1) don't go out at night
2) only go out when rested
3) only go out when being well-fed
4) generally meat = health and veggies = stamina, try to eat at least one stamina food and at least one health food
5) upgrade gear as high as possible
6) making noise like chopping attracts monsters so check your surroundings often and don't let them stack up
7) big enemies can be cheesed thanks to pathfinding so use arrows
8) dying reduces your skills which makes you weaker, run when you have to, but fight when you can, enemies generally do big damage compared to their health pool, so don't be too scared
9) blocking and parrying is very strong so learn how to do it. It works even with weapons
10) don't let yourself run out of stamina in uneven terrain. Having no stamina while in water or on slopes while surrounded with enemies is a death sentence.

Also yes, the game is very linearly structured. You go to biome x+1 and get the new resource, make gear tier x+1 and gather a lot of the same resources to upgrade it. Beat boss to unlock next biome. Rinse and repeat.
Resource collection is gonna take a lot of time so you'll spend most of your time getting or transporting these resources (or stuck paddling on a boat cause wind Jesus hates you). Biomes also drop hugely in difficulty once you got your first haul back cause weapons of tier x+1 at level 0 always give more damage than weapons of tier x at max level. That means even after a single trip you're already way stronger than before. This makes it important to go in, get your resources and then get out ASAP.

If you don't like this cycle or love building stuff, it's probably not for you.