You can kind of think of it like a looter shooter.
You pick up items off the ground, you auto pick up drops from enemies.

Stuff you pick up triggers your 'memory" to open up crafting and food items.
Progress is tied mainly to food and food crafting upgrades.
Also to Biome resources like metals for armor and weapons.

So some crafting and building is needed but you can be fairly minimal in approach no need for it to be fancy or anything as long as it works/provides cover/comfort etc.

You gain XP for all your actions as skills.

Skills go up to 100 but with the game unfinished if you had a character with skills at all 100 it would feel a bit over powered.
Normally you can enter the current "last" biome with around 40 to 50 in most skills and not have an issue.

Game is due to add more biomes over time for free until the game is complete.

Death causes a 5% skill loss.
You drop your gear and can recover it where you died.

A rested bonus gives a skill gain increase, so staying rested helps there as well.