It's a survival game technically, so they made it pretty brutal. Basically just pick up every resource you can, and Hugin will come for major milestones (like when you place new structures, visit new areas, defeat a new boss, etc).

The game starts off by telling you to find and defeat the first boss. The location is given to you at the shrine. So that's what you do! Good luck!

To repair items: open the workbench, and click on the hammer to the left of the craftable item list.