engineering. This might take you a day, but medical would take you a literal lifetime and you can't "grind" it out.

Fame points are gained by gaining xp in any skill. Higher ranked skills give slower FP than low ranked skills. Fame points are used for respawning. Fame Points have a cap of 1000 and after that you have to get kills to increase your fame points.

To enable base spawning, you need to build a bed in your base.

If you want to hit those air drops, might be best to drop anything really good you have somewhere. You can craft a small chest from planks, make sure to grab a couple nails first and then craft a stone axe or loot a hacksaw while you're out. Cut down trees, cut logs into planks and craft the chest. You can drag it around the map and put it in vehicles. You can bury it or place it somewhere people generally won't find it. Not super secure but just a quick drop for you. Could have it in your car headed to an air drop and pull off somewhere and place it real quick and come back, if you die you can spawn in sector and run and collect.

Used to be more important, but just be mindful of eating a ton of MREs and get familiar with your health screen. It would be better for you to stay on a lean diet with little fat and mostly carbs because your Dex will level as you lose weight. When you do have too much fat, let your carbs burn off so you will start burning through your fat. Once you have low fat you can pretty much survive off carbs. Fiber/sugar doesn't seem to matter much, maybe someone can chime in on this.

Saturated fat is the worst attribute. Try to stay away from Saturated fat when all possible. It takes the longest time to get rid of.

Pistol, 3-4 magazines, extra ammo, improvised sewing kit (craft bone needle from chopping zombies bodies and thread), bobby pin box or precrafted lockpicks and screwdrivers and Night Vision. Couple things of low fat food and a couple water bottles or best a 2l soda bottle. You can repair NVGs and electronics with electrical toolkit, body armor with regular toolbox and clothes with sewing kits. Don't travel a lot with anything you aren't comfortable to lose and stack up some loot before you dive into straight PVP.

Firearms can have malfunctions in the game. Depending on the quality of ammunition/weapon/magazine, you may have a malfunction when you least expect it. The lower the quality on these items, the higher the likelihood of a malfunction. When you have a malfunction, when you try to reload it will pop up a selection wheel to identify the correct malfunction.

Bad round is the most likely malfunction.

Stove Pipe is easy to see in first person on pistols. You will see a bullet hanging out of the chamber.

Round not loaded will fix both bad round and round not loaded.

Double-feed/Stuck Bullet(Pistol) corrects all malfunctions and takes the longest time to perform.

Certain weapons have unique malfunctions like the M1.

You can repair most items and you should. You should always keep your clothes above 30%. If you let your clothes get damaged below 30% it will only be repaired up to 50%. The clothes are ruined.
Most things in the game can be repaired. Workshops carry toolboxes and toolkits, Bunkers have weapon cleaning kits, and sewing kits can be crafted with any dead zombie by chopping them to bones and crafting bone needles combined with thread (you can also use needles you find).
Weapons - Weapon Cleaning Kit (Bunkers)
Clothes - Sewing Kit (Thread + Needle)
Body Armor/Weapon Attachments - Toolbox (Workshops)
Night Vision Goggles - Electricians Kit (Workshops)

List is not all inclusive but gives you a general idea of how to repair different items.

On a high population server, players will aggro you in numbers like zombies. It is recommended at 20+ players to not use pistols/rifles to kill zombies. Always keep a melee weapon on you and use that.
Alternatively you can use a bow, but it can be a huge time sink to craft the arrows and it takes up a primary slot when looting along with 3-6 slots for arrows and 2-4 slots for bolts. Keep an eye out for high quality arrows and loot them when space permits, so you can have a couple stacks of good arrows and save the crafting time. You can craft a starter bow with a long stick and tree bark rope.

On a high population server, risk is amplified with everything you do. You should try to be as quiet as possible and use right click awareness to hone in on the sounds of other players. Vehicles, weapons make a lot of noise. Zombie aggro also gives away your position. You want to be aware that whenever you fire off a shot or drive your vehicle, a nearby player is probably making a bee-line to your position. Always remain on high alert on high population servers.

