Im stuck between a rock and a hard place (not literally)

First get good at perfect blocking hedge lab is the first lab in terms of easy to hard .

Work on tier 2 axe, you can get red ant armor and hit the anthill for resources and eggs. With a bomb you can get the pinch whacker. Heals and food are your friend early on. Have fun!

You can make a weevil shield. Also go to the old anthill for ant mandibles, you can make an ant club.

Make sure you are analyzing everything, including a grass blade and weed stem. Everything, including raw meats, and new weapons. Anything with a ! in your inventory.

At the pond you can get scale armor (teir 2) once you having diving gear. You don't have to fight anything tougher than diving bell spider, which have a slow telegraphed attack and are pretty weak. Just stay far away from the koi, it one shots you. Also be aware unlike many games, when breath reaches zero, you die, no extra few seconds of drowning.

check this out for lots of helpful ideas and tips

The thing that saved me and helped me learn perfect blocks was a shield, and they’re really easy to make and repair

You and I walked the same path. Getting past that first hump is tough, and the game doesn't really tell you outright how to get past the sticks and stone stage. Once you make the insect axe and hammer and acorn armor, figuring out which weapon and armor is best for your circumstance is constantly changing afterwards.

Perfect blocks are your best friend, ladybug armor is op tier 2 armor. As long as you have those two things in the bag any weapon will do

I don't think picking Woah! mode is a good idea for a first playthrough, even if you are Faze Clan 😅

Build the bow and a bunch of arrows. Find a place the bugs cant get to you and rain down arrows. Personally im a huge fan of the shields, so I recommend building a weevil shield asap. I end up taking way less damage with a shield.

I just cleared the hedge. I used Ladybug armor the tier 2 axe & weevil shield with a little bit of the the red and club thrown in. I leveled the weapons and armor up a little bit. But not too much trying to save those resources for later weapons and armor.

From one seasoned RPG player to another: whoa isn’t hard, it’s just frustrating. It’s for people who have played for hundreds of hours and know every mechanic of the game like the palm of their hand. Start a new save in medium difficulty, it’s plenty difficult, you’ll die a lot. You will be challenged. Especially once you reach the upper yard.

Think of grounded as a Dark Souls game with a coat of cartoonish paint. It’s a very hard, but very fun and rewarding game to play.

Have fun!

Edit: Today I learned you can chance difficulty in the "Game Settings" menu, without starting a new save.

Also to clarify, i have discovered a lot of recipes. Lots or armor, and a couple tier II things. Gas masks, armor, weapons, its just a matter of getting those materials from things that are seemingly out of reach.

Spend some time in the branches before you get to the hedge lab. Break open the spiderling sacs and you can sometimes find Tier 2 bug parts like ladybug heads or stinkbug parts. Also either spend a lot of time practicing perfect blocks, or consider lowering the difficulty level. The game doesn't mess around on Whoa!

Scan everything, you can scan weed stems and planks while you carry them

Alright this is the best Advice I can give you. Make red ant armor. With red ant armor the colony will not attack you. use them as your clan kit over stink bug and let them fight it (only do this to kill off ant for eggs) . Then kit over some infected Larva (the larva will drop fungal growth needed for bombs ). Once you get those ingredients and have dry grass go inside of the ant hill grab a Couple of ant eggs run back to workbench make bombs as soon as you have A-bomb go back over by the hedge in the wall by the milk carton there is a door( u will need 8 clover roofs to get to it) blow open that door and you will get the pitchwacker tier 3 weapon (it's in the trash can ) . Now if you take your hammers that you have now and Chuck it at a ladybug it will agrow but then it would deagro so if you continue to do that you will kill the ladybug with enough of them killed you can get ladybug armor. So then you will be starting off in the hedge with ladybug armor and a tier 3 weapon use the ants to help Once you have all that make a torch and get the upgrade stones in the ant hill as well as the rotten bee armor and the ant hill chip. So now u will have 2 sets of tier 2 armor and a tier 3wep. If u need help dm me and I can join u if ur on xbox

I got the bone trident, its a pain to get early but if you b line the simple breather it helps a lot, also flippers to outrun baddies. The trident flinches the mini spiders, I do web runs there and its my fav. Don't want to spoil much but it makes hedge a cakewalk.