Hard to say about the average person.
I can give my own account..
90% or more of my deaths are from falling off my construction projects.
the other 10%, deaths by enemy, can be broken down into:
- food wore off
- too many enemy (usually a new character / not geared out problem, eg a spawner room)
- not paying attention (failed to dodge a mosquito in the middle of another fight etc)
- 2 starred nasty (spear thrower, etc)
- etc

or to sum it up, about 2% of my deaths were not caused by my own carelessness or stupidity.

In terms of number, I probably die about once every 8 hours or so of play. Slightly more than that when building up high, slightly less than that when gathering food etc.


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Hard core is not realistic. Stuff happens, and your first time, you don't know what all that even IS, let alone how to prep for it. After you have killed every boss one time and done a few of each type of cave/instance, sure, then you can give it a solid try.
Hard core is also not really RP. You are dead, in some sort of nutty afterlife, so dying and popping back up is perfectly legit as per the rules of the afterlife.
Anyway, try a minimal death run first. Keep track of when you died and why and what you should have done differently.

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the raft ladder works fine. I think you hit e or something to use it, it should tell you when you are close what to hit. Its not like a crafted ladder, you have to interact via a button.
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you can click to remove your embarrassing pirate flags on the map.