I've just purchased this game and I must say. for all the reputation it has it's a bit disappointing.

1 hour into the game and I can't do anything because I keep getting killed by various mobs.

I know how to craft things (sort of), but as soon as I open up my inventory there's already some random monster after me.

The game world is a collection of tombstones.

I wish I had known it would be so difficult. Starting to regret the money I spent :(

One of the first things you should do is to build a small enclosed house with doors which you can open and close. That is were you will then do the majority of your early game crafting where it is completely safe from mobs. You should preferably do this by the first or second night already. Then craft some armour and better weapons to aid in exploration, and be on the lookout for chests that can contain lots of useful items.

Building a small house (do not forget to place background walls) should definitely be your first priority unless doing some sort of challenge run.

My first priority when starting a new character in a new world is to chop down several trees near my starting point and make a simple closed space around my character with the wood. While inside that enclosed space I craft a Work Bench which I use to make some background walls and a door or two to finish up the "house". That makes for a safe space from which the world can be explored further or you can hide in it during the night if you get overwhelmed.

Thanks for the tips :)

In addition to those, I decided to start anew in a «Small» world and that also seemed to make a difference.

The game becomes quite addictive once you've gotten the hang of things ;)

The world itself can be an issue at times, depending on the size and how the various biomes were placed. In the usual setup you will have a decent amount of the basic Forest biome stretching fairly far on both sides, this is the default and easiest biome to explore. But in some of my worlds I've had Corruption or Crimson about a screen to one side of the spawn and Desert or Snow a bit further on the other. This makes exploration riskier as the enemies found within those biomes tend to be far more trouble for a new character than the default Forest enemies.

That's it! :D