Originally posted by Foxglovez:

Thought for sure this was going to be a tree post. Trees are the alpha boss.

Joking aside, the first skills you level up are running and jumping. You run and jump all the time to build those skills, you learn what amount of stam you can waste and what you need to hoard, how high you can jump at the level you are at, what's around you, what the warning sounds are. You are AlWaYs aware of where you are in time and space, you always know what level you are on and where you have to go to be safe, what time of day it is, food level. It just comes with time and experience. Or not. But after 100 hours, it becomes second nature to be aware - or not.

Didn't see anything on potions, food, armor, time of game day, rested bonus, nighttime... and puddles? Really? Wolves announce themselves well ahead of being anywhere near you and then they run directly at you from a great distance. Mostly you should be plinking them with your bow - and always be aware that where there is one, he usually is with a buddy.

So now you know what your personal Achilles heel is in this game. Whatcha gonna do about it? Being inattentive and taking your safety for granted, not keeping your buffs up and/or being in a biome you are not equipped or ready for will get you killed until you figure it out.

And no, lots of us are pure vanilla solo players who play this game a lot, no mods, no dev commands, but we learn to be careful and cautious, and die occasionally to the usual silliness on our part. And we're not all kids either with those lovely fast twitch muscles and great hand/eye coordination. lol
Travel safe.

Totally agree with this--the problem here is lack of preparation and situation awareness. That's it. It's easy to whine about game mechanics when you don't understand or are too lazy to adapt, you just want to blast in and be an uber viking without any consideration for real tactics and prep, which includes the things you noted (food, potions, day/night, etc.) as well as having backup gear on hand when needed, using the portal system to help facilitate corpse runs so that you don't get stuck overseas without a paddle, as it were.

And yeah, those kid gamers. Twitch muscles are fun, youth is great--but the savviness of veterans can trump that in games like this. Maybe Sekiro/Elden Ring requires better timing/twitch muscles, if that's all you require to succeed then sure, you will fail epically in a game where preparation and awareness are more important than a well-timed block. Especially when blocking doesn't work exactly the same as it does in Souls games--it's similar but not identical.

One thing the kids will learn over time: Work smarter, not harder.

Too many try-hards don't get it until they've suffered a bit, some never get it at all.