@demasked I agree, I think I had to fully explore 3 separate biomes in the middling to large category before I found enough cores to begin the gear progression.

And by fully explore I mean, sail to, build portals to, establish an outpost, fight my way in learning the enemies new movesets, die to geography-induced stamina drain and 1 or 2 star seekers, die to gjall sniping you off mountains and falling, die to seekers knocking you off mountains/into water where they can attack and you cant, die to situations where the seekers can hit you while you cannot hit them due to inclines, criss cross the same biome for hours trying to map out dungeons... the works. All before being able to START on the new gear, which honestly provides a very negligible increase in survive-ability over plains.

Its challenging, but in my opinion the numbers are off by just enough to make it more frustrating than entertaining. You aren't punished for mistakes so much as merely suffering the drawbacks of existing mechanics clashing with the new environment.