Now that you've found the location you were looking for, look around the area and collect whatever materials you can until darkness comes. Create a Fire Pit instead of a Camp Fire tonight. It will cost a lot of stones to get it started but once you do, you won't have to worry about accidentally lighting trees on fire and it will remain in place even after going out, allowing you to restart the fire easily and cheaply.
There are two things you want to do right now. The higher immediate priority is that you want to start heavily collecting grass and twigs for traps. As you make the traps lay them down so that they are covering the rabbit holes. Hover over the hole and move them down just until they say "Place Trap" and then place it to get optimal coverage. Never eat meat raw because it's bad for your sanity.
| NOTE: |
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| Killing a Rabbit creates a Naughtiness point while one point is reduced every minute of real time that passes. If you reach 30 points (you'll start hearing hissing and growling sounds) then a creature will come to steal your things. Killing any innocent animal (animals that aren't inherently hostile) will generate these points and it is generally proportional to the creature's size. |
These traps will provide your food but once you are comfortable with that, you want to create a Science Machine as soon as possible. This will take 1 Gold, 4 Logs, and 4 Stones. If you have to, save up some cooked morsels and strike out to find these resources. Gold and Stones can be found on the ground in areas that consist of multiple different Biomes in a small area or they can be found as part of large stones. A large stone with gold veins on it will give you both stone and gold. Use a Pickaxe to break them open.
With these resources in hand, return to your camp and build your Science Machine. Stand next to the Science Machine and make a: Backpack (Suvival category, 4 Grass, 1 Twig), A Shovel (Tools, 2 Twigs, 2 Flint), A Spear (Weapons, 2 Twigs, 1 Flint, 1 Rope), and a Log Suit (Weapons, 8 Logs, 2 Rope). Rope is made under the Refining category and requires three Grass.
| NOTE: |
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| Both the Log Suit and the Backpack take up the chest slot on your body so you can only use one at a time. Equiping your Log Suit will drop your backpack on the ground wherever you are. You should try to either be prepared to fight and leave the backpack somewhere intentionally so you remember OR you should attempt to run instead. |
The Log Suit and Spear should be useful for when you have to defend yourself but your settlement is just beginning. With your shovel, you can now transplant small plants. Start pulling up Sapplings and Grass to transplant them near your camp fire. You can also plant acorns in the area so that you also have a steady supply of logs.
The Acorns should be planted further from the Fire because you want to be tending your Grass and Sapplings at night, not the Trees (Lest it spawn a Treeguard in the middle of the night). You want about twice as many sapplings as Grass and make sure to leave room for expanding your sciencey gadgets (like the Alchemy Engine). Your Grass and Sapplings will require Manure from the nearby Beefalo to grow so be sure to collect some of that. You only need 1 manure per plant though.
As you pull in your Twigs and Grass in large supply, you'll be able to craft lots and lots of traps. Cover every rabbit hole you can. This should provide you with plenty of food indefinitely so it's time to talk about defense.
Defense
You shouldn't have much of a problem in the area around your camp which means that you should be able to control how any dangerous encounter starts. However, there are two dangers here that are unavoidable.
Hounds
First, you'll be attacked by Hounds at regular intervals. The first sets will be normal Hounds with a strong bite but once the seasons start to change, they'll take on Ice or Fire elements as is appropriate. Your character will generally say something like "Did you hear that?" a couple of times before they appear and this will be accompanied by barking sounds.
Eventually the Hounds will come and attack in a wave. At first, they'll attack as just a couple of Hounds but later they can attack in groups as large as 8. There are two strategies here (aside from fighting them directly). The easiest because of your location is to use the Beefalos. Lead the Hounds to a herd and try to keep the hounds closer to the herd than to you. Every so often, they will try to bite you and then start barking. After that, they usually attack the closest animal. If they attack the Beefalo, the entire herd will attack it which will be near instant death. In some instances, one or two Hounds won't fall for this but if you equip your Log Suit and Spear, you should be able to handle just two hounds on your own.
The other technique requires better equipment. After you unlock the Tooth Trap, you can set them up and then surround them by walls. When Hounds attack, just run over the traps and between the walls to funnel the Hounds in. The traps will kill the Hounds quickly.
Treeguard
The Treeguard is tough and strong but very slow. Whenever you chop down a tree, a nearby tree has a 1.3% chance of turning into a Treeguard and attacking you. You can appease the Treeguard by planting more trees. This will put it to sleep BUT if you chop down any more trees near it, it will get up again and attack. And in some instances, you may not be able to find enough acorns to satisfy it.
Fighting the Treeguard really isn't as hard as it seems. Get close to it and then run away to make it swing. After that, run up to it and attack it a couple of times (generally no more than 3 or 4) before retreating. Repeat this process until he dies. Make sure you have your Log Suit equipped because he can really hurt.
If you're having trouble with this, try to get him to walk downward and stand under him. Use the keyboard to move up and down (W and S) and the mouse to attack. You shouldn't really have to move the mouse since his so large from this angle so it should be much simpler.
Remember, these generally only appear when cutting down trees. This is why you should harvest Grass and Twigs at night rather than cutting trees down.
