That said, Throw out your basic character, skill or grinding tips that would help new players... and because of the subject description, google hits should bring people here.
_____________________________________________________ Skill Point choices, levels 1-20
One of the biggest tips I can throw out is saving skill points for when they really will help. Don't be in a hurry to drop them into a useful skill immediately. Let me give the greatest example --- your first 5 skill points. Most people will run towards damage / Armor or blocking boosts. But if you save your first skill point for only one more level, you gain one of the greatest bonuses you can get in the game: Increased fortitude.
It may not seem like much early on, +1 to health per character level, but it adds up dramatically over time and eliminates the need to add +5 to health as one of your level picks. I currently have a level 54 character, with Increased fortitude +2..... and I've only used two +5 health picks.... and this beast has 132 health.
Sooo --- Level 4 Skill pick, use at level 5 for IF. Level 8 Skill pick use for Regeneration. Level 12, for me, is a throw away... use it however you want. Level 16 skill pick save again until level 20.... and you grab Increased Fortitude Level 2 and Regeneration Level 2 immediately upon 20th level. This gives you +2 health added per level and +2 health regeneration (Meat now gives you +4 per 6 seconds and cooked meat gives you +5). Over the long haul --- these first skill picks really make far more sense than any other choice you might make.
____________________________________________________________ Grinding tips early on
As for grinding --- each map area has a blind spot. An area where the monsters don't go. Snake Cave has 2
Around level 20 (where you should have 45 health points if you took IF) Bonemeal potions are NOT very viable, but they are a MUST HAVE investment for later use. By the time you hit level 25 (you're now sitting at 55 health points) they actually start to become a life saver.... and at level 35 (where you're almost at 90 health points) they become super useful in keeping the grinding going indefinitely. I started grinding Maonit at level 42. At that point I had 199 Cooked Meat and 909 Bonemeal potions. At level 54...... I still have 188 cooked meat (11 used) and 742 Bonemeal (167 used) --- and I've gained 12 levels without the downtime of constantly waiting for my health to come back to fighting standards.
RiJackson741 & Tomcat made such a great points about daggers and weapon damage (which may change in future updates) that I honestly would love to have them spell it out here (nudge, nudge) for new players to gain wisdom from. I had been saving skill points for IF / Regen Level 3.... but after Tomcat's thoughts, I pumped both points into Combat Speed... and subsequent points into More Criticals / Better Criticals... and haven't regretted the move.
Oh... and Gaya.... at level 23... it's still not too late to start over and refocus your skill point choices for a more optimized gaming run. Just saying.