Good food is key
Armor is nice and all but some silly critters can one-shot you anyway without a good lifepool

I don't like the ridiculous damage output in an imprecise game like this but oh well.

Make sure to have portals to Islands and every new region (far away) u visit. Don't visit new bioms without preparation.

After spamming ships to cross the ocean to gey my stuff back I learned my lesson.