Assume if you killed someone, his buddy is coming. Don't be too hasty to loot the body.. you have time. Be patient and pay attention to footsteps with your awareness skill (Hold right click).
If you kill his buddy, assume that guy has a buddy too. Patience can be a virtue in scum and you're going to meet plenty of scum. If you see a dead body with loot on the ground, assume its being camped. Keep your awareness high and don't let your guard down if you want to survive on TEC-1 Island. Its rough out their boys and the convicts are cunning.

The green circles on the map are exchanges, locations where you can trade/sell/buy items. This is where money comes in. When you're stocked up on loot or after you raid a base, you sell excess gear to the traders and store your cash securely at your base. You can even sell vehicles to the traders. Utilizing the traders is part of the end game. When you do an in-game trade, you will also meet here. Different servers have different rules, so be aware of dangers entering and leaving the exchanges. You are safe in the trader zone, but some servers players allow camping the exchange. You must have a lock for your vehicle or players could get in your vehicle and drive off.

By now you've probably found a green keycard. Hovering over the keycard will list what bunker the keycard is for. The keycard unlocks killboxes. Killboxes are advanced ingame content that can be solo'd or done in a group. Killboxes offer high-end loot (Weapons/Ghillies/C4). You can trade keycards to players in chat for cash. Meet up at exchanges.

In order to successfully loot a killbox, you're at least going to need at least medium demo to open the electronic doors, but probably advanced lockpicking to open even the iron locked doors.

You must have a gas mask for the last few minutes of the kill box. You must have insulated rubber gloves or medical gloves in order to pick the locks with protection devices. You must have at least a pistol with plenty of ammo/mags to defend against zombies. If you fail at the electronic locks, zombies will spawn.

First order of business is opening the electronic doors, each failed attempt spawns zombies and you lose time in the box.

Once you open the door, the next locked door will be Iron/silver or gold. You want to open the electronic doors until you find the iron locks. You don't want to waste all your lockpicks and time on opening the hardest doors. Once you find the iron locks and pick the doors, you'll want to go inside and shut the door behind you and kill zombies as they spawn in. You're safe while looting.

On a door with protection, you'll want to attempt to lockpick 10x and replace your gloves. Your gloves will get damaged with each failed attempt.

When you leave the killbox you need to be on high alert as there could be campers when leaving.

Practicing solo in SP with the same stats and your character will give you good practice and a good idea of your potential success in a killbox. You'll need to spawn a backpack/screwdriver/lockpicks/gas mask, weapon, ammo and keycard and then teleport to the bunker and give it a go.

When your clothes/armor gets below 30% it will only heal to 50. Keep your clothes above 30 and repair oftenish.
If you want to get bobby pins out of a box faster, go into crafting and select lockpick, go back to inventory and examine a bobby pin, now hit craft. You can now hit alt-c to repeat the crafting. This works on nails and bolts too, but you need a wooden paddle for nails or materials for improvised toolbox for bolts. Basically you need the requisite materials for the crafting blueprint if you want to use this trick.
If you hide your vehicle in a bush and want to find it easier when you return, use a building crafting blueprint. Place it down, only you can see it and it glows bright blue.
Cabins are bugged right now at nighttime. Even with NVG's you'll have a hard time seeing inside at night. Best trick is to place torch blueprints (Not build them) at the entrance and the loot room and use them as visual guides to navigate the dark abyss. Yes it's stupid yes it's whack.
You can cook food with fires and a pit, but literally not worth the hassle. As long as you keep your fat down you'll still gain dexterity. Cooked food breaks down in a 24 hour period and takes a long time investment to make. Makes no sense but here we are.
Mechs are whack. If they're enabled, generally its not even worth it to loot the airfield POIs vs a bunker because of c4 injuries and the running in and out. If you are spotted, you can do what they tell you. When they say freeze, stop moving. They say hands you and you do surrender emote or f4. They will then allow you to leave the area without shooting you. Flares can work to distract them but not if they are alerted (yellow lights). They tend to see through walls. If they are targeting you they will continue to pursue you and will destroy any vehicles in their path while they do.

Theres a lot more but this is a quick guide to get your started. PM me if you need anymore help.