There is going to be quite a few very important basic resources that you’ll want to acquire on the first island you spawn: Wood, Thatch, Stone, Flint, Hide, Meat, Fruit, Fish and Coal.
Basic Materials
Wood can be gathered by punching Trees with either your hands or a tool such as Pick or Hatchet. Harvesting from Trees using a Hatchet will provide you with more resources. Wood is used in a high percentage of recipes so make sure you’ve always got a lot of it.
Thatch can be gathered from Trees by using a Pick or Hatchet.
Stone can be gathered by punching Rocks with your hands or a Pick/Hatchet. Harvesting Stone with a Pick will net you more Stone so always use your Pickaxe if you have one. Stone is a much needed resource so always have enough of it stored in your inventory.
Flint can be gathered from Rocks only by using a tool.
Coal can be gathered from Rocks only by harvesting with a Stone Pick.
Meat can be harvested from dead animals — you will need lots of it in order to keep your Protein vitamins up.
Hide is a much needed crafting resource for items and some gear or even structures, you can get it from animals.
Fruit – there are a lot of variants of fruits, it doesn’t matter which ones you get as long as you can keep your Fruit vitamins up.
Fish meat can be acquired from killing Fish which roam the seas. Kill the fish under water, bring it to the surface and harvest ingredients from it by punching it with a tool. Fish meat is a little bit hard to get because you can get attacked by Sharks whilst you’re diving under water in search for food.